Your iPhone 16 Pro camera might finally ditch the lens flare for good

Apple is expected to announce a raft of new iPhones later this year and a new report has shed further light on its plans for the very top of the lineup. According to the report, buyers of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max can look forward to a camera upgrade, but it won't be all about increasing megapixels or improving zoom capabilities.

Instead, we're told, the upgrade will be designed to fix an issue that iPhones have had for years and one that has been a problem for photographers both professional and amateur. The issue, lens flare, is caused by light hitting the lens and creating an effect that can sometimes appear to be a light orb floating throughout photos and videos. But now it's thought that Apple's best phones of 2024 will finally fix that problem.

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MacRumors, reporting on a leak by a user on the Naver blog, says that Apple's supply chain believes that it will make use of new atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment when creating the cameras that will be used in the new high-end iPhones. ALD is designed to make it easier for companies to add super-thin layers of material to semiconductor devices, including camera components.

With that in mind, it's possible that ALD technology will be used to apply a new antireflective coating to the camera lenses in an attempt to reduce the amount of light that bounces around. As a result, we can then hopefully expect the lens flare issue to become a thing of the past.

We'll have to wait until September to find out if that actually works, though. That's when Apple is expected to announce the new models alongside the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.

Long before the new iPhones arrive we expect Apple to announce new iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets within the coming weeks. The iPad Pro is set to gain a new OLED display similar to that used on the latest iPhones while dumping the current M2 chip in favor of the M3 used in Apple's newest Macs. The iPad Air will sport a new M2 chip, upgraded from the current M1 while buyers will also have a new 12,9-inch option to choose from. The addition will offer a new, later iPad option for those who want it but don't need the extra capabilities and features offered by the iPad Pro - not to mention the increased price that goes with it.