iMac camera won't focus close-up

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iMac camera won't focus close-up

Hi guys, I just bought an M1 iMac and I do a lot of video calls via FaceTime, Zoom etc and noticed that the webcam won't autofocus on anything close-up to the camera. The image quality for normal webcam use at a normal distance is great, but very often I hold my phone up to the camera to show translation words or images quickly... when doing so I noticed my camera doesn't focus on anything close up, whereas my 2018 MacBook Pro camera auto-focuses with no issues. I've tried updating and going through settings but seems nothing helps, so I'm wondering if this is an issue with all of them or there's an issue with the autofocus on my iMac. I appreciate that most people won't be holding things close up to the camera, but I would have expected there to be some level of close up auto-focus on this new model

Posted on Feb 25, 2023 5:44 AM

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Answer 1

diem87 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 5, 2023 9:22 AM in response to barberlives123

Thanks for the reply. Yea I was hoping it would just be a simple software issue regarding the autofocus and I did try looking into the settings on Zoom, FaceTime etc, but there's nothing which will help. I use the same video conferencing on my 2018 MacBook Pro and it clearly has autofocus. Tbh the overall camera quality of the new M1 iMac is far superior at normal distance for video calls, it's just a shame it doesn't have auto focus and unable to show images clearly on anything close-up... perhaps that's the drawback of having the overall clarity setup.

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Answer 2

Feb 27, 2023 10:42 AM in response to diem87

Hey there diem87,

You may be able to use the settings of the app you’re using to adjust this. The article, Use the built-in camera on Mac states: “Certain apps may allow you to adjust camera quality. Check your app settings and adjust if needed.” Test with different apps and see if that has any impact on the focus when using objects close to the camera.

Take care.

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iMac camera won't focus close-up

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