Fears that Samsung may downgrade the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera capabilities from the S23 Ultra appear to be unfounded in light of the company’s latest teaser videos, published ahead of this month’s much-anticipated Galaxy Unpacked event—but there’s a catch.
January 6 update below: article originally posted January 3.
In a recent official announcement entitled “Zoom with Galaxy AI is coming,” the company reveals a sequence of images of a hot air balloon showing a camera zoom range of at least 10x alongside a bizarre effect that appears to enlarge individual objects within a scene to comical sizes.
That zoom range of 10x won’t have been chosen by accident—The Galaxy S24 Ultra is expected to “downgrade” the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s powerful 10x optical telephoto lens to a 5x version, albeit at a much higher sensor resolution of 50 megapixels vs. just 10 megapixels in the current model.
The hot air balloon images appear to have been captured in low light, most likely around dawn. These are challenging conditions for such long-range telephoto optics, which typically capture less light than the primary wide lens. Here, the gap between 5x and 10x magnification will likely be filled using digital zoom and new AI processing, digital zoom being helped greatly by the much higher 50-megapixel resolution of the new 5x camera.
The “object zoom” effect revealed in the later video clips is harder to pin down. The videos show a woman performing a familiar pinch-to-zoom gesture, first on a plush toy and then on an ice cream cone, both of which then expand to enormous dimensions in real time. It’s a radically different feature, but both this and the low-light zoom feature above appear to fall under the banner of “Zoom with Galaxy AI.”
These two new features bear a striking resemblance to certain elements of Samsung’s recently leaked Eureka AI software; indeed, downloading the official teaser videos reveals filenames containing the word “Eureka.” Specifically, Eureka AI is expected to include new “Nightography Zoom” and “Generative Edit” functions, which would appear to match the features Samsung is now teasing.
The one catch is that some Eureka features will require a Samsung account and internet connection, suggesting that at least some of the most demanding AI-based features will be processed in the cloud rather than on device.
While this could leave the door open for some of these features to trickle down to older Samsung smartphones such as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it’s possible that Samsung could take a hybrid approach in which certain hardware features are required for this cloud-based processing to work, as is the case with Google’s “Video Boost” feature, currently exclusive to the flagship Pixel 8 Pro.
Despite numerous leaks surrounding the S24 Ultra’s radically different camera hardware and now new AI software, this is shaping up to be an exciting new release for Samsung.
All will be revealed at “Galaxy Unpacked” on January 17.
Update: January 5.
New insider information brings more good news about the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s zoom camera. The well-known leaker known as Ice Universe claims to have seen sample photos taken at 10x zoom with the Galaxy S24 Ultra that are “definitely” better than those shot with the current Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The leaker also points out that Samsung hasn’t finished optimizing the camera software of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, suggesting there’s still room for further improvements before the launch on January 17. This latest update starkly contrasts a report from the same leaker back on November 24 of last year, when they stated, “The bad news is that Galaxy S24 Ultra’s new telephoto camera is having some trouble.” and “The photos taken by 10x are all noise.”
This significant improvement in quality in just a few weeks suggests that Samsung has significantly improved its image processing algorithms over previous generations. If the S24 Ultra can already beat its predecessor at 10x, then its superior image processing puts it in a solid position to perform well at magnifications higher than 10x, too, despite missing out on the S23 Ultra’s 10x telephoto optics.
Update: January 6.
Ice Universe has more good news for Samsung fans in the form of a significant improvement in how video zoom will work on the forthcoming Galaxy S24 Ultra.
According to the leaker’s latest information, the Samsung flagship will “switch all cameras including front-facing cameras when recording 4K 60 fps video.”
The same leaker previously reported that the Galaxy S24 Ultra can also shoot 4K video at 120fps. However, there’s no word on whether the camera-switching option will be available at this higher frame rate.
The ability to switch between physical cameras on the fly is an important upgrade for video, as it allows the phone to maintain the best possible quality while zooming in and out. However, it does rely on clever image processing techniques to mask any jarring transitions between lenses. Higher frame rates require faster processing, which is one reason this feature may not be available when shooting at the highest speeds. How well Samsung will be able to implement this function remains to be seen.
The alternative is to stick to the lens on which you started your recording, then rely on lower-quality digital zoom and image processing to alter the level of magnification. Quality differences aside, and perhaps more importantly, there’s no way to zoom out digitally any further than the point where you started without switching lenses—If you need to change to a wider angle, you must stop recording, swap lenses and start another video.
The ability to switch quickly to the front camera without interrupting a recording could also be handy if you want to show a quick reaction without interrupting your flow.
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Eugen Boglaru is an AI aficionado covering the fascinating and rapidly advancing field of Artificial Intelligence. From machine learning breakthroughs to ethical considerations, Eugen provides readers with a deep dive into the world of AI, demystifying complex concepts and exploring the transformative impact of intelligent technologies.
