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Unable to select zoom lens in normal light conditions

(Topic created on: 17-02-2022 02:25 PM)
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RayLeeJackson
Journeyman
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I'm aware of similar posts, but I can't stress this enough.
Note 20 ultra.

The problem is the camera app, that don't select the zoom lens when it is should. Only in extremely light conditions, the zoom lens is selected at 5X zoom. But in common light conditions the camera-app uses the main camera instead, and then digitally zooms (enlarges) the image from the main camera, resulting in really poor quality. AND NO - The result is ALWAYS worse than with the zoom-lens - even in very low light conditions. ALWAYS. The zoom camera is why I bought this phone, and this programming error in the camera app renders the zoom-lens useless.

To my knowledge this is an issue on newer models as well.

I have always been a fan of Samsung phones, but this silly error makes me unable to recommend Samsung as camera phone in the  future. The simple fix for Samsung is to give us the option to choose lens manually. Why this even is an issue is beyond me. 

5 REPLIES 5
MadalinK
Hotshot
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Just a thought - Did you make sure that the 108MP resolutions is not currently selected?

My 5x telephoto lens works very well even in some low light conditions.





Current phone : Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G 512GB
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RayLeeJackson
Journeyman
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Yes. Fully aware that the 108MP mode only use the main camera. In "low" light conditions the zoom lens only activates when zoomed to 10x. But some rare occasions, the zoom lens is activated at 5x as well, and the picture quality is in another league - of course - everybody knows that digital enlargement can't compete with optical zoom. Everybody except the programmers at Samsung. The most annoying thing about this, is the extremely simple solution - Let us choose lens. 

Members_SSpjU2P
First Poster
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YES! THIS! It's such a simple fix, and yet this issue has been there for years, and the support brushes it off saying stuff like "well it's not light enough, duh". 5x optical zoom works only under direct sunlight and I never ever succeeded to apply it under artificial lighting of any kind. Samsung, please fix for god's sake. 

 

I really hope Pro Camera app will give us a workaround for this

RayLeeJackson
Journeyman
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Thanks for backing my post.

Still can't believe this is an issue. A premium camera phone where we can't select witch camera to use. 

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Brian-Z
Student
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Thank you for posting this!  I just got my Note20 Ultra a week ago & could not figure out how to get 5x OPTICAL zoom working (and still cannot).  At first, I thought I was selecting 5x optical zoom, but when I opened the image file in my photo editor, I kept seeing "5x Digital Zoom" in the image file EXIF data.  I even tried blocking the other two lenses and set the zoom to 10x, then 5x and managed to get a 5x optical shot, but only one time, then it refused to work again (not that it would be a real solution).  

This is just unbelievable, after all the hype about a 5x optical zoom, but while the hardware may exist, it is now unavailable for actually taking photos.  And my attempts were shooting a bright purple azalea in full durect sun, so no issue with not having enough light.

Samsung has really screwed this up!  And has gotten away with false advertising, IMO.  If I  wasn't  so dependent on having a Note with an SD card, I wouldn't be in this situation, but I also want a great camera & fully expect Samsung to live up to its word and get this fixed!  I took a pass on the "Note"22 due to lack of SDcard slot - another big mistake IMO.

Unbelieveable!