[dennislaniak]

Hello

I just upgraded to a Galaxy S7 from the S4. The front facing camera / selfie mode is awful. You can't see any face wrinkles, hairs, etc. It looks like a blurred face that is out of focus. My Galaxy S4 took much better photos... and i just used my friends Iphone6s and the difference is absurd.

Anyone else have this issue with the front facing camera? Is this a phone defect? Setting issue? Common Problem?

Thanks

DL

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Front-facing cameras are sometimes set to a Beautify mode by default--can you change the mode?

Also, is there any kind of screen protector overlying the camera?

[Devhux]

Quite a few people on XDA have been commenting that the front facing camera appears to not be focusing properly. Whether it's the camera nodule itself, or simply a software bug is not known yet.

[monicakm]

My S7 takes beautiful front facing photos. I don't seem to have a problem with the foreground/background focusing either. But the front facing camera is set to "Beauty" mode by default. which does exactly as you described. Not difficult to change it. In the bottom right corner of the camera screen, you'll see an icon of a face. Tap on it to open the various effects. The first one to the left is "skin tone". Move the slider all the way to the left and you'll be able to enjoy all your glorious lines and wrinkles and share them with the world. Frankly I'll take the the NO wrinkle setting! <lol> Sliding the bar to the right strengthens the effect.

[dennislaniak]

Its not the settings. Also nothing over the camera.

The S7 simply refuses to focus on my face. Its focusing the whole image and significantly reducing the quality of my facial features. I wish i could return this phone.. i can't take a selfie.. its embarrassing how bad the quality is.

[dennislaniak]

Thanks. I agree, my camera is either defective or it needs an update. With the phone being out for a while now and it being brand new, i don't know what to think.

Where would i check for updates on this?

[B. Diddy]

Does it persist in Safe Mode? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-25053. This can tell you if a 3rd party app is causing problems.

[dennislaniak]

Same issue in safe mode.

Can anyone else with a Galaxy S7 confirm the quality of their selfies? My friend just snapped me from his old IPhone.. you can see the hairs and everything... my snaps.. just awful.

(Note: this issue persists on normal camera, safe mode, and other camera apps)

[Alanhd]

I don't normally take selfies but just done a couple of shots, I'm in a room which is not lit very bright, so used the screen flash. I can see the hairs I missed on my eyebrows, without the flash then yeah I cant see the individual hairs on my eyebrows, Tried it in a room with normal lighting and I can see everything again when zoom in.

It sounds like you could have a dodgy camera if your sure that the settings in beautify are backed off.

[GadgetGator]

It's definitely not as good as the front camera, but I wouldn't say it is awful either. I can make out individual hairs. I'm perfectly fine with it.

Thanks for the tip on screen flash. I totally forgot that we had that capability! Works pretty good except for the reflection I get if wearing glasses.

[kgk1985]

Wipe the camera area clean. Oils from your hands mess up picture quality. And it is often overlooked

[monicakm]

I "breath" on my camera lens and gently wipe it with my shirt before I take a picture.

[t0ked]

I've gotten very good quality photos from the front facing camera. I'd try playing around with settings, but if that doesn't fix it, it could be a problem with your phone. Maybe take it into a store and compare it to other S7s. You could have a dud.

[B. Diddy]

Could you post an example of a photo taken with the front-facing camera?

[Skrunch]

Yeah I have the same issue, We have two S7 Edge phones in our house from the T-Mobile, buy one get one free deal and they both look the same. Front camera photos look a bit blurry and the color saturation has too much of a blue tint as in a black shirt will look blue, I compare details in the photos to other less expensive phones and the S7 does look worse in general. My only con with the phone at the moment, hope something can be done on the software side.

[MisterEd51]

Its not the settings. Also nothing over the camera.

The S7 simply refuses to focus on my face. Its focusing the whole image and significantly reducing the quality of my facial features. I wish i could return this phone.. i can't take a selfie.. its embarrassing how bad the quality is.

To say it won't focus makes no sense since from what I have read the focus is fixed and not changeable. However the camera does have a range of distances that are considered in focus. That is from I am guessing about 1 foot to infinity. What the near focus probably is a little different from camera to camera. Also it depends upon the individual person viewing the results making it subjective.

Also if the lens really is fixed and not movable then there is nothing any setting or software fix can do to change that.

[arcraid29]

Hello

I just upgraded to a Galaxy S7 from the S4. The front facing camera / selfie mode is awful. You can't see any face wrinkles, hairs, etc. It looks like a blurred face that is out of focus. My Galaxy S4 took much better photos... and i just used my friends Iphone6s and the difference is absurd.

Anyone else have this issue with the front facing camera? Is this a phone defect? Setting issue? Common Problem?

Thanks

DL

i totally agree! the phone is great and all but the airbrushed effect of the front cam just ruins the experience.. It's disappointing to a supposedly best samsung android phone.. i think it's the software.. they should provide an option to completely disable the beauty face effect. Even if you turn to zero all parameters, the effect is still there!

[arcraid29]

i have the same problem with yours

[subcelestial]

I also have the same problem. I saw on 1 forum 1 guy said that the S7(not edge) BLACK have this problem. Are you guys using the black S7?

[monicakm]

So you guys are saying that even with "skin tone" turned all the way to 0, you're still getting the beautify feature to a degree? I'm not getting any skin smoothing with it turned to 0. I haven't noticed any "blue" to my blacks but I'll experiment.

[Snappy Phoenix]

Its not the settings. Also nothing over the camera.

The S7 simply refuses to focus on my face. Its focusing the whole image and significantly reducing the quality of my facial features. I wish i could return this phone.. i can't take a selfie.. its embarrassing how bad the quality is.

Here is a selfie I just took while I was in a cafe smoking a hookah....all default settings, no effects, HDR set to Auto:

[monicakm]

Here are some front facing camera "blacks". The shirt photo on the left is just the available natural light in the room (north and east facing windows). On the right is the same room with overhead recessed lights on.

[drinkoldcoke]

Its not the settings. Also nothing over the camera.

The S7 simply refuses to focus on my face. Its focusing the whole image and significantly reducing the quality of my facial features. I wish i could return this phone.. i can't take a selfie.. its embarrassing how bad the quality is.

Maybe your phone just hates your face, are you horribly ugly ..? I am totally joking

[Devhux]

It is definitely something that not everyone is seeing (based on a few threads on XDA). Having a fixed-focus selfie camera is absolutely ridiculous for a flagship phone, and I really can't see Samsung doing that!

Some believe it's been fixed in newer firmware versions, though we still don't know for sure. Mine has the issue, though I don't take many selfies

[MisterEd51]

You can use the rear camera to take selfies. If you go to Mode > Download (at top) you can download "Rear-cam selfie". After you download it it appears as a new Mode option.
For more info see How to get the most from the Samsung Galaxy S7 camera