A reluctant

It was a Friday afternoon in the Adirondacks. I had been out with some friends cross-country skiing on a snowy afternoon. After skiing, on the way back to town, I made a few phone calls to home. I stopped for gas, then we proceeded to a nearby brewpub to enjoy some of the local libations.

After some sampling the pub’s offerings, I dropped my friend off at his home and proceeded to mine. Reflexively I patted my clothing searching for the familiar rectangular density of my Galaxy S8. Failing to locate it, I searched the car, including all the little crevices, for the device. No luck.

In my living room, I opened my laptop and went to the Verizon locate app. This usually works like a charm, and usually find that my phone is somewhere nearby. Unfortunately, on this occasion, the app could not connect.

Uh oh.

I ended up returning to the brewpub and was assured that no phone had turned up. I called my friend, who confirmed he had not taken it by mistake.

Oh, crap.

As near as I can tell, I dropped it at the gas station but given the snow cover, I never heard the thud. I suspect I then drove over it on the way out.

Driving the 350 miles home the next day without a communications device was really odd. Arriving back in Pennsylvania in midafternoon, I made a beeline to the local Verizon store to acquire a new device.

Now I’m typically a cheap, refurb kinda guy. But as there were none on hand, I was forced to purchase new. I have always liked the Samsung Galaxy phones and was aware that a new phone, the Galaxy S21 was to be introduced in slightly more than a week. There was no way I was going to wait that long. I purchased one of the current flagship models, the Galaxy S20 5G UW.

So as much as I was unhappy to buy a new phone, the situation offered an opportunity. The Samsung I purchased is known to have a very high-performing camera module, competitive with the other flagship phones. So at least this purchase gives me the opportunity to find out whether smartphone photography has advanced to a point where it can produce interesting image files.

So how about the phone? In general, it works great and has a beautiful screen with snappy graphics. It’s responsive, slightly more so than my previous device. It’s made of metal and Gorilla Glass 6, so it is presumably pretty rugged. It has a very long battery life compared to my old phone which is certainly convenient.

I noticed that external sensors, such as heart rate and oxygen saturation have been eliminated. Thoughtfully, they are now available on a Galaxy Watch 3 which one can purchase for roughly $400 more. Thanks, Samsung.

So, in summary, it’s a nice phone, but damn expensive. I understand that Samsung understands this and that the S21 will be further de-contented and significantly less expensive. Hopefully, this phone will last me a long time.

But then there is the camera module. The S20 appears to share similar if not identical photography capabilities with the newer S 21. in this case, this device is 3 generations more advanced than my previous Galaxy. I was obviously curious to assess the improvements.

The specifications are certainly interesting. This camera has 3 sensors. The main camera has a 12-megapixel chip and an F1.8 fixed aperture lens. The native focal length however appears to be equivalent to a normal lens unlike the default wide-angle focal length seen in most earlier cameras. This makes it much more useful in my style of photography. There is another 12-megapixel sensor for an ultra-wide lens. Both of these sensors were apparently redesigned with larger pixels, which will reduce noise, and improve low light performance (there is a “low light” mode).

The third sensor is a 64-megapixel sensor serving a telephoto lens. Though it has 30 X combined optical and digital zoom capability (digital zoom is generally a bad thing) It has 3x lossless zoom. This is, it retains a full 12 megapixel of data up to a 3X magnification. This really opens up possibilities for photography on a smartphone. The S20 also shoots raw images in the Adobe proprietary .dng format which simplifies processing in their software.

There also seems to be a capable video section, with a 4K resolution. I don’t shoot much video, but I did capture some footage that looked significantly better than anything seen on previous cameras. This camera appears to have stabilization though I’m not sure whether it is electronic or mechanical (sees probably the former).

I tried the low light (Night) mode. It’s a jpg-only mode and lets the shutter speed drift pretty slow. This was shot in my dark workshop with my lights off but minimal window lighting.

My initial landscape efforts looked pretty promising. The images, at least on screen actually appeared to have enough dynamic range and micro-contrast that it occurred to me that I might want to get more serious.

Now, I find shooting images with a smartphone extremely awkward as they are difficult to hold, and it’s hard to trigger the shutter without camera movement.

I found a possible solution on Amazon. I purchased an inexpensive cell phone holder with threads for a tripod puck. Included in the package was a simple Bluetooth remote with a lanyard allowing it to be permanently attached to the mount. This was simple to connect to my phone, allowing me to take shake-free images, and truly explore this camera’s potential.

Another nice improvement in the new phone regards the treatment of raw (.dng) files. I preferentially shoot this format in my cameras because of the flexibility it gives you in editing. It was available on my previous phone, but the files were difficult for Photoshop to read. It requiring me to import the files to the computer before they could be sorted and edited. This phone allows Photoshop to read them directly, and records and displays them in a 4/3 format rather than the wider format JPEG’s, so they can be quickly identified. This is also a more photographic format in my view.

So I begin carrying the S20 alone, without any backup camera gear on my outdoor outings. At first, I had the settings wrong, and the camera only took jpegs. These look promising on the screen.

Back at the computer, however, Samsungs processing algorithms are revealed. They feature high contrast, over-sharpening, and at the same time smoothing of details. This may be great for an 18-year-old’s cleavage squeezing puckered-up selfie shot, but it’s lousy for landscape.

But then I set the camera up on the tripod, and put it into Pro mode, shooting raw files. Suddenly things were different. I took these two shots one in .jpg, one in .dng both on the tripod to assess the difference. For reference, I then mounted and shot my pocket camera, the Sony RX100 Mark III which is not the most current model of the camera and has more resolution than the Samsung ( 20 megapixels versus 12). I processed them as closely as I could in Adobe Camera Raw.

The “pro mode” shoots with the main sensor and lens, there are no zoom capabilities. It allows you to adjust, shutter speed, iso, white balance (the aperture is fixed. Because of the small sensor, the depth of field is significant, even at an open aperture. As you can see above, the issues seen in the jpg files go away, and the results are impressive, approaching those of the much more sophisticated Sony. This is a much better result than was achieved by the S8 which I tested in a similar fashion some years ago.

I wanted to see how much adjustment flexibility, the Samsung .dng files would have given that one of the main that we shoot in “raw” modes is to have the flexibility to adjust them later in Photoshop. The image below I’d like to say was deliberately overexposed. The native file was completely blown out with no detail particularly in the snow, but it recovered nicely upon processing.

So what does it all mean? Basically, the Galaxy S20 sports pleasant jpg image quality for small screen viewing but suffers from over-processing when more critically evaluated. Shoot in “pro mode” and image quality is much improved, but you must deal with the fixed focal length and aperture. Still, the “normal” field of view is useful and because of the small sensor, the depth of field is probably a good compromise.

Am I going to stop carrying my Fujifilm equipment?…no.

Am I going to play with this some more? …absolutely.

As always, I would be honored if you would share this with your friends.

Header Image: Clearing the Storm ((Samsung Galaxy G20 UW 5G)

 

It has been a quiet summer here on the Pocono Plateau. The weather has been quite pleasant since mid June, though in the last week or so we’ve had several runs of severe afternoon thunderstorms that resulted in power outages  in our small community.  Otherwise the weather has been lovely.

I have noticed that my postings tend to fall off during the summer months. I think part of this is due to a certain contentment I feel with the onset of the season .

We had the usual march of summer flowers including honeysuckle, black-eyed susan’s, mountain laurel, foxglove and finally rhododendron.  Now the first cardinal flowers have appeared alongside stream beds.  I noticed yesterday that goldenrod is beginning to bloom.

In our neighborhood we had an abortive gypsy moth outbreak, but a fortuitous run of cool wet weather in early June encouraged several pathogens, which wiped out the caterpillars before they could do much damage. This undoubtedly saved several old Chestnut oak trees on my property who are already relatively marginal.

We have had the usual run of community events, including our Fourth of July celebration, summer cocktail parties, and the very pleasant wedding of the friend’s daughter that I help to photograph. I am really enjoying the combination of the X 100f, and the X Pro 2/56mmf1.2 for events like this.

The house is empty this summer. My daughter of course lives in Seattle, and my son, who is a graduate student, is doing an Google internship in that city. It is nice that they can be together.  We did meet up with them in State College, when they flew into attend a wedding.

Equipment wise, I have acquired a DJI Mavic Pro drone, and have been trying to master shooting smooth aerial video. Once I have something to show for it, I will share my experiences on these pages. It turns out there is definitely a learning curve to this.

Mostly though, I am enjoying the summer season. I am looking forward to some events with the potential to provide some content for these pages as the summer goes on.

So bear with me.  I’ll be back.

 

 

It starts the way it always does. In December, I check the Penn State schedule for spring break. Given that our daughter, and now our son have been students there over the last 6 years; that week will be our family ski trip, generally the first full week of March. We will spend it in Lake Placid.

I have had almost no regrets over the years. The Adirondacks in early March typically feature abundant snow cover, and moderate temperatures, and we generally we have a wonderful winter vacation.

2016, however, broke the mold, Last year in March, Lake Placid for the first time in 25 years was snowless. Though Whiteface, the downhill resort was open, given my deteriorating knee, it was of little use to me. My wife and son skied when it wasn’t raining. I did a little hiking, but a lot of eating and drinking. At the end, it didn’t seem like a good entertainment value for the long drive required to get there and return. Not to worry I thought; this year is clearly a fluke.

 

Winter 2017 seemed different. Though in Pennsylvania, the winter had been mild with minimal snow, the Adirondacks were far enough north for most of the precipitation to be white. I sat at my desk at work, scanning Facebook posts by my Lake Placid friends describing their latest winter adventures. In mid-February with my vacation weeks away, the backcountry ski conditions report was positively giddy with the wonderful snowpack that had accumulated. And, I had a brand new knee.

Then came the warmth, and several strong rain events. By late February, the giddy was gone, along with the snow. Our vacation loomed.

We tried to remain optimistic. But when the Friday Lake Placid forecast was in (we were set to leave Saturday) it called for a bitterly cold weekend, followed by three days of fifty-degree weather with rain. Our weather in Pa, though similar would be 5-10 degrees warmer, and with less precipitation.

After consulting with my wife, we threw in the towel, and unpacked.

My kid (and several friends) however, had purchased advance ski tickets that were nonrefundable. Twenty-two-year-olds have no issue with driving 6 hours for 2 days of frigid skiing. So we gave them the keys.

Now I don’t really have a problem with staying home. It gives me time to work around the house when the weather was bad, and at least hike when the weather is good. It did feel like we needed to do go somewhere. Given the 50-60 degree temps in the middle of the week (3/5-7), it occurred to me that we ought to go south, to where we might find even more spring-like conditions.

We decided to travel during the balmy mid-week weather, first to the inner harbor at Baltimore for a night and then drive up US 95 to stay at a 1780s hotel in our old neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia.

Baltimore was lovely, but quiet, given the time of year. I had brought along both my X Pro 2 (with the 18-55mm zoom in the bag, but with the 56mm f1.2 mounted). I also brought along my X100t with the 2 lens converters.  For some reason, I ended up shooting only the X100, mainly with the native lens or the teleconverter. This is not an uncommon circumstance, and the reason my X100f is on order. I shot in raw/ monochrome jpeg, and I really liked the images I was seeing in the LCD.

We had drinks at Fells Point, and seafood at the Rusty Scupper, a restaurant I had in the past generally avoided as a tourist trap but found was quite good. The evening and night images I acquired looked really promising. The following day we took in the highly recommended National Aquarium, before loading up for the 2-hour drive northeast to “Philly”.

My wife Cathy and I went to medical school there and later did our respective fellowships in the city.  For a time we lived at Tenth and Spruce, 4-5 blocks from the lovely Morris Hotel where we stayed. This location is central to much of Philly’s interesting neighborhoods, including Jeweler’s Row, the Independence Mall area, the Italian Market, and the “Old City” area near to the river. I wandered past my medical school. Formerly, it was named for the author of the Declaration of Independence. It now bears the name of a clothier (a very rich clothier). I ate a cheesesteak (onions, cheese whiz, mushrooms). And I shot a fair number of images. In the morning we had a lovely spring breakfast at an outdoor café on Washington Square.

Sometime on Thursday morning I filled the SD card I had been shooting, and changed it out. As is my practice over many years, I place it upside down in its case to indicate that it is full, and then placed it (along with spent batteries) at the bottom of my camera bag where I will notice them later. I shot a few more images on the new card before starting the trip for home.

Some of you may be noticing at this point the relative paucity of images from Baltimore and Philly in this article. Where are they? Well, I wish I knew. For when I returned home, I could not find the spent card with all of my files. Perhaps it fell out of my bag at some point later in the morning when I walked around town. Maybe it fell out in our room.

This is the first time this has happened to me and it is quite disturbing. I am hoping that perhaps the hotel cleaning staff will come upon it, but I am not hopeful.

Back in the mountains, as I write this it is 12 degrees. Roughly 8 inches of snow fell here yesterday, with the promise of a significant Nor’easter later this week. My road is again snow-covered and undoubtedly re-freezing. Damn. Maybe by next weekend, we will be skiing again. Oh well, such is March on the Pocono plateau.

 

Addendum: We did indeed have a nor’easter.  On March 14 and 15th, my little community in the mountains saw accumulations of 32 inches of new snow, breaking a previous 24-hour snow total, that was originally set in 1993.  The Valley cities had nearly as much.  It remained cold after the storm.

Needless to say, there is once again cross-country skiing on the Pocono plateau.

 

I gotta admit, I’m ready for spring.

 

 

 

I never like to write a bad review. Sometimes the truth hurts.

But after publishing the review of the Galaxy G7 Curve, I kept asking myself: Could Samsung possibly have made a flagship phone with a camera worse than previous phones? I cannot imagine it.

My issues with the camera app on the phone remain, but how about a further test of the sensor. So I went out on an afternoon walk with the phone, and what I consider the camera I own with the least capable sensor, the Sony RX100 MarkIII.

The latter has a 20mp 1″ sensor vs a much smaller 12mp (but also Sony) sensor in the phone. So I’m not expecting parity here.

So I shot a number of images with both cameras, both set to shoot raw, with as much as possible between the 2 formats, similar settings. I watched carefully, lest the quirky camera app on the Samsung drop me out of raw image capture like it has done before.

Just how bad is the Camera in the phone? Maybe not that bad. But only when shot in raw.

Here’s one of the images; First from the Sony shot as a raw file and processed in ACR:

 

 

Here’s the  DNG file from the G7, processed as nearly identically as was appropriate for the different files.

 

Note the different handling of light and shadow between the two files. The Samsung clearly struggles here. Keep in mind, that my Fujifilm sensors, not to mention my Nikon D800E, would likely be much better than the little RX 100 in this regard. And it’s those attributes that really make for great images. 

 Now here’s the  Sony magnified to a 66% view.

 

 This is magnified to 100 % for an equal field of view for the lower resolution sensor.

 

Again there are problems with tonality and dynamic range on the file from the Samsung that are evident even in this small piece of the frame. This is a consequence of sensor size.  Detail, however, I think is respectable, given the resolution advantage of the RX 100.

The problems with “muddiness” I complained about, are in the jpeg processing of the G7. Here’s the jpeg straight out of the phone. Look particularly at the highlight on the right of the tree trunk.

By the way, this magnified view was from the right edge of the images. It suggests pretty good optical performance, particularly from the lens of the Samsung.

My thoughts after all of this are that the Camera on the Samsung G7 series is probably as capable as can be expected given physics vs. current technology. It will be useful shot in jpeg for very casual use. Shot in raw, it might not be impossible to capture an interesting image so long as the dynamic range of the scene is limited, and the Samsung software doesn’t get in the way.

In other words: It’s a camera phone.