No Autofocus on Xperia 10 III

Applications
#8

I have used Sony Xperia X Compact, Sony XA2 (both with official SFOS) and now Sony XZ2 Compact (SFOS community Port).
My observation with Jolla Camera App on these 3 Hardware-Platforms are always the same. It doesn´t seem to utilise the Hardware-Distance-Sensor (Sony call this “Laser Autofocus” for the X- and XZ2-Compact) for fast and correct Focus. So it seems it has its own Software-Implementation (Zoom and compare contrast boundaries) which isn´t fast and gives the optimal result in most cases.
Maybe theres no access to the Depth-Sensor it or its buggy in the AOSP-Blobs.
I experience a similar behaviour on LineageOS with the Sony XZ1 Compact and the Sony XA2.

AdvancedCamera seems to handle this better Softwarewise but can´t utilise the Hardware-Camera-Button.

So things will improve maybe with CamperaAPI 2.0 hopefully.

Please correct me if statements are wrong.

4 Likes
#9

Never had an autofocus problem with the main 10 iii camera. Still haven’t ‘unlocked’ the other two. Still having problems with HDR though I have finally taken photos as good as my XA2. 10 iii’s camera works better under low light too, and vastly better than the XA2’s native SF apps.

#10

@David
The Camera works out of the box? What do mean with not activating the other cameras? Have you changed some code?

#13

This just happened to me: The Camera has stopped autofocus. I am trying to use it to pay things with the use of android apps. It has always been a little problematic but suddenly it does not work at all.

Even when I open the normal Jolla camera app it has stopped auto focusing. It just does not do it. Is there a way to disable and enable autofocus to see if that helps?

Thanks!

#14

In Advanced Camera https://openrepos.net/content/piggz/advanced-camera there is a setting for focus mode.

Edit. Oh i forgot, versions 0.9.5 and above are in Chum.

#15

Out of the box means I haven’t changed any code or installed anything relevant. Fresh installation of 4.5.0.24 on Android 11.
In short, you either have a screwed-up installation or bad hardware.

Android 13 is now recommended. If no-one here can suggest anything, I’d backup what you can, reinstall Android 13, test and, if that works, reinstall 4.5.0.24.

As I understand it, only one of the 3 cameras works on SF. There is a hack to switch to the others.

Reposted because can’t edit the bad advice to reinstall Android 11. :wink:

#16

Then you must not haven taken many pictures. It’s actually kind of impressive (in its own sad way) how poorly the autofocus works on this phone. I used to think autofocus was a ‘solved problem’ 20 years ago, but here we are…

#17

Would you kindly point where is this recommendation?

3 Likes
#18

My problem is solved. Or kind of.

When I turned off Android App Support my Autofocus works again.

When I turned Android app support on again the autofocus doesn’t work again. Could MicroG be causing problems?

#19

Just tried it now, (x10iii4.5.0.24) I have aas and ug on, and AF is working.

I have found that incredibly slow picture taking is caused by AF. If it doesnt think it has focus, it wont fire the shutter

#20

Yes, that has been a problem for a long time. Extremely irritating to never be able to take an action shot. When my children are playing football or I am on a buss/train, it won’t take the photo.

However, more recently the AF has not worked at all. It never focuses, even though it says it does. There is the blue circle but the image is really blurry. When I turn off Android app support, the auto focus works as normal.

#21

yes, it want that the focus is set otherwise it just won’t take a picture.
I get a bit frustated by this behaviour actually.

#22

You could call it a community recommendation, but it fixes a significant aesthetics problem with the screen.

#23

First 3 are taken with the 10iii. Other 9 with the XA2.

But I’m sure you know better. :smile:

#24

And the echo issue, too.

#25

Okay, i totally get your point. But don’t get me wrong…

I just see positive outcome only from one user, which is already kind of neat. Great job @wetab73 !

Just for what it’s worth, in my opinion it takes a little bit more to become any kind of recommendation.

1 Like
#26

The auto focus isn’t great because it is quite slow. But the real problem is that it can’t handle non-static scenes at all.

Examples

Try to take a picture from something you see outside while riding in a car or train. Auto-focus will fail.

Try to take a picture of something moving, like a group of people, or a carnival ride or a float in a parade. Can’t focus.

Try to take a picture in changing lighting conditions, like in a party with coloured lights that turn on/off or rotate. Can’t focus.

Finally there is a bug where sometimes the autofocus will get ‘stuck’ for a minute or so, and you can’t really interact with the photo app. After a minute it will take a picture at random, maybe focused maybe not. Usually your camera is pointing in a random direction at this point so you get a picture of the floorr.

#27

The autofocus problem also happens if it’s simply too dark… Try taking a picture where most of the screen is dark/black… and you’ll notice it’s impossible to take the picture, nothing happens when you press the ‘shoot’ button.

Move somewhere where you have more light, and it starts working again. Very annoying.

2 Likes
#28

even though it sounds different, this is likely a dupe of Camera refuses to take picture on 10 III (focus hangs) (among other threads. very popular issue, complicated to pinpoint exact issue, and therefore easy to make multiple threads)

that problem is with the camera1 api. it is broken on 10III in sony stock android, in AOSP, and in SFOS, and is only technically fixable by sony.
the solution is to use the camera2 api, which works in SFOS right now using the android app OpenCamera, if you have android-app-support.

native SFOS camera2 support is being actively developed, but it is a work in progress and work seems to be slowing a bit on it.
camera2 issues: Issues · sailfishos/droidmedia · GitHub
camera2 commits: GitHub - sailfishos/droidmedia at camera2

3 Likes
#29

It’s up to you. As far as I could tell, there was very little Jolla emphasis on v11. It was just the one they did proper testing on as it was the one available when they started porting.
Further, the community as a whole said, prior to this discovery, there is no apparent difference between the versions. @wetab73 has also shown themselves to be a reliable, respected user of the forums with an aptitude for and deep understanding of Sailfish. Nobody has yet put up a counter argument.
Lastly, later versions of Android use later manufacturer drivers. It’s a standard thing in computing to have the most up-to-date drivers with very few exceptions. Sony, as a trusted partner of Jolla, would aim to at least maintain compatibility with Sailfish. If they failed to do so, I would have expected Jolla to communicate that by now.