iOS7 excessive navigationbar button padding

I'm experiencing excessive UIBarButtonItem padding/spacing when using the LeftBarItems and RightBarItems (see image below). The icons used on the UIBarButtonItems do not contain extra padding. So I would like to know what's causing this?

I use this in order to remove space before the first item.

However it doesn't work between system items like UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd, only with UIBarButtonItem that has an image.

@interface UIBarButtonItem (NegativeSpacer)
+(UIBarButtonItem*)negativeSpacerWithWidth:(NSInteger)width;
@end
@implementation UIBarButtonItem (NegativeSpacer)
+(UIBarButtonItem*)negativeSpacerWithWidth:(NSInteger)width {
    UIBarButtonItem *item = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
                             initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFixedSpace
                             target:nil
                             action:nil];
    item.width = (width >= 0 ? -width : width);
    return item;
}
@end

Use it like this:

UIBarButtonItem *item0 = [UIBarButtonItem negativeSpacerWithWidth:13];
UIBarButtonItem *item1 = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"sidebar.png"]
                                                          style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
                                                         target:vc
                                                         action:@selector(sideMenuAction:)];
NSArray* items = @[item0, item1];
[vc.navigationItem setLeftBarButtonItems:items animated:NO];
[vc.navigationItem setLeftItemsSupplementBackButton:YES];

You can move the image

self.myBarButtonItem.imageInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 25, 0, -25);

Apple silently increased the horizontal spacing constraints for UIBarButtonItems and sadly, still hasn't added any UIAppearance methods to adjust the horizontal positioning of UIBarButtonItems.

The best solution (which worked for me) is to wrap your UIBarButtonItems in a UIView using initWithCustomView: and adjust the bounds of that custom view to get your desired positioning. Here's a good answer on how to do this.

If you want to take things a step further, you can create a category on UIBarButtonItem with class methods that return the bar buttons you use throughout your app. That way, when you a need a bar button, you can call something like:

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [UIBarButtonItem mySearchBarButtonItemWithTarget:self selector:@selector(search)];