A new coating may reduce lens flares on the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera.
TL;DR: iPhone 16 Pro Camera Upgrade
- The problem: Current iPhones can suffer from unwanted lens flares on photos. ✨
- The fix: The iPhone 16 Pro is rumored to be getting a new coating that can fix this. 🧥
- The coating: The lens coating is called atomic layer deposition. ⚛️
- How it works: The coating reduces internal reflections between the lenses. 📷
The new iPhone 16 series is still over five months away, but recently more rumors have begun leaking out about the changes that could be coming to Apple’s flagship product.
We’ve already heard that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus may come in seven colors, and that the iPhone 16 display may be larger than ever. But now a new rumor says Apple could be aiming to fix a major annoyance with iPhone photography that has existed since at least the iPhone 11 series.
That annoying thing is lens flares and halos. Ever since the iPhone 11 users have reported that when bright lights appear in their photos they are sometimes accompanied by lens flares on the photos or hazy halos around the lights.
These problems seem to stem from the iPhone’s multi-lens camera array. As light enters the array it reflects off of its various components, generating these flares and halos on the photos.
But now a rumor for leaker the Navar blog account “yeux1122″ suggests that the company is hoping to fix these annoying issues. Specifically, the account states that Apple is looking to add a new type of anti-reflective coating to the iPhone’s camera, called atomic layer deposition (ALD).
Here is what a machine-translated version of the original Korean post says:
“Apple’s next-generation iPhone is being tested for a new coated camera lens.
This is the source of the related company.
Apple is said to be testing a camera lens with new coating technology for application on the next iPhone Pro model.
* Additional introduction of new ALD atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment
Through this, we will be able to see improvements in the quality of photography, such as a reduction in flares.”
yeux1122
Current anti-reflective coatings are generally applied to the surface of lenses in cameras. However, as the atomic layer deposition (ALD) name suggests, ALD applies the anti-reflective technology on an atomic level. This could make the anti-reflective properties of the lenses more even and improve their ability to reduce lens flares and halos.
Unfortunately, the report only mentions that Apple is testing the atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating on the Phone Pro models, which include the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. It does not say Apple is testing the atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating on the lower-end iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 plus models.
That suggests that the atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating may only come to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. And a move such as this seems to be very on-brand for Apple. Apple frequently reserves its latest camera technologies for the iPhone Pro series. Indeed, a majority of the marketing around any new iPhone Pro lineup is usually dedicated to making sure consumers know the cameras on the iPhone Pro are much better than the cameras on the entry-level iPhones.
That’s why we believe it is very likely only the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Mac will get the new atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating. Of course, there is a chance that the atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating may not come to the iPhone this year at all. In that case, Apple may be reserving the atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max in 2025.
