I'm having same issue on my s7 front camera. Purchased a few months back. How did you reset your camera settings?
Surface Pro 7 - Front Camera Video Flickers Blue
So my SP7 is a few months old and the entire time I've been plagued with headaches when I video conference. I'm a teacher and I teach online and in person all day. I just realized that it's from my video flickering blue constantly. It's like the white balance is constantly adjusting (so everything is tinted a cool blue), flickering between normal video and blue tinted nonstop.
ONLY the front facing camera (facing me!) flickers. I've recorded the video to my computer as well and can see the blue flickering so it's not a screen issue.
Here's what I've done to try to fix this:
- I've checked to see if it's an issue with software (Google Meet, Skype, Zoom). It does the flickering in all of them, including the Camera App.
- I've reset the camera app. This didn't help.
-I've uninstalled the device from device manager, reinstalled and tried both versions of the driver (the installation version and the newest update). It still flickers.
- I've run Surface Diagnostic Tool. It did not help.
- I have adjusted the "pro settings" of the Camera App and changed the White Balance to Daylight mode; This removed the flashing blue for that mode, but I can't carry on those settings into other apps. Auto White Balance flashes, so does Fluorescent. So It might be a driver issue with white balance... maybe?
What I have not done yet:
I have not done a system restore or fresh start...
I'm having a bad feeling this is hardware issues, not software. What are my next steps?
Thanks for your help.
Surface | Surface Pro | Sound and camera
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12 answers
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Anonymous
2021-03-27T10:01:13+00:00 -
Anonymous
2021-03-28T14:54:41+00:00 You don't. All you can do is avoid the specific lighting situation you're in and manually control white balance. It's the camera trying to adjust how bright and warm/cool the lighting is automatically.
I downloaded a 99 cent app on the Microsoft store so I could quickly adjust my camera settings. They are not available through the "camera" app. You can also adjust them using the video settings in Skype. Every time you restart the camera or your computer, these settings return to their default auto white balance.
It's a huge pain in the **** and I'm not happy at all, because this is a design defect. My surface pro 3 has none of these issues. Clearly Microsoft doesn't care and figures most people won't notice or be in environments with the lighting that triggers this to happen.
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Anonymous
2021-04-16T19:03:30+00:00 Bought also a Surface Pro 7 next to my existing Surface Pro 3. The Pro 3 has an excellent frontcamera. But with the Pro 7 I have the same problem you describe. Very annoying special in Zoom meetings. Tried several solutions offered on internet but nothing seems to work permanently.
Rudolf -
Anonymous
2021-04-23T09:10:31+00:00 Also experiencing the auto white balance flickering issue on a brand new Surface Pro 7. Ran all diagnostics, driver updates, etc. to no avail. Really frustrating that Microsoft haven't just added a setting to Windows to allow you to disable the automatic white balance.
My current workaround:
- Follow the advice here https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/access-advanced-settings-for-the-integrated-webcam-on-windows-10/ on how to use FFMPEG (free) to access the webcam's advanced settings (on my device the name of the camera is "Surface Camera Front")
- Use a text editor to create a Windows batch file to launch the settings utility more conveniently. My file is named 'LaunchWebCamSettings.bat' and contains the following two lines (you would need to change the path to ffmpeg if you installed it somewhere else):
cd C:\Program Files\ffmpeg-2021-04-18-git-d43b26b30d-full_build\bin
ffmpeg -f dshow -show_video_device_dialog true -i video="Surface Camera Front"
- Create another text file, this one a Visual Basic script file, to launch the settings utility without also having a separate command window open automatically at the same time. My file is named 'LaunchWebCamSettings.vbs' and contains the following two lines (you would need to replace [MY_WINDOWS_USERNAME] with your own username):
'LaunchWebCamSettings.vbs
CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "C:\users[MY_WINDOWS_USERNAME]\Documents\LaunchWebCamSettings.bat", 0, True
- Place a shortcut to LaunchWebCamSettings.vbs on the Windows desktop for easy access
- Before or during a video call, run LaunchWebCamSettings.vbs (by double clicking on the desktop shortcut), switch to the 'Video Proc Amp' tab, untick the 'Auto' box next to White Balance, and move the White Balance slider to around 4,000 (adjust according to taste)
- Don't click 'OK', otherwise the settings utility will close and auto white balance will soon turn itself back on again (thanks Microsoft...). Instead, just keep the settings utility open and drag it out of the way to somewhere unobtrusive. As long as you keep it open, the setting should stick and you can enjoy your video call safe in the knowledge that you won't be driving yourself or others crazy with a video that constantly flickers white/blue.
- You will probably find that you have to re-run the settings utility before each call, or at least after a restart of Windows.
This is not an ideal solution, but it's the best I've found so far. Hope it might help others affected by this issue.
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Anonymous
2021-06-14T06:57:38+00:00 I did found a simplier solution here:
Change white balance for built-in webcam - Microsoft CommunityRegards, Rudolf