Flashback: A decade of Samsung Galaxy S camera tech

05 June 2022
A lot has changed in the last decade - higher resolutions, more cameras, better lenses and more. Here is a quick look back at how far mobile tech has come.

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Nick Tegrataker, 09 Jun 2022Nowadays almost all midrangers and high-end models are capa... moreIts true that mideangers are genuinely getting much better.

Samsung is slowly but surely improving its lack of detail in its pics. The majority of its local base users want smoother skin and bigger lips and slimmer faces. Also, apparently the selfie fades moved into the main back cameras. It's good that Samsung is slowly getting rid of all that.

Also the raw pro is also great. And Samsung needs to coordinate even more with their sensor division to constantly make their photos better.

    Your chart on the light gathered by the cameras is wrong.
    The amount of light that is gathered by a sensor is proportional to the square of the aperture, and the square of the sensor's size.

      TheLastOracle, 08 Jun 2022Your exaggeration has no equal. While its true that the Sna... moreNowadays almost all midrangers and high-end models are capable of taking "decent-ish" photos that look pleasant enough on a phone screen, so the only way for you to check whether they are actually good quality or not is to zoom in.

      Exynos Galaxy S21/22 Ultra doesn't show a good level of fine details in general compared to their SD variants and phones from other brands (which is clearly shown in GSMArena's photo comparison tool as well) and handles noise in a very questionable manner so I wouldn't really call them "great cameras".

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        • Anonymous TechnoGeek
        • ak9
        • 08 Jun 2022

        ShubhamDeshmukh, 06 Jun 2022Okay look this is where most people are wrong. Let's t... moreYou are right. I wasn't sold on the idea of 108mp at first and used to think that 108mp is not needed. Also, it puts stress on the processor, it goes through the battery so quickly, due to all the processing it has to do, and also, as you said, the bigger the individual pixels, the better.
        But after using the camera in real life and having had it for almost an year, I can confidently say that having the option to shoot in 108mp is useful in 'some' cases. Also, they have optimised it so well, you don't notice anything at all. It takes amazing photos, just as you expect it to, and for those times when you need more detail, the 108mp mode is there and it works incredibly.
        Still, I believe that 200mp is not something that we need. Yes, it would be an achievement, but that's about it. Most people who buy these devices aren't going to tinker with the settings and will shoot in the default settings anyways.
        And if we do some research, we can find that the other two S22 devices, S22 and S22+, use a 50mp sensor and still produces images that are as good as the S22U, which goes to show you that you don't necessarily need any more pixels than we already have currently.
        Thanks for the enlightening info you gave me. We learn new things every now and then, don't we. Have a great day and stay safe !!

          Nick Tegrataker, 05 Jun 2022"Samsung has been making some great camera phones sinc... moreYour exaggeration has no equal. While its true that the Snapdragon versions have better cameras, most often, the difference is quite minor, and can only be noticed when zoomed into, almost till the pixel level.

            vrvly, 06 Jun 20225 and 0? I would love that. Not the price though.The 5 IV, and some other phone. We're just gonna have to wait and see. The price is gonna be more expensive because of Sony's pricing to try and get a profit.

              Anonymous TechnoGeek, 06 Jun 2022You are absolutely true. In many cases, more pixels give yo... moreIf only everyone hi res - stacked as well as Vivo.

                SuuperBaka, 05 Jun 2022Sony might just put that in their new Pro-I series instead,... more5 and 0? I would love that. Not the price though.

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                  • EePee
                  • Fv1
                  • 06 Jun 2022

                  77, 05 Jun 2022Fake 10x loseless zoom, you lose pixels when zoomed in, ..You absolutely do not sir, you lose them when you go past 10x, its called an optical zoom lens, its lossless cus none of its digital. please educate yourself

                    77, 06 Jun 2022808 , Sony doesn't lose pixel when zoomed in.Bruh, they aren't optical zoom. When you have optical zoom on your phone, the lens moves physically to reach that range. Everything done with all three of these phones is done digitally.

                    The Nokia uses oversampling to achieve lossless zoom, but it's still digital.

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                      • LongLegsDaddy
                      • 457
                      • 06 Jun 2022

                      The S2 was the first phone in history with a decent camera, that's when I started taking phone cameras seriously.

                        Chrix, 05 Jun 2022Don't believe you. You lie S22 betterhttps://youtu.be/AQj1FXeKgn8
                        You don't believe me, fine, I guess that guy is lying,too.
                        Even with superior Snapdragon, s22u can't beat Exynos s21u in daylight photos- less detail, loss of textures,noise. The same thing I am seeing on my units. But keep on singing la-la-la with hands on your ears, ignorance is a bliss.

                          Anonymous TechnoGeek, 05 Jun 2022First things first, the 0.8 um that is shown is the 108mp e... moreOkay look this is where most people are wrong. Let's take Samsung's 108MP sensor as an example, that does 9:1 for 12MP. Let's say 9 cells have a combined 2.4µm width, but then what that means is signal from 9 individual cells are binned, usually by software, to pick 1 cell. What is important here is those 9 cells are individually 0.8µm wide. The polling will happen between those 9 low-quality signals to pick the best or "average" of them.

                          On the other hand, if you have a 48MP sensor of exact same physical size (length and breadth), that does 4:1 for 12MP. Quad-cells with the same combined 2.4µm width (exactly the size of nona-pixel's combined 2.4µm width), but individually they are 1.2µm wide.

                          Hence individually, each 1.2µm cell has 2X the surface area of a 0.8µm cell (2.25 times to be exact, 1.44µm² compared to 0.64µm²), individually will pick two times more light, brighter correct colors, better dynamic depth. Which means, there are 4 cells that are providing stronger signals with accurate colors to be polled or binned into 1 cell.

                          There are two parts to quad-binning or nona-binning:
                          1. Light capturing ability of individual cells on a camera sensor (larger the better)
                          2. Software resolving/ enhancing/ binning of either 4 or 9 cells to 1

                          How manufacturers achieve the 2nd (Software) is usually subject to their own processing and requirements. Some may do polling (most average of all), some may do binning (combine them all), some may even do both algorithmically for better results. But software can only do so much. The major part, 70% of the quality is still decided by individual pixels or cells, which is larger the better, regardless of their combined width, even when they are exact same surface area when combined(4-cell 5.76µm² vs 9-cell 5.76µm² in our examples above). By any measure, software that is working on 4 relatively stronger, brighter, more color accurate signals will give far accurate or strong final binned signal or pixel, compared to working on 9 weaker signals.

                          This is the only minor technical aspect regarding which I wish to correct you.

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                            • mXr
                            • 06 Jun 2022

                            SuuperBaka, 06 Jun 2022Bruh. Your A7 has a zoom lens that you can optically zoom. ... more808 , Sony doesn't lose pixel when zoomed in.

                              SuuperBaka, 06 Jun 2022Bruh. Your A7 has a zoom lens that you can optically zoom. ... moreThis, 100%.

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                                • vexus
                                • ib6
                                • 06 Jun 2022

                                camera shutter lag still exist. If using iphone can snap photo is faster than samsung.

                                  77, 06 Jun 2022On my Sony A7 camera, when you zoom in , you take pictures ... moreBruh. Your A7 has a zoom lens that you can optically zoom. You said or implied that the Nokia 808 and Xperia Pro-I had optical zoom when they don't.

                                  The Nokia, Samsung, nor Sony phones have optical zoom. The only flagship with optical zoom is the Xperia 1 IV.

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                                    • Rkm
                                    • FY0
                                    • 06 Jun 2022

                                    Bring back dual aperture Samsung. It is more relevant now with much bigger sensors.

                                    Also it was f/2.4 iirc.

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                                      • mXr
                                      • 06 Jun 2022

                                      Nick Tegrataker, 06 Jun 2022You clearly don't have any idea what you're saying.On my Sony A7 camera, when you zoom in , you take pictures at 10x optical, the quality remain with no blur or pixels lost, but you do the same on S22ULTRA, it's mushy fuzzy lost pixels.

                                        77, 06 Jun 2022S22ultra, when you zoom in, it loses pixels its not true ... moreNone of those phones have true optical zoom.

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