
Almost one day before the big Motorola Droid launch and everything seems on track for a very successful first day. The first impressions and feedback on many blogs have been outstanding with only a few minor complaints mentioned. One of those complaints appears to be a problem with the built in camera and the autofocus capabilities.
DroidForums member Shatteredzman has just tipped us off to a user known as "FAUguy" that sheds a little more light on the subject.
First off, it appears that some Droid phones are having problems with the Autofocus not working properly. I have seen this on 2 units now, and other web site reviews are also having the same issue.
When pressing the shutter button down half-way to focus, most of the time it shows 4 red corners on the screen, which means it CAN'T focus. Occasionally, it will show 4 green corners and properly focus.
I've talked with 2 Motorola/Android insiders from here and they have said:
1) There is a software issue that was discovered, and that is the cause of the autofocus not working as intended. The issue has already been found and fixed, and will be addressed on a software update.
2)If you are hearing "clicking sounds" coming form the camera when the program starts (which I am) then the camera may not have been installed/mounted correctly. Since this is hardware related, only a new unit would be the way to fix it.
On the Droid unit I had last week, and the new one I got this week, both are having problems with the autofocus and having this "clicking sound" when the program starts. I would say that out of 20 pictures I took outside with bright sun, only 1-2 would focus correctly.
I went over the software and hardware version numbers with them that are on the phones, and the numbers verify that it is a "retail" unit, not some pre-production (beta) unit.
Firmware Version: 2.0
Baseband Version: C_01.3B.01P
Kernel Version: 2.6.29-omap1-g04df51f
android-build@apa26 #477
Build Number: ESD20
On the back of the unit, the main lable says:
HW A, 39/09 (week/year)
The smaller batch label (to the right) says:
TA40403Q16 ntJ TE6 B10
SJUG5546AA 0101
{Source: HowardForums}