According to a malicious leak, the GooglePixel 7 could be joined by a premium sibling – I’m not talking about the 7 Pro, but another, possibly even higher-end alternative.
As a photography fan, this news made my head spin. Google’s phones regularly feature on TechRadar’s list of the best camera phones, and if this hypothetical future powerhouse didn’t need to consider things like “affordability,” it might have a chance of crushing the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra out of the top spot.
But if that’s going to happen, there’s one camera feature of this mighty Samsung phone that Google needs to emulate – or better, improve on: the periscope zoom camera.
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Samsung’s Periscope
There were many features of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra camera that I loved trying out: the Pro-tier video recording mode, the simple Single Take tool, the wonderful Portrait capture mode, and more. But when I think back to my time testing with the phone, it’s that periscope zoom camera that stands out.
This telephoto periscope camera had a 10MP 1.12um sensor paired with an f/4.9 230mm periscope lens, which offered 10x optical zoom on the ‘main’ camera. It is used to zoom in on distant subjects.
I initially played with this to see how far I could jump in a landscape, taking in distant buildings and landmarks from afar, but I quickly found it even better for taking shots of birds and landscapes. ‘insects. Also, I’ve relied on it for “macro” shots of things like flowers and people, as I like how the depth of field shows up on lenses with a longer focal length.
In fact, I started using this 10x zoom camera for taking portraits, preferring it over Portrait mode in many cases – even though that often meant I had to move away from the subject.
So if a Google Pixel 7 Ultra arrives without a long-range camera like this, I probably won’t even give it the time of day – but if it gets that kind of snapper, there are some issues with The S22 version of Ultra that Google might fix.
Building with the Pixel
While the zoom images on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra looked great, I still found a few rough edges that I’d like to see cleared up in a successor phone – or rival.
First and foremost, the sensor. 10MP doesn’t give you as many pixels for post-production editing, and I think a larger sensor would have been great as the images were a bit darker than they should have been. Maybe a bigger, high resolution alternative would be best.
Second, zooming in to great distances (maybe your subject is a celestial body like the moon) on a smartphone can give you horrible side effects, especially if you don’t have steady hands. Even a slight wobble can make you point the phone at something completely different from your subject. I don’t find this issue as prevalent with big body cameras, as they’re generally easier to grip and also have plenty of built-in stabilization.
Maybe Google could copy the big zoom and add a lot of digital stabilization when you zoom in. Many camera phones have OIS for some of their zoom snappers, like Samsung does, but its space zoom isn’t as stable as similar modes from other brands like Vivo – maybe Google could copy the solutions from this company.
My third wishlist item is an even longer focal length, although I think this addition would be so niche that Google most likely won’t consider it. I can’t remember ever seeing a smartphone with anything over 230mm, and it would probably need such a complex periscope lens system that it just isn’t worth the money. company. But a guy can dream.
As a compromise, for people who like zoom photography, perhaps Google could instead emulate Sony’s Xperia 1 IV and its variable optical zoom.
In the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the 10x zoom is optical – but at 9.9x you’re on digital zoom, as smartphone cameras typically use fixed focal lengths and rely on digital zoom to fill in the gaps. This is not the case with Sony’s latest smartphone, as it can vary between 85mm and 125mm.
It’s not the widest range, however, and only gives you the equivalent of 5.2x zoom. Perhaps if Google took this system, but let you vary between, say, 190mm and 230mm, it could combine the best of Samsung and Sony flagships.
I’ve dived deep into “wishlist” territory here, but with the Google Pixel 7 Ultra barely a twinkle in the eyes of the leakers, that’s where we are.
If Google wants to compete for the top spot in our camera phone rankings, it should take notes from Samsung, and borrowing the periscope zoom lens should be the first item on its ‘to do’ list.