Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Samsung Pokes Fun at iPhone 12 Pro Max's Lack of 100x Digital Zoom in New Ad

I understand Samsung finding something they feel is a better feature but regardless, there’s nothing to pull me away from iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. I don’t buy iPhones because of a single feature. I buy iPhones for the ecosystem and services and total integration with my other Apple products. Wouldn’t matter if the Samsung had a 108 mp optical zoom, I still wouldn’t care.

I still think, on a somewhat unrelated note (no pun intended) Apple has unique challenges due to the sheer volume of their sales and manufacturing, and I truly believe Apple waits to bring a feature to market until they feel it is as polished as possible given those manufacturing constraints.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mech986 and GSWForever8
Digital zoom.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: That is the most offensive thing anyone can say to me as a serious photographer. It's the same as telling a chef a microwave oven is used for serious cooking.

Go optical or go home. Well, digital zoom is okay for people who just want snap shots. Just like a microwave oven is okay for reheating a TV dinner.
 
Lol. The burger is literally just sharpen+higher saturation and contrast applied to the photo. I see no difference in actual details between the photos.

As for the moon one, good luck with your AI upscaling something that isn’t literally a circle and also THE MOON, with tons of reference images the software can learn from.

This is just sad.
 
zorinlynx said:
"Digital zoom" is equivalent to taking a non-zoomed shot and cropping it.

Samsung is definitely aiming this ad at people who don't know better. Us photography nerds roll our eyes but regular people will fall for it.
Click to expand...
I rather have a decent iPhone camera with optical zoom, but I rather take actual photos with an actual camera like my EOS R5 with my RF glass...
 
Sorry, photography & optical nerd here.

2.5x, 3x, 10x & 100x are MULTIPLIERS. Unless we have the field of view in degrees or focal length of the cameras & everyone uses the same baseline benchmark, comparing those multiplier numbers is truly meaningless.

For example, a 35mm SLR lens that has a focal length of 28-140mm has a multiplier of 5x. Another 35mm SLR lens has one of 12-120mm, but the 2nd lens has a multiplier of 10x. Even though the 2nd lens has a higher "multiplier", the 1st actually has a longer focal length (narrower field of view). Unless we know the baseline they are using for the multiplier they are claiming (28mm & 12mm in our lens examples), then comparing the multipliers is futile.


Gotta love marketing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Unregistered 4U and GuruZac
And what is the real world use for this after we have taken our "moon shot"? Stalker photos from far away?
 
This may be one of the dumbest ads I've ever seen, on several levels. :rolleyes:

There's the whole fact that optical zoom is a crap feature to begin with so who cares if yours is better. But it's also the same tacky Samsung attitude we've seen over and over. I think it's dicey to attack the competition in your ads, but marginally acceptable if you're the underdog going after the big guys. Wendy's attacking McDonalds, Pepsi attacking Coke, etc. Samsung, who still has the biggest market share, seems clueless to the fact that attacking Apple makes them look petty, almost like a schoolyard bully.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately those that are less tech savvy don't understand the difference between "Optical Zoom" and "Digital Zoom".
 
Shanghaichica said:
10x optical zoom on the S21 ultra is decent and better than the 2.5 x zoom on the 12 pro max.
Click to expand...
That may be true but that's not what the ad's about. Digital zoom is an imaginary construct of simply zooming in on the available data, no different that magnifying something in Preview or Photoshop. You don't get any more detail calling something "100x digital zoom" than "zooming in 100x in Photoshop." All you're getting is a slider to do the zooming in the camera.

A 10x optical zoom is definitely nicer than the 2.5 on the 12 Pro Max, too bad Samsung didn't make that the point of the commercial this article is about.,
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5105973 and ignatius345
The Samsung thing with their ads in the USA seems ridiculous to me.

Doing that seems desperate to me and as if it seems like it's the second one.

I think their phones have good enough attributes to not have to be compared to the iPhone.

These ads just seem to me to show desperation and bad sales, because these ads are crude, lacking in creativity and unfunny. I don't know, the "Get a Mac" ads were funny, they compared different OS, but not in a crude way, but with people, humanizing Windows and Mac.

I don't find the Windows, Intel or Samsung ads creative, nor funny (the Samsung one with the notch might be funny), nor original.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mech986 and GSWForever8
Didn't that 100x zoom turn out to be pretty much a gimmick? IIRC the photos looked pretty terrible.
 
Not much for Samsung to boast about. Digital zoom just interpolates the pixels, and you could do that to any picture taken on the iPhone.

The problem is the image will be a false image and being interpolated circles would show aliasing, and an altogether inferior image.

Even if you resize an image in preview, you have the setting to resample image which if you are increasing the image size will interpolate.

Even if you resize an image downwards, interpolation occurs.

The 10x optical zoom will give a decent picture, but even then it depends on the optics. The Samsung uses an f/4.9 for the stated 10x zoom
 
Last edited:
MacRumors said:
photo of the moon in total darkness.
Click to expand...
This photo of the moon is actually taken in daylight. Only the zoom range is impressive.

The moon is illuminated by the sun and is extremely bright, even from Earth.
 
Last edited:
Tons of knocking on Samsung here, and normally I'd join the party, but I must say that the ads are catchy! That's all that matters in advertising. Head turners.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vooke
Apple should make a "Get an iPhone" ad campaign that's like the "Get a Mac" campaign. It would be a 1000 times better than this rubbish.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mech986
Samsung phones are technologically superior to iPhones. The newest crop of phones looks advanced, the iPhone looks outdated from a hardware and software standpoint.
 
Samsung trying to deflect the attention off their own garbage cameras 🤦‍♂️😂 shutter lag, camera lag, heat issues, crap video camera, since their first phone came out and they still can’t fix shutter lag, need to take 20 photos on a Samsung phone before you get a half decent photo.

Nice try Samsung, but your cheesy marketing ain’t fooling no one.

D0B877F9-FFAB-44FB-8D9D-903B88609ECC.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: GSWForever8
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back