Continuing with the deluge of camera improvements on the Galaxy S21, Samsung has improved the Space Zoom feature on the Ultra model.
Space Zoom on the Galaxy S21 Ultra still comes with the same 100x zoom that Samsung introduced last year. But the feature has been improved overall with better quality shots. There’s also some all-new features that were added to Space Zoom. Courtesy of new hardware and software.
AI doesn’t play as big of a role here as it does with some of the other camera features on this device. Instead, Samsung has enhanced the zoom capabilities by adding a second telephoto lens. Which lets you play with possibilities and get slightly different looking shots. Those are only part of the improvements though.
Space Zoom on the Galaxy S21 Ultra has a new ‘Zoom Lock’ feature
At the time of writing Samsung hasn’t gone into too much detail on it, but one of the improvements to the zoom is with the new Zoom Lock feature.
This improves the quality of the zoomed in image. However Samsung did not explain in much detail exactly how this works. Improvements to Space Zoom are available on the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+ as well, but those two phones don’t have the 100x.
With those two models the zoom is limited to 30x. So you can still get some really great zoom shots. And they should still end up looking better than they would with last year’s hardware. You just won’t be able to zoom in as much as you would with the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Use the two telephoto lenses for 3x or 10x optical zoom photos
One thing Samsung was keen to point out with these new changes was the inclusion of the two telephoto lenses. These are only available on the back of the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Using these two lenses you can get 3x optical or 10x optical zoom images. Samsung says these also help improve the quality of Space Zoom and give you a better experience with it.
On top of that the Galaxy S21 Ultra has all of the same camera features as the other two Galaxy S21 models. So if you want the most camera features you can possibly have in the Galaxy S21 series devices, the Ultra is the model you go for.
In addition to improved zoom, the Galaxy S21 also introduces improvements to the Single Take feature and to portrait mode shots. It’s also added 8K video capture and the ability to grab high-quality still photos from the footage.