Samsung Galaxy S10 Camera review for long term

Samsung S10 smartphone, even after six months of its launch tops the list of flagship smartphones. The phone performs exorbitantly in terms of speed, battery, design, and looks. Read here: Top 10 reasons to buy the Samsung S10 phone. The phone even has a better camera than its predecessor. This post, we are covering the review of Samsung S10 camera.

Camera Specs

Talking about the rear camera, Samsung S10 has a triple-lens horizontally set up with the main camera of 12 MP, Ultra-wide camera of 16 MP and telephoto of 12 MP.

The main camera of 12 MP has a dual aperture that varies between f/1.5 and f/2.4, based on the light condition. The larger aperture of f/1.5 allows capturing more light for a brighter picture. The main camera has a focal length of 26 mm, along with Optical image stabilization (OIS) feature for the stable capture. There is also a dual-pixel phase-detection AF feature, that enables accurate and faster autofocus. The main camera takes sharp and low grainy photos even in low light condition. There is a separate updated night mode which is discussed a little below.

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Similarly, the ultra-wide camera of 16 MP can take photos of focal length 12 mm, for wide-view photos. This camera has a wide viewing angle of 123 degrees lets you take photos of buildings, large structures and a large group of people while being very near to the subject. Earlier we had to some distance to get the required shot. And this nearby wide-angle shot does not look unnatural at all.

And the telephoto camera of 12 MP has a focal length of 52 mm, which is 2X zoom compared to that of the main camera. This camera has an aperture of f/2.4, along with the OIS feature. This camera is useful if we want to take photos of an object from a distance.

We can choose either of the three cameras while being on the Photo i.e. auto mode. Based on the requirement of the wideness, you can choose one of them, in the middle of the right side. Here you can select the telephoto, main and ultra-wide camera by selecting the icon with 1 tree, 2 trees and 3 trees respectively. You can also pinch in with your finger on the screen to zoom in or out.

Samsung S10 has a single selfie camera of 10 MP, f/1.9, with a focal length of 26mm (wide). The selfie camera does support Dual Pixel PDAF feature, having superior performance than PDAF.

Camera features/Mode

There are many modes in the Samsung S10 camera, which are described below:

• Photo mode (Auto): This is the automatic mode which will capture pictures in the best way. The Automatic capturing can also be done for three different focal lengths by selecting from the right. (Click the photos to enlarge).

• Live Focus (Portrait): Live focus is the name given for the portrait mode to capture photos with bokeh (background blur). There are four different features or patterns of the blur along with two focal lengths (2X and Normal). Generally, you need to sit a 1 to 1.5m away from the subject for the perfect focus and background blur. Once you take the photo, you can also change the background effect for the blur, spin level, zoom and also the color points for a selective color like the photos below.

 

• Pro mode: The pro mode is the mode for those who want to shoot photos in a manual mode. With this mode, you can select the ISO, Shutter length, AF mode, white balance and more, like that of DSLR. This mode is preferred by the photography nerds.

• Panorama: Like any other phone camera, Samsung S10 also offers panoramic picture capture for wide-angle stitching of various shots. Samsung S10 allows taking panoramic photos by panning for your scene requirement from one end to another. A panoramic picture can be taken in S10 either in Normal focal length or also wide focal length. The Wide focal length panoramic is well suited for an ultra-wide scenery to capture tall objects. Take an example of the picture below which is impossible with the normal panoramic view.

• Night mode: Samsung S10 has added this night mode in One UI, after the first software update and it has further improved after another update. Now it is comparable to Night mode in any other smartphones. We are sure this gonna improve more with better photography algorithm.

• Food mode: All the foodies who eat with their phone first, can make the plate look super with this Food mode. Just align the food to the area in focus, Select the wheel for the color temperature you choose and radial blur to blur sides and background.

• Instagram mode: Samsung S10 also allows to instantly post a photo direct to Instagram, using this mode. Instagramers who post photos for their stories prefer this mode. You don’t have the feature to upload the picture direct to the Instagram feed.

While some of the S10 camera modes do not show by default, you can activate it by selecting in the settings. So, you have control of which mode to show in your camera UI. With regular updates, they enabled the ultra-wide camera to use for several modes like Panorama, Night mode.

Video

Regarding the video, S10 supports 4K UHD and FHD video capture at 60fps. There is also a video digital image stabilization for steady and smooth video capture. Normal video mode can take videos in selecting either of the three lenses. Apart from it, there are three other video modes.

• Super Slo-mo video allows taking 720p video at 960 fps for 20 seconds for a moving object/person. This mode captures perfectly when the movement syncs well with your capture. Find the Super slow-mo video below taken by us.

 

• Slow-motion Video: This is a normal slow mode video which takes video at 1080p video at 240 fps.
• Hypderlapse Video: Samsung’s hyper-lapse is just another name for a time-lapse video. This video is for some natural events/scenery which demands a long time and also requires a stand.

Taking about all of the rear camera modes, the selfie pin-hole camera has just photo, Live focus, Video, and Instagram mode.

Features

Here are some of the features in the S10 camera.

• Scene optimizer: This feature can optimize the shot according to the object in the photo. The camera can identify among the 30 different modes and takes the best shot based on it. You can activate or disable this feature by tapping on or off an icon in the screen next to selecting lenses.
• Shot Suggestions: This feature suggests you where to point and aim your camera for a better shot. Well, this is regarding getting the best composition in your capture. But it is not sure that this feature works well for all cases as your idea may differ from the Camera intelligence. Sometimes, enabling the 3X3 grid might take care of all to follow the rule of thirds in photography.
• Flaw detection: This feature helps to identify if something goes wrong in the already taken photo, so you can retake it. It notifies you of the blurry capture or the eye blink with your last capture. Similarly, if there is any smudge in the camera obstructing the viewfinder, it will give you a notification inside the camera UI.
• QR code scanning: After June software update, Samsung brought the QR code scanning feature in the camera. It will help you to get the information or Wi-Fi direct or some website directly using camera scanning the QR code.
• Apart from all those, Camera settings also allow you to select HDR (rich tone), motion photos, change resolution, location tags and more.
• You can also enable one of the simplest methods to turn on the camera by pressing the power key twice.

Camera benchmarks.

Regarding the Samsung S10 camera benchmarks, here is what DxO mark has on the camera benchmark scores. After testing 1500 images and 2 hours of videos in the lab and another environment, using camera UI default settings, they find the overall score of 109 together with Huawei Mate 20 pro. Samsung S10 gets a whopping 114 DxO mark for its better exposure, color and bokeh effect. Similarly, they have an excellent video score of 97, which means the phone shoots nicely exposed, good color-saturated and better dynamic range video.

More photos

Here are more photos that are taken by Samsung Galaxy S10.

*All the pictures are taken by us and subject to copyright. Please take consent or provide sufficient credits for using those photos.

Conclusion

Having discussed all the camera features, modes and showing some of the photo samples, you must have got the proof of how amazing Samsung S10 camera is. From the awesome fast shots in different views (Ultra-wide) to the spectacular Super Slo-mo video, Samsung S10 satisfies your every camera needs. After I started using Samsung S10, my DSLR have got a long break and put the DSLR to shelves. It is only due to the reason as S10 didn’t let me down for all of my daily camera needs.

Tell us what do you think of Samsung S10 camera review? Put your comments below.