Galaxy S21 hands-on camera review

Most consumers want a smartphone that can take good quality photos and the new

Samsung

Galaxy S21 does not disappoint here. The Galaxy S21 series, which includes the S21+ and S21 Ultra, is available for pre-order and offers a variety of improvements over last year's lineup, including with cameras. Here's a handy look at some of the features of the Galaxy S21 camera system.

The

Galaxy S21 Series

officially launched on January 14 and will be released on January 29. It follows last year's Galaxy S20 lineup, which completely revamped Samsung's camera design and added new ways to capture and save photos and video. The S20 series could shoot 8K video at 24 fps and 4K video at 60 fps, while the S20 Ultra's high-end rear camera system included an unprecedented 100x Space Zoom. In contrast, the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 FE had maximum zooms of 30x.

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Samsung Galaxy S21 cameras: what you need to know

The appearance of the rear triple camera matrix has been changed on the

Galaxy S21 Series

. On the S21 (and S21+), the contour-cut metal case sits in the top left corner, with the LED flash next to the case. It's a more aesthetic design, but the lenses themselves are the same as in the Galaxy S20. They include a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens (0.5x magnification), a 12MP wide-angle lens (1x) and a 64MP telephoto lens (3x). As the ultra-wide-angle lens has a 120-degree field of view, photos taken with it can look a bit distorted with the filters turned off. However, in the settings there is an ultra-wide shape correction option, which does an impressive job of correcting distortion. Although this setting is not unique to Samsung, it should be noted that some phones perform this type of correction better than others. The front camera of the Galaxy S21 is 10MP, which also matches its predecessor.

S21 Space Zoom Improvements

While the Galaxy S21 Ultra offers an improved 100x Space Zoom that uses two telephoto lenses, the Galaxy S21 and S21+ again have to make do with 30x magnification. But this year's Space Zoom gets a boost with Zoom Lock. The feature uses an AI-powered image stabilizer to reduce camera shake and what

Samsung

call

"advanced super-resolution image processing"

to get better pictures.

When set to 20x or more, a preview appears on screen, showing a more magnified view of the scene. Tap the preview to effectively lock the view/focus so the image appears clearer. Zoom Lock also launches automatically if the phone remains stationary for 1.5 seconds. This is a significant update as one of the main issues with taking photos with telephoto lenses is that the smallest movements are amplified. The autofocus can make the problem even worse as it constantly tries to readjust itself with each of these small movements. the Zoom Lock feature helps fix this, although of course it can't do much. If the phone is moved around too much it will essentially unlock the zoom and the scene needs to be bright enough to get decent results.

It's best to use the S21 outdoors in the sun as the zoom is mostly digital. As mentioned above, the telephoto lens has 3x magnification, so space zoom digitally increases that magnification up to 10x. As with any phone at maximum zoom, images can be expected to contain some noise if the scene doesn't have enough surrounding light.

S21 8K video and ultra-high resolution images

Like the S20, the

S21

can record 8K video at 24 fps as well as 4K video at 60 fps. The former is shot using high-efficiency video encoding to save phone space, while the latter can be shot with or without HEVC enabled. It's a useful compression because a 4K 60fps video shot in HEVC is just over half the file size of a shot without it. The problem is that HEVC may not play on other devices.

It is also possible to grab stills from 8K videos and save them as ultra-high resolution images. While playing a video through the camera app, the user can click on the Snap icon and save it as a photo with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 and a file size of around 4 MB. The snapshot function can also be used with non-8K videos, but photos will be of lower resolution.

Become a director with the phone

One of the best

S21

features of the camera is the director's view, which allows users to switch between lenses while shooting video. As seen in the photo of the S21 Ultra above, the feature provides live thumbnails of lens views. If the user touches a thumbnail, the camera will switch shots on the fly. Unfortunately, it's not possible to zoom in Director's View mode, probably because the mode uses all lenses at once.

People can also record with the front camera at the same time to capture their own. reaction in what

Samsung

call her Vlogger view. Unlike live thumbnails, the final video will include the front camera recording. It can be configured to appear as a picture-in-picture on the main video, as seen above, or as a split screen. This last option could be a good option for people wishing to conduct an on-site interview. It's a bit of a gimmick, though, and thankfully users can use Director's View without the front camera.

The updated single take of S21

Samsung has updated its Single Take feature, which it introduced with the

Galaxy S20 series

. This feature is a quick way to capture both photos and videos with just one click. The user simply opens the Camera app and switches to Single Take mode. Then after pressing the shutter button, the phone will start recording the scene. It is recommended to move the phone to try different angles while recording. Using AI, it will then create a series of photos and video clips, meant to deliver the key moments of the action.

The feature can be set to run between five and 15 seconds and the user can choose the type of shots that can be captured: filtered videos, filtered photos, portraits and wide/cropped shots. The

S21 series

also adds two new categories: highlight videos and speed effect clips. As it seems, the former incorporates a highlight reel while the latter adds slow motion to some of the captured action. As with last year's iteration, Single Take is an interesting concept and could be useful in special situations, such as birthday parties or family outings, but the feature feels more like a novelty than anything else.

Overall, the< /p>

Galaxy S21

takes impressive photos and videos. The phone also comes with a number of other features, including motion photos, an updated portrait mode with various studio effects for the rear and front cameras, and an improved super steady mode for 60fps HD video. . While the S21 Ultra has more impressive specs, customers looking for a slightly more affordable camera phone, the S21 still offers a premium experience. The Samsung Galaxy S21 starts at $799.99 in the US and CA$1129.99 in Canada.

More:

Expect more Samsung devices to get S Pen support in the future

Source:

Samsung

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About the Author

Adam Swimmer

(84 articles published)

Adam Swimmer is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has worked in journalism for 17 years, mostly online. He covered various fields including technology, hard news and entertainment. Outside of work, some of his interests include sleeping, reading, and TV shows, especially K-dramas, sci-fi, and anime. He also watches a few serious shows or movies to make his largely useless film theory degree marginally relevant.

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