More Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra zoom camera details surface

13 January 2021
Light needs less refractions to reach the sensor, making this the smartest periscope around.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • ucw
  • 14 Jan 2021

TheLastOracle, 13 Jan 2021You're incorrect. It is actually a Zoom lens, and that... moreYou managed to make yourself sound like a fool with your first 10 words.

The industry does not call it a "zoom". Marketing does.

The camera has a fixed telephoto lens. That's a fact.
But, software provides the interpolation to give the zoom impression.

S21 Ultra has a 240mm equivalent telephoto but a 11mm wide angle. In theory, it can provide a 21x magnification. Why don't they call it so?

Hint: they still follow photography convention. Hence, I'm not sure where you read about phones having zoom, you may want to stop reading those rubbish sites.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • 7t7
    • 14 Jan 2021

    DXOMark4Lyfe, 13 Jan 2021S21 Ultra will be the most powerful chip ever BUT only for ... morebuzz killer award

      gogus, 13 Jan 2021p40 pro+ has a smaller aperture hence it captures more ligh... moreNope, P40 Pro+ captures LESS light in this case because the sensor was substantially smaller on that phone. P50 Pro+'s telephoto lens may turn out to be better than S21 Ultra image quality wise, but only under certain conditions:
      -If it will use a more effective stabilisation system
      -If it will have at least an equally sized sensor
      -If Huawei can release any new flagship phone at all (due to US ban).

        DXOMark4Lyfe, 13 Jan 2021S21 Ultra will be the most powerful chip ever BUT only for ... moreAnd your claim is based on?

          • D
          • AnonD-973296
          • GYi
          • 14 Jan 2021

          DXOMark4Lyfe, 13 Jan 2021S21 Ultra will be the most powerful chip ever BUT only for ... moreur already making claims before anyone has even tested it and without any evidence, just s#vt up ur only embarrassing urself too much

            The pace of research for mobile cameras is incredible.

              You're all can argue about the camera all you want, but please do not buy this phone. If the sales took a dive, the charger will make immediate return.

                S21 Ultra will be the most powerful chip ever BUT only for about 20 minutes then it will thermal throttle like crazy and cut down performance to lower than the garbage E990 chip..

                They also still use that garbage Mali GPU so the battery drain will still be absolutely huge!

                DON'T BUY THE GARBAGE EXYNOS 2100 CHIP - GO FOR THE SNAPDRAGON AGAIN AND WAIT UNTIL 2022 FOR EXYNOS COMEBACK. IT WON'T HAPPEN IN 2021 DESPITE ALL THE LIES THE CRIMINALS OVER AT SAMSUNG IS SPEWING..

                  gogus, 13 Jan 2021p40 pro+ has a smaller aperture hence it captures more ligh... moreBlablablablabla
                  Gsmarena is full of tech engineers bashing samsung😂😂😂😂🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • FtM
                    • 13 Jan 2021

                    TheLastOracle, 13 Jan 2021You're incorrect. It is actually a Zoom lens, and that... moreCalling that lens a zoom lens is technically incorrect. It's used by the phone industry because it's the only term that the majority of the customer base would understand. In their eyes zoom = magnification, and a lot of people without technical knowledge call everything a zoom, and would ask questions like "how big of a zoom this prime telephoto lens has".

                    However, the fact that phone companies decided to take an easy path doesn't make it correct. When I heard about S21 telephoto lens being a 10x zoom, I was frustrated because for a second I thought that it's a variable FL lens which would be of significantly lower quality compared to fixed focals (lower resolution, lower uniformity, higher chromatic aberrations, higher distortion, potentially slower AF and worse aperture)

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • FtM
                      • 13 Jan 2021

                      Anonymous, 13 Jan 2021There's something fishy about the ultra zoom feature i... moreThat's because in S21 (or any other phone) it's not a zoom lens. It's a telephoto fixed focal length lens. Zoom effect is achieved by switching between several fixed focal length lenses (ultrawide, wide, medium telephoto, long telephoto). Phones don't use variable focal length lenses (zoom lenses) because having several fixed lenses is better in terms of image quality.

                      It's very hard to design a quality variable zoom lens, especially with 10x range and size / complexity restrictions of a modern phone. In fact, even 2000-3000$ 10x lenses for DSLR and MILC cameras are significantly worse in image quality compared to cheap 100$ fixed lenses.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • gBV
                        • 13 Jan 2021

                        As there are some misleading posts:

                        If Samsung's periscope camera is equivalent to 240-250mm, then
                        -In perfect light conditions the periscope camera will capture approximately 20-30% more light from distant objects than the periscope camera of the P40 Pro Plus due to the approximately 20-30% longer focal length (probably approximately 30.9mm-32.2mm vs 28.21mm)
                        -Samsung's periscope camera will capture approximately the same amount of light per time from distant objects (relevant for low-light conditions)
                        -10 megapixels instead of 8 megapixels shouldn't deliver an advantage regarding details due to diffraction

                          • g
                          • gogus
                          • nDV
                          • 13 Jan 2021

                          p40 pro+ has a smaller aperture hence it captures more light and i bet p50 pro+ will be even better so samsung can't even catch with huawei's last year tech. Also compare how small the sensor of ultrawide is compared to huawei, they will be murdered again in low light and fan boys will complain how dxomark is paid and other silly stuff.
                          huawei combines pictures from multiple cameras giving you a better picture even when not reaching the periscope zoom level while samsung is absolute crap even 0.1x before periscope kicks in.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • gBV
                            • 13 Jan 2021

                            TheLastOracle, 13 Jan 2021You're incorrect. It is actually a Zoom lens, and that... moreNo, smartphones offer zoom, but the lens itself is not a zoom lens, but a tele lens.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • gBV
                              • 13 Jan 2021

                              Due to diffraction the 10 megapixel camera should have no advantage over the 8 megapixel camera of the P40 Pro Plus regarding details.

                                • j
                                • jason
                                • LhZ
                                • 13 Jan 2021

                                mooox, 13 Jan 2021Not sure how you declare it BS, but the S20/Note 20 ultra i... morefor the most part, i totally agree with you

                                  • j
                                  • jason
                                  • LhZ
                                  • 13 Jan 2021

                                  mooox, 13 Jan 2021Not sure how you declare it BS, but the S20/Note 20 ultra i... morethe note 10+ was very good in most aspects to be fair, but the note 8 and 9 also did very good, i love the note line because they are all round the best devices fully loaded but their camera system is more and more hit and miss i feel now, i am keen to see how this model performs but i wont be rushing to pre-order like S or Note models of the past, the pro system on the iphone 12pro max is exceptionally good, when shot in pro raw and edited is very versatile indeed

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • LhZ
                                    • 13 Jan 2021

                                    Lyndino, 13 Jan 2021Considering this phone is less than month's old you sh... morethe note 20 ultra is 5 months old, not sure where you think it was released a month ago so you are wrong there.
                                    there are plenty of articles to back up the imaging comparisons and plenty to back up inferior images to the note10+ so you are wrong again.
                                    you are clearly a blinded follower because you dont even know the real world experiences of the phone, I DO, so you are wrong again.

                                    there is a pattern forming here i see...

                                      • j
                                      • jason
                                      • LhZ
                                      • 13 Jan 2021

                                      Lyndino, 13 Jan 2021Considering this phone is less than month's old you sh... moreyou can declare bs all you want? but you have no clue, I declare facts of real world usage, heck you only have to look at comparisons made when the note 20 ultra was released, it lacked in plenty of areas and lost quite a few rounds to the note 10+, I have had every Note and S model since their inception, I know my way around phones, I am also a travel and landscape photographer and earn money from my images using mavic 2 pro Drone, Canon 90D, iPhone 12 pro max and GoPro 9 so I know what I am talking about, over the average user, a simple google search will show you exactly the issues I referred to and more...its not a bad camera at all, its just not the best and with agressive processing loaded on top is spoiling their overall output

                                        • S
                                        • Shui8
                                        • KZK
                                        • 13 Jan 2021

                                        A bird photographer, 13 Jan 2021Maybe chill off a little, bro! Not everyone has to be a pro... moreWell said. 👏