Friday
Jul022010
iPhone 4's yellowing camera issues
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 4:31PM | Glyn Evans 
MacWorld reporter Heather Kelly is reporting that some iPhone 4 users are experiencing a yellow cast on some of their low light photos. "The iPhone’s 5-megapixel camera will take crisp daylight and brightly lit indoor photos that show colours accurately, but then have issues correctly capturing images in low light with, or without, the LED flash" Heather reports, saying "Images shot with these iPhones in warm, indoor lighting without the flash, have an obvious yellow and sometimes green cast to them. The exact same photo taken with an iPhone 3GS or 3G will not."As you can see from MacWorlds sample image, the photo shot by the iPhone 4 in the upper right corner appears yellow, whilst the 3G and 3GS images do not.
As this appears to be only effecting the iPhone 4, then this would imply it's a physical problem rather than a software one.
If you have the new iPhone 4, are you experiencing this problem?
Source: MacWorld
Reader Comments (17)
The conclusion that it's a "physical problem rather than a software one" can't be drawn from the evidence. It is an entirely new camera in the device, and the issue could be in the iPhone 4 software that controls the camera.
BTW, I haven't (yet) experienced this issue with my iPhone 4.
Yup, mine does that. I think its a flash issue though? I need to test now to see if it does it without the flash.....
I have to agree with what Danny Goodman said -- you can't assume it's hardware, the camera is new... but it's also controlled differently since it's more powerful and has other features (flash, digital zoom).
My guess is this can be corrected with a simple tweak to whatever code is responsible for white balance.
I have an iPhone4 and haven't seen this problem.
mine does the same thing, even with flash on. :(
Oh ya! My picture have that. But mine are only with the led flash. My white cat is yellow in the pictures!
I have the same issue... Indoor shots, some low light, under florescent lighting (which actually looks tinted yellow to start with, other florescent light I have seems to be white and are fine indoors.
In Photoshop I opened the image in RAW format, then set white balance to "custom".
Set Temp to: -24
Set Tint to: +58
All else set to 0
Your setting may vary but the color cast is gone so this leads me to think that "white balance" is not operating correctly, possible just a software issue.
Should not have to do this because my old 2G was fine with same conditions and environment, a better iphone and camera should be just that better... Right?
Give it a try, post your finding.
Note: called apple tech today twice, they say its just how it is, did not say there is a problem.
Maybe you're not holding it right.
(sorry, couldn't resist)
And has everyone checked their iPhone 4 for the blue-green spot in the middle when taking photos indoors of light colored surfaces? Every phone I've checked does this, Similar to many of the 3G phones giving a pink spot in the center.
Be sure to take plastic film off the back!
I have this issue more with video. I havent taken too many photos in low light without the flash, but I shot a series of videos of my daughter and this happened.
It was night, so the light source was warm indoor lighting. A very yellow cast to the video. I wonder if having the flash stay on would help.
Since I mostly use my iphone camera during the day outside, I'm not too worried about it, but it would be nice if it was fixed.
The guy who mentioned opening in raw is on the right track IMO. It's most likely the auto white balance that is being unreliable, something under incandescent light that many cameras suffer from. This would suggest to me software not hardware.
Most definitely a white balance issue under the new florescent light bulbs inside my home.
Pix in Sunlight are fantastic, but indoor lighting is really throwing the iPhone 4 camera off to yellow here.
Though I haven't noticed any over "yellowing", I have seen some pix come out a bit on the 'warm' side- i.e. slight reddish tint. Otherwise, I've been very pleased with the quality. About what I expected from the camera, maybe just a hair under in some cases.
On another note (and not to pull a fanboy move), I was in Best Buy checking out the HTC EVO from sprint they had just set up on the demo table and while comparing things with my iP4 side-to-side, I noticed the EVO has serious white balance issues. I made sure there wasn't anything in the settings menu that was causing an imbalance, but as my iPhone had nicely balanced colors under the indoor lighting, the EVO was way on the cooler side with everything very blueish. If possible I'l try to get a picture of the 2 next time I'm in.
I'm not that surprised since I've read that the iPhone4 is using a better sensor and even at 3 MP lower than the EVO, should take better shots in most lighting conditions.
Incandescent lighting is were the issue exists. White balance issue.
You will NOT see the "yellow effect" like all the samples many seems to be seeing, the samples provided above are what happens WITH Incandescent lighting. I assume stores do NOT use this type of lighting.
I have the problem with lower light pictures, with or without flash. Takes fabulous pictures in normal light settings.
I have experienced the yellowing effect on a regular basis in low light. Particularly interesting, when using the flash faces turn yellow however the rest of the image has correct color.... Considering its a phone camera, there's only so much you can expect! Otherwise it's an amazing daylight camera and I have found myself pulling out my iPhone4 instead of my 5DmkII in many situations!
georgiarenee.com
facebook.com/georgiareneephotography
Mine is green when I take pictures with the flash on.