- Mar 12, 2016
- 1,288
- 12
- 38
I recently returned a OnePlus 8 pro due to screen burn-in and thought I would take a punt on the S20 ultra rather than go back to the S20+, I purchased it from John Lewis in the UK so unlike some retailers (looking at you Carphonewarehouse) they do have generous and fair returns policy.
Firstly I like it a lot more than I thought I would, it does not feel too big and just feels planted and more solid than the OnePlus did and the extra screen jump from the plus is noticeable IMO too. Here comes the but though which is that the camera is a mess when used indoors, yes it has the trademark Samsung blurry vision if your subject even thinks about moving a fraction but I knew that going in. The biggest issue though is the autofocus, now I also kind of also knew about this going in but with 3 rounds of fixes and many seeming happy now I hoped it would be ok and in a lot of conditions it is ok but in some it is just a mess. I used to shoot for a living and it actually reminds me of the Canon 1D MK3 that I briefly owned (a camera that was the tipping point in a decision to move to Nikon) It just seems to be attracted to focus elsewhere in the scene if there is something with more contrast even if that is not near where you are putting the AF point, that and sometimes it would just back-focus for no reason at all! Have added a few examples below.
Appreciate that this is torture test with the dark cat and higher contrast elsewhere in the scene but it is one that an iPhone 11 or Pixel has no issues with. I must have taken 20 images and every one had the cat soft and was either front or back focussed on the pillow or chair. I tried fixed AF and also tracking but this did not seem to change the results, interestingly I also tried Gcam go and ZGCAM and hit the same issue which points to a hardware constraint maybe? I am also on Exynos FWIW.
I might actually go down the Samsung support rabbit hole and see what they say.....
Firstly I like it a lot more than I thought I would, it does not feel too big and just feels planted and more solid than the OnePlus did and the extra screen jump from the plus is noticeable IMO too. Here comes the but though which is that the camera is a mess when used indoors, yes it has the trademark Samsung blurry vision if your subject even thinks about moving a fraction but I knew that going in. The biggest issue though is the autofocus, now I also kind of also knew about this going in but with 3 rounds of fixes and many seeming happy now I hoped it would be ok and in a lot of conditions it is ok but in some it is just a mess. I used to shoot for a living and it actually reminds me of the Canon 1D MK3 that I briefly owned (a camera that was the tipping point in a decision to move to Nikon) It just seems to be attracted to focus elsewhere in the scene if there is something with more contrast even if that is not near where you are putting the AF point, that and sometimes it would just back-focus for no reason at all! Have added a few examples below.
Appreciate that this is torture test with the dark cat and higher contrast elsewhere in the scene but it is one that an iPhone 11 or Pixel has no issues with. I must have taken 20 images and every one had the cat soft and was either front or back focussed on the pillow or chair. I tried fixed AF and also tracking but this did not seem to change the results, interestingly I also tried Gcam go and ZGCAM and hit the same issue which points to a hardware constraint maybe? I am also on Exynos FWIW.
I might actually go down the Samsung support rabbit hole and see what they say.....