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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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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

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276 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-02-21T09:53:02+00:00

Microsoft is playing a dangerous game. I love the surface but lets face it, someone will copy this principle in the future and probably make it cheaper and better. This is my first microsoft product and I did not expect such a fundamental issue with the product. It might aswell not have a functioning keyboard.

They should hold their hands up, do a recall to fix it (heck I am willing to pay for this!).

If they don't it shows they are so arrogant and do not support previous models at all. This does not make me jump out and buy the next product from them. It makes me as a consumer dead set against them and will turn to other companies AND tell everyone I know how bad my experience has been. Underestimate the word of mouth consumer power at their peril.

I have just started seeing the adverts for the surface book (is that the name) with a HUGE pricetag. I am not spending anymore money on their prodcuts as this one came to me flawed and they will not own the issue and resolve it for me. I might consider it if it was the cheap version and a throwaway product however premium price tags deserve premium customer response and action.
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Anonymous

2016-02-21T15:01:55+00:00

You t the nail on the head. Arrogance. They will never admit it was a very greedy and inexcusable move to save $25 on a part when the product costs so much. They will never ever acknowledge or fix this. They are publicly traded company, and as such they only care about the share holders, profit, at the expense of everything else was and will always be the number one priority. Any employee would who suggested they do something because it was right thing to do would not get far in their career. They'd have to show that the millions they saved by making this decision is outweighed by the people who will never buy their products again. There just simply has not been enough backlash to swing that pendulum. The only time they did something in the past was the Xbox red ring of death. There they had millions of complaints, and even in that situation they knew about the problem long before they decided the brand would be screwed if they didn't make reparations. We really have to hold reviewers accountable here also. They all didn't say a word about the obvious flaw. Not a single one. (Trust me I spent hours researching this before I purchased it).
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Anonymous

2016-02-22T00:11:57+00:00

It is such an ironic and despicable product flaw. I wish we had power here. Well... other than the power I will use when this sub-par tablet becomes out of date, (likely to be soon) and boycott microsoft products. Between Android, Linux, and Mac I think I'll be covered.
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