Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s photography performance, and find out why it’s such an awesome smartphone for photographers!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Flagship Class Photography!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is their flagship smartphone for the year 2022, and it boasts the best cameras money can buy.
Headlining its top-of-the-line quad-camera system is a Dual Pixel camera, which is built around the 108 MP ISOCELL HM3 sensor, and optically-stabilised lens with a large f/1.8 aperture.
You can seamlessly switch to its ultra-wide camera, with a 12 MP sensor and a f/2.2 aperture; or optically zoom up to 10X with its dual telephoto and periscope cameras.
In this review, we are going to take a look at the photography capability of Galaxy S22 Ultra, and show you just how well its cameras perform!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Review
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 108 MP main camera, built around the same ISOCELL HM3 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
However, this camera features improved AI optimisations. Thanks to the improved performance of its GPU and NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models through its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to optimise the final output.
Here are six shots I took around Ipoh Old Town, using the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.
They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 15 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.
By default, the 108 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining nine pixels into one super-large 2.4 µm pixel. Coupled with the new AI models, the final photo is not only much brighter, but has significantly lower noise.
When you take shots at night, the Galaxy S22 Ultra combines images taken using both the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The 12 MP camera provides the rough details, while the fine details are provided by the 108 MP camera.
Here are four shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 108 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.
Its digital zoom has also been improved by the new AI models and the faster processor. For images taken above 30X digital zoom, the camera actually takes 10-20 shots at once, and processes them to improve the details in the final photo.
Finally, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a new AI portrait model that uses two cameras to accurately differentiate the depth between the person and the background.
This is critical because the 108 MP camera has a very wide f/1.8 aperture, which makes for very narrow depth-of-field (DOF). If you do not accurately focus on the subject, you could end up with a blurry photo even though it looks sharp on the phone.
In these four shots, you can see just how narrow of depth of field you have to work with. This makes for better photos – you just need to make sure the subject is really in focus.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Summary
If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Ignore the 108 MP marketing hoohah. What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.
You may be wary about Samsung reusing the ISOCELL HM3 sensor from last year, but it has better photographic capabilities, thanks mostly to software and AI improvements.
For one thing, I noticed that it is now much better at accurately focusing on the subject, resulting in far fewer wrongly-focused shots.
It also does a better job of correcting for disparate lighting conditions, although some of you may find the photos oversaturated.
But there is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability
Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.
I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.
Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.
Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :
- 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
- 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
- 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)
Here are some online pre-order options :
- Malaysia : RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499
- Singapore : S$1,858
- United States : US$1,199 | US$1,199
- United Kingdom : £1,149 | £1,149 | £1,249 | £1,249
- Australia : A$1,999
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
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Recommended Reading
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance!
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Performance Examined!
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Life + Recharging Speed!
- Samsung Galaxy A53 : Exclusive Hands-On Preview!
- How To Setup Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra For The First Time!
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