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Known Participant
January 7, 2023
Question

Manual Focus in Lightroom Mobile Camera

  • January 7, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 2510 views

I'm trying to manually focus my iPhone 13 Pro (iOS 16.1.1) in the Lightroom Mobile (vs. 8.0.1) Camera app.  For example, there are many cases where a forced infinity focus is very useful, as in a conventional SLR!

 

Although the manual-focus scale shown in the app is in meaningless units (0% to 100%), I have been told that 0% focuses on things nearest to the lens and 100% is furthest away.  This is not the case on my 13 Pro, however.  Judging from the on-screen image (difficult since I don't see any way to magnify it when focusing), infinity focus is considerably below 100%, somewhere around 75-85%.  Higher "percentages" of focus make the most distant objects (and everything else) distinctly blurred.  Can somebody explain what's going on?

 

When manual focus is activated, the app also shows a green overlay that has been described as "focus peaking."  It is supposed to highlight the highest contrast edges so that, when the bits you want in focus are green, you’ve focused correctly.  This is also problematic on my phone.  The apparent depth of field, as indicated by the green bordering, is so great as to be of limited help, even with the telephoto lens.  The true depth of field is not as great as indicated, judging from zooming into a resulting pictures.  Further, I can't find any way to read the manual-focus setting on the resulting pictures, only on the screen of LrM camera in real time.  (Nothing is shown in either "Focus Distance" or "Subject Distance" when the picture is imported into Lightroom Classic.)  Again, what am I missing?

 

Best Regards -- JCW2

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

JCW2Author
Known Participant
January 15, 2023

Monitor -- Please delete this thread in favor of a similar one just posted in the Bugs section. -- JCW2

F. McLion
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 15, 2023

Hi JCW2,

Did it the other way round, since the bug section is to be used when a bug is confirmed by Adobe staff. We'll move the discussion thread once it is confirmed as a bug.

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JCW2Author
Known Participant
January 15, 2023

OK, F. McLion -- Maybe this means that Adobe has noticed it (which is good!), but I still have not received any replies to this thread here... -- JCW2

JCW2Author
Known Participant
January 8, 2023

FYI, I believe iPhone 14 Pro camera behaves the same way in many respects.  12 Pro may be different, but there are certainly more of them out there. -- JCW2

JCW2Author
Known Participant
January 14, 2023

Does anyone here use the Pro mode on the Lightroom Mobile app with a modern iPhone (12 Pro, 13 Pro, or 14 Pro)?

 

If so, please post your exprience with manual focus in the Pro mode.  If there's a bug here, we really need to point it out to Adobe! -- JCW2