The introduction of camera phones got all of us excited. For photographers, in particular, having a mobile phone camera offered the convenience of always having a camera. Unfortunately, though every mobile phone has a built-in camera, there has never been a decent mobile camera phone for photographers. For years photographers have complained (we have written about the complaints here) about the mediocre quality of camera phones and the mediocre images they produce. Hence, camera phones have fallen short of replacing or even offering a backup to stand-alone cameras. That is until now. The just-introduced Galaxy s22 ultra cellphone comes with a terrific camera making it a viable backup to a professional DSLR.
I have had a chance to use this cell phone for several weeks, and I am impressed by the capability and quality of the images I produced with it. The Samsung Galaxy s22 ultra camera is undoubtedly a photographer’s camera, a handy backup to a professional digital camera. So, what makes the Galaxy s22 ultra camera a photographer’s camera?
Specs
First, let’s look at the camera specs. The galaxy s22 ultra has five lenses; one in front and a quad-camera set up in the back. The front lens, the selfie lens, has a whopping 40million pixels per square inch (mp), sitting on a 1×2.5-inch image sensor. The pixel count is high not only for a selfie camera but for cameras in general.
The back lenses are even more impressive.
The back has a quad-camera layout consisting of wide, ultra-wide-angle, and two telephoto lenses. The two wide-angle lenses have a combined 120 mp, the first of its kind in a cellphone. The ultra-wide-angle has 12mp, while the wide-angle lens has a massive 108mp, significantly more than most pro-level digital cameras.
Their field of view also rivals professional lenses. The wide-angle lens has 85 degrees of field of view, but if you want more, the ultra-wide-angle lens has a massive 120 degrees of field of view. This is well within the range of professional fisheye lenses that have a field of view range between 100 to 180 degrees.
Next in the quad are two 10mp telephoto lenses. The difference between the two is their optical zoom. One has an impressive 10x zoom, while the other boasts a 3x zoom. What is remarkable is that their zoom is optical and not digital, unlike most digital cameras. This zooming method has a significant impact on picture quality. We will discuss this more below.
So, what makes the galaxy s22 ultra a photographer’s camera?
High Pixel Count
Pixels are the building block of a picture. They store minute bits of data which when put together creates a viewable image. Therefore, the more pixels that a camera has the more detail it captures. This in turn gives the photographer more options in postproduction. A large, more detailed image can be pushed more in postproduction without the fear of losing quality. For example, you could crop in aggressively to parts of the image and still have a quality image. To learn more about pixels check out this article.
Optical Zoom
Traditionally cellphone cameras zoom in by scaling a part of the picture to fit the sensor pixels. Digital zoom is similar to cropping in on an image which, while it works, often sacrifices image quality. Optical zooming works differently. Instead of ‘cropping in,’ the lens moves to fill the frame with the picture. By zooming this way, the quality of the image is not affected. This is why DSLR zoom lenses provide better image quality because the optical parts of the lens move to fill the frame with actual pixels and not scaled-up pixels. By using optical zoom, Galaxy s22 ultra brings DSLR zooming to cellphones, producing superior image quality.
Built-In S-Pen
The s-pen is a game-changer for editing images on the goal. Photographers will tell you that nothing beats a pen and table when it comes to editing. You can have the most expensive mouse money can buy, but that is nothing compared to the cheapest pen and tablet. Editing with a pen makes selecting and editing images surgical. The galaxy s22 s-pen gives you all the benefits of editing with a pen on your phone. The s-pen, combined with the phone’s larger screen, means that you can edit your images on the goal. It is not vital anymore to bring a laptop and tablet to edit your pictures on the go; you can now achieve all this with your Galaxy s22 ultra.
Final Thought
Samsung Galaxy s22 ultra is undoubtedly the best camera phone of 2022. It produces high-quality pictures and offers all the benefits of a pen and tablet for post-production work. We have come a long way, and I am sure that we will be getting more advanced camera phones in the future.
You can see the full spec of galaxy s22 ultra here. And if you want to take awesome pictures with this amazing camera phone, click here.
Happy shooting.
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