Galaxy S26 cameras: here are all the improvements and new capabilities of Samsung’s flagship phones

Galaxy Unpacked has come and gone, ushering in a new era for the Galaxy S26. As expected, we got three new flagship phones: S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra. As an avid photographer and videographer, I naturally gravitate towards cameras more than anything else.
There were many camera rumors leading up to the event that didn’t turn out to be true – such as a flexible port – but the system was still greeted with a small hardware upgrade and a bunch of new photo and camera features that should please serious users.
Galaxy S26 cameras: Details
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Galaxy S26 |
Galaxy S26 Plus |
Galaxy S26 Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Main Camera |
50MP(f/1.8) primary |
50MP(f/1.8) primary |
200MP (f/1.4) primary |
|
A very wide camera |
12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide |
12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide |
50MP (f/1.9) ultrawide |
|
Telephoto Cameras |
10MP (f/2.4) telephoto w/3x optical zoom |
10MP (f/2.4) telephoto w/3x optical zoom |
10MP (f/2.4) telephoto w/3x optical zoom, 50MP (f/2.9) telephoto w/5x optical zoom |
|
Max Digital Zoom |
30x |
30x |
100x |
|
Video recording |
4K @ 60fps, 8K @ 30fps |
4K @ 60fps, 8K @ 30fps |
4K @ 120fps (Pro Video), 8K @ 30fps |
|
Front camera |
12MP (f/2.2) |
12MP (f/2.2) |
12MP (f/2.2) |
Galaxy S26 cameras: shared features
Advanced Photo Assistant
Taking a page out of Google’s playbook, Samsung has introduced its own version of Ask Photos with an improved photo assist feature.
This tool allows users to make complex changes to images using simple text or natural language commands. This Galaxy AI feature can perform complex editing that would take the average Joe hours to do, including the addition of productive images, with impressive accuracy and realism.
Creative Studio
This new Galaxy AI tool helps you create unique images based on photos you’ve taken, or even generate new visuals from scratch. Creative Studio can handle tasks like turning your photos into custom stickers or personalized wallpapers, all with simple chat commands.
ProScaler
Integrated directly with the processor, the Galaxy S26’s new ProScaler feature optimizes image scaling to refine existing images. It takes photos that might seem raw and polishes them by sharpening details and smoothing textures.
It works best for digital zoom photography where pixelation is often seen, as ProScaler upscales the image to appear more detailed and natural.
Horizontal Lock

Dedicated action cameras like the DJI Pocket 3 have the ability to lock on the horizon. No matter how much movement occurs during recording, the images remain in perfect quality.
The entire Galaxy S26 system now features Horizontal Lock, which keeps the horizon stable regardless of how the phone is facing.
AI ISP selfie camera
Samsung is enlisting the help of AI to improve the quality of selfies across the Galaxy S26 lineup. While all three phones have 12MP front-facing cameras, the improved AI ISP (Image Signal Processor) allows for more natural skin tones and finer details, while reducing exposure issues caused by mixed lighting.
Galaxy S26 Cameras: Exclusive to the S26 Ultra
Wide holes
There are no hardware changes to the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus cameras, but the S26 Ultra on the other hand gets wider apertures to help improve its low-light performance. Specifically, it has a wide aperture of f/1.4 with its 200MP main camera – and an f/2.9 aperture with a 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom.
This allows more light to reach the sensor, resulting in clearer, more detailed images in low-light conditions. At the same time, this improvement should reduce blur because of how it reduces the exposure time of the cameras.
AI-enhanced Space Zoom

Ultra phones have always featured extremely long zoom ranges, and that trend continues with the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s AI-enhanced Space Zoom.
Not only does it reach 100x digital zoom, but it now works in tandem with the updated ProVisual Engine and ProScaler to clean up the image, reduce noise, and extract fine details previously lost to pixels.
Advanced Nightography Video
Taking advantage of its wide screen, the Galaxy S26 Ultra features an Advanced Nightography Video mode. This mode uses targeted noise reduction to analyze and remove artifacts in real-time, resulting in low-light images that are not only brighter but also sharper and sharper.
APV Professional Codec
Camera professionals will love that the S26 Ultra is the first Galaxy device to support the APV (Advanced Professional Video) codec. It records video at high bitrate in a lossless format to preserve as much detail as possible, allowing for extensive scaling and manipulation of post-production software.
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