Review: Samsung S26 Ultra from Paris!
Rich vivid colors snd great low light performance, but beware of the digital zoom settings
As you all know, I’m such an iPhone guy that I say it at the front of every Photowalks episode. Reason: superior video and photos, and the ease of working within the Apple system for transferring images from the phone to to the computer.
But for you, I want to be as versatile and knowledgable about the other options, and try my best to keep up with the latest Galaxy and Pixel phones. (I do own an older Galaxy S23 and a Pixel 9A.)
So when Samsung announced the latest edition of its premium Galaxy S line of phones, with extra photo/video features that sounded really interesting on the flagship S26 Ultra, I reached out to public relations and requested a review unit to fill you in.
As luck would have it, I got the phone two days before we left on a recent trip to Paris, where I would have plenty of time to run around the City of Light testing it out, and do some back to back shots vs. the iPhone. How’s that for a dream assignment? (Full-length Photowalks episodes from Paris coming soon!)
The verdict? Read on!
Price wise, the Ultra starts at around $1,200, though check locally, as prices fluctuate and Samsung often offers deals.
What can the Galaxy S26 Ultra do that the iPhone camera can’t?
The selling points of the latest upgrade are better low-light performance, (“our brightest camera system yet”) a video feature that keeps your horizon in place and promises improved low light there as well, and a bunch of AI features that make your ordinary zoom lens seem like it can go even further than it can.
So let’s run down the features, one by one.
Low light
I didn’t have a Galaxy S25 to compare it to, but I can show you some evening photos from the Galaxy that were superb, with rich colors and beautiful renditions of nighttime scenes. The only issue: sometimes the shots were too good. Samsung has a history of boosting colors, which look great on social media, but aren’t true to life. It takes a sort of Kodachrome on steroids approach to photography, which you either like or don’t. I would look at the screen, and be wowed, then look back IRL and notice that the dark blue I was seeing in the image was actually light blue. How do you feel about that?
Horizon Lock
This feature is hard to find, hidden in the video sub-menu at the top of the screen, but worth checking out. Most of us have a dickens of a time holding the phone correctly, and end up screwing up our horizons, even if slightly. On the S26 Ultra, there’s a feature that promises to keep it in place, even if you rotate the phone while shooting. Well, it doesn’t actually do that, but it will give you a slight edge over not having it on.
Issue: Video Flickering in France
The video colors and operation of the iPhone can’t be beat, and while the Galaxy does a more than decent job with it as well, in France it gets a big fail for one big reason. Flickering lights.
In France, the electrical system is on a different wavelength than ours, and because of that, when you point the camera at a little cafe, a quiet street, anywhere there is light, they flicker and make your production look unprofessional. Good luck finding a solution from Samsung to the problem, which of course, doesn’t just affect the S26 Ultra, but all Samsung, Apple and Google phones.
On the iPhone, there’s a simple fix: go to Settings and the Camera app, and chose the PAL setting under “Record Video.” From there, you can now change the frame rate from 24, 30 or 60 down to 25. Now you’re in good shape.
The Ultra doesn’t let you change the frame rate to 25 within the standard settings, and while I’ve seen all sorts of potential fixes noted online, none of them worked for me. That said, I have the easiest, best solution for you, and that also goes for iPhone users who don’t want to fiddle with the Settings app as well.
Download the free Blackmagic Camera app, available for Android and iOS, and change the frame rate to 25 FPS. That’s it!
Night Video
Samsung says it sets a new benchmark for night video with wider apertures and noise reduction “that deliver clear and detailed videos in low-light environments.. It says videos are brighter on the S26, allowing you to “confidently record cinematic moments after sunset, from bustling city streets to intimate gatherings, with more details than before.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra sample video is on top, and it’s clearly brighter and more colorful. The bottom is shot on iPhone 16 Pro Max.
The low-light boost is only available on the top of the line Ultra, per Samsung.
ZOOM
The Galaxy boasts several zoom options, offering 3X and 5X before slipping into a digital zoomland that uses AI to artificially get you closer with 30x and 100x zoom offerings. Samsung calls it “space zoom.”
You know my response: eech. The quality of these photos speak for themselves and additionally, trying to focus and frame at 100x is a near impossibility. Samsung tries to make it easier for you by letting you frame it at 30X first, then move it to 100x. But the end result is sharp photos at the main 1x or true optical telephoto 3x and 5x settings, somewhat respectable quality at 10x and sub-par pixelated crops at the “30x” and “100x” settings.
My concern here is that photos snapped at the regular, numbered settings are so good, sharp and professional looking. The digital photos, which are nothing more than cropped, blown up pixels look really shoddy, like the earliest digital cameras and I can only see these images causing a ton of hurt to consumers. Samsung, what are you thinking?
Luckily there’s an app you can download from at the Samsung Galaxy App Store called “Camera Assistant” that lets you tweak the menu. (Thanks to pal Rich DeMuro from the RichonTech newsletter for the tip!)
I downloaded the app, told it to only show the optical zoom offerings, and all is now well. The 30x and 100x are gone from the menu now, hopefully forever.
GALAXY ZOOM BONUS: The Ultra has a nice manual zoom feature for video that lets you put your finger on the screen and “zoom in” smoothly from 0.5 to 1x to 3x to 5x, nice and slowly. This is something we don’t have on the iPhone and I love it.
Samsung’s Air Drop like Quick Share
Samsung has a new feature available for Galaxy S26 users that finally, after all these years, may let you transfer photos and videos wirelessly from the phone to Mac devices, like Apple’s Air Drop. I swear by Air Drop and put that as the number 1 reason I’m a Mac guy. I use it all day.
Samsung calls its service Quick Share, and the idea is the same. You click the share button for media, and look to find the Mac device available to send it to.
However, despite many efforts, I wasn’t able to get it to work anywhere as effectively as with the Apple version. Like on iPhones and your Apple ID, you will need to be signed into your Samsung account to make QuickShare work. The Galaxy request never showed up on my Mac devices, but I was able to create a link and send it out via e-mail, which kind of defeats the purpose, as I could have just e-mailed the photo in the first place.
Bottom Line
PRO: If you’re tired of living within Apple’s walled universe, with the S26 Ultra you get a phone camera that produces sharp, colorful and high resolution photos at the normal settings during the day, does equally well at nighttime in both photos and videos, and boosts the colors in ways that are reminiscent of Kodachrome and Velvia from the film days.
CON: I hate that Samsung, on what appears to be a serious phone for photo enthusiasts, puts the atrocious “30x” and “100x” digital zoom features prominently in the camera menu and makes people think they are legitimate options, when they are clearly not. The other options are are all optical and great.
Here’s three more digital zoom examples, from Italy, straight out of the camera.
So again, you’ll get a fantastic camera with the Ultra, as long as you take the time to download the Camera Assistant app and ditch the digital zoom settings from the menu. And if you take it to France and shoot video, download the Blackmagic Camera app and your videos will be flicker free.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read, watch and listen! And I really appreciate the positive outpouring for part 1 of the Bakersfield Photowalks episode! Part 2, which is all about the food scene, debuts Sunday on Scripps News at 10 a.m. ET, with replays on YouTube.
Jeff
