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
    2015-05-15T02:57:50+00:00

    Hello Geoffc1 ,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Surface Community, we really appreciate your contribution.

    We would like to bring some clarifications about the Surface Pro 3 camera, the front and back camera are fixed focus.

    The front camera is optimized for conference calls and up close pictures (selfies, video conferences, etc). The rear facing camera is optimized for taking scene based pictures and video captures.

    Hope this information is helpful for the Surface Pro 3 users. You can also check the camera features at the Surface site.

    Best regards,

    The rear camera is useless. You can't take a picture of a document, you can't use it to deposit a check, you can't capture business card information, or insert detailed photos into a document with it. There are TONS of cheaper models on the market that do all of the above. This is my third Surface Pro. If you do this on the SP4 it will be my last.

    It's not too much to ask that a $1500 computer have a camera that's actually as good as the one on a cheap smart phone and the fact that Microsoft is trying to defend themselves here is comical.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-05-14T20:34:13+00:00

    It has been almost a year since the SP3 was release and Microsoft haven't done anything to fix this issue. Microsoft solution will be to buy the SP4 when it is released. They are not going to fix this.

    They acknowledge the issue and that's why they release the S3 with autofocus. So they know and they really know about this issue and all the complains but they are not going to do anything for the SP3. They just want your money for the next SP4. They don't want to take care of the existing pissed costumers.

    Believe it or not that's the real truth.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-14T16:41:21+00:00

    The front camera is optimized for conference calls and up close pictures (selfies, video conferences, etc). The rear facing camera is optimized for taking scene based pictures and video captures.

    Hope this information is helpful for the Surface Pro 3 users. You can also check the camera features at the Surface site.

    With all due respect, this is not helpful to Surface Pro 3 users like me, because our purchase already committed us to the device.  We're stuck.

    This may be helpful to people considering the Surface Pro 3, as this is a critical flaw that should be considered.  The camera is all but useless, except for video chat.

    Of all the annoyances of the Surface (such as no LTE, no NFC, etc), this camera is the worst.  A camera has become an important part of work, and is so common that you don't realize how often you use it until suddenly you don't have one.

    I never would've even thought to check the camera on any device I'm buying; everything has AT LEAST a camera that works... except the Surface!

    Unbelievable stupid on the part of Microsoft.  And... unbelievably inconsiderate if they don't find some way to retrofit our models with a working camera once they have a solution.

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