Myth debunked: Samsung’s 100X zoom doesn’t fake moon photos

30 January 2021
It was believed that the moon photos produced by the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra are faked textures of the moon.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • 3p7
  • 31 Jan 2021

Holy shit.. someone dont know how to take photo with this Sony mirrorless.. This compare us pure joke.

Every smartphone photo is ugly coz small chip etc.

I had many cameras, now D7500 and i can tell u smartphones are goos just for whatsapp photos..

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • pN4
    • 31 Jan 2021

    Anonymous, 31 Jan 2021There is GPS, satellite photos, moon phases, IP adress and ... more*15,000m

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • pN4
      • 31 Jan 2021

      Anonymous, 31 Jan 2021We learn new things everyday! Still event with tidal locki... moreThere is GPS, satellite photos, moon phases, IP adress and AI. I don't get how you people think that it's not possible to render all these information and do overlays on the photo. Natural limitations like atmospheric turbulence can't be overcome, not even with a proper camera, unless you are 15,000 KM high.

      This is pretty obvious and shouldn't even be up to discussion at this point...

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • y$9
        • 31 Jan 2021

        agree with the comments below. even my 10 year old canon sx30is takes wayy better moon pics than that sony full frame.

          • V
          • Vic Road
          • 3EX
          • 31 Jan 2021

          Even though it no longer rotates the moon wobbles significantly so unless the S21 has a whole bunch of secret moon overlays then it would soon be caught out. The tech itself is not new however it's the first time I've seen it built in to a phone or camera. Totally believable.

            • G
            • Geodask
            • gqL
            • 31 Jan 2021

            It is not easy to capture a good image of the moon with just a still image because of atmospheric turbulence. It is much easier to capture a small video, or multiple still images, and then use software like registax, witch chooses the best frames/images, optimizes them and combines them into a single image. I think that is what Samsung is doing.

              Still they failed to capture the dark side of the moon. 😊

                YUKI93, 31 Jan 2021Everyone? Lol, not me! AI is for the weak. I take RAW forma... moreExactly, actually the camera is the least important thing to me on a smartphone. DSLRs are where it's really at.

                  Solun1, 31 Jan 2021Wait, I thought everyone wanted AI photo processing and now... moreEveryone? Lol, not me! AI is for the weak. I take RAW format all day long tqvm.

                    Wezz, 30 Jan 2021Cameras are doomed to be replaced by smartphones, especiall... more"Cameras are doomed to be replaced by smartphones..."

                    Sorry, that won't happen. Unless we can see a smartphone with an M43 or APS-C or even a Full Frame sensor, forget it. Computation photography still has its limitations.

                      Anonymous, 31 Jan 2021We learn new things everyday! Still event with tidal locki... moreThat's true but I was mostly talking about the people who mentioned the moon rotating and showing different sides.

                      I didn't mean to imply it cant look different.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • 8pc
                        • 31 Jan 2021

                        Zalias, 30 Jan 2021How is it possible so many people don't know about tid... moreWe learn new things everyday!
                        Still event with tidal locking the moon will look a bit different depending from where you are looking at due to the viewing angle.

                          • V
                          • Vendhar
                          • bJb
                          • 31 Jan 2021

                          Good work Samsung

                            • P
                            • PF
                            • nmN
                            • 31 Jan 2021

                            Tom, 30 Jan 2021Moon also rotates around its own axis. It's not possib... moreMoon is tidally locking to show the same side tomearth, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon

                              • P
                              • P C M
                              • 6p}
                              • 31 Jan 2021

                              london2tim, 31 Jan 2021to the many less educated but hyper opinionated people here... moreTotally true. And The moon will appear at different part of sky and set at different part of sky too.
                              What Canadians can see Australian will miss almost 20%. Same is true for the opposite.

                                Wait, I thought everyone wanted AI photo processing and now IF it was actually working, they'd complain?

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • gBV
                                  • 31 Jan 2021

                                  I want to clarify that neither Huawei nor Samsung denied that they use AI in order to guess / invent details. It's actually the opposite. They rather confirmed it and that's obvious as AI does nothing else than guessing. Huawei only denied that they would use already saved images of the moon. But of course that's not necessary, if the AI has been already trained on a dataset of moon images.

                                  It is very important that people understand that there isn't a strict difference between "enhancing" and adding new detail. Machine learning zoom always guesses! Even if a camera was only trained on a moon dataset in order to demosaic better, this could possibly result in craters that were not visible before as a crater could maybe only consist of 2 sensor pixels!

                                  The people behind the photo of the black hole had to consider a lot of things as the black hole photo was also created by machine learning! They explained that they had to make sure that machine learning doesn't automatically lead to a black hole -like image. As far as I remember they even blurred the image intentionally to a certain degree in order to avoid wrong detail.

                                  Summary: As I explained in my previous comments, the Huawei P30 Pro adds detail that is physically impossible due to diffraction.
                                  Regarding the S21 Ultra it is less clear as the amount of detail is approximately compatible with the diffraction, though it seems that diffraction-limited contours are artificially improved by AI/guessing.

                                    Did that guy with the Sony Alpha not use a tripod, or know how to use his camera? I can get better pictures of the moon with my D3500 and a 300mm lens, jfc.

                                      I cannot say for sure if it's fake or not but I can comment that the AIII shot is terrible. I don't know why you'd pay thousands of dollars for a prosumer camera and lens and not even try to take decent photos.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • pN4
                                        • 31 Jan 2021

                                        london2tim, 31 Jan 2021to the many less educated but hyper opinionated people here... moreGPS: Let me introduce myself.