Droid Focus Problem Quietly Fixed
The camera in the Droid has been the focus of numerous user complaints who feel that a sophisticated 5 MP camera with flash and auto-focus should take better pictures. I have posted pictures I’ve taken with the Droid that show a fuzzy lack of focus, and I have regularly found the camera to fail to focus properly. The problem with auto-focus has definitely been wide-spread, although not every user has seen it. It may be a moot point as users are reporting that the Droid has started focusing properly every time, with no change to the phone.
I can say that the Droid I am evaluating has started working flawlessly, with no action on my part. The auto-focus works well every single time now, where before it was a seldom seen thing. I have not reset the Droid, nor seen any evidence from Verizon nor Motorola that a fix has been pushed to the phone. Based on my own experience, and that being reported by Droid owners, I am confident that a fix has been pushed OTA.
Here are two photos shot in a simple “point and click” mode, using auto-focus. You can see the difference easily.
Droid camera- "pre-fix"
Droid camera- "post-fix"
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
James,
Many of the boards are reporting that the fix is that the lens shipped with some sort of oily film and that a good cleaning was all that was required.
Don’t know which is true, but glad my Droid takes better pix now
I did not clean my lens at all, this morning it was just focusing properly for the first time. I did not even realize that the Droid beeps and displays green corner frames when the autofocus has a good focus until this morning.
Turns out it was an accident of today’s date! See Dan Morrill’s twitter post.
http://twitter.com/morrildl/status/5799769494
That’s bizarre and makes no sense that I can see. Glad it’s working no matter why though.
I can’t believe it, it’s confirmed… truly bizarre.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/motorola-droid-camera-autofocus-fixed-in-secrecy/ (note update 2 and the comment from Dan there)
It’s definitely not a cleaning, this *just* started working for everyone in the last 24-48 hours, and I cleaned the lens thoroughly right after I got it… it didn’t make a darn bit of difference (and there was no film on the lens).
It’s nice that it’s working, though I’d like to see official word from moto/vzw as to why.
While I agree that its a totally bizarre error and hopefully we’ll have a permanent fix soon, can I be the first to say WOW! The camera is awesome now. Super fast on the autofocus and pretty damn sharp.
Just a Date Dependent Bug. Will be fixed in future update. No big deal.
:-P DROID RULES :-P
Are you not updating the story despite Google confirming it wasn’t an OTA update?