S23 Ultra camera

[Georgie2]

Hi everyone- when I updated my phone to One UI 6, I lost the 50 MP and 200 MP options in the banner at the top of the camera which used to be available in only the 3:4 ratio. Instead I have 12 M, 50M, and 200 M options in all ratios; does this mean MP? Sorry for my ignorance, but the actual quality of my photos has decreased significantly and the 1:1 defaults to 9 MP. I missed a critical opportunity today to take spectacular winter photos because they are all grainy and low quality. What happened to the 50 and 200 MP options and how do I get back to taking high quality photos? It's the primary reason why I bought this phone. 

[DIABLOMAI · Accepted solution]

So, the main camera is 200 MP, at 200mp, the pixel binning is 1:1, when you take 50 mp photos, it's 1:4 and at 12 MP it's 1:16
Basically, pixel binning means combining pixels to form a new image pixel, which has higher quality. By taking the best parts of each of the old pixels to create the new one, meaning the higher the binning ratio, the lower the chance of you getting a bad photo.
While more MP means there is more information/detail in the photos taken, 200 MP is over 16x the amount of detail than 12MP. But the quality suffers depending on how the picture was taken. If it's in perfect conditions, you will not be able to tell the difference, but that's rarely the case, similar to how you got the grainy photos.
For almost all cases, the 12MP mode works perfectly for most people, and the quality doesn't suffer as pixel binning gets rid of any 'errors' in the photo.
I'd only recommend the 50 MP for large area shots as there is still some binning and less likely for any issues with the photo. And the 200MP mode I would only recommend for people who know how to get perfect conditions I.e, brightness, exposure, shadows etc

[DIABLOMAI]

The 200MP camera in the title is mainly for marketing, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but Samsung could have easily added a 12/20MP camera sensor instead of 200MP and gotten a similar quality of photos. That's why for about 95% of people, the 12 MP, either at the 9:16 or 3:4 ratio, mode is the best as it produces much less 'bad' quality photos due to the error pixels being filtered out during binning

[BandOfBrothers · Accepted solution]

@Georgie2 

When I launch my camera and tap on the 12M  at the top in the banner then the option of 200M and 50M shows. 

[Georgie2]

Thank you for taking the time to explain; I just learned a lot!  

[Georgie2]

Thank you!

[Georgie2]

Yep- me, too. I know this sounds dumb, but with the update and the nomenclature changing, even though I assumed 'M' meant 'MP', I also wondered if it stood for 'metre', as in distance. Samsung shouldn't do this to old people like me. 😏

[G0UDG]

Check out my photos from.the s23ultra I can't fault the camera I have taken pictures on both 12mp and 200mp with zero issues