Galaxy S23 Ultra 2.5 Miles from Freedom Tower!

Geir Ove

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https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-review/

See below heading "How good are the new cameras?"

I do not believe the quality of the 30x Zoom shot 2.5 miles away from the tower.

And as if the details of the Tower isn't enough, the camera also spotted a Helicopter over the building behind the tower! And, if I zoom in with my web browser, I can even see the tail-boom of the Heli !!!

I just downloaded the Image, and I can now see that there is an Airline at the Top of the image, where I can even make out the engines....

This is really something else!

The URL to the image on ZDNET's Article page is pasted below. Credits to the ZDNET photographer for this fantastic image!

 
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bcb4c42037974914ae5751240f0c4728.jpg


:)
 
Great Meme :)

But seriously, I had written off Samsung completely getting tired of their incremental upgraders forever. I already have a P30, but was looking for a new phone.

I was determined to buy Xiaomi 13 Pro (or Ultra) when it was released.

However, I like the flexibility of S23 Ultra's 3x & 10x Optical Zoom lenses, combined with a high res sensor (that works): It gives an almost "continuous" zoom from 1x to 10x.

However, I had written off the 30x zoom as a gimmick: But it turns out it can really perform...

One thing that many people does not seem to understand about Pixel Binning:

It reduces the electrical noise in the final image.

There are two major sources of Image Noise (as far as I know):

1) Signal Noise ratio in the conversion of Light to electrical signals
2) Read-out noise when reading data from the sensor array.

Since the Readout Noise tends to be statistical in nature, averaging the noise over pixels "binned" together tends to cancel this noise!

And of course, the there is a larger area that is converted to light.

At any rate, Samsung seems to have got it right this time!

To get e.g. 30x zoom this good, there probably is also a "dash" of computational photography algorithms at work...

If anyone else have some good 30x samples, I would love to see them!

--
Geir Ove
 
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Great Meme :)

But seriously, I had written off Samsung completely getting tired of their incremental upgraders forever. I already have a P30, but was looking for a new phone.

I was determined to buy Xiaomi 13 Pro (or Ultra) when it was released.

However, I like the flexibility of S23 Ultra's 3x & 10x Optical Zoom lenses, combined with a high res sensor (that works): It gives an almost "continuous" zoom from 1x to 10x.

However, I had written off the 30x zoom as a gimmick: But it turns out it can really perform...

One thing that many people does not seem to understand about Pixel Binning:

It reduces the electrical noise in the final image.

There are two major sources of Image Noise (as far as I know):

1) Signal Noise ratio in the conversion of Light to electrical signals
2) Read-out noise when reading data from the sensor array.

Since the Readout Noise tends to be statistical in nature, averaging the noise over pixels "binned" together tends to cancel this noise!

And of course, the there is a larger area that is converted to light.

At any rate, Samsung seems to have got it right this time!

To get e.g. 30x zoom this good, there probably is also a "dash" of computational photography algorithms at work...

If anyone else have some good 30x samples, I would love to see them!
 
<<You can get even better shots, try using night mode even in medium light, and use soft pic mode>>

Thanks a lot for the tip!

I haven't received my unit yet...
Do you have any examples to point me to?
 
Actually it was plain stock camera. The weather unfortunately is very grey, drizzling. As comparison here's the same 30x with the p30 pro.



44b9a21d7122421590260d49dfc65909.jpg
 
Actually it was plain stock camera. The weather unfortunately is very grey, drizzling. As comparison here's the same 30x with the p30 pro.

44b9a21d7122421590260d49dfc65909.jpg


Thanks! It is quite impressive what the S23 Ultra can "squeeze" out from the dark parts of the wall :-) And still people commenting at GSMArena are complaining about more nor less everything. about the S23U...

--
Geir Ove
 
Here's another scenario from today. Starting with 1x, then 10x, 30x, 50 and 100x Zoom

 
One thing that many people does not seem to understand about Pixel Binning:

It reduces the electrical noise in the final image.

There are two major sources of Image Noise (as far as I know):

1) Signal Noise ratio in the conversion of Light to electrical signals
2) Read-out noise when reading data from the sensor array.

Since the Readout Noise tends to be statistical in nature, averaging the noise over pixels "binned" together tends to cancel this noise!

And of course, the there is a larger area that is converted to light.

At any rate, Samsung seems to have got it right this time!

To get e.g. 30x zoom this good, there probably is also a "dash" of computational photography algorithms at work...

If anyone else have some good 30x samples, I would love to see them!
10x lens which is used for 30x shots doesn't have quad bayer sensor though and is not using pixel binnning.
 
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