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[http://www.lyle.org/mars/bysol/2-049.html]More useless microphotos

Why is the the microphoto camera used by Spirit and Opportunity such a useless piece of junk?

Far too many of the images it produces are out of focus and thus useless. When stuff is in focus it would seem to be more by luck than judgement

One would have thought that with a budget of $400 million per lander NASA could have afforded a reliable camera. I have a ?300 digital camera made by Canon that can do better than that in macro mode. I've seen some cameras that can focus right down to the dust on the front lens element, so what's the problem?

Autofocusing systems which scan back and forth across the full mechanical focus range electronically hunting for the image of maximum contrast work just fine. What is Spirit and Opportunitys camera using? Whoever designed it should be fired. Next time NASA  should contract out the cameras to a company such as Canon, Nikon or Pentax which knows what it's doing. Such poor performance would never be accepted in the domestic market.

Yours in frustration, and somewhat fed up of looking at grey fuzz. What a waste of time.