Though no official word has been given, users are reporting that an oily substance thinly coats the Droid camera and that if you take a cloth and wipe it down really good, you’ll start to get those magical green indications that your camera is focusing. Not to mention, pictures will turn out a little better.
I know you lazy folks enjoy hands-off OTA updates to fix your every problem, but embrace the Amish lifestyle for once and use a physical piece of matter along with human labor to accomplish your goals. Once you do, tell us if you’ve noticed an improvement on your Droid camera?
UPDATE: Numerous readers (including in these comments) have linked us to a comment supposedly by Android Engineer Dan Morrill which points out the REAL problem:
Yes, this is exactly what is happening.
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.
We’re looking into this and will report back with official word ASAP!
[BGR]