Galaxy S22 Ultra to solve the eternal problem of Android and iPhone camera, thanks to "Super Clear Lens"?

This article may contain personal opinions and opinions of the author.

As far as our regular readers go, this won't be a new topic of discussion, and you might even find the story a bit repetitive. However, as a writer I think keeping track of some imperfections and how they evolve can help:

• Manufacturers to make better phones
• You need to make a more informed buying decision

The smartphone camera has quickly become the centerpiece of every phone. That's why I'm not surprised that the first question ordinary people ask me before deciding which new phone to buy is "how's the camera?" ". So whether you are a tech freak or the simple Joe, chances are the camera is important to you.

Lens flare / glare has plagued the iPhone, Galaxy, and Pixel forever, including iPhone 13, Galaxy S21, and Pixel 6

Stray light issues with my Google Pixel 6 Pro.

And if the camera is really important to you, you should probably know the huge role that light plays in photo and video quality. Specifically, I am referring to the way smartphones collect, filter, and process light. This exercise is relatively easy in daylight, for both phones and dedicated cameras. Of course, there is an exception, and that is because of ... sun. When taking a photo in direct sunlight, the phone will usually have a hard time balancing the bright background with the subject in front. There is a good chance that one of the two will end up being underexposed or overexposed.

However, even without a foreground subject, shooting against the sun remains a big challenge for phones, which typically feature plastic lens elements that aren't very good at dealing with lens flare. For centuries, this has been the story of virtually every modern telephone. Even the newest and greatest flagships of Apple, Samsung, and Google can quickly crumble in difficult lighting scenarios.

We talked about the iPhone Flaregate many times, but the truth is that even my Google Pixel 6 Pro starts to turn off when I take a photo in the presence of bright light sources. In fact, the Pixel is arguably worse than the iPhone now. The ironic part is that Pixels are known to have some of the best HDR (high dynamic range), right? Well, not anymore.

Galaxy S22 Ultra: will the "Super Clear Lens" bring Super Clear improvements?

The Galaxy Z Flip 3, featuring Corning's “Super Clear Glass”, does not seem to solve the annoying lens flare issue compared to the Galaxy S21 series or the iPhone 13 Pro, which has no hardware. special. Photos courtesy of Daniel Sin and Danny Winget.

As you can see from the samples (above), regardless of the Galaxy Z Flip 3's 'Super Clear Glass', it doesn't work. It is significantly lower than iPhone 13 Pro when it comes to dealing with light reflections in video, which isn't at all surprising as Apple's device is known as the king of HDR video. However, even in photos, the Galaxy is at most as good/bad as the iPhone, if not worse.

Moreover, compared to the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 3 shows no improvement when it comes to lens flare. In fact, the S21 series will often take a more balanced shot, despite not featuring 'Super Clear Glass' (although with the presence of a lens flare).

Zeiss T * Coating: Does Vivo Hold The Key To The Future Success Of Apple, Samsung And Google Cameras?

I believe these samples, captured by Han's Tech Talk, speak for themselves. Vivo's X70 Pro + (left) is currently teaching everyone how to handle lens flare. Zeiss accompanies. The photos on the right are taken with the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

We still don't know what “Super Clear Lens / Glass” is on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but I hope Samsung takes inspiration from Vivo and not previous Galaxy flagships.

Vivo's last X70 Pro+ uses a Zeiss coating to deal with annoying lens reflections. Long story short, it works like a charm! You can take a look for yourself. Whether it's the less challenging daylight scenario or extremely difficult night scenes, light sources are simply not an issue for Vivo's Zeiss-coated flagship.

“ZEISS is an internationally leading technology company operating in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. "

On the other hand, the Galaxy S21, S21 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro are clearly in trouble. But the big problem here is that lens flare doesn't just give you an overexposed sun, moon, or streetlights.

As mentioned at the start, poor light management allows unnecessary light to spill over into other parts of the image, which again, as you can see from the samples, can spoil the detail, sharpness. , clarity, overall exposure, color and white balance. In other words, it matters… a lot. This essentially creates the perfect conditions for in-picture noise pollution, and although computer photography is often effective in preventing such problems, it is far from perfect.

Galaxy S22 Ultra's camera could make big improvements over Galaxy S21 Ultra

This is the Galaxy S22 Ultra, according to leaked images.

We've seen a number of smartphone camera innovations over the past few years, including night mode and the periscope zoom camera. We have also seen several strategic partnerships that promise to improve photo and video performance on phones, but are often (very) insufficient when it comes to delivering meaningful results. Now, when we have identified an apparent weak point in the smartphone camera with regard to lens flare and glare, we are also fortunate to have the solution to the problem lurking in plain sight. It will be a shame if companies like Samsung, Apple and Google continue to ignore it. Fingers crossed for the Galaxy S22 Ultra because if this phone can benchmark, there are many more that could follow.

Finally, on a positive note, the aforementioned reliable leaker Ice Universe said that Samsung's new Galaxy S22 Ultra phone now takes photos with much more detail and improved HDR, compared to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Hopefully part of the reason is the new “Super Clear Lens”.