Apple (AAPL) officially acknowledged over the weekend an issue in which a “purple haze” or flaring effect appears in some photographs taken with the iPhone 5. The Cupertino-based company claims that most smartphone cameras, even including previous iPhone models, exhibit the problem. The purple flaring can occur when an out-of-scene light source is positioned at an angle that causes it to reflect off the surfaces inside the camera and onto the camera’s sensor. According to Apple, moving the camera slightly or shielding the lens with your hand should minimize or eliminate the effect entirely.
“Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources,” the company wrote on its website. “This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.”