The internet has been talking about a post on Reddit for days, which proves that Samsung’s “Space Zoom” photos of the moon are fake. As a reminder, redditor u/ibreakphotos took a photo of a blurry image of the moon on a monitor using a Galaxy S23 Ultra, only to find that non-existent details were added to the final photo and it turned out to be much sharper than it actually is.
Since that test triggered an avalanche of comments from frustrated Samsung smartphone users who felt “overwhelmed,” the South Korean company decided to provide an official explanation of exactly how the “Space Zoom” feature works.
Namely, Samsung phones use Scene Optimizer, AI Deep Learning, and Super Resolution technology to photograph the moon.
“To capture a clear photo of the Moon, Galaxy cameras use Super Resolution to synthesize more than 10 images taken at 25x zoom or more. A photo taken at a zoom of 25 times or more must remove noise and improve clarity and other details,” explains Samsung.
So, Super Resolution technology helps to create photos with multi-frame composition. When the Scene Optimizer is also included and AI Deep Learning recognizes the moon, Samsung says that the user will get a bright and clear photo.
“The technology to recognize the Moon is built on the different shapes and details of the Moon. From the full moon to the crescent moon, and it is based on photos taken from the Earth,” notes Samsung.
Simply put, when Scene Optimizer is turned on and the user zooms more than 25 times, AI Deep Learning will improve the photo based on the loaded Moon base, and Super Resolution will further “iron” it.
One might conclude from this that Samsung’s moon photos are not entirely fake, but this does not disprove any of what the aforementioned Redditor revealed.
