Develop Bugs

back cover and picture quality

little irritated that i just realized that taking the back cover off my tilt2 made for better quality pictures. and i randomly clean the plastic lens cover on the back cover but pics still come out hazey.
anyone have this issue or tips to clean it?

asiancuta said:
little irritated that i just realized that taking the back cover off my tilt2 made for better quality pictures. and i randomly clean the plastic lens cover on the back cover but pics still come out hazey.
anyone have this issue or tips to clean it?
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Is the plastic cover scratched -- like from rubbing against something?

Ironically, I am having the same issue. I was just searching for a solution on here last night. It seems to have just happened within the past week. The cover on mine doesn't seem to be scratched.
I tried cleaning it vigorously with my shirt, but the haze wouldn't go away. A little more "cleaning" today and most of it seems to be gone.
My buddy fixes copiers, so I figured he might have something that will clean it up good. I will work on this tomorrow and see if I can get it cleared up.

nope no scratches or anything. i'm pretty careful with the phone since i paid full no-contract price for it i've done windex and rubbing alcohol via q-tip...but no success.
the drastic difference without the back cover is like going from watching standard tv without contacts to watching HD tv with contacts.

yeah, I noticed the same on my tilt 2. The plastic cover makes the pictures blurry. I ended up just removing the plastic camera piece from the back cover. The camera is recessed, so I don't see the need for a plastic cover. Works much better.

asiancuta said:
the drastic difference without the back cover is like going from watching standard tv without contacts to watching HD tv with contacts.
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Kinda like this:

I've got the European version of the TP2 - it doesn't have any screen in the back cover - just a hole!

big difference..
thanks for posting this....hadn't thought about this issue....
but checked it out...and yep...HUGE difference....
the plastic 'lens cover' looks like a pretty cheap plastic material....
even with the best care and cleaning it will ultimately change....
mine's filthy and scratched a little....
considering popping it out

I popped mine out and it looks a lot better now. The contrast/sharpness is much better without it. The camera is actually pretty decent now, weird that htc ruins the cam by putting these plastic pieces of crap over the lens!

jcterry said:
Kinda like this:
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that's exactly how my pictures came out. thanks for posting examples.
those of you that have popped that plastic cover off haven't had any dust or foreign debri issues getting in the phone, without it? that's my only concern.

Nice find asiancuta the camera is so much better thanks for sharing.

It's not because the lense is dirty, I tried it the same day the TILT2 came out, fresh out of the box. So it's not a dirty lense, i had the same issue with the TILT 1 , its the protective lense cover, it's just cheap and not clear. so you could remove it , some people even drilled a hole in it. It will allow for dust to get under the cover more, but it gets under there anyways, you can blow it out every once in awhile, instead over removing your cover and having people look at you like your retarded.

magnaman750 said:
Nice find asiancuta the camera is so much better thanks for sharing.
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no prob. figured picture quality was a lens cover issue..went on a hunch. loving the pictures and the phone so much more now
bwnotredame06 said:
It's not because the lense is dirty, I tried it the same day the TILT2 came out, fresh out of the box. So it's not a dirty lense, i had the same issue with the TILT 1 , its the protective lense cover, it's just cheap and not clear. so you could remove it , some people even drilled a hole in it. It will allow for dust to get under the cover more, but it gets under there anyways, you can blow it out every once in awhile, instead over removing your cover and having people look at you like your retarded.
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true..i airblow mine once a week at least. dust build up is incredible...pretty much a dust magnet. looks like i'll attempt to drill a hole or take the plastic off completely. picture quality is too d*** good without it

If you are concerned about dust, when removing the clear plastic piece, place a small piece of gaffers or masking tape (with one end curled over) on the hole. This will create a small flap that will prevent dust from entering. When it's time to take a photo just peel back the tape a little.

Also No need to Drill a hole, from the outside push on lense protector inward, and it pops right off, if you decide later, you can put it back on real easy.

bwnotredame06 said:
Also No need to Drill a hole, from the outside push on lense protector inward, and it pops right off, if you decide later, you can put it back on real easy.
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i'm gonna keep the plastic off for a couple of days and see how it goes.

side note and another small observation: looks like a slight bad design flaw on HTC's part, for the HTC Tilt 2 if you look at other phones...blackberry, nokia's, and even the HTC Pure..basic keyboardless version of the Tilt2...you can see the lens higher up on the back of the phone. now hold you're phone as you usually would while browsing the web or checking the weather. don't know bout anyone else, but i place my pointing finger along the back of the phone as stable support..unknowingly covering the lens part. that and possible oxidation (the yellow discoloring that occurs on your car's headlights) may lead to the bad quality pictures.

Night and day difference in popping out that cheap plastic lens. WOW, better then my 3.1 digital camera now.

Yeah, I did that on my Kaiser and it was much better. Bought a replacement back cover just for that purpose, but I can't find another cover specifically for the Tilt 2 yet, so I just can't bring myself to do it to this phone yet.
Debbie

I got my TP2 just one and a half week ago new here in Germany. And there was no plastic lense in the battery cover, just a hole.
But the quality of the camera is more than poor. I had an SE X1 with the same 3.2 MP before it -that was goot quality. The TP2's quality is more than poor compared with the X1. Like 1 MP (TP2) to 3 MP (X1). Even at a good sunny day a picture in a garden is without sharpness at the edges and in the bottom of the front. The camera of the X1 I used more and more often instead of my standard digital camera for same easy pictures and it was ok. But the camera of the TP2 ist unusable compared with the X1

Front Camera is blurry.

I think its got a lot of dust and dirt in it. I had a small lift on my speaker grill from day 1 of my purchase and didnt really care, but I think its been accumulating a lot of dust on my front facing camera. Its made it really blurry.
Does anyone know a way to clean the camera? I'm guessing the grill has to come off and then it'd be easy. But I don't know how to open to grill without damaging the phone or putting the grill back without making it even more loose than it should...

It's been found that our cameras have a thin film across them that becomes dirty and scratched and makes it blurry. I had this on both front and back. Solution I found is to put a drop of water very carefully on the camera lense and rub it with the corner of a credit card, just a little pressure will do it. I'll pull that film off and your camera will be as clear as the day you bought it. I haven't had any blurry issues since I did it about 8 months ago.

i had the same issue with the rear camera so i just used some glass cleaner and now the pictures come out nice and clear

Dust Under Glass Over Camera

I've had this phone for about three weeks and after around two weeks, I noticed that the pictures were starting to come out fuzzy and overexposed looking. Finally realized that there was dust under the glass covering the camera lens. Unfortunately, since it's under the glass, I'd have to take it apart to clean it (or possibly send it to Amazon for warranty, if they cover it).
The issue is that even if I take it apart and clean it, the issue will come up again and I'd rather not have to constantly take it apart and clean (especially since it happened only after two weeks). Does anyone have any suggestion to prevent this from happening again, besides not keeping it in my pocket?
This seems like a poor quality design to me. I carried my previous phone in my pocket for four years without any issues.
Thanks.

I also seem to have this problem. I need to look up how to open my fire phone, because my pictures aren't focusing well anymore. I now have a phone case, so I hope dust will stop going under the lens.

I got the same issue, and I actually send my phone for replacement. That being said, before sending it I took a compressed air can with the tiny tiny applicator and sprayed inside the microfone on the back and and the gap in the bezel, it blew away everything inside blocking the camera. I suspect there is a defect where there is too much gap on either the microphone and the back or the bezel and the back, so I just returned it anyways. If I had no warranty, that's what I would do, just be gentle with that microphone or it will die, the compressed air released at full throttle will break that microphone.

I had the same problem (is quite common), but it's easy to fix if you have a little bit of manual skills. Just buy a torx t3 screwdriver and a suction cup, open the phone, clean the glass in front of the camera and close. 5 minutes of work.
If you search on ifixit there's a fire phone teardown that explain how to open it. Simple and fast.

I got mine replaced from Amazon.

Called Amazon, but they said that since I bought it from eBay, it's not covered under warranty. Considering I had the phone for only a few weeks, you'd think they'd support their own product. Ah well.
Initially I wanted to avoid opening up the phone, as to not void the warranty, but as it turns out, it's not covered anyway.
I've followed the iFixIt video and cleaned out the lens. So, it's good as new; however, this isn't something I want to be doing on a regular basis. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the dust out, besides not keeping it in my pocket?
Thanks.

ashram said:
Called Amazon, but they said that since I bought it from eBay, it's not covered under warranty. Considering I had the phone for only a few weeks, you'd think they'd support their own product. Ah well.
Initially I wanted to avoid opening up the phone, as to not void the warranty, but as it turns out, it's not covered anyway.
I've followed the iFixIt video and cleaned out the lens. So, it's good as new; however, this isn't something I want to be doing on a regular basis. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the dust out, besides not keeping it in my pocket?
Thanks.
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Unfortunately there's not much that can be done about this AFAIK. As stated above, there is a design flaw where the microphone on the back let's in the dust, so unless you cover it, you'll end up needed to clean it every once in a while. But I've also noticed not too much distortion in the photos.

iFixit has a great pictures and guides for dismantling the fire phone. This is what I used to open mine up to clean the camera glass. Note it is well worth cleaning the lens as the camera auto focus works much faster when clean.
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Amazon_Fire_Phone

I have to clean my camera every month.
I think I should buy a new phone right now.

stunvn said:
I have to clean my camera every month.
I think I should buy a new phone right now.
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I do the same every other month. Very annoying. At least with the right screwdriver and a suction cup is pretty fast and easy to open and clean it.

Next time I open mine to clean, I am going to try an remedy the issue by adding a foam washer (or my DIY version of double sided sticky foam tape cut into a washer) around the lens..

Camera fault night shots

When I bought my LG G4 (818) over a year ago,I could take night shots just point and click.
I had the circuit board replaced (bootloader problem) and for the last few weeks I get flare on the whites.So much that it's not worth taking a photo.
Even in manual the results are the same.
As you can see in the pics the white and the lights flare,(please don't say its normal as this result has just appeared)like I say a few months ago I could take night shot and no problems

Maybe your glass is scratched or dirty

madjester67 said:
As you can see in the pics the white and the lights flare,(please don't say its normal as this result has just appeared)like I say a few months ago I could take night shot and no problems
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Hello madjester67, what you are seeing has been one of 2 problems WHICH I both experienced myself:
1. Easiest to solve: clean the lense.
How to diagnose: take your finger and wipe over the camera glas. The glowing stripes will be 90 degree to the direction of whiping.
When on the go I sometimes take just whatever clothes I am wearing, some work just fine. Or get a proper microfiber clothe
2. It might be scratches on the camera cover glas. They will stay independent of whiping. And they will always have the same angle towards the photos x an y axis. My scratched lense cover had certain markings, say 2 thin long rays to the button left corner and a thick shorter ray to the right corner.
How to diagnose: most reliable but a bit difficult and dangerous to the camera module: remove the current Cover (which means to remove the buttons too). If these artifacts remain, it wasn't the lense cover.
Why dangerous? Losing warranty (if support figures out), you might cause scratches or even break parts or WORSE you could damage the camera which is unprotected from the outer world without the cover. Even if it is just a small dust particle... how will you get that out of the actual lense without damage?
How to solve: buy a new camera glas or the whole glas+buttons part where you need only screw driver and not fiddle around with adhesive tapes. I got mine for about 15€ at rounded.com. It didn't have the proper color (grey instead of gold) but hey, Who cares?
Nive to hear from you soon how it went!

There is a "black" smudge on my photos after dropping my phone.

After i dropped my phone from pocket height onto the floor, i noticed the photos had a "black" smudge, i am not sure if the glass on top of the camera module is scratched as i can't visibly see it, but after trying to clean the camera with some rubbing alcohol, i took a photo of it with some alcohol droplets still on the glass (it looks like a blurry drakish spot on the photo when in normal conditions, the alcohol droplets allowed the camera to focus on the spot). Now how can i fix this, do i have to change the glass on top of the camera or the entire camera module as if the actual lens might be damaged. (It's the main shooter, not the tele.)

Looks like it damaged the sensor.
Buy another cam module

It looks like some dust got dislodged and got on your camera lens. Maybe you can check it by shining a bright flashlight on the lens and checking for any small debris that is on the lens (Lens I am refering to is the one that's under the back glass/lens, on the camera module for focus, not the one you can touch)
If there is debris, the only way is to remove the back glass and remove the debris with a air can, or a temporary measure is to hit your phone at an angle to dislodge it to another location (it may get stuck deeper inside the OIS mechanism so beware of that)

n1Bb135 said:
It looks like some dust got dislodged and got on your camera lens. Maybe you can check it by shining a bright flashlight on the lens and checking for any small debris that is on the lens (Lens I am refering to is the one that's under the back glass/lens, on the camera module for focus, not the one you can touch)
If there is debris, the only way is to remove the back glass and remove the debris with a air can, or a temporary measure is to hit your phone at an angle to dislodge it to another location (it may get stuck deeper inside the OIS mechanism so beware of that)
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oddly enough i left my phone charging over a "wooly" surface and i can't seem to reproduce it (the smudge is like gone), what's bothering me is that i kept cleaning the outer part of the lens (the one i can touch without dismantling the phone) but it was still there, after i left it charging for like 20mins it was like magically gone, anyways thanks for trying to help me!!