Anyone else's front facing camera scratch easily?? - One (M8) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I noticed a smudge of something on my front facing camera (probably a drop of Dr. Pepper from when my son had one blow up on him earlier that day), so I tried wiping it off with my shirt, but it needed just a little more "umph" to get it off..... So I used my fingernail, which I've done hundreds of times on the back camera, but now there's now about a dozen scratches on the front lens. I've tried cleaning it with a Q-Tip and alcohol, but they are still there.
I can't imaging my fingernail actually scratching this up..... Could there be a coating or something that I've actually scratched up that can be buffed out? My screen is polarized, maybe that extended up over the lens?
Anyone else notice their front camera is easily scratched up?

tele_jas said:
I noticed a smudge of something on my front facing camera (probably a drop of Dr. Pepper from when my son had one blow up on him earlier that day), so I tried wiping it off with my shirt, but it needed just a little more "umph" to get it off..... So I used my fingernail, which I've done hundreds of times on the back camera, but now there's now about a dozen scratches on the front lens. I've tried cleaning it with a Q-Tip and alcohol, but they are still there.
I can't imaging my fingernail actually scratching this up..... Could there be a coating or something that I've actually scratched up that can be buffed out? My screen is polarized, maybe that extended up over the lens?
Anyone else notice their front camera is easily scratched up?
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My boyfriends scratched his up and there was like a film layer that he was able to take off and it gives him clear picture shots now.

sapplegater said:
My boyfriends scratched his up and there was like a film layer that he was able to take off and it gives him clear picture shots now.
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Thank you, that's what I was hoping to hear

Yea same here, I ended up putting brake kleen on a qtip and now it's clear again.
Sent from my Renovated Elemental M8

Toothpaste on a Q-tip, then nail polish remover with the other end of the Q-tip. Rub in small circles until you start seeing the black film coming off.
Sent from my HTC M8

Related

battery/camera lens cover is so scratched it is dramaticaly affecting picture quality

so i just noticed that the camera was taking bad pix so i pulled the battyery cover off to see if i needed to clean the lens or the lens cover, upon observing the battyer cover i noticed that it has many many small scratches.
so the way i see it is that i have a few options and i was looking to discuss my optopns.
i could:
1 replace the entire battery cover
2 knock the lens cover out of the battery cover, im afaraid this could lead to a scratched lens
3 replacded just the lens cover
what do you guys/gals think?
btw this is my first ever post on xda and this site is freaking sweet
thanks
Just pop out the lense cover,i did it in mine and the camera quality is 100% better and dont worry bout scratchin the glass camera lens, its tougher cause of bein glass vs plastic, n its recessed pretty good. q-tips cleane it well
Yeah, there was a thread about the back cover going a bit ago. General consensus was just to pop it out and occasionally get in there to clean off the lense.
very good, i was sitting in my gf's sons high school graduation ceremony using my tilt 2 so my spelling and grammer weren't the best in my op
i probably should have researched a little more but it was all i could do keep connecting to the internet long enough to get that op sent...
but fantastic input, infact i went ahead and popped the little guy out, but i know i should be ok with this fix
When I got the phone I cut a little piece of screen protector and put in on the lens cover. Didn't seem to impact photo quality, but I guess I have nothing to compare to since it's been there since day one.
Just FYI if you end up replacing the lens cover.
I too popped out the lens cover, soon after purchasing the TILT2 because even brand new the lens covers take away from the pictures, had same problem on TILT 1 so instead of taking off my cover everytime i wanted to take a picture i just removed the lens cover and it's been great , no damage. A little dusty every once in awhile , but nothing major. plus you could keep the cover and pt it back on later if you change your mind !
I notice on mine that the coating (maybe an anti-glare coating) on the outside was just worn away in spots. At first I too thought the plastic was scratched, but it wasn't. I took some plastic polish (I assume toothpaste would work too) and polished away the rest of the anti-glare coating. That greatly improved the picture quality.
Mine gets used in dusty and dirty conditions too often. Not sure I dare pop off that protective layer.
buff it
potna said:
so i just noticed that the camera was taking bad pix so i pulled the battyery cover off to see if i needed to clean the lens or the lens cover, upon observing the battyer cover i noticed that it has many many small scratches.
so the way i see it is that i have a few options and i was looking to discuss my optopns.
i could:
1 replace the entire battery cover
2 knock the lens cover out of the battery cover, im afaraid this could lead to a scratched lens
3 replacded just the lens cover
what do you guys/gals think?
btw this is my first ever post on xda and this site is freaking sweet
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, this is where messing with cars comes in handy,, go get the smallest bottle of car polish(not wax)you can find and just buff the scratches out. use a very light touch and the scratches come right out. due to my work enviorment, i had to do mine last week when i noticed the same thing, and now i am back to crystal clear pictures again
Thanks, snig72. I had an old tube of car scratch removal stuff and tried your suggestion. I used a q-tip with it and it worked like a charm! The cover is like brand new now - not kidding!

lens cover damage

The see-through (plastic?) lens cover appears to have a thin layer on it, a layer that comes off easily? i can remove it with my finger nail with repeated rubbing so it can't be an anti scratch layer
It's not really like scratches it looks more like it's just being rubbed off and the surface below looks not as shiny.
Do others have this or have had this?
Anyway on mine this layer is mostly off in the middle, bit of a pisser it probably effects the photo quality..
yes, this happened to me. I got a scratch on the lens cover and the "coating" started to rub off around the scratch then. Once it's broken it will all eventually chip or rub off. I was left with a dull not so transparent lens cover. crap photos.
I got a new back cover for 30euro! (argh!!). Now I do not rub my lens and am very careful. The initial scratch was caused by a tiny piece of salt or sand on the lens when I rubbed it clean with a microfibre cloth. Once it was scratched the protective film just flaked off really easy when I rubbed it even lightly.
Get a new back cover and be very careful when rubbing the lens cover in future. In fact DON'T rub it is best. If you do get a finger print on it very very lightly use a microfibre cloth to remove it. no hard rubbing.
bummer.. i'll just leave mine i think, maybe some one will bring out a better version, or i could maybe maybe stick a plane glass disc in.
yeah, it sucks doesn't it! I would not mind paying an extra 20euro for a desire if HTC would coat the lens cover with mineral glass or something so its much less likely to scuff. plastic with a coating is useless.
anyway, good luck if you replace it with a glass disc, that would be cool too. I splashed out for the battery cover, but it was expensive and wouldn't do it again if it happens.
Thats why I loved my Nokia N82. It had an actual lens cover that kept out dust, fingerprints, grit etc.
well, HTCs next big handset release will only be improved I imagine.
Same here
I've had the same problem, bad engineering on HTC's part in my opinion as the lens(cover) is a very much exposed part of this particular phone because of its 'bulgy' design. Never had this kind of problem on my Cybershotphones.
Too bad though as I'm otherwise very happy with my Desire (although it would have been nice if the screen were a bit less prone to scratching, gief Gorillaglass).
I ended up rubbing the lenscover until the entire coating was actually rubbed off in the hope pictures would be less blurry because of the partly chipped off coating.
Anyone know what the coating is for in the first place?
if this happens to mine I will drill the clear lens out
jamesmcuk said:
if this happens to mine I will drill the clear lens out
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I think you can just bash it out - there's a post on the forum somewhere about it

Desire lens cover badly scratched

I like to think that I look after my handset and indeed the screen and casing are untouched. But look in bright light at the lens cover in the back cover and it has numerous very light scratches.
It must be a very soft plastic. Will it effect quality and can it be replaced?
Thanks
Remove the back cover and compare picture quality. You can see there is a massive difference. I'm having yellow tint in every pic.
Any back covers on the market with better lens cover?
Get a new back cover and cover the lens part with screen protector, thats what I recommend
That wont necisarily help, since some users have reported that the non scratch coating on the inside of the window also becomes scratched over time on some phones.
I'm going to bite the bullet soon & try the method suggested here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764673
Worst I can do is knack my lens & if so, just buy a replacement cover. First ever time I've had anything like this on any of my phones & again, I do take care of it with screen protector & softcase...
Clean it with Displex - I had the same issue and it really worked - And Displex is only a few euros... Alternatively Brasso should also work, however I have not tested this.
I had the same issue. I think there is some layer over the plastic. I rubbed the cover with a oakley pouch for a couple minutes and the layer faded away revealing shiny plastic. I knew mine could not be really scratched. It's been fine ever since.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Displex. Found half a tube that must be nearly 10 years old - used on a beloved Sony Ericsson T68i (first colour screen). And seems to have a worked on my Desire. Just to can't understand why it got scratched in the first place as it is slightly recessed.
Must be very soft plastic which is a disappointing economy.
Nutsonfire said:
I had the same issue. I think there is some layer over the plastic. I rubbed the cover with a oakley pouch for a couple minutes and the layer faded away revealing shiny plastic. I knew mine could not be really scratched. It's been fine ever since.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
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I did the same thing. Seems like some thin layer is what gets scratched. You can remove it gently with nail (or tooth, like i did LOL)...
Sent using XDA app from my Desire

Desire camera gives "cloudy" pictures

I've found that my Desire camera photos always appear hazy, or to have a sort of "halo" around them when they're taken - certainly not nearly as sharp as they should be for a 5MP camera.
Has anyone else had this problem and is there a solution?
It's because the lens cover in the back case is not very good and is distorting the view.
If you take the back off the phone and take a few shots, you will see they are much clearer.
There's actually a thread about this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=990596&highlight=camera+cover
I pierced my lense cover out of the back cover as it seems many others have done and now get amazing images. Obviously not everyone would like to do that so you can always try and clean the lense on the back cover with a cotton bud and lense cleaning solution Seems like a design fault as that plastic lense cover gets filthy very quickly and ruins images.
Yeah after watching that video I tried taking a picture with the battery cover off and the clarity was brilliant!
Have you noticed any dust, etc. problems with the lens cover off?
had my lens cover off for 6 months or so, need to take the cover off to wipe off the dust occasionally but no scratches - seems the glass on the sensor is much harder than that on the cover.
best thing i ever did, just pressed out of battery cover in 2 seconds.
DesUKire said:
I pierced my lense cover out of the back cover as it seems many others have done and now get amazing images. Obviously not everyone would like to do that so you can always try and clean the lense on the back cover with a cotton bud and lense cleaning solution Seems like a design fault as that plastic lense cover gets filthy very quickly and ruins images.
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Click to collapse
Done same thing mate.
b0ng0 said:
Yeah after watching that video I tried taking a picture with the battery cover off and the clarity was brilliant!
Have you noticed any dust, etc. problems with the lens cover off?
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Obviously dust gets there, but it can be easily sorted out with a good blow and a bit of cloth.
I pierced mine out too an replaced it with a saphire glass which is really hard and resistant. No scratches until now (5 months) and the camera pics are like the ones you take with the cover off.
The only disadvantage is that you have to order it in the United Kingdom and pay for the shipping.
I found one also on Amazon, otherwise search on Google for Edmund Optics, they sell them.
Bye
Klewe

How do you clean your front camera?

My front facing camera is FILTHY. I can't clean it with a cloth because it's tiny and the plastic kind of blocks the lens. How do you guys clean it? I tried a cue-tip and it didn't really do it.
Hi, try putting a few drops of water to a cotton bud and clean it. That works for me.
used a paper clip with a tiny bit of a wet tissue on the end. just jam it in and move it around a bit
I was afraid of scratching it. What I ended up doing was wrapping a regular cleaning cloth (like the ones you get with screen protectors) around an old plastic stylus I had lying around (which has a really soft edge, so it wouldn't have scratched it too much) and it worked relatively well. Thanks for the tips

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