The downgrade of the 10x telephoto to a 5x one in the Galaxy S24 Ultra has likely caught your attention already, at this point. But a rumor suggests that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will continue to offer the 100x zoom support despite having the downgraded telephoto. Now, the image quality in 100x level with the new configuration is a matter of discussion.
The next generation Ultra phone from Samsung is in the news for quite a while and all the camera sensors have been revealed in the form of rumors. The downgrade of the signature 10x telephoto to a 5x one in the Galaxy S24 Ultra has definitely disappointed many. Although, Samsung most likely has conducted a fair bit of research before taking the step. And the downgrade actually seems reasonable, and here’s the probable reason they behind it.
Retention of 100x zoom – will it be the same?
The zoom level of the telephoto seems to be the biggest contributor behind image quality in zoomed shots. And while RGcloudS claims about the retention of 100x zoom, replacing the 10x telephoto with a 5x one might convince you about a downgrade in image quality.
But in recent years we have seen a number of instances including the Moon shots in a Samsung device, the super resolution zoom in a Pixel and many more. In simple words, there’s much more than just the camera sensor that can influence the end result.
The zoom situation of Galaxy S24 Ultra might not be a downgrade
If you can remember, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra brought a 12MP 5x telephoto. The device offers 50x zoom. In this regard, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, due its higher 48MP telephoto, can actually zoom longer digitally. It will achieve the 50x zoom level with a higher amount of detail.
Just for example, upscaling this 50x zoomed image with on-device generative AI (remember the Moon shots) will very easily achieve 100x level with a decent quality. Now, the comparisons with the dedicated 10x periscope telephoto of the Galaxy S23 Ultra is something that remains queued until the launch.
But technically, the 100x zoom shots of the Galaxy S24 Ultra should be of decent quality with the higher 48MP telephoto sensor and an improvement in the ML models used in the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
