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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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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.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
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.
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.
Sent from my SNE-LX1 using Tapatalk
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.
Sent from my SNE-LX1 using Tapatalk
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.
Can someone comment on camera performance, specifically indoor shots with pets. How well does it pick up fur? I've just got the S21 and I'm sending it back because the camera software is pretty bad. Wondering if it's the same story with the Ultra or not?
I think it works really with, here`s my cat
It depends if they are moving or not plus what settings you have on. I'm happy coming from a S20+.
2003vstrom said:
I think it works really with, here`s my cat
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Thanks! This is the perfect example as to what I was looking for, even down to the colour of the cat! Unfortunately it confirms to me that while it is much better than the regular S21, its just not up to scratch.
Here's my cat (Pixel 4 vs S21). The Pixel does a much better job of not blurring the fur and retains a lot of the detail and more colour accuracy.
The main camera seems to be really good and sharp and has motion tracking to maintain focus on moving subjects. I dont have pets but don't think you should have a problem. However, I find the quality from the 10X zoom camera to be really bad. I dont know if it is just my unit or if others are experiencing these issues as well. The images are soft, lack detail and are over processed. See examples below. Not sure if this is due to low light or some other reason as its been quite cloudy in the UK these past few days. Let me know what you guys think. Can my unit be defective? Look at the processing on the robins tail in the 1st image its so grainy. Also the 3rd image lacks detail looks like the bird has been painted.
yeah I know my pics are lot better coming from the S20 ultra, with close up shots lol
eldrid said:
The main camera seems to be really good and sharp and has motion tracking to maintain focus on moving subjects. I dont have pets but don't think you should have a problem. However, I find the quality from the 10X zoom camera to be really bad. I dont know if it is just my unit or if others are experiencing these issues as well. The images are soft, lack detail and are over processed. See examples below. Not sure if this is due to low light or some other reason as its been quite cloudy in the UK these past few days. Let me know what you guys think. Can my unit be defective? Look at the processing on the robins tail in the 1st image its so grainy. Also the 3rd image lacks detail looks like the bird has been painted.
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yeah here is my moon pic at 30x zoomed that wasn't even on a tripod that was a steady hand, I know the pic looks way better on my phone then regular crappy computer screen. lol
2003vstrom said:
yeah here is my moon pic at 30x zoomed that wasn't even on a tripod that was a steady hand, I know the pic looks way better on my phone then regular crappy computer screen. lol
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Wow! that looks really good. Was that on your S20 Ultra? Or the s21 ultra.
eldrid said:
Wow! that looks really good. Was that on your S20 Ultra? Or the s21 ultra.
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on my s21 ultra, the s20 ultra I had the you could never get a nice image out of the zoom
I should get a new unit while I can then. I probably have a defective unit as my pictures from the 10x zoom camera are horrible.
Camera is no where near as good as touted. Which is a familiar story. Anything other than bright light the zooms are essentially pointless. Night mode helps, but unless your taking a pic of a still scene or a sleeping pet then it's going to look bad.
Funny thing is, you snap a pic and click the photo preview and it's snapped the shot instantly and is in focus, but then it's almost like the processor catches up and gives you the blurry pic. I don't get it.
3x zoom pic in good light attached. View attachment 5206487
Aneres11 said:
Camera is no where near as good as touted. Which is a familiar story. Anything other than bright light the zooms are essentially pointless. Night mode helps, but unless your taking a pic of a still scene or a sleeping pet then it's going to look bad.
Funny thing is, you snap a pic and click the photo preview and it's snapped the shot instantly and is in focus, but then it's almost like the processor catches up and gives you the blurry pic. I don't get it.
3x zoom pic in good light attached. View attachment 5206487
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This is what I feared and it's exactly the same as the regular S21. The hardware is capable enough, just the Samsung processing can be awful. You can see the difference when switching between gcam and the Samsung camera app. How have they managed to do such a bad job?
It's a shame because other than the camera I love everything else about the phone.
steslatt said:
This is what I feared and it's exactly the same as the regular S21. The hardware is capable enough, just the Samsung processing can be awful. You can see the difference when switching between gcam and the Samsung camera app. How have they managed to do such a bad job?
It's a shame because other than the camera I love everything else about the phone.
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Yeah. I have a 12 Pro currently and bought this thinking I could have similar still performance with the added benefits of the great zoom. But my P30 Pro from two years ago took better photos than this IMO.
Samsung do not know what to do with post processing. It's painful. And I'm sick of reviewers saying contrary. Every year it's the same thing. Cameras are bigged up, Samsung "finally get it right" and then normal users get them in hand and it's the same story.
I'll be returning to my 12 Pro.
Pets yes and no. I've only had the phone since Friday, so I have a lot more time shooting on my Pixel 4, but so far, I think the P4 was better for pets. Especially for those quick shots. Now I may get used to the ultra and learn to shoot with it better, because it does take some amazing shots, but for now, I'd give the Pixel the slight edge. It gave me more confidence anyways that I would get a good shot
So are the noisy over sharpened pics from the 10X zoom camera normal then? I am thinking of sending mine back. I got the phone only for the camera.
2003vstrom said:
yeah here is my moon pic at 30x zoomed that wasn't even on a tripod that was a steady hand, I know the pic looks way better on my phone then regular crappy computer screen. lol
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What camera settings are you using to achieve it. I've tried several times to take a moon shot and mine come out horrible... Maybe it's the bright lights of the city, don't really know.
mprunty said:
What camera settings are you using to achieve it. I've tried several times to take a moon shot and mine come out horrible... Maybe it's the bright lights of the city, don't really know.
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It was default mode and I just open the camera app and zoomed it to 30x and made sure I was very steady then took the pic, I didn`t mess with any settings and it could be the the city lights I was out were there is little light pollution.
Does anyone have any S21U portrait photos they can share with a comparison to either Pixel or iPhone 11/12 Pro Max?
I will be coming from a Pixel 5 and really hoping pet and portrait photos are of comparable quality.
Tmel14 said:
Does anyone have any S21U portrait photos they can share with a comparison to either Pixel or iPhone 11/12 Pro Max?
I will be coming from a Pixel 5 and really hoping pet and portrait photos are of comparable quality.
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Judging from what I've seen and the replies in here, pet pictures definitely won't be comparable. The processing is too soft and just makes the fur look too blurry.
I bought the second-hand s21 ultra a few days ago and the x100 zoom comes out quite blurry, even the x10 zoom looks good but after that it looks very blurry. Someone went through the same thing? the owner told me what happened after an update.
Come on, it's a digital zoom, it's not a real optical zoom. 100x looks garbage most of the time... so yes, it's quite blurry but it depends on what you mean by that. If you put down the phone and are in proper light and temperature conditions, you can get average picture. Otherwise, it's a mess most of the times.
100x is pretty good (as far as digital zoom goes) in auf6/auf9. Stabilization is much better then when the phone was just released.
Here are some 100X zoom pictures for you to compare with yours.
Quick Share
Expired
linksharing.samsungcloud.com
definitely something is wrong, there are times when the zoom works well but then it blurs as in the photo
MephoxSlam said:
definitely something is wrong, there are times when the zoom works well but then it blurs as in the photo
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It depends on the distance between the camera and the object. If the distance is short and for example a 60x zoom can do the shot, if you try to zoom to 100x in exactly the same circumstances the photo will look blury bc it does the job digitally and not optically. In your scenario there you should ve tried to use less zoom and see if the photo appears blurry
StefanMagu said:
It depends on the distance between the camera and the object. If the distance is short and for example a 60x zoom can do the shot, if you try to zoom to 100x in exactly the same circumstances the photo will look blury bc it does the job digitally and not optically. In your scenario there you should ve tried to use less zoom and see if the photo appears blurry
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I took it to Samsung to repair it and it was a zoom problem, they will replace the camera module
MephoxSlam said:
I took it to Samsung to repair it and it was a zoom problem, they will replace the camera module
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Ah lol
It seems like everything Samsung has been making recently is very likely to break after a limited amount of time using it.. So I'm just glad that you got it repaired while you still can and haven't been shafted out of another $600 (kinda like what Apple does to their iPhone customers lmao).
So expect something like this to happen again! For if it does, try getting it repaired by Samsung ASAP!
I'm so disappointed in the photos from the telephoto lenses of this camera. Even at 1x, there is so much noise in every photo, even in outdoors on a sunny day everything looks like an oil painting. Did they give me a faulty device because I got a student discount (costed $1360 AUD 256GB) is this a common issue? Pretty disappointed with the camera of this "flagship" phone...
The photos are 1x, 1x cropped, 10x and 19x zoom.
I'm not seeing an issue.
The last one looks like cam shake and/or a bad AF lock.
The thing is even when holding still taking photos the post processing always oversharpens it and makes it noisy
Tristan17 said:
The thing is even when holding still taking photos the post processing always oversharpens it and makes it noisy
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Digital zoom sucks but look at the size of the optics. It's no L70-200 f/2.8 IS telephoto!
Shooting RAW will get rid of that... or at least you can with post editing.
Samsung doesn't have good photo editing tools, that pisses me.
My stupid S4 had a better photo editor than my 10+ which has none. WTF?
Maybe I'm missing something... probably not
That's fair but I wish they didn't oversharpen every photo, it would look much better like gcam does a way better job
Tristan17 said:
That's fair but I wish they didn't oversharpen every photo, it would look much better like gcam does a way better job
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That cam should be better than my 10+.
The 10+ does an excellent job, but digital zoom is not one of them.
Close the distance. Know the limitations of the camera; see the world as it does and your photos will improve immensely.
Even with pro equipment this is true.
Look at the stunning photos grabbed over a century plus ago with very limited technology.
A good camera helps but in the end it's more about who's shooting.
True thanks
Relax and enjoy it...
Try wide angle on a brick house or a picket fence and see how it does. Two of my favorite test subjects after people.
Don't enable vivid in screen mode if that's an option as it blows out colors.
Yeah I've got my screen set to amoled photo and I have gotten some good photos already thanks for the feedback
Tristan17 said:
View attachment 5429491
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Nice to see another Orient here...
Wow nice man it's a great watch haha
Yall old timers!
P. S. Just kiddin, the older ones look superb!
I totally agree with the OP, the S21U camera is definitely not a 2021 flagship camera. 10x zoom softens the image like crazy (everything becomes hazy & lacks of contrast) and the noise in all cameras is too much, especially in low light conditions.
blackhawk said:
Digital zoom sucks but look at the size of the optics. It's no L70-200 f/2.8 IS telephoto!
Shooting RAW will get rid of that... or at least you can with post editing.
Samsung doesn't have good photo editing tools, that pisses me.
My stupid S4 had a better photo editor than my 10+ which has none. WTF?
Maybe I'm missing something... probably not
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I recommend you try Snapseed app (free, owned by Google), have look on YouTube for videos on Snapseed and you'll see how good it is at editing photos
Snapseed is indeed a great editor!
And all of you guys who are hating on the ZOOM cameras of the phone, ya'll just don't understand how lenses and cameras work in general, that's why the s21U cams annoy you. Especially in low light... It is absolutely normal and it is still better than anything else at this size and functionality.
The fact that you have this kinda photo power in a phone in 2021 is in it self amazing.
In general I think that S21 Ultra have most versatile camera setup in market (at least at the moment when I've ordered phone), but sometimes I've had that feeling that details are not the best e.g. when zooming some photos. I guess it's exynos thing, because details are better on snapdragon versions.
BTW I'm happy to see so many Orient owners.
I did a video comparing the S20u vs S21u cameras and it's VERY subjective. Some of the shots on the S20u are better, some on the S21u are better, but all in all, they both don't compare to an actual camera, yet still blow away any other phone by comparison.
The biggest downfall I see is when people bash on the zoom lens, saying it's grainy.. and it's like.. yeah.. can any other phone out there even come close to a focal range this thing has? It's still a further reach zoom than anything else regardless of quality which is only improving between the S20u and S21u when it comes to zoom.
Which you can see that the image processing on the zoom lens out of the box on the S21u is worse than the S20u, but the clarity at further reach on the s21u pulls ahead over the s20u
babyboy3265 said:
Snapseed is indeed a great editor!
And all of you guys who are hating on the ZOOM cameras of the phone, ya'll just don't understand how lenses and cameras work in general, that's why the s21U cams annoy you. Especially in low light... It is absolutely normal and it is still better than anything else at this size and functionality.
The fact that you have this kinda photo power in a phone in 2021 is in it self amazing.
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Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. I have been shooting with slrs and dslrs for decades, also owning numerous lenses, so I guess I know a bit about photography hardware. Yet again, I am not comparing apples to oranges, namely dslr quality with S21U quality, but instead comparing S21U quality with my 2020 p40 pro photos and believe me there is a HUGE gap over there. The p40 pro was a 2020 flagship and it's photo quality is miles ahead the S21U in various aspects, the most important being low light performance in all cameras, as well as zoom quality etc. Had the p40 pro not been a deal breaker due to no GMS (huawei USA ban etc), I would not change the device for the S21U. I did know though that there would of been a small downgrade in photo quality when I decided to switch to S21U, yet hoped for a good trade off with the 10x zoom instead of 5x, as well as a true uw lens, as compared to the merely uw on the p40 pro (18mm only), but we are talking about a huge difference over here in terms of quality,i mean, even my previous p20 pro which was a 2018 device was capturing much more detail in low light, yet still noise free.
thanito said:
Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. I have been shooting with slrs and dslrs for decades, also owning numerous lenses, so I guess I know a bit about photography hardware. Yet again, I am not comparing apples to oranges, namely dslr quality with S21U quality, but instead comparing S21U quality with my 2020 p40 pro photos and believe me there is a HUGE gap over there. The p40 pro was a 2020 flagship and it's photo quality is miles ahead the S21U in various aspects, the most important being low light performance in all cameras, as well as zoom quality etc. Had the p40 pro not been a deal breaker due to no GMS (huawei USA ban etc), I would not change the device for the S21U. I did know though that there would of been a small downgrade in photo quality when I decided to switch to S21U, yet hoped for a good trade off with the 10x zoom instead of 5x, as well as a true uw lens, as compared to the merely uw on the p40 pro (18mm only), but we are talking about a huge difference over here in terms of quality,i mean, even my previous p20 pro which was a 2018 device was capturing much more detail in low light, yet still noise free.
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When I spoke of cameras and lenses, it is because I too have such tech and like photography.
And honestly, the Huawei just seems to have a different post-processing. Which amps up the "structure" a bit and makes things appeared deeper and more detailed. But that's just my 2 cents. Maybe I am wrong.