In the era of smartphone cameras, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in the way photos are captured and processed. Computational photography has become an integral part of smartphone camera systems, making it hard to define a straightforward answer to the question, “What is a photo?”.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Moon Mode Controversy
A prime example of computational photography can be found in the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera. With its 100X space zoom, users can capture highly detailed photos of the moon. But are these photos genuine, or is there some AI trickery involved?
Investigating the Moon Mode Magic
A Reddit user conducted an experiment to test the authenticity of the moon photos taken by the Galaxy S23 Ultra. They compared the phone’s output when taking pictures of a high-resolution moon image, a blurred moon image, and the actual moon. Interestingly, the camera was able to produce clearer and more detailed photos in all cases, even when the source image lacked the necessary details.
Understanding the Computational Process
Samsung’s moon mode involves a series of complex computational processes:
- Subject recognition: When the camera is pointed at the moon and zoomed in, it recognizes the moon as the subject.
- Electronic stabilization: The camera locks the electronic stabilization on the target.
- Focus distance: The focus distance is set to infinity.
- Detail improvement engine: A detail improvement engine is activated to make the moon look much clearer.
The result is an impressive photo of the moon with enhanced details. While this may feel “fake” to some, it is not the same as the brute force overlay fakery that Huawei was accused of. Samsung’s method involves a more intricate process of noise reduction and AI-based detail enhancement.
Transparency and User Control
Samsung has detailed the moon mode process in a community forum post, albeit in Korean. Users can disable the moon mode by turning off the Scene optimizer setting in the camera app.
Smartphone Cameras: Redefining Reality
The moon mode magic may have raised eyebrows, but it is just one of many instances where smartphone cameras edit photos for us. These cameras interpret reality and produce images that they think users would like. Be it enhancing the greenery in a landscape or making food look more appetizing, smartphone cameras continue to redefine the concept of a photo.
Ultimately, the question remains: “What is a photo?” As smartphone cameras evolve and computational photography becomes more advanced, the line between reality and digitally-enhanced images will continue to blur. However, the creative possibilities and visually impressive results offered by these cameras also hold merit, allowing us to capture and share moments like never before.
I wish you had shown the types of images the phone takes with that setting turned off. It would then give us a better understanding of what the ACTUAL image would have looked like vs the one that it’s worked its AI magic on.
Definitely noticed this happening on my Fold4 too. At max zoom (30x digital zoom on a 3x lens) the moon looks surprisingly crispy and detailed, much more so than I would expect from a 3x optical zoom.
The reddit post experiment was already done by a Korean youtuber way back when the S20 Ultra came out.
Samsung has always done this (and were pretty transparent about it) and in response to the controversy they explained that the ‘fake moon’ was just a byproduct of their computational photography engine since it does the same processing procedure like all the other photos.