[User Guide] ‘No Need for Heavy Cameras,’ A Day in San Francisco With the Galaxy S23 Ultra

When unveiling the Galaxy S23 Ultra at Galaxy Unpacked 2023, Samsung Electronics announced that the smartphone will “offer the best camera experience supported by the highest performance yet.” While visitors were enjoying the excitement of the first Galaxy Unpacked event held offline in three years, Samsung Newsroom tried out the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s premium mobile camera while roaming around San Francisco, where the event was held.

Ultra-Wide Angles and Telephoto Lenses, All Included With Galaxy S23 Ultra

From daily vlogs to short movies, videos filmed using a smartphone can be easily found on video platforms, displaying the widespread and increased use of smartphone cameras in daily life.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra offers a wide range of shooting options, including wide angle, ultra-wide angle and even telephotography, using three types of main rear lenses and the 3x optical zoom Telephoto Camera. Each of the rear lenses shoot and create unique images that capture different vibes in various conditions and settings. With a total weight of 233 grams and a 6.8-inch display, the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers the crispness and diverse features of a digital camera brilliantly on a single, lightweight smartphone.

▲ Equipped with three main rear cameras and a Telephoto Camera, the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers the ultimate shooting experience for all situations and conditions.

When venturing out into the streets of San Francisco, a notable feature of the city is Lombard Street, showcasing the city’s uphill and downhill streets. Thanks to the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s powerful 200 MP camera, amateur or experienced photographers can perfectly capture the unique vibes of the downtown area. While miles away, Coit Tower, which stands at the top of Telegraph Hill south of Russian Hill, seems just a short distance away on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. From just beyond the intersection of California Street sits the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The Galaxy S23 Ultra captured the different moods of this scene vibrantly using different angles of view and lenses, all with just a touch of a button.

▲ Photos captures using the Ultra-Wide Camera (left), Wide Camera (center) and Telephoto Camera (right)

Equipped with Dual Pixel technology, the Ultra-Wide Camera and the Telephoto Camera secured high-resolution images in 12MP and 10MP, respectively, with natural focusing to capture backgrounds smoothly and clearly. With Super Quad Pixel technology, shoot images with pin-sharp resolution easily thanks to enhanced autofocus functionality. Additionally, the 200MP Wide Camera provides stunning image quality on a soft background with an F1.7 aperture module.

▲ Utilizing the Galaxy S23 Ultra Telephoto Camera with 10x zoom to capture distant subjects clearly

Capturing the Craters of the Moon: Ultra-High-Resolution 200MP Camera Offers the Highest Resolution on a Smartphone

The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with an improved Adaptive Pixel sensor. Depending on the characteristics and brightness of the landscape you want to capture, the resolution automatically changes to 200MP, 50MP or 12MP. On a sunny day, easily experience the clarity and vibrance of 200MP ultra-high resolution.

▲ Capture distant subjects without losing quality or clarity thanks to the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP Wide Camera.

The brilliance of 200MP can be experienced no better than when zooming in on a photo or video. In many cases when you zoom in on an original photo or video to crop it, you will end up with broken image pixels.

Thanks to the high-resolution pixels of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the details are crisp and clear even when users crop the image. Experience the benefits of this high-resolution feature by cropping a photo of a person or subject against a wide natural backdrop or taking close-up photos where the camera must be held very close to the subject.

▲Painted ladies houses captured on using the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP camera (left) and the same photo zoomed in and cropped (right)

In addition to higher resolution, the pixel size has increased, offering more lifelike and realistic image quality. When filming videos in 8K at 30FPS with the Galaxy S23 series, including the Galaxy S23 Ultra, larger pixels and a wider angle of view allows you to experience a sense of depth and realism as if the action is unfolding right before your eyes.

▲ Shoot smooth and stunning high-resolution videos in 8K at 30fps easily on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra also shoots clear and stable shots without motion shakes or blur thanks to an improved, wider OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and VDIS (Video Digital Image Stabilization). The optical image stabilization (OIS) correction angle has increased twofold, giving users the ability to take photos with greater stability and less camera shake with the new model. Not only does the OIS feature reduce vibration in photos, but it also stabilizes videos automatically when shooting 8K, 4K, FHD and HD videos. OIS also reduces vibration caused by the user’s footsteps while shooting nighttime videos, providing stable and clear images without motion blur.

This feature comes in handy, especially when using the Space Zoom feature, which enables up to 100x zoom. The Galaxy S23 Ultra captured the craters of the moon in detail thanks to the OIS feature and Space Zoom, minimizing even the slightest movements that could ruin the picture.

▲ Photos captured of the Moon using the Space Zoom feature at 1x zoom (left), 10x zoom (center) and 100x zoom (right)

Upgrade Your Selfie Game With Smarter AI and Warm Tones

In addition to the main rear cameras, the front-facing camera has also been improved, helping take your selfie game to the next level. Add a touch of liveliness to high-resolution photos with the 12MP Dual Pixel- and AI-enhanced front-facing camera.

What better place to take a selfie in San Francisco than the Golden Gate Bridge? Although it was a bit cloudy, the Galaxy S23 Ultra was able to express rich colors with the help of Super High Dynamic Range (Super HDR), which is supported even for selfie images and videos.

▲ An upgraded front-facing camera provides high-resolution image quality for epic selfies.

▲ Capture both the beauty of the scenery and your best side with the revamped front-facing camera (top). Results of selfie captured with the Galaxy S23 Ultra (bottom)

▲ The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s front-facing camera captures not only photos in great detail but videos as well.

On the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the color tone setting adds a warm tone to the front-facing camera, an update from previous models which used a natural tone, to add a warm hue to any selfie. Users can choose different options when taking a selfie depending on the mood of the photo and their skin tone for a truly personalized and optimized selfie-taking experience.

▲ With the warm tone (right), compared to ones taken in natural colors (left).

Create Masterful Photos and Videos Unaffected by Darkness With Nightography

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Nightography has revamped the camera experience. All Galaxy S23 series models are capable of reducing noise of photos and videos even in dark environments thanks to image signal processing (ISP) that uses AI solutions. AI ISP creates photos or videos by adjusting the saved data on an image sensor and improves the detailed color tone and picture quality by overcoming the physical limitations of the camera.

The Palace of Fine Arts was quite dark because there was no light other than the building illumination.

▲ Photo taken of the Palace of Fine Arts using Galaxy S23 Ultra (right) versus a photo taken on another smartphone (left)

Despite this, the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Nightography perfectly captured the details of the illumination and the lines of the building reflected in the lake. The difference became much clearer when this photo was compared with another photo taken with a different smartphone.

▲ Taking beautiful selfies in the dark has never been easier thanks to Nightography (top). Selfies captured in the dark using Night Mode (right) provide enhanced details and brightness for stunning photos in dark or poorly lit places.

Not only does Nightography perform strongly when capturing photos on the rear camera, it shines brightly when shooting selfies in the dark as well. A selfie taken in a place with no streetlight came out crisp and bright, capturing even the fine details of the hair.

After moving to another location, we experimented with Nightography in the square in front of the Ferry Building. While there was more light, it was now well into the night. This was no challenge for Nightography, allowing for an epic selfie to be taken in the heart of the city with the lights from the streetlights and the surrounding buildings in the background.

▲ The various lenses of the Galaxy S23 Ultra allow for different vibes and angles to be captured.

Stronger Pro-Level Camera Experience With Expert RAW

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Expert RAW app for experts and creators has also been further improved. As it is possible to take photos in up to 50MP with Expert RAW, the Galaxy S23 Ultra can capture and store images like no other smartphone.

▲ Downloading and using the Expert RAW app is both easy and seamless on your Galaxy S23 Ultra.

An original (“raw”) file that is taken using the Expert RAW app contains rich color data. The app directly adjusts the ISO, shutter speed, focus and more to create the desired feeling and effect while expanding adjustment capabilities during post-capture editing. It enables the dimming of overexposed parts while reviving the details of underexposed parts for truly perfect pictures.

However, as a raw file contains a large amount of color data, each photo is large in size. The same is true for high-resolution photo and video files shot using the basic camera. For avid photographers, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a large storage capacity of at least 512GB and offers “optimal performance,” hence the name Ultra. With optimal usability, users can save large, high-resolution files without the fear of running out of space or lowered quality.

▲ Taking professional-level photographs is a breeze with the Expert RAW app.

▲ Capture dynamic and diverse scenes, such as the Bay Bridge at night, with the Expert RAW app.

▲ Final version of the photo of the Bay Bridge captured with the Expert RAW app.

The Expert RAW app has unique features that can increase photo expertise. The app, which captures high-quality 16-bit Computational Raw File images, gives users the ability to shoot up to ten photos consecutively for excellent photos taken in sequence.¹ Additionally, there is Multiple exposures, which combines multiple images taken separately into a single photo, and Astrophoto settings, which enables users to take photos of the stars and the Milky Way in the night sky.

With Astrophoto settings, the Galaxy S23 Ultra captures the movement of stars by taking multiple photos for a set period of time according to the movement of celestial bodies. Thanks to cutting-edge AI segmentation technology and multi-frame process editing, shooting and editing astrophotography without the use of professional equipment is now easier than ever. Users can also capture stunning time-lapse videos of the night sky with Hyperlapse, allowing you to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the night sky in greater detail.

▲ Multiple exposures using the Expert RAW app allows for multiple captured images to be combined into a single image.

▲ With Astrophoto settings, capture breathtaking shots of the night sky and enjoy stars and celestial bodies in all their beauty right on your Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is being recognized for opening a new premium era of smartphones. The latest camera technology and expert-level features, which were only possible with professional equipment, are now available for both novice and professional photographers, all on the convenience on your Galaxy smartphone. Stay tuned for more industry-leading camera innovation, led by none other than Galaxy.

¹ The actual product may differ depending on the customer’s usage environment.