Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Galaxy S21 Camera Test Comparison After Update! By Danny Winget

What's up everybody, this is Danny, and today I'll be doing the full camera comparison between the galaxy s21 and the s21 ultra. So I put out a full camera review video already- and I was meant to put this out beforehand to supplement that video, but the February camera patch hit, and I had to redo this entire video. Basically, so what I want to do is I want to test out the cheaper galaxy s21 and see if it's just as good as the galaxy s 21 ultra, which is way more expensive, so make sure you subscribe to the channel hit that, like button hit those notifications. So you don't miss camera comparisons like this and let's go ahead and get started. This comparison is business as usual, both shot on auto mode with scene optimizer on all the images and video are straight out of the camera, with no edits. So this is what you can expect on your galaxy s, 21 or s21 ultra.

Let's start with the daytime pictures, and even though that these two phones have totally different camera setups with the s21 ultra having a 108 megapixel main sensor and the s21 having a 12 megapixel main sensor, there isn't a huge amount of difference between the two when it comes to daytime shots. Both of these phones are running the Qualcomm snapdragon 888, so they are very similar with performance and processing and if you start to nitpick, it does go back and forth. There are times when I think that the cheaper s21 actually takes the sharper image. It isn't a huge difference or anything, but in certain scenarios you can notice it and generally, I would say that the s21 produces the slightly brighter overall picture. So I wouldn't blame you.

If you like the s21's image better in the middle of this camera test, I ended up getting a new camera update on both of these phones, so I had to go and take a fresh new set of pictures, but the results were pretty much the same. The s21 slight overexposure is still here, but if you look close, you can see that the s21 ultra's picture is more balanced, with better highlight control. Again, it's not a giant difference, but the exposure and highlights are controlled better on the ultra. Some might think that the ultra's pictures look dimmed, but look at the background here in this complex lighting scenario. The ultra handles the exposure much better and when it comes to just full-blown harsh lighting scenes like this one, the s21 ultra shows higher dynamic range with the bright sun and there will be some variations when it comes to white balance and color renditions such as sky color, but for the most part, you'd only realize this if you had both of them at the same time.

So I don't think this is a huge deal at all when it comes to little details when it comes to processing. In the end, I think you'll be happy with either one, because the images coming out of both of these phones are absolutely fantastic when it comes to sharpness, detail and colors, but where there is a very noticeable difference is in the zoom range. The galaxy s21 has a 64 megapixel camera that is used for hybrid zoom, where the s21 ultra has two dedicated optical zooms at 3x and 10x, and it makes a major difference. I took a ton of pictures, testing the zoom ranges and at 3x they aren't too far apart. But after that you do notice a major difference even with the 10x and then when you get into 30x, it isn't even a competition anymore.

And of course, if you want that 100x you'll have to go to the ultra. I personally don't care too much about anything beyond the 10x, but the 30x is surprisingly usable. It looks really great, but the 10x zoom is my absolute favorite, and once you have this type of zoom in your pocket, you'll be using it all the time. So this is the reason, in my opinion, to go to the s21 ultra during the day when it comes to natural depth of field, the ultra does have a slight advantage. You can see the bigger sense of depth of field portrait mode wise.

They both use the main sensor with the crop, but I think the regular s21 could have the sharper images due to the differences in processing. I kept getting the same result in human and non-human subjects. The good thing is both of them. Do a nice job with edge detection skin tones look a little more natural on the s21 ultra versus the brighter tones on the s21. If you're a fan of macro mode, the s21 produces the sharper shot from the same distance.

Really nice depth of field from both, but only the s21 ultra, has that focus enhancer mode where it changes to the ultra-wide to get that clear shot. You do lose that depth of field, but some of you might love this feature. Both of these phones take fantastic 4k, video super crisp and full of detail. I don't see a difference when it comes to the footage quality, so that's a good thing and they both can shoot 8k video, and they have up to 4k 60 frames per second on all the lenses now. So I think a lot of people will be happy with that stabilization wise.

I don't see a huge difference either. This is a really bumpy ride at the safari animal kingdom. If anything, the ultra might seem a little smoother, but not enough of a difference to really make a difference. Let me know what you think and if you can see a difference when the sun starts coming down, you can see again that overall balance and processing- it all depends on what you like, but I'm preferring the s21 ultra shots here more detail and richer color rendition for my preference, even though the s21 shot is brighter. In this sunset scenario, I prefer the more balanced shot on the ultra.

I just wanted to show this trend in a different lighting scenario. So let's go ahead and jump into the low light, and what I did is I took a bunch of shots without night mode, and then I took a bunch of shots with night mode, so I can show you the difference. I will show you more of these later, but what I'm seeing is on single snap alone without night mode. On some pictures, I am seeing better noise reduction on the s21 ultra and a slightly sharper image as well. It's not a huge difference, but you can see it take a look at the bricks here in the shot.

You can see more detail the same with this water fountain, shot more detail and also better white balance here to capture that bronze color. But honestly, it really depends on the scenario, because in a lot of the shots, the s21 looks sharper so take it for what it is in some of these shots, the s21 ultra did have more of that DSLR or mirrorless like look where the details aren't as sharpened, and I prefer that sometimes, but in just terms of pure sharpness, the s21 was doing a better job. In this run, so I wouldn't worry too much about the differences here when it comes to night mode. It's pretty much the same thing. I don't see enough of a difference to really call a huge difference, but for the most part both of these do a great job.

Where I do see, the difference is again with flexibility with portrait mode. They are both using the main sensor, but at night I found the s21 ultra portraits to be better even without any special modes. This is flip-flop from the daytime. If you look closely, you can see a difference on sharpness and detail. So if you're a portrait mode user at night, you might want to go for the s21 ultra, but the portrait night mode is the nail in the coffin.

The s21 ultra is the clear winner here, I'm hoping that this mode will come to the regular s21 and s21 plus as well, because it's great this is not a joke. The s21 couldn't even see my son, but the s21 ultra's night portrait mode worked here and yeah. It's noisy, but it's better than literally nothing on the s21, the zooms. Again show much better results. The 3x is significantly worse, even with night mode on and with the 10x zoom, you can clearly see the difference.

So if you plan to use the 3x and beyond at night, then the ultra is going to be the one for you, because the 10x on the s21 really does not look good at night. There are some other minor differences like the white balance, but minus the zoom capabilities. I think that the results are pretty similar. The s21 ultra can sometimes produce the better looking night mode shot with more detail and better balance all around the s21 also does a good job. So you really need to think if these minor differences are worth it to you, the front-facing video quality isn't wildly different, even though they do have two totally different sensors.

The night portrait mode feature again, giving the s21 ultra that advantage with selfies I'm sure they could just bring this feature to the s21, but I'm doubting that they will. So if you want this feature, you will have to go with the ultra. The good thing is that the bigger and more expensive ultra doesn't have worse. Video like it did last year, the s20 ultra was pretty terrible at low light video. But if you look this year, they both seem to be on par with each other when it comes to 4k video at night.

If you look really close here, I would say that in this mixed lighting scenario, that the ultra actually has the slightly sharper and more detailed video, so let me know if you can tell the difference. So while this comparison is late, I just wanted to show you the differences between the two. A lot of people asked for it. I think that if you can live without the zooms and the portrait night mode, you'll be happy with the regular s21 or the s21 plus, then you can go ahead and save some money. But in saying that, I think the separate 3x and 10x zooms are a game changer this year and is something that I found myself using a lot really.

You aren't paying for a huge leap in image: quality going with the s21 ultra, but you're, paying for more flexibility and more choices when it comes to shooting. Basically, the s21 ultra is a little better all across the board, and it is a better camera system. But you have to ask yourself: is it worth the extra money if you own a galaxy s20, I don't think it's really worth jumping into a galaxy s21. But if you want to make the leap to the ultra, then I say it's worth it: it's finally, an ultra from Samsung that I think is worth it and I can highly recommend it's one of my favorite cameras that I've used this year and I think you'll love it too. So let me know what you think in the comment section below.

Thank you for watching hit that like button. If this video helped you in any way subscribe for a lot more comparisons like this one- and I will see you in the next one.

Source : Danny Winget