S21 Ultra camera problems.

[Alex94]

I just received my brand new S21 Ultra. I was excited to test the camera and was extremely  disappointed  with the results. Photos are blurry and there's a horrible lag when taking a photo. I looked up every possible fix i could find and tried it. I checked to make sure the plastic was removed, I cleared the cache, I updated the software then checked that there were no more updates, I restarted the phone, I restarted the camera app itself, I removed the phone case, I cleaned the lenses with a phone cleaning wipe and a microfiber towel, I updated the apps, I also have not put on any lens protector, I tried pro mode and regular camera mode, I tried auto tracking on and off. I've tried scene optimizer on and off. I might have missed something else I tried but nothing I've tried so far has worked. Any ideas? 

I've attached an example photo.

[Ariscott56]

I was expecting a lot worse, but that doesn't really look bad.

[Alex94]

This photo was taken from about a foot away with no zoom. From that distance and no zoom, I expected to see higher quality.

[bill-e]

@Alex94 Check to see if you have the July security update...that fixed the lag we all had.

It would be great if you could tell us how you shot this.  Photo mode?  3:4 (not108mp), prime zoom lens or pinch zoom, what did you focus on, flash?  Lots of settings can make or break a photo.

Here's a pic I took while camping over the 4th.  I did crop it a little but other than that unretouched.  It was taken outside with the 3x tele lens and it is well in focus.

I am still learning the camera and the percentage of good to great shots increases every time I use it.  Light is very important.  I use Pro a lot when I need to have a fast shutter but mostly I just shoot Photo with one of the fixed focus lenses, no digital zoom.

So as long as you don't have a busted phone, the Ultra is a great camera for a phone.  I've been trying to find a good tutorial on the settings but I haven't found one to my liking yet. Most just parrot the manual and that isn't adequate at all.

[Alex94]

That is a great photo. Very disappointed the phone I received has yet to take a photo of that quality. I updated the phone to the most recent update and there are no other available software updates. For this example I kept it simple. I used the regular camera, 3:4, no zoom, from a foot away, I focused on my dogs face, no flash, bright natural light.

[Alex94]

Another example is this photo I took. This is with pro mode, 9:16, 3x zoom, focus on my dogs left ear, AF Auto, ISO Auto. No custom settings.

[bill-e]

@Alex94  The second pic doesn't look out of focus as much as just soft.  It looks not to have enough light which is going to increase the iso and make it look soft.

it is best to take all your shots in 3:4 and cropping as needed.  If you think that the light looks even a bit low then set your flash to always fire.

Start outside in bright light at stationary objects and experiment getting a sharp pic in Photo mode and in Pro.  Then move inside with a mental pic in your head as to how much light was was needed outside to get that sharp pic vs what you see inside and apply the flash as necessary in Photo, and then try Pro, manually adjusting shutter and iso and flash to get a good shot.  After a while you'll just no when you can shoot full auto and when you will need to go into Pro mode.  Also, when the dogs are running around you'll need to be in pro so that you can set the shutter fast enough to keep them i focus.

[Alex94]

Unfortunatly, that one was taken with full 5pm light coming in through wide open windows, but it does appear much more dimly lit than it actually was. I prefer 3:4 but I wanted to test if 16:9 had the same result or different. I appreciate the advice, I will try using the techniques you suggested tomorrow and see if I notice an improvement.

[bill-e]

@Alex94  Just keep shooting and experimenting. When I first got mine I was a bit disappointed but since learning how to use it I am quite pleased with it.

[Alex94]

I've been experimenting the past two days with different settings. Indoors vs outdoors and during the different "magic hours". I've found that pro mode drastically darkens all photos. Indoors and outdoors. Even in full noon sunlight with no overcast the photos come out looking like it's close to sunset. Using night mode when shooting indoors seems to improve photo quality slightly. When it comes to still photos it takes pretty great photos. However, There's a lag between when I press the shutter button and when it actually takes photos. My main use for the camera on this phone is action shots of my dogs. Maybe I'm just not setting the Pro mode shutter speed correctly because every photo is blurry. When using burst mode in photo mode I still get blurry photos. Using the Flash causes the shutter speed to lag even further and night mode will not work for the action photos I'm taking. Any ideas?