MS Lifecam HD, How to Fix Autofocus: TechNow with Gina Smith (pilot)

If you have a Microsoft Lifecam or Lifecam HD, ever had trouble with funny looking video after you rebooted and disconnected the camera? The problem is the system is defaulting to an autofocus ON setting. It’s easy to turn it off. Here’s how to fix autofocus.

This is a pilot of TechNow with Gina Smith set to debut I hope in three days – August 8, 2012 — I’m relaunching my daily two-minute vidcast, covering one top tech news story you need to know about. Every day, seven days a week, I’ll bring you the top tech story of the day as I see it and give you some key perspective I dig up on it.

This time though, in this second pilot episode shot August 5, 2012, I’m focusing on how to deal with that strange autofocus bug that so plagues MS Lifecam HD users. The cam defaults to autofocus, so quick movements add up to a strange blur “trails” effect that is hardly worth the Youtube bandwidth : )

Here is Pilot Two. Check out the first pilot — I hid it at my personal blog — it’s easy to see the bug in action in my as-yet-undiagnosed and problematic MS Lifecam. All fixed now, though. Looking forward to bringing you a top tech story a day — two minutes or less — on TechNow with Gina Smith. Show debuts August 8, 2012. All ideas welcome!