Surface Pro 3 camera quality

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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

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

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276 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-09-04T11:27:53+00:00

This is absolutely woeful from Microsoft. I too bought an SP3 thinking it would be my new work tool, replacing paper and enabling me in meetings and in business. A huge part of this a is being able to "scan" documents (take photos of them) and to take photos of whiteboards and other presentations. The fixed focus camera on the SP3 is completely useless for this. Such a poor, poor design oversight. I now need to take a second device in with me (currently my Samsung phone) to do this part and have to introduce a whole new workflow to get those images to my Surface.

For a $400 tablet I would accept that. For a $1500 device it is tragic.

Honestly, Microsoft's company tag line should be "one step forward, two steps back"!
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Anonymous

2014-09-07T23:58:02+00:00

I think the easiest solution is to just use the front facing camera. It will make taking the close-up photo kind of awkward depending on what it is, but at least it doesn't require an add on and can focus correctly. The cameras are the same (besides the fixed focus apparently) so the quality won't be reduced. I might make one of the glasses mods too, but if I don't have it on me, at least it can still be done. Just awkwardly.

A tip to Microsoft: if you want that apple cool factor, try not to make your customers look like dufasses when they use your product. Honestly, there is nothing that can make your product look less desirable to bystanders then a camera experience that is obviously sub-par. All other usability issues will be pretty non-apparent to an onlooker unless they result in verbal outrage; a users camera experience can be free advertising or a big warning label.
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Anonymous

2014-09-13T13:34:47+00:00

WORKAROUND ALERT!!! Okay, this rear camera focus issue has me pretty irritated. Fortunately, I found the following article online (http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2014/08/23/get-glasses-for-your-surface-pro-3-to-photograph-documents-clearly/) and it gave me an idea. Obviously, none of us want to hang a busted, bent up pair of glasses on our surface to capture documents. So I did some hunting and found these Hydrotac stick-on bifocal lenses at +3.00 on Amazon for $14.99 a pair. They adhere to glasses with a drop or two of water. I applied one to my surface with very minimal water, as to not damage the unit. I am not sure how well it will stay on, so I will update my post with that info later. I realize that this is not ideal for everyone, but for those like me that use the device for work/school, having the lens on there to capture documents, notes, whiteboard text, etc., is a palatable workaround until a solution is provided. Here are the image capture results and a picture of the unit with the lens applied:

Pic from Surface Pro 3

Pic from Surface Pro 3 with lens

Pic of Surface Pro 3 with lens applied
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