Samsung responds to the recent Moon-camera controversy

[AlphaX]

In context: Samsung has recently been the face of considerable controversy regarding the cameras on its Galaxy line of smartphones. Recent tests with Moon images have shown that its devices are doing extra work under the hood, leading to Samsung releasing a report to explain the situation.

Samsung recently celebrated the launch of its latest flagship, the Galaxy S23. One of the most highly touted features of the new devices is the whopping 200-megapixel camera on the S23 Ultra. The Ultra also supports a digital zoom magnification of up to 100x, which Samsung nicknamed "Space Zoom."

As we recently pointed out, Space Zoom is not as simple as Samsung claims. A Reddit user by the name of "ibreakphotos" performed some in-depth tests to demonstrate that Samsung is doing extra work under the hood to improve details on what would typically be low-quality and grainy images.

After days of the controversy, Samsung released a blog post explaining what is truly happening within the camera once it activates Space Zoom.

According to Samsung, the Ultra's camera uses multiple artificial intelligence (AI) models that allow users to get the best image possible. The first is Super Resolution, which kicks in at 25x zoom. This feature takes 10 photos simultaneously and combines them to "eliminate noise and enhance clarity and other details."

Scene Optimizer is another AI used in this situation. It detects if the camera is aimed at the Moon, regardless of the phase. Samsung trained the system with thousands of Moon photos, so once it recognizes the familiar nighttime object, it further enhances details (above). A third AI model auto-adjusts exposure to prevent the washout caused by the Moon's high contrast against the night sky (below).

Finally, the phone uses auto image stabilization through a "Zoom Lock" function to prevent movement-caused blur. Samsung's explanation of using AI seems much more justifiable than the rumors stating that the phone's AI applied an image of the Moon over the original picture.

The controversy regarding Samsung's cameras and the Space Zoom feature may have been somewhat overblown—at least from the company's viewpoint. Smartphone manufacturers are no strangers to using AI in their cameras. In this situation, Samsung's system merely allows users to get a great image of the distant Moon, a feat that seemed impossible a few years ago.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97949-samsung-responds-recent-moon-camera-controversy.html

 

[Kotters]

People don't realize how much Computational Photography is used, and there are no hard lines between "fake" and "enhanced."

If you want raw images, use a Mirrorless.

 

[Lew Zealand]

"Hey baby, are those real?"

"No, they're Enhanced By Samsung™."

 

[psycros]

People don't realize how much Computational Photography is used, and there are no hard lines between "fake" and "enhanced."

If you want raw images, use a Mirrorless.

Better yet, use a film camera.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Should we be backdating our outrage towards every Pixel released? They all have heavily rely on AI when taking pictures.

As an S23 Ultra owner, I could care less that it's enhancing moonshots. I'm happy it does, it's not like it's using AI to generate a fake moon and overlay it.

That's exactly what Samsung is doing.

The guy took a pic on his Sammy of a moon pic that he printed out at low rez. The Samsung phone faked the pic to a higher resolution than the printout was. It invented fake data, a longtime Sammy phone trait.

 

[daffy duck]

People don't realize how much Computational Photography is used, and there are no hard lines between "fake" and "enhanced."

If you want raw images, use a Mirrorless.

Scamsung's S2x can shoot RAW if you use Pro mode. The quality improvement is huge over the way over-processed jpg's

 

[Lew Zealand]

That may be what some rando is claiming in reddit, that's NOT what the article states. The article debunks that.

The article says that Samsung's AI makes up fake details. Though I like that they tried to insert loads of other words first before admitting this. It is inserting detail that the phone camera cannot resolve into the one single predictable picture that Samsung can know ahead of time - the Moon.

Fake.

They can call it AI or any other name all they want but the details are not coming from the phone camera, they are faked with pictures taken of the Moon from other cameras.

This is a useless feature for taking pictures of anything else. Let's see that camera come close in angular resolution on any other photographic target.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

That's exactly what Samsung is doing.

The guy took a pic on his Sammy of a moon pic that he printed out at low rez. The Samsung phone faked the pic to a higher resolution than the printout was. It invented fake data, a longtime Sammy phone trait.

You take your fancy FSR/DLSS talk somewhere else!

Next thing you're going to tell me is that Samsung has tapped into the DLSS 3 by generating extra frames to make things look better!

 

[nismo91]

I wonder why is this news. huawei had this 4 years ago and it got caught. my phone still have it. I can zoom into spherical street light far away and it will trigger moon mode. what made people think samsung could've done a "real" moon while huawei can't? no phone with 5x or 10x zoom could've possibly captured the surface of the moon.

https://www.phonearena.com/news/Is-...P-30-Pro-faking-parts-of-photographs_id115554

 

[DukeJukem]

"Hey baby, are those real?"

"No, they're Enhanced By Samsung™."

Very nice!

 

[dangh]

Anytime, who is attempting to use mobile for astrophotography gets what they deserved. All the pictures taken by phones are so heavily processed it's difficult to call them anything but fantasy. Samsung simply used ai to improve then even more in certain situation, and that's not surprising really.

 

[EdmondRC]

Ai is becoming synonymous with fake. Fake pictures, fake frames, fake tweets, fake video, fake faces, deep fakes... In a world where truth was already obscure, we have just opened the door to the pit of hell... That is, unless you turn your phone off and take a walk in the woods.

 

[Rocky4040]

Oh wow yet something else everyone will complain about. I think the whole world is becoming a bunch of Karen's.
I was thinking on getting a S23 Ultra just yesterday but was not sure yet but now that I read this article and how the phone tries to help you get the best pic's ever, I am now sold on this phone and will be getting one later today. Thank you, Samsung, for making me look like I am a pro picture taker. lol

 

[UdyrL]

"Samsung recently celebrated the launch of its latgest flagship"

Latest? Largest?

 

[Hodor]

In the next version if you take a Moon shot of Sea of Tranquility, the software will draw a little Neil Armstrong in the middle.

 

[kira setsu]

Meanwhile nvidia gets a round of applause for dlss3 which is just fake frames.

make up your minds techworld,

or maybe go buy a real camera ya dopes.

 

[ChrisH1]

I've always thought it would be an interesting concept in digital enhancement. Your camera uses GPS to work out where you are, and works out what you're taking a photo of. It looks in a database, and says 'someone took a much better photo of this under the same conditions, lets substitute that'. E.g, in this case, the moon, recognize it's the moon and substitute a better shot. 99.9999% of the time, no-one's going to notice.