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
    2014-11-27T17:02:25+00:00

    I made a Microsoft community account just to post about this issue. I agree that it is unacceptable that the SP3 does not have a focusing camera.

    I bought this for vet school so that I can take pictures of diagrams, specimens and slides. I even have a laptop already, but purchased this for its functionality (or supposed functionality). Yesterday I was in gross pathology lab looking at lesions on organs and tried taking pictures of them. All the pictures turned out horribly, except for one which I took from 5 or 6 feet away from the sample!

    Microsoft, please address this issue! I can't believe that they have not offered any sort of solution, not even a smal external lens that we can clip on and have a rotating analog focus?? In my opinion, MS should build a new camera and offer it to existing SP3 customers. I can open this thing and install it myself no problem. 

    Again, MS needs to address this issue or I will continue to recommend other devices to other people and this will be the last time I buy something from them. Not even saying you understand that this is an issue is downright disrespectful to your customers. 

    Feel free to email me directly MS staff, @ ******@gmail.com 

    Thanks, 

    Alim. 

    PS. While you're at it, add a zoom functionality!

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-11-26T05:47:34+00:00

    Another nice explanation of video super-resolution that could be implemented on an SP3 and correct the poor imaging of receipts/barcodes:

    http://xcorr.net/2011/09/15/video-super-resolution-coming-to-consumer-software/

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-11-26T05:34:18+00:00

    There is a potential software fix. Basically, use the front camera in video mode and take a video of a piece of paper you wish to image. The individual frames in the movie can be stitched together to create a super-resolution image that gets rid of the blur. See http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/super_resolution-euce

    for a discussion. I believe it would not be too hard for someone to come out with an app for the SP3 that would make it possible to image receipts and barcodes in this manner without requiring a pair of glasses or a new external lens. Perhaps Microsoft could work on something along these lines for future download? This would satisfy so many!

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