Phone Cases… Need Your Help!

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I didn’t intend to post today, but I just wanted to pop in really quickly because I need your opinions!  So B and I are iPhone lovers.  I’m on my fourth smart phone and the only smart phone I’ve ever had is an iPhone.  I’ll probably never use any other kind of phone as long as they’re around.  With that said, iPhones are hella expensive, and if I’m going to pay that much for a phone then I need a top-notch phone case to protect it.

For my first two iPhones I used an Otterbox case and I loved it.  The only thing I didn’t love was that the one time I accidentally dropped my phone in the toilet (fortunately when there was only clean water in there!), it didn’t protect it from the water.  #Oops

Ever since the toilet incident (which my phone did actually recover from, thanks to rice!), I have used the Lifeproof Fre Waterproof case for my iPhones.  I loved my Lifeproof case for my last phone, but towards the end, I noticed that the pictures I took had a slightly weird hue.  The bad picture quality was definitely caused by the case, not the phone, because the camera worked perfectly when the phone was out of the case.

B and I finally just upgraded to the iPhone XS a few months ago and it takes GORGEOUS photos, thanks to portrait mode.  I immediately purchased another Lifeproof Fre Waterproof case to keep mine in, and the picture quality wasn’t compromised at all for the first several months.

Well, ever since a couple of weeks ago, every single picture I take with my phone looks AWFUL (you may have noticed it lately in my blog posts), like there’s a weird softening/blurriness to them.  The softness/blurriness shows up on all pictures no matter which mode I use, and it is the absolute worst when I try to take pictures in portrait mode. 

I took my phone out of the case to test the photo-taking, and the photos are crystal clear and perfect in every camera mode as long as it’s not in the case.  Therefore, I know the problem is with the case again, and not the phone. 

Here’s a picture that I took on Sunday with the case on:

And here’s a picture that I took on Sunday with the case off:

HUGE DIFFERENCE!  Whyyyy, tho?!  It wasn't doing this before!!

Well, I cleaned the case super well inside and out, popped it back on, and the pictures are still just as awful with the case on.  Has anyone else ever experienced this problem with a Lifeproof case or a phone case in general?  Is there anything I can do about it??  If I’m going to pay $70 for a case, then it sure shouldn’t be hindering my picture-taking quality.

I would normally consider this an isolated incident, but since it's happened two times now with my Lifeproof cases I'm starting to think it's a widespread problem.

That said, I’m going to contact Lifeproof to see what they say and to see if they have a warranty on my existing case, but in the meantime, I wanted to ask all of you iPhone users – which case do you use for your iPhone?  Do you love it?  Does it truly protect your phone well?  Does your phone case cover the phone's camera lens or is your camera lens exposed?  Do your pictures still look good with the case on?  Tell me all of your positive and negative experiences with phone cases, especially when it comes to the picture-taking aspect!  

Thanks in advance, y’all!