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They fixed the Camera!

SSHGuru
Contributor - Level 1
‎11-17-2009 07:47 AM

Reports are coming in from all over the net - everyone is getting green perfect pictures - amazing resolution.

 

Must have done an update.

 

Amazing.

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SSHGuru
Contributor - Level 1
‎11-17-2009 07:48 AM

By the way,

 

A question about the camera which I didnt use much until tonight because of the quality.

 

You can press the onscreen button to take an automatic pic which seems to work great.

 

What are the toggles on the side of the camera for?

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PPC_Dude
Contributor - Level 2
In response to SSHGuru
‎11-17-2009 03:08 PM

 

SSHGuru wrote:

By the way,

 

A question about the camera which I didnt use much until tonight because of the quality.

 

You can press the onscreen button to take an automatic pic which seems to work great.

 

What are the toggles on the side of the camera for?

 

It's too early to tell for sure, but my camera seems to be working much better.  Out of several test pics, I never once got the red "out of focus"  corners, all greens.  I haven't uploaded any pictures to the PC for quality checks yet, but they looked pretty good on the phone.

 

The only "toggle" on my camera screen is for changing from photo mode to video mode.

 

BTW: I have not personally rebooted the phone. I suppose it's possible that if they did do some kind of update, the update itself could have triggered a restart sometime during the night.

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Eclyps19
Newbie
‎11-17-2009 01:39 PM

hrm... my camera still blows... =\ I don't see any changes. Is there a way to check for an update? Maybe i didn't receive it yet.

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rbritto201
Enthusiast - Level 3
In response to Eclyps19
‎11-17-2009 02:05 PM

The update is supossed to be on the 11th.  I haven't had an issue with the camera.  If they did do an update, try shutting your phone down, leave it off for 2 minutes.  Turn on.

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kenyu73
Contributor - Level 3
‎11-17-2009 03:15 PM

You can check to see if it was restarted by checking your "Up Time" in (Settings->about->status)

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PPC_Dude
Contributor - Level 2
In response to kenyu73
‎11-17-2009 03:25 PM

 

kenyu73 wrote:

You can check to see if it was restarted by checking your "Up Time" in (Settings->about->status)

 

Dooh! I should have thought of that.  Up Time = 17:44:40, so there was no restart last night.  Of course that means I rebooted the phone somewhere around 4:30 yesterday after I had made some changes and installed some apps.  Could the update have came down sometime before then or is this just wishful thinking?

 

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kenyu73
Contributor - Level 3
In response to PPC_Dude
‎11-17-2009 03:34 PM

If Verizon does a simple OTA update.. lets say to some simple program... There technically doesn't have to be a reboot.Only if the core OS is updated would a reboot be needed.

 

I think there would be more internet noise if Verizon had an update. I seach google news feeds, and nothing mentioned an update.

 

Maybe rebooting the phone fixed a hung focus process. Maybe you found a workaround to the focus issue!

 

 

 

 

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callmemarc
Newbie
‎11-17-2009 03:40 PM

There was definitely some kind of update.  I never once got the green corners and an in-focus picture before today.  Now I am getting them every single time!

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kenyu73
Contributor - Level 3
In response to callmemarc
‎11-17-2009 03:45 PM

Interesting!

 

I have the Eris, so I have no way of knowing personally. Too bad there isn't anytype of logging. Wouldn't there be SOMETHING noted somewhere if an update occurred? Either in the android notifications or Verizon itself?

 

The Droid is just so much in the spotlight, I'd figure one of the cellphone sights would have reported it.

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kenyu73
Contributor - Level 3
In response to kenyu73
‎11-17-2009 03:49 PM

I did a Google News search using "Verizon Droid Patch Update" and got some interesting reads!!!

 

{edited for proprietary information}

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GreySeal
Enthusiast - Level 3
‎11-17-2009 04:20 PM

Whatever the news reports, or what Motorola or Verizon has to say, there is a pronounced difference between yesterday and today with my Droid's Camera.

 

Not only does the autofocus now work absolutely reliably, but the low light pictures are improved 1000%.  It is like a night and day difference.  (no pun intended)

 

Mine previously was totally unreliable outdoors and impossible indoors, flash or not.  Outdoors, if I refocused 5-10 times until I got the green corners, the picture was pretty good.  Now, even indoors it focuses almost immediately and green corners first time everytime.  Also, the horrible noise (grain for you film buffs) is gone.  Even indoor shots are great.  It won't replace my Canon 40D anytime soon, but for a phone camera, I couldn't ask for more.

 

If the powers that be take care of the other issues (voice dial for one) as well as this one,  this could be the last phone I ever buy.

 

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snorkel
Newbie
‎11-17-2009 04:30 PM

camera is not fixed.

Set your phones clock back two days and it stops working again.

From what I read it's related to a programmng bug where they used a timestamp in

the autofocus routine and that is what is causing the problem.

Don't know if they attempted to use the timestamp as  a number or a GUID.

 

Regardless, it should work up until a real fix is done.

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colfrmb
Newbie
In response to snorkel
‎11-17-2009 04:35 PM

It just "got better" after a particular datetime was passed?

I'm hoping that the programmers who wrote the camera code didn't do the same thing other places... 

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bishless
Newbie
In response to colfrmb
‎11-17-2009 05:10 PM

This just sounds hokey. No real update news?

 

My camera is performing just as poorly as yesterday... It's not horrible, just not great. I'll hold my breath until December 11.

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n0yxl
Enthusiast - Level 3
In response to snorkel
‎11-17-2009 07:13 PM
snorkel wrote:

camera is not fixed.

Set your phones clock back two days and it stops working again.

From what I read it's related to a programmng bug where they used a timestamp in

the autofocus routine and that is what is causing the problem.

Don't know if they attempted to use the timestamp as  a number or a GUID.

 

Regardless, it should work up until a real fix is done.

 

LOL, it's true!   This is hilarious, I needed a good laugh today -thank you Motorola! :smileyhappy:

 

The camera was seriously embarrasing to use before; glad to know that a software update should fix it.

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willanaya
Contributor - Level 3
‎11-17-2009 05:20 PM

two days ago i took a sample pic of a book shelf and i got the red lines.  just took the same pic just now, green lines.  same distance, same lighting. wow

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SSHGuru
Contributor - Level 1
In response to willanaya
‎11-17-2009 06:05 PM

Before yesterday I mostly got red.  Now it's green every time and the pictures are stunning if I'm not moving my hand - lol.

 

Still my question remains.

 

You can shoot a pic by tapping the screen button or there are the camera side toggles on the lower right side of the phone - what are those for?  I found that tapping the screen button does a real good job.

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willanaya
Contributor - Level 3
In response to SSHGuru
‎11-17-2009 07:13 PM
SSHGuru wrote:

Before yesterday I mostly got red.  Now it's green every time and the pictures are stunning if I'm not moving my hand - lol.

 

Still my question remains.

 

You can shoot a pic by tapping the screen button or there are the camera side toggles on the lower right side of the phone - what are those for?  I found that tapping the screen button does a real good job.

 

okay, i am looking at the camera screen.

 

left hand side contains the tab which houses the camera options like auto focus, flash, screen mode, color effect, etc....

 

right hand side contains a small thumbnail of your last picture, below that a slider with an icon of a video camera on top and an icon of a camera on the bottom.  in between those two icons is a "switich". if the switch is near the "camera" icon, it means you are using the camera.  if it is near the "video camera" on top, it means you are using the video camera. (please bear with me)

 

below that is a circle.  this is used to take a picture in case you dont want to use the button on the outside of the phone.

 

if you tap on the screen, you see a plus and minus sign. these are used to zoom in and out.

 

which toggle switch are you referring too/about?

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solar3
Enthusiast - Level 3
In response to willanaya
‎11-17-2009 07:27 PM

:smileysurprised:Weird, I'm getting pretty constant green borders as well now. I didn't believe anything had been done reading this post because I hadn't heard anything from the tech sites I browse. The auto focus does seem to work better, though. the quality if the pic is still so-so. II don't know what my firmware version was when I got it, or the kernal or build number for that matter....

 

JT

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kenyu73
Contributor - Level 3
In response to solar3
‎11-17-2009 07:33 PM

HAHAHAHA!!!

 

http://erictric.com/technology/motorola-droids-camera-autofocus-only-works-every-24-5-days

 

Apparently, the camera will break again in 24.5 days.Something with the internal clock! I love technology!

 

qoute: "There’s a rounding-error bug in the camera driver’s autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle. That is, it’ll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again.
The 17th is the start of a new “works correctly” cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works.”

 

edit: did the Mayans predict this too...?? hmmmm....

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