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Help Note 3 not Camera Not Focussing

S

Sarahnya

Newbie
Hi guys, I'm hoping this is just me accidentally turning something off.

I've had my Note 3 now for just over a week now but today I tried taking an the camera is no longer focussing AT ALL. I press on the screen and the little square flashes green but it's still totally out of focus. I've tried changing the mode between action and auto but no luck. It was working perfectly fine a week ago.

I really love this phone and hope its not faulty and it's just something I've accidentally touched!
 
I've had this happen too sometimes. No clue why. But after an on/off, it seems to go away. Seriously, no matter where you hold the phone it will not focus.
 
My camera was acting weird, had lines in it, wasn't taking the pictures properly. Then my phone started acting very sluggish. Clearing the RAM didn't work and there was a very high usage. I realized, with my Note 2 I powered cycled it almost daily, changing out the spare batteries. With the Note 3, it had been on for around 2 weeks. Pulling the battery and turning it back on cleared up all the issues. Funny, how a simple thing cleared up all my issues. Good luck!
 
I'd try cleaning the outside lens and then doing a soft reset. I experienced that, from time to time, with my Note 2. Now, I just make a habit of wiping off the outside lens and don't seem to run into the issue so far, with the Note 3.
 
Thanks people but unfortunately I've removed plastic already and tried resetting/turning off/removing battery/ cleaning lens but it's still not working at all. I stress to add the camera was fine the first week and I took a few good pics with it.

It's kinda like it's stuck in a macro mode as it focuses on things very close up but that's it.
 
Hold it under a light and look really closely under the plastic lens cover for any lint or dirt. Somewhere I read that the plastic piece that covers the lens and flash can pop off, which would indicate to me it's vulnerable to getting gunk under it, and on the lens.
 
Hi I've just had another look but the lens is clean and shiney and I removed the film that covered it when I first got the phone. I'm really at a loss and don't wasn't too return it as I still think it may be some wacky software fault. The only apps I had installed before it went funny are some games, apex launcher pro, a new keyboard and a handful of themes from play store.
 
Turns out to be a hardware fault. After half an hour of trying to troubleshoot the problem with Samsung Support they confirmed that there is something wrong with it and it's not a software glitch. I'm returning it to the eBay seller for a full refund.

Anyone know the cheapest place to purchase another UK/EU spec unlocked Note 3?
 
I also have found this focusing issue to be an issue on my Note 3. Usually is a problem when you are trying to focus on something small nearby. At times it does not focus. You keep getting the red square box. Also an issue is that when this happens one continues to hit the picture button to take a picture and you get no response. Basically it does not take the picture as if were hanging or crashing. Never really had this problem with the Note 2. The Note 3 takes better picture when compared to the Note 2 but that is only when it takes them and when it can actually focus on what you are trying to take a picture of.
 
I had the same problem. The camera was stuck on a close up focus. I tried all the settings. I tried looking all over the web for solutions. I tried rebooting it. I tried a different camera app.

Finally I got frustrated gave the camera a solid flick with my middle finger.... viola.. It focused.

Clearly this is a hardware problem. Verizon is giving me a replacement phone, but now I have to redo everything. What a pain....

I hope this helps someone.
 
spherman said:
I had the same problem. The camera was stuck on a close up focus. I tried all the settings. I tried looking all over the web for solutions. I tried rebooting it. I tried a different camera app.

Finally I got frustrated gave the camera a solid flick with my middle finger.... viola.. It focused.

Clearly this is a hardware problem. Verizon is giving me a replacement phone, but now I have to redo everything. What a pain....

I hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...

What was the object that you tried to take a close up photo of?
 
When you take a close up picture of something you may notice you're covering up the light from getting to the object you're taking a picture of with the phone because it's so close. If you position the phone so that it is at a slight angle so that light can reach the target object then it will focus, and then you can get the beautiful ultra detailed close up shots you want.

20140426_071327.jpg


Sometimes you have to move the camera to an outward position like 1 foot away until it focuses and then move slowly forwards so that it doesn't try to refocus unnecessarily.
 
The focus is stuck such that if you move it in close to an object it will be in focus, but it is blurry looking at anything beyond a few inches away. I took it in to Verizon and gave them my "flick the camera to focus trick" and their response was, "wow.... we'll send you out a new phone."

I hope this helps someone.
 
spherman said:
The focus is stuck such that if you move it in close to an object it will be in focus, but it is blurry looking at anything beyond a few inches away. I took it in to Verizon and gave them my "flick the camera to focus trick" and their response was, "wow.... we'll send you out a new phone."

I hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...

Same thing going on with my camera. I didn't try the flick to focus though. Overall I'm just not impressed with it.
 
spherman said:
The focus is stuck such that if you move it in close to an object it will be in focus, but it is blurry looking at anything beyond a few inches away. I took it in to Verizon and gave them my "flick the camera to focus trick" and their response was, "wow.... we'll send you out a new phone."

I hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...

Can someone who's having this problem take the picture and upload it no matter if it's blurry or not.
 
I had a Note2 and now a Note3 and sadly, it is the absolute biggest complaint I have about the otherwise amazing device. The photos are always blurry and the details are often soft unless I have perfect lighting. I take TONS of photos so this is a big deal for me, so much so, that I am thinking of getting rid of it....
 
stanw said:
I had a Note2 and now a Note3 and sadly, it is the absolute biggest complaint I have about the otherwise amazing device. The photos are always blurry and the details are often soft unless I have perfect lighting. I take TONS of photos so this is a big deal for me, so much so, that I am thinking of getting rid of it....
Click to expand...

The blur is to do with how steady the shots are taken. If the blur was true then most of the pictures taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in various website reviews would be blurred...even if they had perfect lighting.

I don't think even the Nokia Lumia 808 will take a picture that doesn't look like it's smudged or blurry if the camera isn't being held steadily, although that has an exceptional camera so I wouldn't be surprised if the image stabilisation took better jerky camera shots than most.

In fact I recently took some camera shots with the Note 3, and had to retake one because I wasn't holding it steadily enough. Guess which one I wasn't holding steady.

The steady picture I applied "Blue Wash" filter effect from the stock gallery application picture Editor.

20140504_060410.jpg

2014-05-05%2000.03.36.jpg
 
Nope theyre not quick shots. You cannot focus the camera at all. I can have it mounted on its case and regardless of how many times you tap to focus it won't do it. It snaps out of it every now and again but majority of the time it's just blurry
 
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