S24 Ultra camera issues (white balance off and over exposed pictures)

[EGjTxIt]

Hey All,

Like many others I have been having issues with the camera system on my s24 ultra. It appears to take significantly worse photos than my s21 ultra in a lot of scenarios. I primarily use Pro mode JPEGS with auto setting. I think part of the issue is the auto white balance is off, so photos appear yellow and the auto exposure is off so pictures appear over exposed and less detailed. Here are some comparison shots I took for reference.

s21 Ultra

S24 Ultra

S21 Ultra

S24 Ultra

S21 Ultra

S24 Ultra

I can adjust white balance and exposure manually to get better pictures, but I miss picture opportunities more often with the s24 ultra because because it takes time to fiddle with the settings. I have also tried changing all of the settings in the camera app and in the camera assistant app as well as turning off super HDR in the gallery app, but I find the camera under performs regardless of the settings.

I've also experienced the issue where post processing ruins what would otherwise be good photos. This does not happen in Pro mode with JPEGS or in Photo mode with 12mp, but happens in every other mode I've tested. Here is a comparison using expert raw mode with RAW files.

After the post processing

Same exact photo before the post processing

I have contacted support, done all of the troubleshooting steps, allowed support to remotely control my phone and done a factory reset, but these problems persist. I was then recommended to go an authorized repair center. The repair center ran diagnostics on the phone and found no faults. I contacted Samsung again and they said there was an update coming in February that should fix these issues and if the phone is not repairable they can replace it. I am skeptical about these issues being fixed with a software update, because no reviewers mentioned these issues and I don't think they occurred on the s23 ultra which has very similar hardware.

[Faith7777]

You are welcome; I was also told by the supervisor you can request more time for a return since there have been so many complaints.
This might be a great option to see the effects of the updates.

[EGjTxIt]

I got the update on Friday and there are no discernable differences for the issues I documented above with auto white balance and auto exposure in pro mode or post processing making photos worse in expert raw mode. I've also noticed the autofocus seems to glitch out sometimes and make the entire frame out of focus, but double tapping the subject correctly focuses on the subject. 

I've mostly come around on the camera system being overall better than on my s21 ultra though. It is annoying having to adjust white balance and exposure for almost every photo, but I do think the results are overall better especially on the telephoto lenses. I can more consistently get less washed out colors in medium-low light and moving targets are easier to capture clearly. Because the sensor captures so much light, I can increase shutter speed without sacrificing exposure or colors looking washed out in more situations.

I suspect that whatever "improved" or "ai" algorithm that they are using for auto exposure and white balance performs worse for my niche use case of aquarium photography. Perhaps it works great in more typical scenarios. I don't know. I hope there are more software improvements moving forward.

[Faith7777]

I have found minimal differences between the S24 Ultra and the S23 Ultra camera system.
I'm sending my S24 Ultra back tomorrow and putting the money away for the S25 Ultra next year after discovering that all the AI features I wanted are coming to the S23 Ultra at the end of March.
I feel that the $750 Trade-in value of my phone plus the out-of-pocket expense of $467.
It's not worth it.
If I had a S21 or even S22, it would be worth the upgrade.
I love my S23 Ultra,
Waiting another year, I feel, will make a difference.
Good luck everyone with your S24 Ultras! Take care

[Robin621k]

There will be an update later this month that is supposed to fix a lot of camera issues, and Vivid Mode not working!

[Ninjoma]

Honestly the announcement makes me more anxious because they didn't say they were fixing the issues I'm having.

[userNOp6XTKuSM]

I am having the same issues, and I really need this corrected now. I was told it was software issues.

[Darkz3ro]

• I have even worser issue regarding camera . I have issue with strange lens shadow in night pictures when using expert raw . This phone is the worst phone I ever bought from Samsung and looks like it's factory deffect . When you use expert raw and use 50 iso and shutter speed 1/500 for example in the night , you will see strange circles . Even with normal camera app these rings will slightly appear which ruin the photos . My s21 ultra does not have this issue
• 

   

[rawshooter]

Pro Mode is broken, the dng files currently have no advantage in dynamic range as they should, tell support.

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s24-series/don-t-upragde-to-s24-ultra-if-you-do-raw-photo...

[rehobothdziners1]

I am also facing the same camera issues with Samsung s24 ultra. Though it has 200mp camera. The output is really worse. Earlier I had s22 plus in which the photographs are awesome. Now I am very much upset by seeing the photos taken. Waiting for the update from samsung otherwise I need to go for selling of this phone.

[Simz7]

Not is long range zoom alot worse than the S23 ultra. I'm having a huge issue with doing portrait mode shots with my wife. It's only recognizing one of us unless the phone is real close. On the plus side, pictures from 1x to 10x are better in this phone and battery life is waaaaay better on this phone.