Samsung unpacks its latest camera features for the Galaxy S22 series

Samsung has now officially endorsed a body of leaks and rumors concerning the new (or merely refined, in some cases) camera humps found on the Galaxy S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra. This impressive-sounding hardware is supported by the latest features baked into the phones' new One UI 4.1 based on Android 12 - which is just as well as the OS got relatively little love during the major product event.

These include potentially greatly enhanced low-light modes in both photo and video, dubbed "Night Solution" and "Night Portrait", which go under the general umbrella of "Nightography", by the South Korean giant. They rely heavily on the S22 lines' new NPUs, which, for example, needs to generate and extrapolate on up to 12 frames, taken and cherry-picked for detail and light info in modes such as Night Solution.

There is also a new AI Stereo Depth Map, rated to give much more convincing depth in low-light images, particularly for Night Portraits. They are used as selling points to target potential S22 and S22+ buyers. However, the best and highest-end new attributes seem to have been reserved (or at least presented in the context of) the S22 Ultra.

They include Adaptive Pixel, Super Clear Lens and the latest iteration of Space Zoom, not to mention a new form of stabilization called OIS+VDIS. This is a combination of the native stabilization that allows the main 108MP camera and one of the 10MP telephoto lenses to move independently within their housing with "Video Digital Image Stabilization", Samsung's latest and apparently greatest form of virtual, AI analysis-based, jitter reduction.

Auto Frame Rate also uses AI to match a given high-energy scene in low-light with the ideal frame rate, all the way down to 24fps. At rates below this value, more extrapolation trickery kicks in for "optimal exposure", thus contributing to Super Night Solution on the S22 Ultra.

This all sounds interesting, albeit also like the resulting output might turn out more like how a shiny new S22-series device thinks it should rather than how its user sees it. However, Samsung has taken more serious creators into account too with the retention of a Pro Mode for greater control over focus, shutter-speed, white balance and so on.

Furthermore, there is an Expert RAW option for even greater control over the same. Samsung also claims a user can edit the results on their S22 Ultra using Lightroom for Android. It will be interesting to see how these putative camera upgrades pan out in actual testing, such as that found in our impending updates for our Galaxy S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra reviews.