Database Develop

Is the telephoto lens only for the live focus mode?

I noticed when taking regular shots it seems like the 2x button only does a digital zoom not does not actually use the telephoto lens, is this how its supposed to work ?

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3677214
It's for live focus, and 2x zoom + digital zoom. Depending on quality of lighting, either telephoto or wide angle lens will be used.
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zoomlens really working??

Hi volks and p20 pro experts,
i wonder if my 3xtelelens really works or not.
If I zoom 3x and block the 40mp lens with my fingers and let the tele lens free, I see nothing.
Also I see no noticeable better shots when shooting 5x zoom with blocking the telelens or blocking not.
Do anyone know if this is normal behavior, or is this a brocken telelens.
I am on CLT-L29 8.1.0.131(C432)
Thank you all

littlemincer said:
Hi volks and p20 pro experts,
i wonder if my 3xtelelens really works or not.
If I zoom 3x and block the 40mp lens with my fingers and let the tele lens free, I see nothing.
Also I see no noticeable better shots when shooting 5x zoom with blocking the telelens or blocking not.
Do anyone know if this is normal behavior, or is this a brocken telelens.
I am on CLT-L29 8.1.0.131(C432)
Thank you all
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Depends on the conditions. Blocking lenses won't help because it will be using sensor data from all the lenses to get the best shot. You may just be blocking the lens that is showing you the preview on the phone screen.

Mine works and if I block the tele lens I see nothing, but bear in mind that you have to focus at something far for it to work or else it uses the digital zoom with main sensor. You can note that the tele works but seeing the ois starting to work in your display. I usually takes one two seconds to switch lens
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You can check the EXIF data from your shots to see which lens was actually used (the small i-Button in the top left, when you're viewing a picture in the gallery). If it states f1.8, it was the "normal" lens, if you see f2.4, it's the tele lens. Note that closeups will always be taken with the normal lens. If you want to shoot a close up with the tele lens, you need to be farther away, like at least one meter.

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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Click to collapse
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.

Telephoto Lens Is Not 3x Zoom

https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/brxs28/oneplus_7_pros_telephoto_camera_is_not_3x/
Marketing nonsense from OP then?
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Batfink33 said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/brxs28/oneplus_7_pros_telephoto_camera_is_not_3x/
Marketing nonsense from OP then?
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Maybe I'm misreading something but mine is going up to 10x zoom.

bp328i said:
Maybe I'm misreading something but mine is going up to 10x zoom.
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The optical zoom.
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Batfink33 said:
The optical zoom.
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Gotcha, I just tried again with the bottom camera covered and the zoom works right up to 3x, anything over 3x and it goes black.

I have the same problem, no optical zoom, but the main camera do a digital zoom.
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Here is a demo of the cam problem at 1:23 min
https://youtu.be/UHCS4iKEmYc

Mulitple things going on here. First off the camera switches between the normal camera cropped for 3x to the tele camera depending on the lighting condtions. You can test this yourself using different lighting conditions and your finger in front of the various lenses. Second, in order for the lenses to be 3x optical, the tele has to magnify 3x closer than another lens. All the reviews cry foul because the tele lens is about 2.2x optically stronger than the normal lens. It is however about 2.9x stronger than the wide angle lens.
So, everyone is arguing about what the optical zoom range is. My result is from my actual personal result testing output images from the cameras. In looking at this, I ignored cropping and varying MP of each camera. I believe the total zoom range of the system to be 3x.

This was out 3 days ago. They've already got responses from OnePlus. It's a 2.2x optical zoom. It's in the post processing that they crop the image to make it 3x. It is 3x lossless zoom actually. So it's just as sharp and no degradation of quality.
To me, the image quality is the same so it really doesn't matter much how they get it to 3x as long as it's lossless it's all good

Eric214 said:
So it's just as sharp and no degradation of quality.
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This made me smile as the photo quality is really extremely sub par, without using GCam that is,
Unless one is into water paintings, in that case this phone is a must have.

Pfeffernuss said:
This made me smile as the photo quality is really extremely sub par, without using GCam that is,
Unless one is into water paintings, in that case this phone is a must have.
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I never said it was tack sharp I just said the 3x tele is lossless from the crop. I know the 3x lens needs much improved post processing

Eric214 said:
This was out 3 days ago. They've already got responses from OnePlus. It's a 2.2x optical zoom. It's in the post processing that they crop the image to make it 3x. It is 3x lossless zoom actually. So it's just as sharp and no degradation of quality.
To me, the image quality is the same so it really doesn't matter much how they get it to 3x as long as it's lossless it's all good
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It is a bad design if 2.2x-2.9x zoom is digital crop

harysviewty said:
It is a bad design if 2.2x-2.9x zoom is digital crop
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Never said it wasn't. I said the crop is lossless . Lossless means from the 2.2x-3x not that is the same as a 3x optical

Eric214 said:
Never said it wasn't. I said the crop is lossless . Lossless means from the 2.2x-3x not that is the same as a 3x optical
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2.2-2.9x is not lossless if it uses digital zoom of primary lens. Even if the primary lens use the full resolution

harysviewty said:
2.2-2.9x is not lossless if it uses digital zoom of primary lens. Even if the primary lens use the full resolution
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You can but I don't have time or the energy to explain it to you.

The whole measure of "x times" zoom is marketing nonsense to begin with. All this means, is a ratio of that particular lens' longest focal length to its shortest focal length. It doesn't really mean much. For instance, my 70-200mm DSLR lens "only" has a 2.8x zoom. Yet the "reach" of this lens is so much greater than any smartphone, that it is comical to even compare the zoom this way!
This "spec" is only useful for folks that compare and buy things based on those specs (or companies to market to such people), instead of real world experiences. The phone takes some nice pictures, and happens to zoom and do some other useful things. That's all I really care about.

The zoom focal length is also not of much use without knowing the film or sensor size. It used to be that cameras all shot 35mm film and the focal range meant something. Today a 70mm lens is quite worthless shooting indoors compared to the wide angle on even the 7pro.

larsdennert said:
The zoom focal length is also not of much use without knowing the film or sensor size. It used to be that cameras all shot 35mm film and the focal range meant something.
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A full frame DSLR sensor measures 35mm. The focal lengths for full frame DSLR (and full frame mirrorless cameras) lenses still mean the same as they always have. Even on smaller sensors for "real cameras" the focal length is still meaningful, if you take crop factor into account.
The tiny sensors (around 4mm) on smartphones are a different animal. The focal length on these smartphone lenses are around 1-4mm. They often speak of "35mm equivalent" focal lengths when looking at camera specs. But it's a bit ridiculous. The fisheye affect is so drastic at such a focal length, that there really is no "35mm equivalent" not matter how small the sensor.
larsdennert said:
Today a 70mm lens is quite worthless shooting indoors compared to the wide angle on even the 7pro.
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That completely depends on your subject matter. I usually photograph people (face shots). The 70-200mm lens rarely leaves my camera, indoors or out. Many portrait photographers will tell you the same. 50-85mm is the minimum focal length considered acceptable for portraiture (not making a person's nose look huge, for example) by many photographers. Obviously, that range is too long a focal length for things like group shots, whole rooms (like you example) etc. But that is what interchangeable lenses are for.

Yep and since you can often swap full frame lenses into micro formats there is really no assumption that can be made other than the overall range of a lens.
It's ironic that selfie cameras are probably the worst equipped to shoot people. Smart of OnePlus to use the back tele lens for portrait. In effect the 7pro has interchangeable back lenses. Still not what my dslr or high end compact cameras deliver but impressive none the less.

16mp tele saving photos at a reduced 12.2mp

Has anyone else noticed when shooting with the telephoto lens at 2x the pixel 4 (I have the XL) is savings photos at a reduced 12.2mp? The sensor is supposed to be 16mp. Why are the images being saved at reduced quality? I've climbed through the settings to include developers' options with no way to save at full 16mp resolution. Am I missing something here?

stoneworrior said:
Has anyone else noticed when shooting with the telephoto lens at 2x the pixel 4 (I have the XL) is savings photos at a reduced 12.2mp? The sensor is supposed to be 16mp. Why are the images being saved at reduced quality? I've climbed through the settings to include developers' options with no way to save at full 16mp resolution. Am I missing something here?
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It is 16mp. But it's just using that sensor for the zoom amongst other things. But the image will still be 12.2mp. Kinda like Huawei's 40mp sensor giving you 10mp images. It's not a reduced quality, the images are still beautiful and we'll printable if that's your thing.

stoneworrior said:
Has anyone else noticed when shooting with the telephoto lens at 2x the pixel 4 (I have the XL) is savings photos at a reduced 12.2mp? The sensor is supposed to be 16mp. Why are the images being saved at reduced quality? I've climbed through the settings to include developers' options with no way to save at full 16mp resolution. Am I missing something here?
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It only uses the centre 12MP of the sensor by design. When you digitally zoom in that is what happens on all sensors - you only use a small part of the whole sensor.

m+a+r+k said:
It only uses the center 12MP of the sensor by design. When you digitally zoom in, that is what happens on all sensors - you only use a small part of the whole sensor.
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I've been a photographer since the 80's learning on film and progressing to digital. I've owned the Canon 5D versions 1,2,3, and 4. The 1DX mark 1 and 2 and currently shoot with a Sony a9 and A7RIII. I understand crop fully; that's why I was asking if it's a 16mp sensor, and they are saving it at 12.2, then something is going on in the background. I was doing Google searches without getting any info on this. I was trying to figure out what Google was doing in the background. So basically, what your saying is the telephoto lens was going to crop in on a 12.2 mp sensor, so they went with a higher density 16mp sensor to ensure a quality photo in the end. Basically keep both the standard and telephoto quality uniformed, got it thanks ?