Has this happened to you? You turn on your iPhone camera to take a picture, but you notice something strange: your phone seems to switch between camera lenses on its own, making it impossible to take a picture. After all, how can you frame a photo properly when the lens keeps changing?
How to Disable Macro Mode on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
One reason for this is because of lighting conditions. If you try to use your zoom lens when there’s not enough light, your iPhone will switch to the main camera (also called wide angle) and digitally zoom in. You can see this in action as you switch between lighting conditions. It’s a strange quirk of iOS, but it doesn’t explain why the camera lens shifts when you’re using the wide angle camera, not the zoom lens. Some iPhones don’t even have a zoom lens, just a wide angle and an ultra-wide angle lens.
The issue stems from the iPhone’s Macro mode, which is included in the iPhone 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max. It has good intentions: the feature, as designed by Apple, automatically switches to the Ultra Wide camera when it detects you’re getting close to a subject. It then intelligently captures a photo with extra details that look like they’re from the wide-angle lens. You don’t quite get that iconic “ultra-wide” look.
This can be a great way to take photos of close-up subjects, but it can be confusing when you move between subjects and see your camera change subjects without you noticing.