S23 ultra camera - Photo size low?

[ksharon]

Hi,

Started to use the S23 ultra camera.

When taking images in 16:9 the size is 9MP in f1.7 which means it's the 200MP sensor that took the image

Why is it so low, the device has a 200MP sensor?

[jimmyk87]

Change the aspect ratio to 3:4 and the sensor will bin the image to 12.5mp instead

[Kenso62]

Also it may help if you changed the aspect to 3:4 and select the 200MP sensor

[smiley]

As the others have said... the raw photo size is 4:3.  Any other size is a crop and enlargement from the 4:3 picture.    Using simple maths... 4:3 = 16:12.   

Therefore if you select 16:9 format then you are losing the top and bottom portions of the raw picture which are being cropped ... hence the size difference.   Ideally do your shooting in 4:3 and any editing afterwards. 

Kind Regards

Smiley

[ksharon]

I am probably missing something here, in 16:12 (4:3) we have 200MP, so in 16:9 it should be 200*.75 = 150MP. 

But yet the image is 9MP, how did the res go from 200MP to 9MP is still not clear. 

In any case is there an option to use 16:9 with higher resolutions? 

Tnx

[smiley]

The camera uses something called 'pixel binning'. Although the sensor is capable of 200mp... these are grouped up into a 16 pixels per bin.

The reason this is done is quite scientific and you can see this in samsung videos on YouTube or the unpacked event video. Effectively this is done to improve image processing quality and allow more light for low light photos.

Anyhow, the effective size of these images is not 200mp... but effectively 200 divided by /16.

Hence 12.5mp.

The previous generations of S21U and S22U had a 100mp sensor... with pixel binning of 9 pixels to a group. Hence for these phones the low light was not as good... and these had an effective megapixel size of 100/9 equating to ~11 mp.

[ksharon]

got you, so 200MP/16*.75=9.375MP ~ 9MP, tnx

Is there a way to control the binning? in full daylight i don't see the necessity to bin 16:1, and prefer more pixels in the image.

[GusB · Accepted solution]

9:16 at 200mp isn't an option.... 3:4 uses the full frame at 12, 50 or 200mp - anything else is a crop.

[smiley]

@ksharon I thought this article would help explain... quite an interesting read 👍

https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/What-is-Pixel-Binning/td-p/3944712

[Jamie99]

Sorry if it's a stupid question but will the quality be the same overall when shooting in 4:3 and 16:9 because the extra MP when shooting in 4:3 are used on the extra image captured?