Problem with camera auto focus

[KennithG]

Has anyone had any problems with the cameras auto focus?
I was taking some video of the kids tonight in a well lit room and it was fine, then it lost focus and it never came back in focus.
Start a new video and same behavior.
I've been thinking of doing a reset, but this seems odd.

Any suggestions? I'm out of my 30 days now. No chance of return or exchange.

 

[planoman]

Has anyone had any problems with the cameras auto focus?
I was taking some video of the kids tonight in a well lit room and it was fine, then it lost focus and it never came back in focus.
Start a new video and same behavior.
I've been thinking of doing a reset, but this seems odd.

Any suggestions? I'm out of my 30 days now. No chance of return or exchange.

I just took some video and it does not seem to have a focus in video mode. My kids were in focus but I did not see a way to control it as with the camera when taking pictures.

Not to be funny but are you sure the lens is clear? My lens gets smudges all the time despite my efforts to keep from touching my phone there.

 

[KennithG]

I just took some video and it does not seem to have a focus in video mode. My kids were in focus but I did not see a way to control it as with the camera when taking pictures.

Not to be funny but are you sure the lens is clear? My lens gets smudges all the time despite my efforts to keep from touching my phone there.

Thanks for the reply.

That was my first thought. I cleaned it and it was still doing the same thing.

 

[gdspwilson]

I own a Motorola Photon 4G from Sprint and, overall, I love the phone. I'm rooted and I have a number of applications (rooted and otherwise) designed to optimize the functionality of the phone. Its because of these applications that I suspected I had an application conflict with the phone's autofocus capabilities. For the past few months my phone would seemiingly "decide" on its own whether it would autofocus for pictures or not.
I've tried the following to resolve the issue:
- through the default camera application, changing the resolution from 3MB to 5, to 1, to 8, to Widescreen and back in every configuation . . . no good
- changing every focus configuration imaginable (auto, portrait, steady shot, etc) - no good
- clearing the application cache for the build in camera application
- powering off and pulling the battery
- uninstalling any 3rd party camera applcations
- uninstalling any 3rd party games, apps, software that I didn't actively use
- deleting XML files that had anything to do with autofocus permissions for the camera
* I almost began deleting odex files in hopes of reinstalling the camera from a backup state - but I didn't.

Bear in mind as I write this that I am the furthest thing from a devleoper/coder . . . I'm a sales guy. I contacted both Sprint and Motorola who were both inclined to issue me a refurbished device, but I knew in my heart of hearts that there is some sort of application conflict at hand here because, after all, when it works, it does work just fine.

Here's the combination of applications and settings that finally seemed to do the trick.
- I installed EZ Camera Widget which allows you to customize camera settings
- I set the autofocus to OFF (unchecked the box)
- I set the focus mode to Infinity
- I set the Quality to the highest - 8 MP
- I also installed Camera Magic which also allows you to configure settings
- I set the autofocus to OFF (unchecked)
- I set the Flash to OFF
- I set the image quality to Max Camera Quality

Having done this I leave these applications alone entirely and only use the default camera application. For some reason, the autofocus is now working again. I don't fully understand it, but I'm thankful nevertheless.

I don't know if these steps will help out anyone else having the same issues, but I thought I'd at least share these steps and wish each of you the best of luck.

Wilson