S21 5G - RAW Quality and Missing Format Options

[JamesClow]

Hi, 

I've been learning my way around the camera and have found a few things confusing, so I hope someone would be able to help me understand.

Normal camera mode has an option for 64MP but the pro camera mode doesn't.

No option to take photo's at 64MP RAW, as 64MP is normal camera mode only, and RAW is pro mode only.

RAW images look much worse than the jpg version of the same photo (low detail+grainy).  

[GusB]

Sorry I don't mean to be patronising if you already know this - but raw images may look worse on the surface, but that's because they are not processed in the same way that regular images are - as you suggest, they often look worse. However the benefit to raw is during an edit, a higher level of data is captured in raw meaning you can manipulate things MORE in post.

In terms of using the 64 (or in my case 108) sensor in pro, yes this is a gap.

Hope this helps?

For most shots, I generally use normal photo mode, occasionally the larger sensor for certain shots and all my edits come out fine.

I mainly use pro mode for astrophotography and daytime long exposure shots with an ND filter.

Feel free to check out my photography thread https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s21-series/official-s21-photography-thread/td-p/3172224 and share your photos!!

[JamesClow]

Hi Gus, thanks for replying :-).

What you're saying makes sense, I guess I'm just not used to seeing it this way around. I'm a complete photography noob, and what's thrown me was seeing so much worse on the raw on the S21 compared to the Nikon's/Canon's I've played with.  Unfortunately I only have Corel Aftershot 3 which seems to not like the dng format, so I'm going to have to do a bit of research about the format. I had to use Paintshop Pro to open it and zoom as Windows photos didn't want to zoom in.  

I've played around doing some astrophotography on my Nikon which was fun and the raw was definitely useful in that instance. I think for now I'll just stick with the normal photo mode and 64MP which takes decent shots. It's just nice sometimes to know you're capturing the best possible quality when your snapping family photo's etc for later tweaking.

I love your photo's btw, absolutely stunning 🙂

[GusB]

Ah very kind thank you.

Id recommend SnapSeed (free) and Adobe Lightroom (sort of free) for phone photo editing.