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The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is capable of taking stunning moon photos. There is some philosophical than scientific disagreement over how it accomplishes this. There is currently no smartphone with a lens that can extend further than the phone’s genuine 10X optical zoom. It uses cunning techniques and optical stabilization to digitally zoom and improve the image. Is the moon’s last image a fake? The question is absurd on its own.
Before I continue, I should point out that a Reddit thread makes the assertion that Samsung has enhanced moon photos with digital tools in order to improve detail. I attempted to duplicate the method used in the post to deceive the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but I was not successful. There are various explanations for this, but none of them seem to be very important. Even if Samsung is acting in accordance with what the Reddit thread alleges, it hasn’t lied about anything, so calling these pictures phony would be pointless.
As you might expect, Samsung doesn’t make as many guarantees as you might think, so let’s start there. Samsung never claims that taking an optically zoomed-in picture of the moon will produce the same results as their displayed findings. Always a trick is involved. It is obvious that the image has advanced beyond the area of “what you see is what you get,” even if the user is unable to understand what is happening when the camera employs its digital 100X zoom.
A Moderator who appears to represent Samsung goes much further in demonstrating how the moon zoom photos function on a Samsung community board. From the Galaxy S21, this improved image processing has been present on every Galaxy. Information is being added. The scene is being optimized by ‘AI’ allegedly. You can disable the Scene Optimization mode, which is on by default, if you don’t want this to occur.
The majority of smartphone sensors have a resolution that is four times higher, and a technique known as pixel binning allows phones to average data from four pixels down to one. The sensor of the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a maximum pixel bin of 16 for the final image.
It’s not as if we didn’t already know how clever smartphone cameras are. We adore those ploys. Samsung utilizes a camera sensor with considerably more pixels than it requires, just like every other phone manufacturer these days. By default, the resulting image will be 12MP.
Why is it necessary to take a picture of the moon? More over a quarter of a million miles separate us from the moon. It’s not moving and it’s not changing. I understand taking one decent photo of the moon itself to test the camera’s capabilities. Making the moon a frequent subject of your photographs baffles me.
Since there are incredible telescopes and skilled photographers who would provide you with a better picture for free, I actually don’t understand why you’d ever need to snap two pictures of the moon. You don’t require another moon image taken with your phone’s camera. You only require one.
Your first moon photo can be lovely. The second is uninteresting. More moon images will only serve to further establish your existence. I can see the moon, exactly like the rest of this hemisphere, so see, everyone. Are you demonstrating your skill as a photographer? Are you talking about how much you like the moon? eloquently waxing poetic about our celestial dance partner? Instead, create a poem.
I’ll be watching with caution to see where technology goes, but for now, I’m not offended because I got a really cool moon shot. Although though my lens wasn’t able to capture it in its whole, it doesn’t appear false. This is not a derogatory addition or modification. It exactly matches my intentions. I was hoping to get a fantastic moonshot. For me, the Galaxy S23 Ultra does.