The purple fringing seen in photos taken with the iPhone 5 camera is perfectly normal, said Apple support to at least one customer who inquired about the problem. Gizmodo posted what it claims is an email from AppleCare support representative Debby to iPhone owner and Gizmodo reader Matt Van Gastel. She writes,
“Our engineering team just gave me this information and we recommend that you angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures. The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for iPhone 5’s camera.”
The purple flare problem cropped up soon after the iPhone 5 landed in the hands of customers. Many new owners noticed a purple hue when they took a photo with a bright light source either in the picture or just outside the frame of the photo. Though the iPhone 5 seems particularly affected by this problem, this type of purple fringing is a common issue with cameras known as chromatic aberration. It produces a purple glare when there is a bright light source in the background and occurs to varying degrees in cameras. Besides chromatic aberration, some camera experts also suggested the iPhone’s sapphire lens may be contributing to this purple coloring.