Surface Pro 3 camera quality

Anonymous
2014-06-23T00:43:23+00:00

i posted this as a question so that the Microsoft techs can have some visibility of this issue

Frankly, I am lividand disappointed at the quality in this product. at first I assumed it was a firmware issue and/or a hardware issue but after performing all of the steps the tech support people have instructedand having been instructed to go the store and exchange for new hardware, I get the same issue.

so this leads me to believe it may just be the quality of the cameras microsoftshipped out on all of the devices

now these were releasednot too long ago and maybe there is a firmware fix out there but until then I am going to share the photos I am able to capture with everyone here 

now I am a student and I bought the pro 3 to be able to take a picture of a document or whiteboard and be able to write on it in onenote. the picture above is of a small target, a barcode, but even taking pictures of a full sized paper with standard size text, it is still almost illegible!

to compare the photos with another device I brought out another moble device: my ipod. the quality of the camera on the device I use to listen to music should surely be about the same quality of camera in the $1600 ten times the size of an ipod device I just bought right? NOT EVEN CLOSE

the first super clear picture is not from the pro 3 but from my ipod WHICH ALSO has a 5 MP camera. as you can see you can easily define everything in t he picture not only to include the sticker underneath the barcode , but the number in that 2D barcode as well. very good job!

the next horrible picture is the BEST PICTURE I could get from the rear camera on the Surface Pro 3. as you can see this is horrible, you can see it’s a bar code, you cannot tell those are numbers underneath. you could guess but you wouldn’t be able to identify any single number

the last picture is the BEST PICTURE I could get from the front camera, which is strangely odd since it is markedly better than the rear camera, although still severely sub-par. you can at least identify some numbers and see that there is a sticker underneath the barcode.

So there you have it. this is the horrible picture quality we can expect from the surface pro 3's cameras and how it compares to equivalent-megapixel MP3 players

Microsoft, If you can address this with a firmware update to make the cameras auto-focus, I will be a happy customer;even half the quality of my ipod I can work with. but this? this is unacceptable.

Surface | Surface Pro | Sound and camera

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Anonymous
2014-12-08T09:51:06+00:00

On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 21:06:04 +0000, OAKNOVA wrote:

>>I am quite disappointed with the camera on the Surface Pro 3 and its inability to focus and take sharp pictures of documents. These days even the most rudimentary and basic phone or camera can take sharp images that can be save, printed. I have to now take a photo with my Samsung phone and then email it to my account and download it as a saved image. Microsoft learn from Apple and create flawless products the first time around. I think I have wasted my money on the Surface Pro 3. Any fixes out there or should I just sell this product?

there is no software fix for this. the camera is fixed focus. here's what I did

as a kludge

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2014/09/23/get-glasses-for-surface-pro-3-for-clear-documents-take-2/

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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Anonymous
2014-11-02T17:11:37+00:00

There is no zoom. It is a fixed focus camera.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-01T16:54:53+00:00

    I consider the camera unusable for documentation. Thankfully I can use my phone with OneDrive for pictures then add them to OneNote later. A huge fail for such a awesome device.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-01T16:39:53+00:00

    I'm very disappointed as well with the fixed focus camera.  Microsoft should have included a change in this design.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-01T00:44:39+00:00

    I saw the post about the Onenote app for Android. I really considered it because I have a Note 3 as well and it takes great pictures.

    For me, its the fact that the i5 variant of the Surface Pro 3 is $1000.  Even after selling my Note 10.1 for $400 it would still be $600 bucks out of pocket (700 once you factor in Cook county taxes :p )  That is a big hit for a student, the people that they seem to market this device to.  They could have put a camera capable of focusing in a device at this price point or not had a back camera at all (still a bad option).  On a device like this, most people would probably only use the camera for office tasks like photographing documents.  For its only projected purpose, it fails.

    I also don't like that I had to find out that the camera sucks on a forum.  I feel even worse for the people that actually bought it.  Its like microsoft is hiding the bad camera.  On the specs page for the camera, it doesn't mention that it has fixed focus.  Instead, its hidden in a user manual as that one person pointed out.  If microsoft thought it was legit, then they would have put it in parenthesis in the device specs.  This is important enough to mention when people more than likely expect a camera to be able to focus unless otherwise noted.  If I did buy it, I would never be happy with the purchase; I'd fixate on the terrible camera for as long as I had the computer.

    Microsoft probably will not respond since its nothing a software update will fix.  Clearly, someone at Microsoft thought that this fixed focus camera is a good decision.  Until they return from their delusion, I'm sticking with other manufactures.  I replaced my Note 10.1 with the Samsung Ativ Tab 5.

     Sure its not an i5 and sluggish at times, but it has epic battery life, flawless performance on office 2010, a Wacom S-Pen, and a camera that can focus.  I would have went for the i5 variant, but its more money and significantly less battery life.

    I hope microsoft takes this feedback into consideration for future products.

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