XPS M1210 Camera quality bad?

Hi all, been lurking a long time and first time post. I have searched and am surprised to not see more on this issue. I got a new 1210 last week and am surprised at how bad the quality of the built in webcam is. When the lighting is low the quality is unusable - picture is so grainy! Has anyone else seen this?

I tried downloading the latest drivers from dells website but it doesn't help. Usually the low light boost on the setting helps with other external webcams I have had but it doesn't seem to make any change at all on the 1210's cam.

Anyone have any solution or ideas with this?

Thanks,
Eric

 

Welcome to the forums! I've seen discussion on this before in the forums, if you use the search I think you'll find some threads related to it. Anyway, I had the M1210 for a little while and got good quality in high light and outdoor situations and poor indoors.

 

i did search, there is one thread, but no solution.

 

Right, basically, there is no solution it's just the way it is:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=71390&highlight=M1210+camera

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=62377&highlight=M1210+camera

You'll see comments regarding the bad quality in low-light there. It's basically a hardware issue and Dell would have to include a higher quality camera for use in dim light. In a comparison to an Apple iCam and Lenovo V100 built-in camera the M1210 was the worst in low lighting.

 

i appreciate those links, i had already found those. i was hoping someone might have found a solution. i am also surprised more people aren't upset with this...it seems that the low light boost doesn't work since clicking it has no effect on the picture. if i cant find a solution, it's going back.

eric

 

Yea it doesn't appear that the camera is anything spectacular. I'm no camera expert though, but I don't think there's anything wrong with your camera.

 

its pretty decent for a webcam, I didnt order mine with one, and ended up getting one in an exchange, I liked the screen without the cam MUCH better, I dont really have a use for a web cam anyway, if someone wants to see my fiddly bits, they gotta do it in person

 

i have a $19.99 webcam from fry's that puts this one to shame. in good lighting it works ok but in low light its terrible. its just silly to put such a crappy cam in a nice machine.

 

maybe thats why my m1210 doesn't have the option