Hi everyone, I’m having an issue with my Arducam 4K 8MP IMX219 Autofocus USB Camera Module (model B029201). The microphone has this really loud brushing/static noise constantly — it’s there even when I completely cover the camera. The video is fine but the audio is unusable. Anyone seen this before?
That sounds frustrating. Let’s try the basics first — have you tried re-flashing the firmware on the camera? There’s a firmware update tool that can sometimes resolve audio-related issues like this. I’d recommend giving that a shot before we dig deeper.
Okay, I gave the firmware re-flash a try. Ran the program, it reported success, then I unplugged and replugged the USB camera. Static noise is still there, no change at all. So I closed the firmware tool, relaunched it, and did the whole burn process a second time just to be sure. Again it said success, but after re-plugging the camera the noise is exactly the same. Doesn’t seem like firmware is going to fix this one.
Thanks for trying that — and for doing it twice to rule out a bad flash. Given that the firmware update didn’t resolve it, this might be a hardware-level issue with the microphone on that unit. I’ve sent you details via private message about next steps for a replacement. Let’s get you a working unit.
Received the replacement B029201. Good news: the microphone is working fine now, no static at all. Bad news: the autofocus on this new camera is way worse than my original one. It’s slower to focus, and the worst part is that after it locks focus, if I move even slightly it resets to a completely unfocused state and struggles to recover. The old camera’s autofocus was snappy and accurate by comparison. I’m testing in both the Windows Camera app and AMCap — same behavior in both.
That’s an interesting trade-off. Let’s work through the autofocus issue on the new unit. Can you share a bit more about your environment? What OS version are you running, and are you using any specific settings in AMCap? Also, have you tried anything on the new camera to address the AF behavior yet?
Running Windows. I’m using the standard Windows Camera app and AMCap. I already tried re-flashing the firmware on the new camera, thinking maybe it shipped with older firmware — didn’t help, autofocus is still sluggish. I’ve also poked around in AMCap’s camera settings trying to adjust anything autofocus-related, but nothing I changed made a difference to the speed or accuracy. The AF just keeps drifting back to blurry.
Alright, let’s do a visual check first. Could you post two clear, well-lit photos of the new replacement camera — one from the top and one from the back? I want to make sure everything looks correct hardware-wise before we go further. Sometimes subtle assembly differences can affect the lens mechanism.
Just following up — any update on the autofocus investigation? It’s been a little while and I’m still dealing with the focus hunting on this replacement unit.
Appreciate your patience. We’ve been actively testing autofocus internally using the exact same setup you described — Windows Camera app and AMCap. So far, we haven’t been able to reproduce the slow AF performance or the resetting/unfocusing behavior you’re seeing. That tells me the issue is likely triggered by something specific in your environment that we haven’t matched yet in our tests. We’re not dismissing the problem — it’s real, just elusive. Could you record a short side-by-side comparison video? Show the old camera focusing quickly versus the new one struggling. That would give our engineering team something concrete to analyze.
Will do — I’ve been a bit swamped lately but I’ll get that comparison video to you soon. Just didn’t want you to think I’d disappeared on this.
Here’s the comparison. I’ve uploaded a zip with two videos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pX0mpcDZBvep4_DmQorBmZfn6z0vvKl_/view?usp=drivesdk
Video 1 is the old camera (the one with the microphone problem but good autofocus) and Video 2 is the new replacement (autofocus problem, but microphone is fine). The difference is pretty stark — the old camera refocuses quite fast when I move things around. The new one barely even tries to autofocus most of the time. When it does attempt it, it fails and ends up looking blurry and out of focus. It’s like it gives up halfway through the focus cycle.
Any update after reviewing those videos? Still hoping to get this sorted out.
Thanks for the videos — we’ll be reviewing them today and getting them over to the engineering team for analysis. The side-by-side comparison is exactly what we needed to see what’s going on. I really appreciate you sticking with us through this extended investigation. The autofocus issue is still under active review and I’ll update you here as soon as we have findings from the video analysis. Hang tight.