Lytro Support/Support Forums/General/Other - Support Questions
Is there something wrong with my camera?
Eleanor Ramsay
asked this on April 03, 2012 02:37 pm
I just received my Lytro yesterday and it is making a strange soft clicking noise. It's not constant, but seems to happen sporadically, maybe a few times when it's first on, then it will be quiet and then (just when I think I'm imagining it) it will click a few more times. Sounds like something inside the camera is clicking (but it's not really the sound of something loose or moving around). Is that a normal sound for it to make?
I am not talking about the shutter sound while taking a picture, it makes this sound while being held or just sitting there.
I does take pictures and the software loaded, but that sound seems wrong to me.
Thanks for any info.
Comments
Eleanor, would you try resetting your camera? I'm curious if this does anything to clicking noise:
Swipe up from the very bottom of the touchscreen to access the General Control Drawer, then touch the "gear" icon, then select "Reset."
This will reset the camera, both software (firmware) and hardware (lens/zoom calibration). Your pictures on the camera will be untouched.
If this doesn't help, we'd like to take a look at your camera; contact us via the 'open a support ticket' link on the bottom of this page to arrange your return.
Hi Adam,
I tried the Reset and think it may have helped. I am still hearing a click or two shortly after I turn the camera off. I am going to take it out today and shoot a lot of images and see if the problem returns or if it has really stopped. The sound seems to me to be same sound the camera makes when you turn it on or off. or when it auto-powers down into sleep mode, but it was making it randomly when the camera was on and, even stranger, a few moments after it was turned off.
I will respond again later, after I've had a chance to test it out a bit more. Thanks!
For what it's worth, my camera also makes a click a few moments after I turn it off and set it down. I assume it's "parking" the lens calibration hardware or something.
Eleanor, about 40 seconds after you turn your camera off, the camera makes a click and a whir sound; the click is the shutter closing, and the whirr is the zoom motor going back to the home position.
Steven, pretty close!
The "parking" sound makes total sense, but this is different.
I wish I could say that all is well, but am still not sure if my camera is ok or if I have a dud...
I have "reset" my camera 4 times, now...
I reset the camera 2 times the second day I had it, per the advice here. It was pretty quiet for about half a day. However, when I took it out and tried shooting while walking around, moving the camera up and down - up towards the sky to shoot looking up at a tree, for example, it started up with the random clicking again.
I got home, saw that none of the pictures looked any good. Reset the camera again. It was quiet. .
Last night I was experimenting with creative mode, macro-ish focusing, or at least trying. Focus was really slow and camera has trouble focusing on anything. Nothing like the response in the demo video - shooting the strawberries - at your site. In creative mode, I cannot move the zoom slider in at all, camera just goes completely out and won't hone in on anything. After a few minutes of total frustration and blur I tried resetting the camera again. I heard the zoom motor move. I could then get some tighter focus, like it "fixed" what was stuck before, but still can't get anywhere near any close subject unless the slider is all the way to the left. The focusing is really slow.
I took the camera out this morning and just left it on the automatic setting. Took some random shots. It was quiet and behaved as expected. Turned the camera back on after lunch… it's making the sound click, click, click. (Sounds kind of like the click it makes when you turn it on but it keeps making it).
The thing is, I played with one of these for about an hour at a demo you had back in February and had none of the trouble I am having with this camera. The camera I was given to walk around with was responsive, fun, intuitive and every picture turned out pretty cool.
Coudl the clicking be the builtin ND filter engaging and disengaging?
That could be why it happens when you point to the sky, it engages the ND filter to compensate for the additional light.
Hi Joey,
That is actually a good theory. The ND filter does indeed click when it engages and disengages.
However, apparently in the case that started the thread, something unusual really was happening.