Very Blurry Lid Camera

[glowforge9]

Received Glowforge basic today in UK. All looks intact, though hole in bottom of box and two handles missing. Setup went well, got to tutorial ruler print and the camera, including refresh shows below, extremely blurry image. Please advise.

edit: yup, crumb tray in place, in its “little dimples”. Appreciate the suggestion, always good to check the obvious Three of us here to check process.

edit: Honestly I hadnt cleaned the lens, simply cos I didnt want to touch anything However, have now done so with an included Zeiss wipe, that cleaned up a couple of little marks but the blur remains, it’s also similar over the image suggesting a focusing issue rather than muck, but again thanks for feedback. Also checked for plastic cover - smart notion, but appears to be bare glass.

edit: Selecting material tip got me excited and it did seem to change focus slightly, but its still way out:

edit: Ahah our eldest just spotted the camera looked loose moments before your post:

edit: kk gave this a gentle encouragement to stick to the lid and made sure it was nice and flush:

Being avid photographers, this isn’t what I’d call in focus, but its a dramatic improvement

edit: k figured that if 5mm made such a difference having a great seal against the glass would likely make remaining difference so went in and made sure it was stuck good

hmm looks good, is this the quality that others are printing with?

[paulw]

This is a stupid question, but just to checklist, is the crumb tray in there?

[evansd2]

Assume you cleaned it with a Zeiss wipe?

TOTAL SPECULATION:

Never heard of it but maybe there’s a protective plastic on yours? Mine didn’t have any but maybe yours does?

[ptodd]

Click on the “Unknown” at the top of the left column … Select your material. That will take care of the focus.

[cynd11]

I think someone else had this issue and it turned out to be a loose lid camera lens. It would probably be best to wait for Support unless that person speaks up. I don’t think it turned out to be a major issue.

[glowforge9]

Looks like this , about 5mm gap between black oval camera housing and similar glowforge branded stripe on lid

[randy.cohen]

So if you push on the camera gently, does it move?

[glowforge9]

Yes the black plastic camera housing unit thats about 5 inches long moves. It’s stuck on the near side, but not on the far, right hand side where it has a little tack if contacted with glass.

[cynd11]

They will probably want to see a closeup photo of the part, so you might as well upload one here to save time.

[glowforge9]

I edited a couple of close ups in the OP

[glowforge9]

Edited OP but just to be clear, seem to have fixed it:

Is this the camera quality others are printing fine with?

[glowforge9]

Forged!

[cynd11]

Yay! Yes, that looks typical now. Looks like you are in business!

[glowforge9]

Thanks everyone for your help and feedback! Feels good to be part of the club

[palmercr]

@glowforge9

Is this the camera quality others are printing fine with?

It looks to me like it still isn’t flat against the lid because, unless your PG is tapered, that is a very distorted view. A rectangle should look rectangular otherwise placement with the camera can not be at all accurate.

[Tom_A]

Something’s still wrong. Either the camera is out of place, or perhaps your crumb tray isn’t seated properly? That image shows the right is higher than the left by some means.

[glowforge9]

Right so camera looks as flush and as neat as i can discern by eye. The lid however, does not:
Left front gap between lid and body:

Right front gap between lid and body:

Careful examination shows a light gouge of the metal brace at the rear of the lid accompanied by a dint, its so shiny I’m showing it here via the reflected ruler:

Lid looks like its had a real hard knock… internally; perhaps cause of loose camera and bad lid seal. The gap at the back right lid to body seal is 3 or 4mm, suggesting the lid is actually rather bent. When closed lid also sits proud of body by about 1mm.

[jbmanning5]

Out of focus would be a camera that was either: twisted at some point, or, never in focus from the factory. They run calibration tests on each and every unit so I have to suspect that an extremely blurry camera would have to have occurred after that calibration.

The camera is fixed focus (focus is set by a rotation, I believe, which I’m not recommending you do, since it’s supposed to be glued in place), and a very, very short focal length. The very short focal length gives it a nearly infinite depth of field, when focus is calibrated properly. So a lid that was askew in some manner shouldn’t cause blurriness like that.

[glowforge9]

Going to close this and start a new thread on this as OP rather dense now and issue has moved on.

[vee]

I’m so sorry to hear about this. Unfortunately, we can’t resolve this issue remotely. I want you to have a reliable unit, so I’m recommending we replace this one. I’ll send an email shortly to arrange a replacement.