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Any way to capture raw on telephoto lens?

Hi guys!
I was just wondering if anyone has had the chance to mess around with the Telephoto lens/algorithm to get more options or to be able to use it in Pro mode?
Or does Samsung have it locked down pretty tight? The reason I ask is that I find it odd that Samsung doesn't utilize the telephoto lens in Pro mode even scenes with more than enough light.
I was also reading an article on how the iPhone 7/8 Plus does a similar thing to what Samsung does where in lower light they use the main lens and digitally crop it but 3rd party camera apps have the ability to select between the two lenses.
Come on Samsung, open up your camera API!

Note 8 telephoto lent raw
I have the same problem... Isn't possible show in raw with the telephoto lent in pro mode.. Is there a third party app that allow to' shoot in raw with THE telephoto lent?

Just felt this needed a bump!

yeah i have problems with it as well. bought a zhyun smooth 4 gimbal for video because it has a zoom wheel and samsung wont let the zhyun camera app or filmic pro to use the tele lens, or 4k. so annoying.
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optical zoom limitation

Hi all, by night and in low light the camera app disable zoom lens and uses numeric zoom only when pressing 3x button. Is there any way to force optical zoom even in low light

No, because the aperture is too narrow for low light on the zoom lens.
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orangecroc said:
No, because the aperture is too narrow for low light on the zoom lens.
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In that case, no body had thinked about a way to force optical zoom, because it is a software which decide to switch between lenses

ketman5001 said:
In that case, no body had thinked about a way to force optical zoom, because it is a software which decide to switch between lenses
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In low light, it would be a horrible mess. And when it's closer than it's minimum focussing distance there is no point as it can't focus. So the software prevents its use to give a more consistent quality to the results from the camera because most people just point and shoot.
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Does samsung and apple have the same limitation with their optical zoom lenses

They will have shorter minimum focus distances because of the shorter focal length on a 2x lens, but they will have similar issues with aperture in low light.
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ketman5001 said:
Does samsung and apple have the same limitation with their optical zoom lenses
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Yes, both the S9 plus and the Note 8 use digital zoom in anything but optimal light, and I am pretty sure I read that the iphone does the same.
The only plus to the P20 Pro doing it is the digital zoom is from a 40MP sensor which is the biggest on a smartphone so you get comparable quality to a zoom lens.

Jonathan-H said:
Yes, both the S9 plus and the Note 8 use digital zoom in anything but optimal light, and I am pretty sure I read that the iphone does the same.
The only plus to the P20 Pro doing it is the digital zoom is from a 40MP sensor which is the biggest on a smartphone so you get comparable quality to a zoom lens.
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How did you know that 40 mp is used when optical zoom is not available, because when using 40 mp mode, digital zooming will be unavailable

ketman5001 said:
How did you know that 40 mp is used when optical zoom is not available, because when using 40 mp mode, digital zooming will be unavailable
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Digital zoom is cropped 40mp
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It would be nice to use the zoom lens in low light while in pro mode... dont you think?

mathab said:
It would be nice to use the zoom lens in low light while in pro mode... dont you think?
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No because the noise reduction would destroy it.
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it would be great. if i want to use optical zoom in low light why not in pro mode/ some force button to use optical. if i can use tripod and low iso it's my choice which kind of lens i want to use.

siddagivers said:
it would be great. if i want to use optical zoom in low light why not in pro mode/ some force button to use optical. if i can use tripod and low iso it's my choice which kind of lens i want to use.
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Absolutely

Really two cameras ?!

Hello guys, I'm really disappointed and I need your explanations please !
I bought my Galaxy Note 9 (960F variant) from an official Samsung store so I'm sure I'm having a genuine one
As you know, there are two cameras in the rear. I thought that the main one is in the middle, and the 2X optical zoom powered is the one at the left.
Well, yesterday I was playing with my phone, and I masked the camera on the left with a paper. So I thought that I can take pictures in normal mode with the camera on the middle, but the 2X option should give me a blank picture only because of the mask. But no ! Both modes (1x and 2x) are using the same middle camera !
It's normal ?! So what is the purpose of the left sided camera ? Is the 2X really an optical zoom or just a software one ?!
Please do the test and answer me !

Maybe this explains is it
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-note-9-camera

My side camera works only on live focus. Everything else I tested works on the center only. I have a snapdragon, the same setup as my wife's Note 8 too. It's the way they are designed.

kaalalto said:
Hello guys, I'm really disappointed and I need your explanations please !
I bought my Galaxy Note 9 (960F variant) from an official Samsung store so I'm sure I'm having a genuine one
As you know, there are two cameras in the rear. I thought that the main one is in the middle, and the 2X optical zoom powered is the one at the left.
Well, yesterday I was playing with my phone, and I masked the camera on the left with a paper. So I thought that I can take pictures in normal mode with the camera on the middle, but the 2X option should give me a blank picture only because of the mask. But no ! Both modes (1x and 2x) are using the same middle camera !
It's normal ?! So what is the purpose of the left sided camera ? Is the 2X really an optical zoom or just a software one ?!
Please do the test and answer me !
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Click to collapse
It's the same thing with the Note8. It all depends on the lighting and if anything blocking the other camera. It works by design. So when you hit 2x it seems it's blocked and gives you 2x digital zoom instead.

So it's truly an optical zoom ? I ask because if it's "just" a software one, I won't never use it to preserve picture quality !

kaalalto said:
So it's truly an optical zoom ? I ask because if it's "just" a software one, I won't never use it to preserve picture quality !
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yep, AFAIK, it is true optical zoom. The camera just changes back to main camera if something is blocking the secondary one.

Um I try to not cover it ,but it still using the main one

JalenHo said:
Um I try to not cover it ,but it still using the main one
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Same here !
I hope I didn't started a "cameragate" scandal !
There are no official specifications from Samsung explaining the purpose of each camera ?!

It depends on the lighting
Try and go outside, on a sunny and bright day, point at the clouds or something, and zoom
Then cover the center camera, it should be using the 2x lens (can confirm with my SM-N960F)

kaalalto said:
Same here !
I hope I didn't started a "cameragate" scandal !
There are no official specifications from Samsung explaining the purpose of each camera ?!
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You didn't, it's working properly. You are just confused. Cover the middle one and see. Take multiple pics @ 1x and then at @ 2x on both cameras with and without covering. Covering the camera just out it into a different mode so as to not take bad pics by default. The difference is clear of you understand the 2 technologies and have any eye for photography. It's working completely correctly and very nicely.

Yeah like the others stated, it's not supposed to work completely independently and take pictures even with no light to the sensor, it's supposed to be smarter than that, if it's working correctly.
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Hey all, I worked this out.
In a low light situation the wide camera is used for the 2X zoom (So technically Digital zoom)
In a situation with more light, it switches to the dedicated 2X camera.
You can test this by putting your finger over the camera and showing it a bight light, then dark. I'm guessing this is because the main (Wide) camera is better at low light.

willhemmens said:
Hey all, I worked this out.
In a low light situation the wide camera is used for the 2X zoom (So technically optical zoom)
In a situation with more light, it switches to the dedicated 2X camera.
You can test this by putting your finger over the camera and showing it a bight light, then dark. I'm guessing this is because the main (Wide) camera is better at low light.
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Yes, although you mean digital zoom for low light situations.
My issue is that sometimes the camera still decides to use digital zoom in good lighting instead of the second camera because it decides that a slightly overcast day or sunset is "low light" or the subject is too close. I'm guessing the second camera can't focus as closely and its optics aren't quite as good as the main camera. In more inconsistent conditions I can sometimes see the viewfinder image jump between the two lenses and usually settle for the digital zoom. Doesn't seem to be used at all in Pro Mode. (I also wish Pro Mode had burst capture)
If you look at the EXIF data you can see which lens is used for your photo. The wide lens is 4.3mm and the telephoto lens is 6mm. The mushroom images were taken 20 seconds apart with "2X" in Auto mode; in the second shot the camera decided to use the wide lens with crop, and the EXIF shows 4.3mm compared to the first image. The crop version just looks like an upscale and has more aggressive nose reduction and edge enhancement; it's not too bad compared to some phone cameras which add too much sharpening or use a simpler interpolation filter. The third image of the grasshopper/locust was in very bright daylight, but the camera decided to use the main camera with 2X crop.
https://imgur.com/a/MYpRogb
With video it tends to be even more obvious which camera is used because if you take 4K in low light with 2X enabled it looks more noise-reduced and interpolated.

I get that Samsung tried to make its camera app "smart" but the 2x button implies that it's using the 2x lens and doing otherwise is deceiving.
If I knew that a zoomed photo would use digital zoom then I'd rather take the full shot and crop later so that I can have more flexibility in framing.
While this is unlikely to ever happen, here's how I feel this should be fixed:
1) Add an option to force switch cameras in all conditions (perhaps in pro mode only?)
2) Hide the 2x button unless the telephoto camera will actually be used. Still allow pinch to digital zoom.
I've looked around but couldn't find any 3rd party camera apps which are able to use the zoom lens. Does anyone know of one?

I've tried a few shot it seems if the lighting isn't good enough it will stick with the primary camera., in good lighting it does work though.
Just do two shots with each and compare the level of detail, it should be obvious.

Is the secondary front facing camera real?

So the phone has 2 front facing cameras. The 24 megapixel camera is working fine. But is the 2 megapixel one working for you? I tried covering the camera and there is no difference in portrait blur. It looks like it's just some software blur instead of a real one.

The secound one i used for the bokeh effect.

I know. I have enabled bokeh and covered the second camera but the background is still blurred. Also it does a really bad job identifying what's in the background and what's in the front.

Try with covered lens on Aperture mode. You will see the difference.
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There is no aperture mode for the front facing camera.

ShareACoke said:
There is no aperture mode for the front facing camera.
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My bad. Didn't read "front camera"... Yep on front one no difference if you cover the second sensor.
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Thanks for your answer. Do you know any way to check whether it is real or not?

That's very interesting.. i tried every mode, that i could, but as i can see, i don't really know, how to test it out :/

I just got a Mate 20 Lite. Funny if it is a fake camera.

Both secondary "cameras" are "depth sensors".

Anybody with Pie who got the depth sensor working?

Second cameras are working but they are working in conjunction with software. Software utilizes the additional information that is collected from the depth cameras but it does not solely rely on that information. And if you cover it you may not be able to see any difference because thanks to machine learning the software is really good at identifying subjects from the background. There is never a real bokeh on these smartphones because of the tiny lenses and sensors that are being used in them. So you are always in need of some software trickery to achieve good blurr. Another option is to get really close to your subjects but in many cases that is not useful.

Both the secondary cameras, front or rear, are real. But they are only used to the boken effect most of the time.
They are used to capture the depth of a cenary, imrpoving the effect in the final version.
You probably wont notice a difference if cover the secondary sensor, but in some cases can have impact.
Most of the work isn't done by that sensor, but by the câmera software, thats why you don't see any real difference in the images.
That secondary câmera can also be used to improve the quality of some photos, for instance, in the night.
So, is a real câmera? Yes, it is.
But like in any other dual câmera smartphone, is used for some situations, not all the time.

This is why Samsung won´t let us use the telephoto camera freely

I guess everybody noticed already that you cannot use the telephoto lens whenever you please, since it's only used on good lighting situations, and cannot be used in pro mode. The reason why must be because this camera is terrible at low light, likely because of the 0.9 nm pixel pits on the sensor. I will attach a photo taken with the telephoto lens, and a cropped one of the same scene taken with the main camera, so you can see my point.

Cambapo said:
I guess everybody noticed already that you cannot use the telephoto lens whenever you please, since it's only used on good lighting situations, and cannot be used in pro mode. The reason why must be because this camera is terrible at low light, likely because of the 0.9 nm pixel pits on the sensor. I will attach a photo taken with the telephoto lens, and a cropped one of the same scene taken with the main camera, so you can see my point.
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dont understand.
plus the pictures aren't even taken at the same time so not sure what you are trying to show.

They were taken under the same lightning conditions. I was trying to show how the telephoto camera compares to the main one at night, since it's something that the phone won't let you do easily.

Cambapo said:
They were taken under the same lightning conditions. I was trying to show how the telephoto camera compares to the main one at night, since it's something that the phone won't let you do easily.
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oh ok.
i wonder why the number of lights in the building is not the same. and the star in the sky should have still been visible id think.

They were taken 15 minutes apart.