t400 integrated camera

Alot of times I'll have the cam up and then all of a sudden it gets really dark. Why is this?

 

Too much background light can cause foreground images to become dark. You need adequate light on the main subject.

 

poor drivers. in fact, I've found the camera on my T400 to be a disappointment, due to poor drivers.
as well as the image getting dark suddenly (in low light), it is also yellow

eagerly awaiting updated drivers

 

yeah i have gotten the yellow before too

for a thinkpad the t400 sure does have alot of things wrong with it, i would pay out the nose for a machine that actually gives me no problems

 

Can you give us an example?
Renee

 

here is an example of the yellow problems

 

anyone know the specs of the camera? megapixels?

and yes, i think the camera is crappy as well.

 

Did you take the protective layer off the camera? My friend had the same problem and the little layer of plastic caused it.

 

I think it's 1.3 MP.

 

Hmmmm Ill check out the layer comment when I get home. I think it is 1.3 as well.

 

ah that is kind of nasty. is this the case on all of the webcams?

 

its not always yellow, just sometimes

maybe the lighting idk

 

Tried correct the settings via software?

 

I have a Lenovo Webcam (not integrated) and it also has poor image (too dark, even messing with Brightness). Don't think it's a driver problem.

 

Lenovo buys their webcams from another manufacturer. Could be that your webcam is built by the same manufacturer as the T400's.
It's either the driver or the camera firmware.
The camera, like the OP wrote, sometimes goes dark in the middle of the session with no appreciable change in lighting, and has poor white balance.

So it's a software issue. If it's the firmware, we're s... out of luck.


BTW, I took of the plastic cover and found no yellow tape. Even checked the lens itself. There was another related thread and others also reported seeing no tape.

 

yeah i dont see any tape over the lens. this is very disappointing from a thinkpad, i think we have reached the end of an era, it is practically useless to me, only works when you get lucky.

 

Look Clooooose. The layer was really really really hard to see on my friends thinkpad and mine. The only reason I decided to look to see if there is one is because I noticed one on the thinkpad logo on the cover.

 

im looking and scratching and nothing

maybe i took it off when i first got it but dont remember

 

Try using Yawcam and correcting the video settings..

 

I can't use the integrated camera to take picture. but can only take video. i on to take picture, it wrote no preview.. how?

 

How do I use the webcam on my T400?

 

if you install skype it's pretty straightforward

 

Did anyone find a specification on the t400 integrated camera?


By the way, the plastic film on the camera is on there in such a way that it is easy to miss that it is there. I missed it till I say this post. THANKS

Anyone find a fix for the thinklight???

 

There's only one plastic covering, right? When I got my T400 I immediately removed the parallelogram shaped plastic film over the entire camera section and my pictures are all very yellow still.

 

Did anyone ever find the specifications for the camera? Is your image clear vs. fuzzy?

 

i dont know about specs but it is pretty clear HOWEVER i do get the yellowish tint most of the time AND i did remove the plastic film on the camera. I think thats the only con i have about the quality of my laptop

 

My T500's camera (identical to the T400's) is clear and has accurate colors. It is a 1.3MP webcam.

I haven't had any problems with it other than the fact that Lenovo does not provide any software other than a basic driver for the webcam. Also, I have not figured out a way to add it to the "My Computer" screen in Vista.

 

the yellow shift of the camera, is due to the cheap CMOS sensor.

 

after removing the plastic file from the camera I find that it does not work at all when I have a window at my back as I do in my office. I have to pick up the laptom and move to use the camera. The image is washed out/pale thought much clearer now. I do not seem to have a yellow hue if I have the hue setting in the default setting. What ticks me off the most is that my wifes and my friends both have HPs and their cameras are GREAT

 

How do you set the hue?

 

you can set the hue and gamma in specialised softwares, where software can compensate for the image colour distortion. It is not a native feature included with the camera software.

 

You can set the hue in skype. Go into tools, options, video settings and the camera will launch and you can customize the settings.

 

wow. just got my integrated camera working with t400. never had a use for it before, but now i'm skyping, so i was pretty excited to finally realize i had disabled it in bios and get it working!

wow. does this webcam suck. it looks like i'm in a pool of mellow yellow, it's so yellow. playing around with the adjustments in yawcam, skype, etc, don't help much and just make it look too red, blue, bright, and so on... shame on lenovo for putting this piece of junk in my t400 which i paid good money for. i too, hope a driver update may improve this, but i fear it's just a crappy camera.

 

One temporary fix to the yellow problem is putting up a sheet of white paper in front of your face for a few seconds, which seems to restore the proper white balance for minutes before it sometimes jumps back.