iPhone has always had the problem of glare and ghosting when taking photos, but it has not been fundamentally solved for so many years. The latest news is that Apple is ready to address this chronic problem in the next generation of products.
Sources say that Apple is testing a new anti-reflective optical coating to reduce issues such as lens flare and ghosting, thereby improving photo quality. According to the news, Apple is considering introducing a new atomic layer deposition (ALD) device into the manufacturing process of iPhone camera lenses.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin film deposition technology based on the continuous use of gas-phase chemical processes, which can coat substances layer by layer on the surface of the substrate in the form of single atomic films, so as to control the thickness and composition of nanometers with extreme precision, and can effectively protect the lens from environmental factors without affecting the light capture performance of the sensor.
At present, iPhone lenses are prone to flare, mainly because the external strong light will be directly refracted and diffracted into the lens, which will cause flare between the camera module and the image sensor, and the existing anti-reflective coating of the mobile phone lens may encounter uneven coating, resulting in poor anti-reflection effect.
ALD is a very thin process that works a bit like Lego bricks, except that the blocks are about atoms thick. ALD technology is made by depositing multiple layers of atomic films, so that thin films can be deposited in 3D on the surface of spherical lenses.
It is understood that by using this new film, the iPhone 16 series can minimize ghosting, light spots, and flare caused by the reflection of lens light, which can solve many problems in actual photography, especially in bright light source shooting scenes, and can reduce bright spots in the viewfinder and final photos.
It is understood that this new coating will only be used in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and will not be used in the two standard models. However, it is also reported that given the complexity of the ALD process and the requirements for the production line, Apple may not apply it to mass production until the technology matures and passes internal testing, so it is almost certain that the iPhone 16 series will not be equipped with this technology.
At present, the most effective way to solve the problem of iPhone photo ghosting is to achieve it by adjusting the shooting angle, although Apple has used some algorithmic means to circumvent this problem in the past two years, but it has not fundamentally solved the ghosting. On the contrary, domestic brands have been doing well in this regard. For example, vivo's photography flagship, through the cooperation with Zeiss, uses coating and other means to solve the problem of ghost shadow and glare in night scenes.
New coating technology for the iPhone is already in development and is expected to be applied to new products soon. The problem that Apple users have complained about for years can finally be alleviated.