Camera unable to focus on sheet of paper

[jnjroach]

Man I have to get a windows phone! hey Jeff u got a spare one laying around that you're not using you can give me? LOL

Sorry I always sell my old tech to buy new tech

 

[Michael Lovett]

Agreed, camera is a huge disappointment. I didn't expect a first class camera on a tablet, but 100th class? Give me a break. Can't even use my Bank's app to take a picture of a check for deposit.

What a lame decision.

 

[Michael Lovett]

Also, has anyone tried a usb camera (ie web camera) with the sp3 .. might give us an option to take decent pics of documents, etc,

 

[az1787]

Has someone tried this: Logitech HD Pro C920 WebCam ? It would be perfect, but how to make it as principal camera in OneNote Modern to take speedily picture with this 15mpxl carl zeiss? I could buy a SP3 100$ more with a rear camera like this.

 

[az1787]

SO, i did a test with a very hold Creative Live! Cam Notebook Pro usbcamera. It has 2mpxl but great focus and take pictures very well for doc. The problem is only the pxl resolution. If I take speedely pictures from it, then I add pictures very fast in OneNote Desktop from Insert/Pictures :-D
Now... How to make it the primary camera? I ask because of OneNote Modern; it has always SP3 rear camera as principal camera & only it can have OneNote Modern fantastic "document's setting".
Come on! Can we make a usbCamera the principal OneNote Modern Camera?

I can imagine SP3 with Logitech Pro C920 15mpx Carl Zeiss

 

[azfords]

WORKAROUND ALERT!!! Okay, this rear camera focus issue has me pretty irritated. Fortunately, I found the following article online (http://digitalmediaphile.com/index....urface-pro-3-to-photograph-documents-clearly/) and it gave me an idea. Obviously, none of us want to hang a busted, bent up pair of glasses on our surface to capture documents. So I did some hunting and found these Hydrotac stick-on bifocal lenses at +3.00 on Amazon for $14.99 a pair. They adhere to glasses with a drop or two of water. I applied one to my surface with very minimal water, as to not damage the unit. It only stayed on for about 15 minutes, so I resorted to a piece of scotch tape until I can find something better to mount it. Regular pictures do not look as good with the lens on, so make sure that your lens can be removed easily if you take regular pics with your rear camera. I realize that this is not ideal for everyone, but for those like me that use the device for work/school, having the lens on there to capture documents, notes, whiteboard text, etc., is a palatable workaround until a solution is provided. Here are the image capture results and a picture of the unit with the lens applied. These pictures are untouched, other than the zoom and rotate for closeup.

Without lens:

Zoomed and rotated without lens:

With Lens:

Zoomed and rotated with lens:

Pic of Surface Pro 3 with lens mounted:

 

[Liam2349]

I know it sucks that the cameras don't autofocus - I assume it's to do with size, perhaps they couldn't make it fit?

I take pictures with my Note 3, which syncs to OneDrive and I get stuff on my Surface that way. I know it takes longer as you have to upload it and then download it, but my Note 3 rear camera is a lot better.

 

[az1787]

So... the Logitech Pro c920 is arrived! Very bad solution! It has Carl Zeiss 15mpx lens, BUT:
1) In OneNote Modern the best resolution to take picture from external camera is 3,5mpx :-/;
2) It ins't good for portrait mode photos, but only for landscape mode.
While I take a picture, there isn't an option that changes Logitech Camera mode (from landscape to portrait!
If I have the landscape mode, I have to distance very much the camera to take all the A4 Document printed in Portrait-mode, and the 15mpxl doesn't help
So I am going to return SP3 to Microsoft & Logitech Camera to amazon.