Can the 108mp Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra stand up against a $6,000 pro DSLR?
Feb 10, 2021
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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I said I wasn’t going to post any more of these. The “winner” in pretty much all cases is obvious. Or is it? There is no doubt that a $6,000 flagship DSLR (even if it is a generation old) is going to hammer a smartphone (of any resolution) when it comes to absolute image quality, dynamic range and all the other reasons we buy flagship bodies. But does it always really matter?
This video from photographer Kevin Raposo puts the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 108-megapixel sensor up against the 21.5-megapixel Canon 1DX Mark II in this rather interesting (and quite thoughtful) comparison and, well, when you look at the images scaled for a video side-by-side they’re actually pretty close.
There is no doubt that smartphones are not going to replace flagship bodies like Canon’s 1DX line, Nikon’s D6 or the new Sony A1. At least not yet. But this side-by-side comparison just goes to show that smartphones and computational photography have come a very long way in the last few years. But can the phone hold up for personal work or vacations vs a $6,000 flagship?
In most of the comparisons shown in the video, unless you look at the zoomed-in sections of the photographs right next to each other, it’s actually quite difficult to tell which camera shot which image. There are some subtle telltale signs, like the way the highlights roll off, some little differences in saturation, but they are pretty close.
Kevin put one or two things in there to try to throw us off, too. Even the depth of field isn’t really a great clue as to which camera shot which image some of the 1DX II photos were stopped down to create a deeper depth of field while the Galaxy S21 Ultra was going all “Portrait Mode” with a simulated shallow depth of field to try and trick us!
When you look at the images zoomed in, though, you really do notice the difference. Despite the 108-megapixel Samsung Galaxy 21 Ultra boasting five times the resolution of the 21.5-megapixel 1DX Mark II, the way each “sees” the scene before them is very different. As is the way they’re presented to the photographer.
It’s an interesting look at the benefits and drawbacks of both systems and why more megapixels isn’t always (or possibly even often) better. But if all you’re shooting for is yourself and social media, then maybe something like a 1DX II isn’t always offering that much of an advantage over the camera that’s always in your pocket.
Could you tell the difference without looking at the zoomed-in bits?
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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27 responses to “Can the 108mp Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra stand up against a $6,000 pro DSLR?”
Videos like these make me sick of what the photo community has become ?
Mark Nycz Why?
Franklin D. Bryant III because, it was not an iPhone that was featured.
Maybe an art workshop might change your perpective.
Can 9 year old bully Jimmy Moyer stand up to Mike Tyson?
….
Nope
When this silly Comparisons stop!!!
The five mile trek through the forest to reach that secluded valley, where you set up your tripod and camera waiting for the sun to rise over the lake is just not the same if you use your mobile telephone to capture that breathtaking image of the first rays of sunlight bouncing off the still waters of the lake.
Jonathan Lewis-Jones Is it about the photo, or is it about the camera?
Geoff Campbell Both. The results from my Canon EOS R5 with a 70-200mm f4 L IS USM lens attached would wipe the floor against an image taken on a mobile phone camera.
Jonathan Lewis-Jones that’s not what Geoff asked.
This stupid comparisons…
Me too, the pro hands in clean 8 MPix images for a cover shot and the photo community need 50s MPix for their happy snaps, really funny
The 108 megapixel mode on these phones is pointless anyway. The best quality is has at 12 megapixels, thanks to the Nonacell CFA.
I’m not going to watch the video, but unless they are comparing RAW to RAW without baked in software manipulation, you are comparing Apples (or Androids) and Oranges.
I never got the meaning of this phrase, why can’t fruit be compared?
They taste completely different.
Some Android devices can actually shot a “computational raw” image, so you can get the benefits of full processing without being tied to compressed output.
These are generally misleading. Of course an experienced photographer gets a better image with a professional camera. And with the phone, versus a novice.
When you see one of these comparisons done by a typical vlogger, rather than a pro (or specifically a pro trying to mess with you a bit) and the phone wins, that tells you exactly what it should tell you, though not what the vlogger thought they were telling you: the phone is better for novices. If you don’t know what you’re doing, the AI + computational processing on the phone delivers a better snapshot.
Experianced photographers may also get better images with a smartphone. Museums are full of images not taken by dedicated cameras.
No.
I also find this comparison a bit stupid but also a bit funny. I know there will be a lot of people going….oh no you can compare this and a lot of them are using Luminar to change everything on their imanges. Everyting these days is fake, the craftsmanship is slowly fading away
Says who? Nothing replaces skill. Any camera in the hands of a skilled artist or photographer may produce excellent results.
An apple vs lemon comparison.
In the hands of a skilled artist or photographer many devices are able to pruduce adequate results. Photography is an element of the arts.
Digital photography has many perspectives and applicatiins. As the article mentions, nothing says that absolute image quality is even an overwhelming factor in a composition. The Ali vs Liston image is not remembered because of dynamic range.
I feel that this comparison is wrong, not only because the camera has a much bigger sensor and can utilize excellent lenses, but also because the Samsung S21 Ultra camera uses nona-binning, which means that every 9 pixels (in the form of a square) are treated as 1 super pixel. In fact the end result of the S21 Ultra is a 12 mega pixel photo – 108 / 9 = 12. So although the sensor is 108 megapixel, and you can take a photo of 108 MP, in my experience with the S21 Ultra, the 12MP output is much sharper and clearer than the 108MP output.
This is such an idiotic discussion topic! Why can’t any of these people take some night or long exposure photos and THEN draw the conclusions?? Such a waste of effort and space…
Beauty is beautiful, and art is artful, but when the opportunity to take a picture of something that really matters occurs, the best camera is the one you have at hand.