Bought three S25 phones — all have same camera issues -- PLEASE HELP [+PHOTOS]

[Members_ZQqmrin]

Good Morning,

I bought a new Samsung S25. I tried to take some photos at night but I noticed some strange light reflection on the camera lens that shows up in the photo.

I don’t know what it is called; Camera glare? flare? ghosting? ... 

I noticed that this strange light reflection doesn’t show up when I switch to the Ultra-Wide camera or the Telephoto camera... which makes me think that this is a hardware problem in the main camera itself(the main Wide lens camera - which switches between 12MP and 50MP). It looks like that lens is broken or something because the light reflection ONLY shows up when I switch to that main Wide camera.

The phone is brand new, I didn’t drop it and I’m not using any case or lens protector.

Please see the attached photos ... Can you see the light reflection on the bottom left? I was standing beside a street light pole ... the light from the light pole caused the white reflection/glare you see in the photo.

I tried restarting the device, changing the aperture, cleaning the lens.... etc. Nothing helped ... the only thing that helped is when I switch to the Ultra-Wide camera or the Telephoto camera --> the white reflection will disappear... which again makes me think it is a hardware problem in the main Wide lens itself.

• You can reproduce it by yourself:

  • Try standing under any source of direct light -- like under your kitchen light or under any ceiling light in your house - or beside any street light pole ......... It will show the same reflection as in the attached photos.

I thought that my phone is the only S25 that had that problem, so I bought another one and it had the same camera issue. I bought a third one from a different supplier, the third phone also has the same camera issues.

I posted on Reddit to ask about it, no one knows how to fix it.

Here are my Reddit posts:
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/samsunggalaxy/comments/1mfupet/bought_my_3rd_s25_phone_same_camera_issues_a... 

>> https://www.reddit.com/r/S25Photography/comments/1mfumfo/bought_my_3rd_s25_phone_same_camera_issues_... 

(you can see my old Reddit posts links in the above two Reddit links)
(also you can see all PHOTOS in the above two links)

Recently, another Reddit user reported the same camera issue with his S25+ phone (mine is S25), so it looks like the problem is in both S25 and S25+ models. Here is his post:
>>  https://www.reddit.com/r/S25Photography/comments/1mh3ej5/standing_under_a_light_is_this_amount_of_le... 

I really think this is a flow in the design of the S25 camera
Please let me know how to fix this
Thanks.

[maird]

You said you posted images and it looks like your post has attachments, it sometimes takes a while for them to become visible in the forums. But what you describe could just be flare (a common camera/lens problem). Lens flare happens when direct or reflected light in the scene gets scattered as it passes each optical element in the lens. Similar scattering and flare can occur if the lens outer surface is dirty. Also, standing under a light source using a camera without a lens hood (none of the phone cameras have one) can result in flare from a strong light source aligned with the lens but not in the frame due to refraction (more likely) or diffraction (less likely). Some photographers actually use flare deliberately as an artistic tool in their work.

Flare is more common with zoom and wide-angle lenses (all four back cameras on your phone fall into that set). That doesn't mean flare is guaranteed or that you always won't get it with any camera. It's best to avoid having bright light sources in the frame or around you as you take the pictures. That can include sources that reflect off things in your scene, even polished varnish on wood can be sufficient. The solution can be as simple as taking a couple steps in any direction to remove it. Re-compose your frames so that there isn't a strong light source aligned with the lens (i.e. don't stand under a ceiling light) while shooting.

Also, I recommend using ChatGPT, Gemini or similar to get the specifications for the Samsung Galaxy S25 cameras. They are usually accurate. As I understand it there are two 50MP, one 200MP and one 12MP sensor on the back camera. For the two 50MP sensors, one has a very wide field of view and short focal length lens ("ultrawide"), the other has a much narrower field of view and longer focal length ("telephoto"). The 50MP telephoto has four times the resolution of the 12MP so even though the 12MP ("Super Telephoto") sensor has a focal length of about half the 50MP, it having quarter the resolution usually makes it of no benefit over the 50MP telephoto. It's also worth avoiding using zoom beyond the optical zoom range of each camera and only two have optical zoom (the 50MP telephoto 1x-5x zoom and 12MP telephoto 1x-3x zoom). If you stay within the optical zoom range your frames will have more pixels and won't be re-sampled as they are croppedd or expanded to provide zoom beyond the optical range. It's better having a larger image frame and doing your own cropping to select a preferred scene. This isn't a "right" way to use the cameras. I almost always use expert raw mode on my S25U camera app. I almost always choose the camera deliberately based on the scene (50MP ultra-wide-angle for broad landscapes only ever with 0.6x zoom, 200MP wide-angle for near scenes get close to the subject only ever using 1x zoom, 50MP telephoto for distant subjects but only ever between 1x and 5x zoom and I rarely ever use the 12MP sensor). Then, if my preferred scene/subject is within the frame I crop the image using another tool, usually the Photos app but it can be any tool. It's often better than the crop and expand to fit in a limited frame size I usually get when using zoom beyond the camera optical range.

Flare can appear worse due to the crop and expand of zooming beyond each lens optical zoom range.

[Members_ZQqmrin]

Thanks for your reply @maird 

Can you see the photos now?

[maird]

Yes, one of the outdoor pics looks to me like it has flare. The indoor picture could be flare but it's hard to be sure without actually seeing the surface around the vent, though the contrast between the white vent and darker floor has a good chance of resulting in flare on the floor. There's a good chance the bridge pic without the lights frame right in the picture is flare but it's the hardest to judge.

Also, look how bright the ligjts are on the top of the bridge, they are excessively bright (over-exposed) due to the whole frame being mostly dark. You would probably improve the bridge only pic a large amount without losing real detail by compensating for the high contrast between individual elements by setting a negative EV value when shooting, EV-1.0, EV-2.0 or EV-4.0 and you'd probably find the apparent flare disappears too. The important thing to avoid losing is the reflected image of the bridge on the water so you would probably have to experiment with a handful of shots with those adjustments.

Something else that might help is to use one of the photo modes that lets you use the neutral density (ND) filter. I would expect higher values to reduce any flare from the lights to the right of the frame of only the bridge.

Use just use one of the features, negative EV before trying the ND filter.

The problem probably arises due to the automatic exposure attempting to keep detail in all elements but the scene has very dark and very light elements (high contrast and even the floor and vent have higher contrast than normal scenery). The mid-point will over-expose lights and increase the risk of flare, but keep surface detail on the water that could probably be of no value given the reflection of the bridge. So, under-exposing (negative EV) at the correct value will make the light less severe, have less flare, keep the reflection of the bridge but the rest of the water will have very little detail. Also, the lit windows in the tall buildings will probably become less "merged" and look more detailed.

The ND filter will be harder to get right than using negative EV because the ND filter range is huge compared to the EV control. But, I think there is enough range in the EV control to clean up all the over-exposure and keep the sense of water by not losing the bridge reflection. The flare should go as the water with no reflection becomes darker.

[maird]

For the record, I suspect negative EV (or the ND filter) will help the posted frames for this case due to very bright elements in the scene. But, the reverse effect can happpen if the preferred subject is dark and the scene has bright elements can happen causing reason to prefer a positive EV settings, e.g. if you were trying to photograph something like a dark animal in a scene with a nearly all white cloudy sky. In that case, you might use a positive EV value, sacrifice detail in the clouds to include detail of the animal. That's just the opposite case of sacrificing detail in the dark river water to get better detail in the brighter areas of the bridge and it's reflection, which I would expect to benefit from negative EV. You shouldn't get flare in a scene where the only bright element is clouds, the light is already heavily dispersed (comes from all directions at the same time). So there is a difference between the two cases but the point is the same for both, if the scene has bright subjects you want and dark elements that don't benefit from being detailed you can use a negative EV value; if the scene has dark subjects and bright elements that don't benefit from being details you can use a positive EV value.

[Philscbx]

Very Nice Explanation ~

By default in subdued lighting, my default is Pro settings and will sacrifice shutter speed using lower film speed (below 400, 50 if possible) for best quality possible.

Hand held is doable if braced against object at 30th of second.

Haven't tried Raw on the phone, but on my pro Canons that use dual cards, Raw is saved to one of them.
Cheers

[maird]

Pro mode would have been my next suggestion after Exper Raw mode. You can probably stick with Pro mode if you're already using it, as it has EV adjustment. A 30th of a second is quite long and risks blurring from shake if not braced in some way but it's worth experimenting. I see no traffic on the bridge so you shouldn't get streaking of vehicle lights (causing bright lines in the frame). A negative EV setting will probably be provided by reducing the ISO rather than making the shutter speed faster but a low ISO is good for avoiding distortions like grainy images anyway. On my own Canon mirrorless camera I rarely shoot with an ISO higher than 400. I'm pretty sure your pics show lens flare from nearby bright lights and a high contrast scene but I can't be certain. Best of luck.

[RlabsLLC]

That must have been some time to write...

[Philscbx]

This is too critical to not save to notes.
Thank You... 😊

[maird]

You're welcome. Making some notes is a good point but always remember it's your art and your scenes, that's why I said it isn't a "right" way to use the cameras when I made the early point about choosing a camera/lens and staying within the optical zoom range of the lens then doing your own cropping. That wouldn't have helped with flare anyway.

Something to consider about flare is if there is rising humidity from the water in the bridge shot it will probably not be helped by adjusting the exposure value (EV). In that case it would be light dispersed by mist in which case it's worth considering how you can use it to make yourself a better scene. However, there's probably no mist in the indoor shot so it's likely flare is the cause of the bright areas at the bridge as well.