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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Anonymous

2014-09-22T13:42:58+00:00

I actually am comparing to the iPad. Many the recent commercials from Microsoft are also comparing to the iPad (and the MB Air - I'll save the better battery life on those devices discussion for another thread). The trouble is iPad and Android does have Auto-Focus and right now, much better cameras. And I do see people all the time taking pictures and video using their tablets.

When I am using my tablet at a conference, I am typing notes and often need to take a quick snapshot of a presentation being shown on the big screen. It's not practical or convenient to have my phone out to take pics while also typing/tapping on my tablet. And the SP3 has been taking some pretty **** pics of those presentations.

I work with lots of Life Science companies where the iPad is used to read bar codes..again, not practical to say to the user, use your phone to take a picture then go back to your tablet to do the rest of your work. In this case, they need the tablet camera because the app being used is tracking, e.g. inventory of products received or used during procedures or service calls.

I know it won't be addressed in this model but it is important that Microsoft see feedback like this so they can improve the next version to more effectively compete against the products they are comparing the SP devices to. Hopefully, we will see some Nokia camera technology in the next round of devices.
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Anonymous

2014-09-22T05:28:41+00:00

I don't take photos with my laptop, nor do I see others doing that. It's impractical. The Surface is a tablet - portable, agile and aimed at productivity so if I have something I can hold in one hand, running Office, and using OneNote then taking photos of document like things up close should have been the priority over any other type of use of the rear camera. The front camera is optimised for video chat, which makes sense. If you want to compare Apple products, have a look at how the iPad photographs things like that.
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Anonymous

2014-09-22T04:28:12+00:00

i think that for those using the camera for close up the best option right now instead of having the lens is to have the onedrive app installed in ios or android and set the onedrive app to backup the camera photos to onedrive that way you can see your phone pictures in your surface.

I agree with Wildsoldier. Even though I have put the Hydrotac lens on my Surface Pro 3 and it works, I still find myself going to my Droid Maxx with OneDrive app for capturing business documents and pics. If you truly want/need your SP3 to capture your document images, then the Hydrotac lens modification is the way to go. If you find yourself normally using your phone camera for these functions, then having OneDrive setup for it is your best scenario to share with the SP3.

On the bright side, the SP3 still has a much better rear camera than the MacBook Air or Pro, since they don't have rear cameras. In reality, we collectively seem to be upset/disappointed about a "laptop replacement" that doesn't have a very good tablet feature. I mean, how many true laptops have a rear facing camera? I think that MS missed out on making the SP3 truly superb by using the cameras they have, but it still stands tall against any of the laptops I've seen or used.

I love my SP3, even if it has difficulty focusing in certain situations. :)
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