iPhone camera
Shares rank 5 of 8 camera apps by recommenders
People recommend it for image quality and getting a shot ready within seconds. Critics most often report it failing to start, crashing or showing a black screen.
People recommend it for image quality and getting a shot ready within seconds. Critics most often report it failing to start, crashing or showing a black screen.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 25
- approval share
- 24%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good image quality and colour
“Orders of magnitude more people can now make an absolutely "Hollywood quality" movie, precisely due to their nice modern iPhone cameras.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “I Am Not a Reverse Centaur” “Apple’s cameras and color science is fantastic.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fails to start or crashes
“Camera starts up once per 20-30 runs for more than 10 seconds”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Block the "Upgrade to Tahoe" Alerts” “I've also run into iOS Camera app failing to open the camera.”
Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Bug Blindness” “the iPhone camera app crashes about half the time these days”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app” - Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app”
Accidental triggers from lock screen
“trying to slide up to unlock but accidentally triggering the lock screen camera for a millisecond or two”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app” “It also affects a partial left swipe gesture too which is very easy to do when the screen is touched”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app” Reported bugs left unfixed
“I reported it repeatedly during the iOS 26 betas but they don’t give a damn.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app” “I have this in iOS 16 so it’s not new (and not fixed it sounds like) sadly.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app” Camera indicator stays on
“When I dismiss the camera app, I still see green dot for a bit, then it switches to orange”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app” “in my case it was increasing "alert fatigue" (why is my camera on?)”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “If you care about security you might want to move the iPhone Camera app”
Other camera apps people recommend
The four most recommended other camera apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halide camera app | 18 | 6 | 75% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Open Camera | 16 | 14 | 53% | 3 | 1 yr3 owners | — |
| Pixel Camera | 12 | 4 | 75% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Google Camera | 10 | 2 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
| iPhone cameraThis page | 8 | 25 | 24% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
30 of the 35 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“This looks like it is interceptable at repair time and a man in the middle can insert a different public key”
“I've also run into iOS Camera app failing to open the camera.”
“It shouldn't have that bug in the first place.”
“From time to time I bring up the camera app, and I just get a blurry screen.”
“although I cannot disable the inclusion of gain maps in photos I take with Camera.app”
“These days, I use the regular Camera app because I need my damn photos to save.”
“I can have my iPhone camera out and ready to capture an ephemeral moment of child's play in under 3 seconds”
“sometimes it adds things that were never there”
“most of the time, Apple's noise removal algorithm actually removes detail from images, most notably making text and straight lines wobbly”
“Orders of magnitude more people can now make an absolutely "Hollywood quality" movie, precisely due to their nice modern iPhone cameras.”
“such is said abomination of the ios26 camera app”
“Camera starts up once per 20-30 runs for more than 10 seconds”
“they're just crushing the shadows out of any image”
“Apple’s cameras and color science is fantastic.”
“The camera icon on iOS is just a fucking camera lens with a grey background. No context.”
“I have this in iOS 16 so it’s not new (and not fixed it sounds like) sadly.”
“When I dismiss the camera app, I still see green dot for a bit, then it switches to orange”
“It also affects a partial left swipe gesture too which is very easy to do when the screen is touched”
“feels like a privacy issue”
“I reported it repeatedly during the iOS 26 betas but they don’t give a damn.”
“I don't have to hand an unlocked phone to a stranger if I want a photo taken.”
“in my case it was increasing "alert fatigue" (why is my camera on?)”
“the iPhone camera app crashes about half the time these days”
“the awful indoor lighting flicker when shooting slow-mo at 240fps”
“the camera fails to start and the view just stays black”
“it is yet another example of them making full use of owning the platform in ways I assume other players can't”
“the camera hardware gets booted up as soon as you tap the icon”
“trying to slide up to unlock but accidentally triggering the lock screen camera for a millisecond or two”
“Interesting, likewise, the Camera app.”
“The iOS camera format control is one of the most confusing UIs in iOS.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.