Verizon Motorola Droid Turbo Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

[ffactoryxx]

So I am trying to take pictures of my Xmas tree and no matter whether I use auto focus or manual the photos come out blurry. What am I go wrong? When I put the camera on the tree it starts focused then auto focus starts and blurs it. Other pictures appear fine.

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Photo below is just a random photo at 15.5mp

 

[cyberr8der]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

I think the lights on the tree make it hard for the camera. If you drag the focus window just under the tree then everything should come into focus again.

 

[rxgadget]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Need to hold it still as there is a slight delay after toxin ng the screen and the picture actually being taken

Sent using my Verizon Turbo charged 64GB Ballistic Nylon phone unfortunately with a case on back

 

[Ch4dders]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

I ran into the same problem and found that using the manual focus helped. Also limiting the back light. Good luck.

 

[ffactoryxx]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

I held it as still as possible and even used manual focus but still same results. All the little lights must be throwing it off.

 

[quantum tao]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

i had the same problem taking pictures of my family in front of the tree, they kept coming out blurry. instead of point and shoot , this camera is point-shoot-oops-repeat numerous times-ok this one is good.
i miss the camera on my nokia icon, same 20mp but 1000 times better camera. hopefully updates will bring improvements, but i guess we have to accept the fact that it is a Motorola.

 

[jamielov]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Dear god...I flipping hate this camera more and more by the day. Each subsequent post, where the "tips" are offered to fix it makes me hate it more. WTF Motorola. It wasn't perfect but i got some great shots with my MAXX. Now..."turn on your lights, wait until its 4pm exactly, 87% visibility or greater outside, disable flash, quicky enable it again, then disable. Go to autofocus. Turn off HDR. Make sure all of the photos subjects aren't breathing or can hold still for 5 seconds. Take pic. Look at the blurry mess. Take 15 rapid shot pics. Delete the worst 14 and boom, there is your pic!"

Of course I'm exaggerating (slightly). I just feel there is a good camera in here but this slow shutter is killing it. Its almost unusable on anything other than buildings or objects set on a table. I continue to pray that an update can fix this. Surely moto has received complaints about this?

 

[ffactoryxx]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Dear god...I flipping hate this camera more and more by the day. Each subsequent post, where the "tips" are offered to fix it makes me hate it more. WTF Motorola. It wasn't perfect but i got some great shots with my MAXX. Now..."turn on your lights, wait until its 4pm exactly, 87% visibility or greater, disable flash, quicky enable it again, then disablem. Go to autofocus. Turn off HDR. Make sure all of the photos subjects aren't breathing or can hold still for 5 seconds. Take pic. Look at the blurry mess. Take 15 rapid shot pics. Delete the worst 14 and boom, there is your pic!"

Of course I'm exaggerating (slightly). I just feel there is a good camera in here but this slow shutter is killing it. Its almost unusable on anything other than buildings or objects set on a table. I continue to pray about update can fix this. Surely moto has received complaints about this?

I completely agree. My original Nexus took better pictures.

 

[wolf_walker]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Yeah, feel same here. DT can take good pics, it just usually does not for whatever reason.
Hope they fix it.

 

[maxman1]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

 

[ffactoryxx]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Those look great. What settings? 15 or 21mp?

 

[jamielov]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Nice pics. I don't think anyone is disputing the turbo can take great pictures of stationary objects. That is what adds to the frustration. Throw in the slightest movement and by the time the camera decides to snap a pic the object is either out of view or blurry. This is why I've learned when reading camera reviews going forward I'm not going to get too worked up over the little plastic droid figure in detail on a testers desk.

 

[maxman1]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Those look great. What settings? 15 or 21mp?

Wide-screen (15) with HDR set to Auto. I've found that the "trick" (in lack of a better term) to good close-up shots with the DT is to watch - and I mean WATCH - the autofocus closely as you prepare for the shot. It's actually very good but if anything, it's overly sensitive to tiny changes. I've taken a few spectacular indoor shots and many times the difference between great and just awful is the spot or area chosen as the focal point. Moving targets can be challenging and while I've buggered up my share, I'm also getting some that are quite good. Overall, I find the camera good enough for my meager needs. If it can get a software update to enable it to capture better moving images more easily, I think it could be superb. One additional thing I've noticed on moving images is that the closer the target is, the more difficult it becomes to get a sharply detailed result. I think this may be as much a focal length depth of field issue as much as a slow "shutter".

 

[1BlinkGone]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

I too, am far less than happy with the camera and the oem app for it. It's, well, garbage. The ratio of keepers to deleted photos is abysmal, and I've owned quite a few real cameras and have taken good pics so it's not user error. Yes, there have been some good shots shown here. Those are exceptions, and I wonder what phone app they are using. Seems to make quite a difference than the TURBO phone app itself...again, it's hideous. I can't even find a file/image size option on it aside from two options (are you kidding me??), and just 4:3 or widescreen aspect ratio. Pfft.

Been playing around with a few third party apps to replace the Motorola camera app...there is some hope, even with some of the freebies. C'Mon MOTOROLA, get it together. Seems like the hardware part is covered but the software side is grotesquely lacking. IMHO, and all that. Maybe I'm missing something.

As Maxman1 indicates, closeup work is really tough and the autofocus hates it.

 

[James Fontaine]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

I miss touch focusing. Is that considered the manual focus on this camera? I wish it would auto focus and touch to spot focus. Why did they take that away?

 

[maxman1]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

I miss touch focusing. Is that considered the manual focus on this camera? I wish it would auto focus and touch to spot focus. Why did they take that away?

You can drag the focus ring/bracket to anywhere within the frame to focus. Essentially works the same as the touch to focus.

 

[jamielov]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Just being bored at work today I took some rapid burst shots, first with HDR on, then with HDR off. Both times I got about 2 or 3 good pics out of 15 and 16 shots. Epically frustrating.

 

[quantum tao]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

lol, from verizons site

 

[snow716]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Wide-screen (15) with HDR set to Auto. I've found that the "trick" (in lack of a better term) to good close-up shots with the DT is to watch - and I mean WATCH - the autofocus closely as you prepare for the shot. It's actually very good but if anything, it's overly sensitive to tiny changes. I've taken a few spectacular indoor shots and many times the difference between great and just awful is the spot or area chosen as the focal point. Moving targets can be challenging and while I've buggered up my share, I'm also getting some that are quite good. Overall, I find the camera good enough for my meager needs. If it can get a software update to enable it to capture better moving images more easily, I think it could be superb. One additional thing I've noticed on moving images is that the closer the target is, the more difficult it becomes to get a sharply detailed result. I think this may be as much a focal length depth of field issue as much as a slow "shutter".

Where are the megapixel settings? What is HDR? The camera options do seem very very lackluster, along with touching the camera = 15 million photos taken at once...

My old phone had many more options for 'low light', 'indoors' etc - I know they are just presets and filters so to speak but along with more panorama type options and ease of use (one click and hold doesn't take 500 pictures) it was better.

 

[jamielov]

Re: Photo's Auto focus blurry. Why?

Exactly why I'm so frustrated. I grow tired of people ignoring this ridiculously bad camera, or saying...its a phone that takes pictures, its fine for me. The fact that moto made this a big selling point and, at least for me, unless taking a picture of a stationary object, the camera is basically unusable, is maddening. I was still trying last night to take some pictures of the players at the hockey rink I work at. I tried every trick in the book and out of 12 pictures I'd say 2 were decent. Not good, but decent. The camera couldn't decide where to focus, and some were all blur and when I'd focus on one skater all the others in the pics were all over the place.