iPhone 5 users discover Lens Flare and Deep Purple

With millions of new iPhone 5 users all around the world, it was only a matter of time before some of them pointed the camera outside on a sunny day, and they discovered, the hard way, lens flare and deep purple. Keep in mind, of the millions of new iPhone 5 users, only a small percentage of them are photographers or are knowledgeable enough about photography.

This "issue" was "escalated" by Gizmodo earlier in the week, and this prompted Apple to issue a support notice. (via Mac Rumors, Techmeme). The Apple advisory:

"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. 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."

There are some interesting comments at the Gizmodo post, although it is not always easy to tell how many are serious and how many are satire/parody/comedy. For example, one theory suggests the touted sapphire is of watch quality, not optical quality, that's the cause.

Others, party poopers for certain, suggest to fellow iPhone 5 users not to point the iPhone 5 at the sun ;-)