problem with Samsung phone camera

[kelsostuart]

hi everyone,
I am new to this forum and would welcome your help with an issue
I have a Samsung galaxy M31 cell phone that , when I take middle to long distance shots, gives pixelated image. ( example attached, please zoom in to see what I mean.)
Can anyone tell me:
Is this a hardware fault?
a firmware fault?
an inherent quality issue in a Samsung phone?
a software fault?

Any ideas on how to correct this would be very helpful

many thanks

 

[480sparky]

When you say, "middle to long distance shots", do you mean you're zooming in? If so, you're simply telling the camera to crop the image then enlarge it. So it's working correctly.

 

[kelsostuart]

When you say, "middle to long distance shots", do you mean you're zooming in? If so, you're simply telling the camera to crop the image then enlarge it. So it's working correctly.

Thank you. I hadn't fully appreciated that, but it makes sense. I haven't been zooming in to the full range available. I have re posted a "better" example image of the effect. I had thought that the phone would use one of the different lenses for longer distance shoot, and that there may be a issue with that lens.

 

[Scott Whaley]

Digital zoom tends to have that effect. I don't think there is anything wrong with the camera. I have a Samsung Galaxy 22 Ultra & it will do the same thing if I zoom in too much

 

[kelsostuart]

thanks...I'll keep my finger away from the zoom in future!

 

[AlanKlein]

Use the telephoto lens if there is one. That enlarges the image optically so the camera still uses the full amount on the sensor.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Samsung phone names can be confusing. Sometimes they re-use a name in a different market (ie India v. US). As far as I can tell, the M31 is a specific model. Here is a link to the GSMarena.com page for it

Samsung M31
"Samsung Galaxy M31 - Full phone specifications"

The main camera section is as follows:

Triple 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.72", 0.8µm, PDAF
8 MP, f/2.2, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm
5 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
5 MP, f/2.2, (depth)
Features LED flash, panorama, HDR
Video 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS

Looking at this, the main camera at 2x "zoom" is equivalent to a 52mm f/3.6 (the F-stop is arguable -- I would say that it's really still f/1.8 exposure-wise) but the resolution drops X/4 = 16 MP, which is still respectable. The advanced phones generally target a 12MP JPEG final image. You might be able to get a higher resolution "raw" file, but the JPEGs will generally be limited. If you push that to 4x "zoom" then your resolution drops to 4 MP, which can still be used for HD video (and maybe Full HD video), but for still photography is not so satisfactory. So you generally do not want to use it past, maybe around 3x zoom. Beyond that, you need to move your feet.

One thing to look for is whether you have a "raw" option.

 

[TATTRAT]

Take the pic, THEN crop. Like mentioned, and zoom is done digitally and will crush whatever you're trying to get a pic of.