Camera Focus Issue, all modes

[walterfindley]

Please tell us some basic information before asking for help:
Model Name: Zenfone 9
Firmware Version: 33.0804.2060.65
Rooted or not: No
Frequency of Occurrence: Constant
APP Name & APP Version (If your issue relates to the app): all camera apps
In addition to information above, please also provide as much details as you can, e.g., using scenario, what troubleshooting you've already done, screenshot, etc.
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The rear cameras (possibly only main, ultrawide seems less affected) seems to have a focus range of about 3 in to a few feet, anything longer ranged than that and it will become blurrier and blurrier. Front facing camera is not affected.

Attempted restarting phone and resetting camera app, no change. I updated from firmware 32.2040.2040.23 to 33.0804.2060.65 in an attempt to solve this issue, but it persists.
This is a constant across all apps that use the camera, making this extremely annoying- the oversharpening could be solved with gcam, but this is unusable. My old Zenfone 6 is a better platform at this point.

[gyannogueira]

Same here, created a thread a couple of days ago with same issue.

[carterza]

I have issues with my standard lens. The wide-angle lens is fine. Seems to be a pretty widespread issue with the Zenfone 9. What's the deal here ? @CH_ASUS - sorry to ping you specifically, but as an admin I figured you might be able to steer us towards who we can bring up this issue with.

I'm in Texas and the nearest repair facility is in GA so I can't just go drop my phone off with them. Is there somewhere we can contact to have our phones repaired?

[trailofsevens]

I've been considering buying this phone but seeing a lack of response from ASUS (this thread was created 10th Dec!) to these posts is quite alarming. I get that they may be working on fixing this (and tweaking the over-sharpening and poor/over-processing) behind the scenes, but it'd be great to see a proper response like: "We're aware of it and working on it!" or "Sorry that's a hardware issue that needs a repair" rather than silence - so users at least know where they stand.
I came to check the forum hoping it'd give me the confidence to buy it.. but no response from ASUS on major issues and many threads here isn't really giving me that confidence. As of now, I have no clue if this will be fixed, or if it's a ticking time bomb hardware issue that will plague all ZF9's? It's a shame since I'm a fan of ASUS and the phone ticks every other box, it's reviewing well in all areas other than camera issues, which is often the caveat in most reviews.
In regards to this issue, it looks like it can't do infinity focus. Have you always had this issue, or did an update actually make your focusing worse in this case? Or did it gradually develop over time which may indicate hardware failure?

[walterfindley]

Did an RMA and that fixed it, aside from that no solutions. Tried updating, rolling back, factory reset, using non-factory camera apps (gcam), nothing worked. As far as I can tell it was a hardware issue, which definitely isn't a great sign- my Zenfone 6 still works fine, and that thing has had a chunk missing out of the top of the flip module for over a year at this point.

[Quo]

@trailofsevens: Full ack!
I'd seriously considered buying the ZF9 due to its size and specs, but as long as this issue and the random restart problem isn't solved I will refrain from buying.
Obviously a considerable amount of users has at least annoying problems with the ZF9 so it's really a shame that there is no official statement from ASUS in this regard.