does anyone else have focus issues when recording videos with the s23

[Tomdelongste92]

Hey guys. I got my S23 about 6 months ago. I use it mainly for recording videos overhead of books and similar type things. My old phones that I had previously worked fine for this, but the specs on the camera have improved drastically so I was pretty excited. 
Anyway when I started filming with the phone, it seems to have lots of weird issues that are a little tricky to explain but I think they are related to the focus. 
For example, when a book is in shot and I move it at all, even slightly, or turn the page, it managed to keep the book in focus ( sort of ) but the background goes really shaky and distorted. It also looks like my camera is not still, and is shaking whenever there is movement.

I have spoken to samsung to try and fix the issue multiple times, sent the phone back for repair, done updates, factory resets, safe modes and various tests, cleaned lenses etc nothing effects it. Even when I record in pro / manual mode which is not ideal for me, the background still goes distorted. They have been incredible unhelpful and it has ended up being a really stressful frustrating and time consuming experience with none of the people at Samsung even being able to understand the issue. 

I assume it's a hardware issue but wanted to check has anyone else got this issue or is it just me?

Aside from that the focus seems quite unreliable compared to the older models too. Thanks in advance

Update: seems from the comments that a lot of other people are experience the same issues, but the people noticing it are mainly like me who bought the phones to record youtube content and similar. So far it doesn't look like anyone has found any way to improve or fix this and Samsung doesn't seem to acknowledge it. I'm absolutely devastated about it.

[Oivalf]

Hi there! Same tedious issue! Hope someone could fix it because it's terrible to work with that distortion. No matter what I change in the settings.

[Tomdelongste92]

As much as that sucks, I am really glad it's not just me, it's been driving me insane and as far as I am aware I tried everything, including sending it back to be checked, but they had no idea what I was talking about. At least I know it's the phone / hardware, but that doesn't really help or give me much faith that it can be fixed then. Hopefully others will find this post and help if possible

[zimzum]

Have you found a solution to this? If I am recording a human subject and the person moves at all, the person stays perfectly in focus , but the walls and the flooring move in all different directions. This is rediculous for a $800 dollar cell phone and I would never have purchased it if I knew this was going to happen.

Its very strange how none of the online reviews ever mention this problem, makes you wonder who is actually writing them.

[Tomdelongste92]

Unfortunately I haven't found any fix, but I had pretty much stopped trying at the time I posted this, as this post was sort of my last resort with it, I was really hoping someone else would be able to help ha. I was tempted to send my phone off to samsung, but I tried that initially with the company I bought it from, and they couldn't see / didn't understand the issue and I'm just not sure I can be bothered going through it all again for them to likely not understand the issue - it seems if you haven't noticed it, or depending what type of things you are filming, you wouldn't pick up on it or understand what the issue is. It definitely sounds like your issue is exactly the same as mine, which as mentioned, for me is a problem for my 'birds eye view' videos I record for YouTube. 
I am still really frustrated about it and how much money and time I have already wasted on this phone and issue. Currently I have to use my partners old phone for recording my videos, which is not ideal at all, and really shouldn't be necessary either to be honest.

I am glad to know it's not just me though. I think it is probably a hard ware fault in the design, it's like it's trying to focus so much on one area, that everything else just cannot stay in focus and has trouble. I notice even with regular photos, it can't seem to get much of the photo in focus, other then quite a specific focal point.

Hopefully someone else can help, I was also hoping they would update and fix this eventually, assuming it's not the hardware.

Please let me know if you find anything!

[bibbles35]

Apparently it's to do with inadequate lighting try having a good source of light where you recording that what fixed it for me

[manners]

I'm having it recording videos of my dog, a horrible noise and shaking of the video as if it is having problems with the focus, so frustrating! Outside with decent lighting, it's just when the subject moves quickly.

[lcsam]

I got exactly the same problem. My previous phone was a S20 FE that had this issue whenever I was trying to record myself playing the guitar. I tried changing all the available configurations but nothing changed this behavior. The background is distorted in a way that I basically can't share a video like that. It is shameful.

Recently I got a S23 and was excited to try the new cameras, but to my surprise, the exact same thing happens. I can't believe that even after 3 generations the phone still suffers from this stupid issue. What baffles me the most is that it's such a simple recording scenario, with a static background, good lightning, with the phone properly supported and barely no movements from the focus object. Why is it struggling so much? I couldn't care less about all the slow motion and night mode features when the phone can't even handle the most basic possible stuff. I also thought it was a bug, but I'm pretty sure that that this is the default behavior. 😞

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[gilmourism]

Have you found a solution for this issue? I have the same problem and no one else other than a handful of us seems to be having it or pointing it out online...

[gilmourism]

Have you found a solution for this issue? I have the same problem and no one else other than a handful of us seems to be having it or pointing out online...