Skip to main content

Samsung's 200MP sensor has one very clever new video trick for the S24 Ultra

Samsung has restarted the megapixel war by revealing some new camera features for its 200MP image sensor – and one standout trick that could give the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra bragging rights over the iPhone 15 Pro, for video at least.  

The new feature, called ISOCELL Zoom Anyplace, uses the considerable resolution of Samsung's 200MP sensor and the grunt of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to let you simultaneously shoot a wide field of view with a zoomed-in tracking shot of a person or subject.

Samsung is keen to stress that this feature isn't just digitally cropping into your image – instead, it uses what Samsung calls "in-sensor zoom" to maintain video resolution and detail. Like Google's Super Res Zoom technique, the cropped area of the sensor is remosaiced (or reinterpreted), letting you capture smaller sections of your scene in 4K resolution.

Two shots of basketball players playing on court being shot on a smartphone

(Image credit: Samsung)

Combine this with automatic subject tracking, powered by Qualcomm's AI engine, and you have a potentially powerful video mode that could give you alternative shots and angles, without needing to sacrifice your wider composition.

This idea isn't entirely new. The Sony ZV-E1 recently arrived with an Auto Framing feature, that gives you three different crops of the full image area and tracks a subject as they move around the frame. 

We've also seen Honor introduce a Solo Cut Mode, while the Filmic Pro app's DoubleTake feature also pioneered the idea of multi-cam shooting from a phone (albeit using different cameras, rather than sensor crops).

But the Zoom Anyplace feature still certainly looks like a versatile, user-friendly implementation of the concept. The only question is which phone it'll come to first, but we have a good idea – the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is expected to have a 200MP sensor and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, so it'll almost certainly be the one to debut this feature when it launches in January or February 2024. 

Analysis: Video is the next battleground

A smartphone with multiple camera lenses

(Image credit: Samsung)

Mirrorless cameras have offered on-sensor crop modes, as opposed to digital zoom, for a while now, and these techniques do generally offer better image quality than more straightforward digital crops.

But the results also aren't necessarily 'lossless' and it remains to be seen how well ISOCELL Zoom Anyplace works in practice. In reality, it'll likely produce better results in well-lit environments, so don't necessarily expect it to be a pro multi-cam setup at your next concert.

Still, this ability to 'zoom' into photos and videos while maintaining resolution was one of the main reasons why the iPhone moved up to a 48MP sensor (after years at 12MP resolution), and this use case for the 200MP resolution of Samsung's sensor is an interesting one given the continued interest in the best YouTube cameras.

Photos at 200MP are less useful, but Samsung is also promising speedier processing for those thanks to another new feature called End-to-End (E2E) AI Remosaic. In short, this allows the remosaicing and image signal processing to occur simultaneously, rather than one after the other, so reducing the frustratingly slow shooting time of 200MP snaps.

It certainly sounds like the fight for the title of best camera phone in 2024 is going to be just as feisty as this year.

You might also like



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Copilot leak suggests deeper assimilation with Windows 11 features

Key Windows 11 features may soon be customizable as Microsoft further integrates its Windows Copilot AI assistant into the operating system. This tidbit comes from tech news site Windows Latest , which claims to have discovered new .json (JavaScript Object Notation) files within recent preview builds of Windows 11. These files apparently hint at future upgrades for the desktop AI assistant. For example, a “TaskManagerService-ai-plugin.json” was found which is supposedly a “plugin for Task Manager integration”. If this ever comes out, it could give users the ability to “monitor or close running apps using” Copilot. In total, six are currently tested and they affect various aspects of Windows 11. Next, there is an “AccessbilityTools-ai-plugin.json” that gives Copilot a way to “control accessibility [tools]. This would make it "easier for those with [a] disability to navigate through the system.” Third is “ai-plugin-WindowsSettings.json” for controlling important Windows 11 set...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google Chrome releases security fix for this major flaw, so update now

Google says it has fixed a high-severity flaw in its Chrome browser which is currently being exploited by threat actors in the wild.  In a security advisory , the company described the flaw being abused and urged the users to apply the fix immediately.  "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild," the advisory reads. Automatic updates The zero-day in question is a confusion weakness vulnerability in the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, the company said. Usually, this type of flaw can be used to crash the browser, but in this case it can also be used to run arbitrary code on compromised endpoints.  The flaw was discovered by Clement Lecigne from the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG). Usually, TAG works on finding flaws abused by nation-states, or state-sponsored threat actors. There is no word on who the threat actors abusing this flaw are, though. Read more > Patch Google Chrome now to fix this emergency security flaw > Emergency...
Post a Comment
Read more

Samsung's ViewFinity S9 may be the monitor creatives have been searching for

Originally revealed during CES 2023 , Samsung has finally launched its ViewFinity S9 5K monitor after nine long months of waiting.  According to the announcement, the ViewFinity S9 is the company’s first-ever 5K resolution (5,120 x 2880 pixels) IPS display aimed primarily at creatives. IPS stands for in-plane switching , a form of LED tech offering some of the best color output and viewing angles on the market. This quality is highlighted by the fact that the 27-inch screen supports 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut plus delivers 600 nits of brightness.  Altogether, these deliver great picture quality made vibrant by saturated colors and dark shadows. The cherry on top for the ViewFinity S9 is a Matte Display coating to “drastically [reduce] light reflections.”  As a direct rival to the Apple Studio Display , the monitor is an alternative for creative professionals looking for options. It appears Samsung has done its homework as the ViewFinity S9 addresses some of...
Post a Comment
Read more