RDM5546
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Senior Member
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Posts: 3,654
My experience with the S20 Ultra Camera over it's better range of focal lengths.
Mar 8, 2020
XI have observed the rear cameras are actually comprised of three fixed lenses with large sensors using sensor binning and computational software In 35mm cameras I call these fixed lense prime lenses when they cannot be optically zoomed.
Namely the three rear camera lenses and sensors are:
1. 11mm prime (fixed focal length) lens camera using a 40mp sensor creating a 10 megapixe ultrawide zoom images over 11-22.5mm range ("0.5X-1X zoom"). The 11mm lens without software zooming is the equavelent of 22mm field of view which I haved determined by taking pictures and comparing with my 35mm cameras.
The 35mm equivalent zoom range of "0.5X to 1X" is 22mm-44mm 35mm equivalent zoom range. The best quality results with this "ultra wide camera" is at the wide end or 0.5X zoom (22mm focal length for 35mm camera equiv.)
2. 22mm prime (fixed focal length, 79deg FOV) lens camera: using a 108 mp senors using 3x3 and 22 binning to creating 12 megapixel image over 44-176mm 35mm equivalent zoom range (1X-4X) wide angle-short teliphoto zoom range apparently. This zoom appears to be done using the sensor binning and the computational photography software
The best quality results with this "normal camera" is at the wide end or1X zoom (44mm focal length for 35mm camera equiv)
3. 85mm prime (fixed focal length, 24 deg. FOV) lens camera using a 48megapixel sensor with the telephoto using 2x2 binning sensor to create a 12 megapixel output image. This lens appears to be zoomed from 176-4400mm 35mm equivalent zoom range ("4X-100x") This zooming appears to be done using the sensor binning and the computational photography software
The best quality results with this "normal camera" is at the 4X zoom (44mm focal length for 35mm camera equiv).
Overall in bright light and good subject illumination I am pleased by getting decent images over the 0.5X-10X range. There is a falloff in quality from 10X-30X but they still are useable images but require great care and require holding the camera very still. They are not just point and shoot. Above 30X the images are are less useful for my purposes.
A picture I took at "1X" using S20 Ultra that is cropped to show the small bird at the very top of the large pine tree.

This is a cropped 20X zoomed picture taken of the very top of the tree and we see it is a crow.
For the long telephoto I had to prop the phone against a parked car for increase stability required in long telephoto shooting. From my experience so far I can see there will be a learning curve as I take more pictures on how to get the best results with this new kind of camera. It much more sophisticated and capable than the simple point shoot cameras on older smartphones. Techniques can applied from experienced to maximize the quality of the results. Maybe one day AI software will make it all once again point and shoot, but that day is not today.
I am pleased with the camera. It much better than the camera on my earlier S8 phone. Yet if this S20 ultra camera is used for the simpler picture I could previously tackle it give better results even when operated simply.