Does the camera really not zoom?

[ILGal]

Wondering if I am missing something basic. On my Galaxy Note, and on my Galaxy phone, when I switch on the camera, I can pinch the screen to zoom in on a subject before taking a picture.

No can do with the SP3 camera. Is there a setting I should enable?

 

[jnjroach]

The cameras on the SP3 are fixed focus...

 

[dleuen]

Yes, the camera is the most disappointing hardware component on the device. I love the SP3 except the stupid camera.

 

[hughlle]

I assume this is for real time sending of pictures?

Can't you just take 20 seconds to crop it? I've never in my life used digital zoom, the quality is appalling.

 

[ILGal]

I assume this is for real time sending of pictures?

Can't you just take 20 seconds to crop it? I've never in my life used digital zoom, the quality is appalling.

It's not cropping, it's enabling focus in the first place. Since posting this, I've found some other threads illustrating this issue.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-quality/52a2b69b-aa2e-49bb-8287-55dd37f60c6a
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-quality/52a2b69b-aa2e-49bb-8287-55dd37f60c6a
I don't take a lot of tablet photos, but occasionally snap a classroom whiteboard and the results in this use case are pretty disappointing.

 

[hughlle]

Sorry, i thought this was about zoom, not focus.