https://www.androidcentral.com/phon...lly-better-at-taking-photos-of-moving-objects
Mav.
Sent from the future.
Mav.
Sent from the future.
finally better than what?
https://www.androidcentral.com/phon...lly-better-at-taking-photos-of-moving-objects
Mav.
Sent from the future.
I have an S23 Ultra and I am also a professional photographer for context.
-- truncated to not have a massive response...
This is very helpful thankyouI have an S23 Ultra and I am also a professional photographer for context.
First of all, the S23U does not really have any meaningful shutter lag. Every camera has a tiny bit of lag, but it's not enough to really affect anything on the S23U. The YouTubers saying that shutter lag is giving them blurry photos quite frankly don't even understand how a camera works, and you probably shouldn't be getting your information from those people for anything else either. By default, the phone takes a picture once you release your finger from the shutter button, not when it touches it, and that gives the perception of having way more lag than there actually is. You can change a setting to take a picture as soon as your finger touches the button. On top of this you can also tell the phone to prioritize speed over quality, which I don't personally do, but it will speed it up even further. It also makes 200MP captures faster if you care about that.
If you are getting blurry photos of moving subjects, it's either focus or shutter speed related. Shutter lag has absolutely nothing to do with freezing action, but it may affect the shooter's ability to time the perfect moment. In the above posted examples within the links, no EXIF info is provided, so we have no clue if appropriate settings are being used to freeze that type of action (probably not...)
Freezing motion works exactly the same with a smartphone as any other camera - as long as your shutter speed is sufficient, you will freeze the action. In full auto mode, smartphones tend to prioritize slower shutter speeds so they can let plenty of light in and get away with a lower ISO to give you a cleaner image. This is not helpful for action shots. The second thing is autofocus, and really you can't expect any smartphone to be able to track action very well - they just aren't set up for it. Side-to-side motion is not nearly as hard to track as distance changes (subject moving towards or away from the camera), however. The S23U does have DPAF (dual pixel AF) but you aren't going to get autofocus performance anywhere near what you would see in a good mirrorless camera. Generally speaking, you need to rely on the huge depth of field given by the tiny image sensors to keep a moving subject in focus with a smartphone rather than actual AF tracking.
If you want to try get a decent action shot with your smartphone, there's a few things you can do:
1) Set the shutter button to take the photo when you press it, not when you release it
2) Most importantly, make sure the shutter speed the camera is selecting is sufficient to actually freeze the motion. If it's not, use manual mode and force it. Freezing action in low light is the hardest (and most expensive) thing for even professional cameras to do, so don't be disappointed if you aren't getting amazing results from your smartphone in less than ideal conditions.
3) Make sure the subject will actually be in focus. If the camera isn't tracking the subject as expected, pre-focus on an area with roughly the same plane of focus as your subject. The tiny image sensors (relatively speaking) in smartphone cameras have plenty of depth of field so you don't have to be overly precise.
If you are trying to capture a very specific moment, or if you aren't sure when the action will begin:
1) Shoot a large burst of photos, preferably starting just before the action begins. You can do this by swiping down on the shutter button and holding.
2) Shoot a video and just extract the frame you want. 4K video gives you ~8MP photos, 8K video gives you ~33MP photos. The same rules for shutter speed apply to video *if* your goal is to freeze action and extract a frame. Regular video with too high of a shutter speed will look choppy.
The worst possible way to capture action is leaving everything in default/auto mode and expecting the camera to perform a miracle, which seems to be what most of the YouTubers are expecting.
Awesome post! Thanks for taking the time to share!I have an S23 Ultra and I am also a professional photographer for context.
First of all, the S23U does not really have any meaningful shutter lag. Every camera has a tiny bit of lag, but it's not enough to really affect anything on the S23U. The YouTubers saying that shutter lag is giving them blurry photos quite frankly don't even understand how a camera works, and you probably shouldn't be getting your information from those people for anything else either. By default, the phone takes a picture once you release your finger from the shutter button, not when it touches it, and that gives the perception of having way more lag than there actually is. You can change a setting to take a picture as soon as your finger touches the button. On top of this you can also tell the phone to prioritize speed over quality, which I don't personally do, but it will speed it up even further. It also makes 200MP captures faster if you care about that.
If you are getting blurry photos of moving subjects, it's either focus or shutter speed related. Shutter lag has absolutely nothing to do with freezing action, but it may affect the shooter's ability to time the perfect moment. In the above posted examples within the links, no EXIF info is provided, so we have no clue if appropriate settings are being used to freeze that type of action (probably not...)
Freezing motion works exactly the same with a smartphone as any other camera - as long as your shutter speed is sufficient, you will freeze the action. In full auto mode, smartphones tend to prioritize slower shutter speeds so they can let plenty of light in and get away with a lower ISO to give you a cleaner image. This is not helpful for action shots. The second thing is autofocus, and really you can't expect any smartphone to be able to track action very well - they just aren't set up for it. Side-to-side motion is not nearly as hard to track as distance changes (subject moving towards or away from the camera), however. The S23U does have DPAF (dual pixel AF) but you aren't going to get autofocus performance anywhere near what you would see in a good mirrorless camera. Generally speaking, you need to rely on the huge depth of field given by the tiny image sensors to keep a moving subject in focus with a smartphone rather than actual AF tracking.
If you want to try get a decent action shot with your smartphone, there's a few things you can do:
1) Set the shutter button to take the photo when you press it, not when you release it
2) Most importantly, make sure the shutter speed the camera is selecting is sufficient to actually freeze the motion. If it's not, use manual mode and force it. Freezing action in low light is the hardest (and most expensive) thing for even professional cameras to do, so don't be disappointed if you aren't getting amazing results from your smartphone in less than ideal conditions.
3) Make sure the subject will actually be in focus. If the camera isn't tracking the subject as expected, pre-focus on an area with roughly the same plane of focus as your subject. The tiny image sensors (relatively speaking) in smartphone cameras have plenty of depth of field so you don't have to be overly precise.
If you are trying to capture a very specific moment, or if you aren't sure when the action will begin:
1) Shoot a large burst of photos, preferably starting just before the action begins. You can do this by swiping down on the shutter button and holding.
2) Shoot a video and just extract the frame you want. 4K video gives you ~8MP photos, 8K video gives you ~33MP photos. The same rules for shutter speed apply to video *if* your goal is to freeze action and extract a frame. Regular video with too high of a shutter speed will look choppy.
The worst possible way to capture action is leaving everything in default/auto mode and expecting the camera to perform a miracle, which seems to be what most of the YouTubers are expecting.
I have an S23 Ultra and I am also a professional photographer for context.
First of all, the S23U does not really have any meaningful shutter lag. Every camera has a tiny bit of lag, but it's not enough to really affect anything on the S23U. The YouTubers saying that shutter lag is giving them blurry photos quite frankly don't even understand how a camera works, and you probably shouldn't be getting your information from those people for anything else either. By default, the phone takes a picture once you release your finger from the shutter button, not when it touches it, and that gives the perception of having way more lag than there actually is. You can change a setting to take a picture as soon as your finger touches the button. On top of this you can also tell the phone to prioritize speed over quality, which I don't personally do, but it will speed it up even further. It also makes 200MP captures faster if you care about that.
If you are getting blurry photos of moving subjects, it's either focus or shutter speed related. Shutter lag has absolutely nothing to do with freezing action, but it may affect the shooter's ability to time the perfect moment. In the above posted examples within the links, no EXIF info is provided, so we have no clue if appropriate settings are being used to freeze that type of action (probably not...)
Freezing motion works exactly the same with a smartphone as any other camera - as long as your shutter speed is sufficient, you will freeze the action. In full auto mode, smartphones tend to prioritize slower shutter speeds so they can let plenty of light in and get away with a lower ISO to give you a cleaner image. This is not helpful for action shots. The second thing is autofocus, and really you can't expect any smartphone to be able to track action very well - they just aren't set up for it. Side-to-side motion is not nearly as hard to track as distance changes (subject moving towards or away from the camera), however. The S23U does have DPAF (dual pixel AF) but you aren't going to get autofocus performance anywhere near what you would see in a good mirrorless camera. Generally speaking, you need to rely on the huge depth of field given by the tiny image sensors to keep a moving subject in focus with a smartphone rather than actual AF tracking.
If you want to try get a decent action shot with your smartphone, there's a few things you can do:
1) Set the shutter button to take the photo when you press it, not when you release it
2) Most importantly, make sure the shutter speed the camera is selecting is sufficient to actually freeze the motion. If it's not, use manual mode and force it. Freezing action in low light is the hardest (and most expensive) thing for even professional cameras to do, so don't be disappointed if you aren't getting amazing results from your smartphone in less than ideal conditions.
3) Make sure the subject will actually be in focus. If the camera isn't tracking the subject as expected, pre-focus on an area with roughly the same plane of focus as your subject. The tiny image sensors (relatively speaking) in smartphone cameras have plenty of depth of field so you don't have to be overly precise.
If you are trying to capture a very specific moment, or if you aren't sure when the action will begin:
1) Shoot a large burst of photos, preferably starting just before the action begins. You can do this by swiping down on the shutter button and holding.
2) Shoot a video and just extract the frame you want. 4K video gives you ~8MP photos, 8K video gives you ~33MP photos. The same rules for shutter speed apply to video *if* your goal is to freeze action and extract a frame. Regular video with too high of a shutter speed will look choppy.
The worst possible way to capture action is leaving everything in default/auto mode and expecting the camera to perform a miracle, which seems to be what most of the YouTubers are expecting.
Thanks for the info, I've indeed heard YouTubers say stupid things more than once... One question though. How are the iPhone and Pixel capable of taking much clearer photos of moving objects (e.g. pets) when in Auto mode? There's a famous test done where you wave your hand in front of the camera phone, and on the Samsung you always see motion blur where the hand leaves a visible trail, whereas on iPhone or Pixel, the hand is frozen in place. It's not that they prioritise faster shutter speeds in general, because those cameras tend to take both brighter shots than the Samsungs and also sharper motion shots... So I guess the only explanation is that those phones recognise when an object is in motion before the button is pressed, and in those cases only they decide to use a faster shutter speed, and otherwise use a slower one? And then the Samsungs always prioritises a slower shutter speed by default, meaning that still photos are sharp, but motion photos are blurry. And if you change the setting to prioritise faster shutter speed, then you're going to get less blurry motion shots, but darker and less sharp stills... So in this case, it's still a fault of the phone's Auto mode which is less efficient than the ones on iPhone and Pixel, and requires tweaking of settings to achieve the same results (which a lot of people using smartphones are not happy to do as they just expect to point and shoot on Auto all the time).
If you are trying to compare one phone to another, it has to be done under identical lighting and environmental conditions otherwise you aren't really comparing anything. It really just comes down to shutter speed, assuming everything is in focus, if we're talking about moving subjects. If you're outdoors or in a really bright environment, the default shutter speed in auto mode is probably going to be fast enough to freeze normal action (like a person running).
I've owned most Pixel phones and my wife uses the latest iPhone, and I personally have never seen them do anything out of the ordinary when it comes to taking photos of moving subjects. They all have to play by the same rules of physics. .
It depends on what the subject is and how fast it is moving.First of all, the S23U does not really have any meaningful shutter lag. Every camera has a tiny bit of lag, but it's not enough to really affect anything on the S23U.
Like other users already pointed out. If Iphone and Pixel can do it in auto, Samsung should also be able to. Auto is also what most people would use.The worst possible way to capture action is leaving everything in default/auto mode and expecting the camera to perform a miracle, which seems to be what most of the YouTubers are expecting.
Many thanks for the detailed response! Very interesting and definitely not too much off a tangent lol.
With regards to the hand test, it's done in this review in the same indoor environment: https://www.dxomark.com/samsung-galaxy-s22-ultra-exynos-camera-test-retested/
The Galaxy S22 Ultra Exynos is all blurry: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/...amsungGalaxyS22Ultra_Exynos_DxOMark_05-00.jpg
The iPhone 13 Pro Max has frozen the hand and is sharp: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/...88/Barman_AppleiPhone13Pro_DxOMark_05-00.jpeg
Downloading the images to see the EXIF data, we can see in the same conditions the Samsung at f/1.8 went for 1/25 sec. exposure at ISO-640, whereas the iPhone at f/1.5 went for 1/33 sec. exposure at ISO-500.
This is repeated in other tests I've seen including with the S23 Ultra vs the iPhone 14 Pro Max, for example at 2min 34s in this review where the iPhone is consistently sharper while being an indoors test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkEPM8yN8kU