Galaxy S24 Ultra: Goodbye, 10x zoom camera - is Samsung’s flagship losing its superpowers?

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Goodbye, 10x zoom camera – is Samsung’s flagship losing its superpowers?،

According to reliable tipster Ice Universe, the zoom system on the The Galaxy S24 Ultra will change for the first time in three years. However, this time the changes will divide many opinions.

THE Galaxy S24 Ultra is now expected to feature a 10MP camera with 3x zoom and a new 50MP camera with 5x zoom. Of course, the unexpected twist here is the supposed removal of the (somewhat iconic) 10x optical snapper that Samsung has been using for three years in a row now.

I crunched the numbers so you don’t have to, and it turns out… Five is less than ten. But is it really that simple? Is Samsung downgrading its most expensive phone’s camera system for 2024? Or could a 5x zoom camera prove to be the smarter choice? The different answers might surprise you.

Oh, and here’s how a phone with a 3x camera beats the Galaxy S23 Ultra in photography with 10x zoom. Oh, and it’s a foldable phone… No big deal.

OnePlus Open – the foldable phone that takes better zoom photos than the Galaxy S23 Ultra prove it Galaxy S24 Ultra’s new 5x camera could be the right decision

With only 3x optical zoom, the foldable OnePlus Open can take better zoom photos than the Galaxy S23 Ultra with 3x, 5x, 6x and even 10x zoom thanks to OnePlus’ image processing and 50MP camera high resolution.

Before explaining why the Galaxy S24 Ultra might upgrade to a 5x zoom camera, and why that might turn out to be (mostly) a good thing, take a look at these photos comparing the 10x zoom with the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the brand new OnePlus Open / Oppo Find N3 (in China).

Your brain isn’t playing tricks on you. Most 10x zoom photos taken by the OnePlus Open more beautiful than those taken with the S23 Ultra. But how is this possible, given that OnePlus’ foldable phone has a 3x optical camera? Honestly…I’m not sure, and I’m just as perplexed as you probably are.

That being said, having seen enough sample photos over the years, taken by countless phones, I’m guessing that OnePlus is using per-sensor cropping (which gives 6x lossless zoom) + additional data from the 50MP 3x camera + some sort of upscaling. /sharpening.

Whatever happens here, the OnePlus Open’s 3x zoom camera makes Samsung’s specialized snapper less… special. And you better believe that the South Korean company is aware that the competition is catching up.

But why is Samsung expecting to “go backwards” with a 5x zoom camera instead of a 15 or 20x zoom?

The real reason Samsung might remove the 10x zoom camera from the Galaxy S24 Ultra: Make it look more like the Pixel 8 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max

Portrait mode photos taken with the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 5x zoom camera.

I’d be lying if I told you Samsung was eventually going to get rid of the 10x optical zoom camera… While I’ve always found shorter zooms to be more useful, the 10x camera is a standout feature that only one phone in the world has: the Galaxy Ultra model.

Additionally, Samsung kept this camera around for over three years, first introducing it with the Galaxy S21 Ultra in 2021. Of course, Sammy wasn’t the pioneer of the 10x camera (the Huawei P40 Pro+ did it first), but it stayed there. long enough to become the one who made him “cool”.

However, as you can see from the sample photos above, the Ultra’s 10x optical camera isn’t as special as it is in 2021, and that’s thanks to the competition, which has found ways to match or surpass its performance with much shorter performances. zoom lenses.

As we’ve seen time and time again with phones like the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Pixel 8 ProAnd OnePlus Openthe 3-5x zoom is much more useful for everyday photography – especially Portrait mode

Cameras with shorter focal length + larger sensors + larger apertures + sensor crop can result in 10x zoom photos as good as 10x optical zoom (often better – at least in difficult lighting conditions)

Besides small sensor and aperture issues, the 10x optical zoom is incredibly difficult to stabilize when taking photos, and particularly shaky when recording video.

THE Galaxy S24 UltraThe 50MP 5x zoom camera is rumored to be much higher quality than the S23 Ultra’s 10x zoom; very similar to Pixel 8 Prothe 5x zoom camera

Galaxy S23 Ultra – 1x, 3x, 10x, 30x zoom.

If Samsung were to change the camera to 10x zoom, the company could have gone one of three directions.

Stick to 10x but upgrade the camera by increasing the sensor size and widening the aperture – quite tricky given the very long focal length.

The second option is to double the extra-long zoom with an even more ambitious 15-20x optical lens, while retaining the tiny sensor and aperture (or most likely making them even smaller).

The third option is to roll back the crazy 10x zoom to something more conventional, but upgrade to a new, much larger sensor and rely on computational photography to compensate for the shorter focal length – the most likely choice of Samsung at the moment.

According to leaks and rumors from Ice Universe, the new 5x sensor of the Galaxy S24 Ultra should be much higher quality than the sensor behind the S23 Ultra’s 10x snapper. The exact properties of both cameras are below. As you can see, we’re talking about a much larger sensor and a much larger aperture (although the latter hasn’t been confirmed).

Galaxy S23 Ultra: 10MP camera, 1/3.52 inch, 10x zoom – longer zoom, much smaller sensor, small aperture (f/4.9)

Galaxy S24 Ultra: 50MP camera, 1/2.52 inch, 5x zoom – shorter zoom, much larger sensor, much wider aperture (at least f/3.0)

If you are wondering how Galaxy S24 Ultra’s so-called 5x camera compares to the Pixel 8 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro With Max’s 5x zoom cameras, the Galaxy should have the same sensor size as the Pixel, which is larger than the iPhone. That being said, none of them come close to the 3x shooter of the OnePlus Openwhich has both a wider aperture and a noticeably larger sensor, which is to be expected given the shooter’s focal length.

Remember that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will have another zoom camera with 3x optical zoom. It will be interesting to see if this one can come close to the 3x snapper of the OnePlus Open. Currently, 3x is Samsung’s preferred focal length for portraits.

Is Samsung making a mistake by removing the unique 10x zoom camera from its flagship Ultra?

40x zoom photo taken with the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

I can tell you from now on… The surprising removal of the 10x zoom camera will initially draw some criticism from some users, and that wouldn’t be entirely unwarranted.

On the one hand, the beloved 10x snapper gives Samsung’s flagship Ultra bragging rights. However, at least in some scenarios, this gives it a real advantage over the competition.

For example, thanks to the starting point of a 10x optical zoom, taking very long but usable photos/videos with a 20-30x zoom is just something simple. Galaxy S23 Ultra can do now. Of course, you need a lot of light to achieve this, and you need to stay as still as possible, but… you can do it.

That being said, I bet switching to a more conservative 5x zoom snapper with much better optics will pay off in the long run. Of course, that depends on how quickly Samsung manages to optimize the 5x zoom camera to take full advantage of it.

In theory, the 5x camera’s longer-range zoom photos can be just as good, or even better, thanks to per-sensor cropping, and especially in low light. Other than that, the 5x snapper should be useful for long-range Portrait mode photography, similar to the iPhone 15 Pro Maxwho currently produces the best portraits in the sector.

Numbers aren’t everything, so let’s hope Samsung is cooking something special. In the meantime, you can find out everything we know about the cameras in the upcoming Galaxy S24 Ultra in our dedicated Galaxy S24 Ultra hub.