Mobile phones in photography have been famously contentious, but a force to be reckoned with nonetheless. Samsung has now released its greatest camera phone, and it has got some photographers’ attention, mine included.
I’ve written before on how mobile phones in photography are not only useful as a method of getting people into our passion, but they’re useful to photographers too who want a wide-angled lens when they’re out with their camera, but don’t want to switch. Many times I have kept my favorite prime on the front of my camera body and taken wide shots with my phone, though admittedly only when I’m shooting for myself, never a client.
Samsung has now released a new phone that is specifically pitched at photographers and videographers and it has undeniably impressive specs. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G has a phenomenal 6.8″ AMOLED display, 12GB of RAM, 5G, and a host of other impressive features, but it’s the camera side that’s interesting to us. It comes with quad cameras (108MP, 12MP, and two 10MP), can record video up to 8K resolution, and has wide, ultra-wide, 3x tele, and 10x tele options. The 108MP camera is the wide lens and so the phone lends itself to landscape and cityscape style photography. As if it isn’t trying to irritate photography purists enough already, it also has a built-in feature to pull a still from 8K video and have it as a standalone image.
It’s certainly an impressive piece of kit, and it’s starting to near being regarded as a camera on which you can call your mother, rather than a phone. I hope to get my hands on one to test. What are your thoughts?