How to turn off rear camera auto-focus on Galaxy S21 5G

[useraz1EQgy7an]

How do I turn off the rear camera auto-focus on my Galaxy S21 5G? I can only either focus on the foreground or background, which is a little bothersome. Turning off scene optimizer doesn't have any effect.

This is my first time owning an Android phone (I'm coming from Apple) so I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Android interface. Any help would be appreciated!

Focus on background:

 

Focus on foreground:

[andyy98]

Welcome to Android! I'd best say to try the manual camera mode for more manual use on the focus. Try going into your camera settings which are in the camera app and there may be a auto-focus option

[useraz1EQgy7an]

Thanks for the reply! When I go to the camera settings, there's no auto-focus option, though. The modes tray includes AR Doodle, Food, Panorama, etc, but no manual mode.

 

[userE2Rf1gwqv3]

That's not auto blur, the shallow depth of field is the characteristic of a larger camera sensor with a wide aperture. If you want more uniform sharpness, use 0.9x zoom. 0.6x is ultra wide, so 0.9x is ultra wide cropped in.

[useraz1EQgy7an]

It would probably be better to phrase it as auto-focus (changed it in the post). I also changed the photos to ones that make the auto-focus more clear— if there is a clear foreground and background, it only focuses on one of the two, whether I try to manually focus by tapping the screen or not. It seems to me like a software thing.

[userE2Rf1gwqv3 · Accepted solution]

Well yeah, only one can be in focus at the same time. Think of it like your eye. If you hold your finger to your face, you can only focus on either the finger or the background. You can't focus on both your finger and the background at the same time, that's physics.

Here, have a read. This article talks about DSLRs, but it's the same concept. Older iPhones have smaller sensors. The 12 Pro Max has the same sensor size as the S21 so it'll have the same focus depth of field. https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/the-bokeh-effect-how-sensor-size-affects-background-blur/amp/

[useraz1EQgy7an]

Oh, that makes sense! I guess I never really noticed that only one thing could be in focus on my old iPhone too (I also knew nothing about cameras). Thanks for the info!