Above: The camera array on the S22 Ultra is one of the highlights of the upgraded smartphone. Images courtesy Samsung.
BitDepth#1341 for February 14, 2021
At Wednesday’s Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung introduced its new line of premium Galaxy S22 series cameras with a big emphasis on camera improvements for both pros and enthusiastic amateurs.
Along the way, they quietly made the Note series obsolete with the new S22 Ultra which now ships with a built-in SPen.
Samsung isn’t saying the Note is done, but any reasonable size and feature comparison with the last two editions of the Note series and with the addition of full SPen support with the previous S21 Ultra model, the S22 offers the benefits of the Note with a range of size options.
They even drop hints on the web page for the S22 Ultra, describing the product as having “the power of note” and “Note-worthy.”
Only the S22 Ultra ships with a stylus and has a slot built in to accommodate it.
Samsung’s announcement of the new devices linked up with the popular Netflix series Bridgerton for no apparent reason, indulging in cheerful anachronism and cultural relevance.
The company also announced a partnership with the UNDP, which is being supported by a Global Goals app developed by the company that explains the UN development initiative and allows users to donate to causes they find meaningful.
The app is preinstalled on the new Galaxy phones and is available for all Android users.
Taking its own step toward sustainability, Samsung is using more recycled materials in the S22, from recycled paper for the packaging to using material from recycled fishing nets for internal components.
Samsung’s emphasis on lifestyle photography kicks into higher gear with an improved camera system featuring a 3x, 10MP telephoto lens, 50MP standard wide lens, a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 10MP front facing camera on the S22 and S22+.
The S22 Ultra offers essentially the same camera systems, with a 40MP front facing camera, a 108MP standard wide lens and two 10MP telephoto lenses, one at 3x and the other at 10x.
Samsung has worked hard to reduce the camera bump created by their rear-mounted camera arrays and has almost eliminated it on the S22 series, though there is still a lens housing bump around the main cameras of the S22 Ultra.
Screen sizes remain consistent with the S21 series, with the S22 offering a 6.1 inch screen, the S22+ delivering 6.6 inches and the S22 Ultra displaying 6.8 inches on the diagonal.
For casual users, the camera app digs deeper into computational photography, using stereo depth mapping to evaluate images for object isolation, which the devices use for focus determination as well as making adjustments to exposure.
In a new Nightography mode, the cameras take multiple exposures and merge them computationally to improve dynamic range in low-light conditions.
When Samsung introduced this technology with the Note 10, it didn’t work well with even moderate motion in the frame.
But that was 2019 and this is 2022, so dramatic improvements are to be expected.
These features are available in Samsung’s Camera app, but the company has been working with the developers of popular social media apps to integrate more of the features of the S22’s camera system into their software.
The company announced integration with Snapchat on Wednesday and plans deeper integration of camera capabilities in the Instagram and Tik Tok apps.
For pro photographers dissatisfied with how the Camera app controls the camera hardware, Samsung has now formally announced availability of the Expert RAW camera app, which is supposed to offer more fine-grained control of the camera system in the S22.
S21 users can download the app from the Galaxy Store, but compatibility has not been extended to S20 owners.
Samsung will release the cameras on February 25 with expanded colour options available online. Pricing is set at US$799 for the S22, $999 for the S22+ and $1,199 for the S22 Ultra with promised compatibility for the next four full Android updates.
