This is my first time ever buying a phone through my carrier. I usually spend no more than $200 on an older model. This year , I bought the S25 Ultra.
I bought it for the camera. I am a photographer and always see inspiration. I am one month shy of my 65th birthday. With the exception of a total of a scattered ten years since I was 14, I was known for lugging a camera EVERYWHERE to shoot something. My main camera is an unimpressive Panasonic Lumix GX-8. Some of my images have caused profound responses.
Since my images have not generated enough interest to create income, I do not want to lose or damage the GX-8. When I travel, go to the beach, take a walk, a bike ride or even see something interesting in my garden, I have my camera ready. For a period of close to a year, I stopped. I was not sure whether I wanted to buy a point and shoot, upgrade and make the GX-8 my "expendable" camera, or some other option. I had a Galaxy A54. I really liked the camera. I did my research and ordered the S25 Ultra.
I had problems getting it to go past 10x. More research. Figured it out. I was disappointed to then learn that the higher I go in resolution (12/50/200), the less options I have. Zoom is limited more at each increment. In Pro the zoom limit is 5x. I have also experimented with Expert RAW. The lack of separate knobs amd switches makes it difficult to fully exploit the ability to change exposure, shutter speed, and overall brightness. However, I continue to work through this. There is much potential here.
Despite these and other limitations that I do not instantly recall, this camera -oops!- phone gets a B+. Oh! I forgot that I took my first Lumix-free trip last month to St. Thomas USVI. The images captured are far from disappointing. They are gorgeous. Here at home one of my top 5 favorite genres have tested it and, Wow!
When you increase shooting resolution, you lock the camera to the main lense as the wide angle, 3x and 5x lenses are either 50 or 10mpx, depending on which. If you want to have enhanced zoom, you need to keep it in lower resolution settings. Broadly speaking, you'll get better quality images at lower resolution because the camera pixel bins, resulting in better lighting lower resolution at the cost of detail when zooming in.
