Samsung Is Allegedly Faking Zoom Photos Of The Moon: Wonder How Elon Musk Will React Now

Last month, Samsung Electronics SSNLF latest smartphone invention, Galaxy S23 Ultra’s exceptional zoom capabilities to click perfect Moon pictures, impressed even Elon Musk — but now it appears the entire hype might have been “fake.” 

What Happened: In a clever and straightforward test by Reddit user u/ibreakphotos, Samsung’s S23 Ultra was put to the test. The Redditor took an intentionally blurry photo of the Moon, displayed it on a computer screen and then captured it using the S23 Ultra. 

The result? A clear and detailed photo of the moon that added new details previously unseen in the original blurry photo.

See Also: iPhone 13 Might Be Most Popular Smartphone Sold In US — But Bill Gates Is Happy With This Device

Here’s the blurry moon picture that the Redditor used: 

Here’s the complete photo-taking process: 

Here’s the side-by-side comparison of the two pictures: 

With these “proofs,” the Redditor concluded that Samsung’s space zoom Moon shots are “fake.” 

Samsung in an email to Benzinga said that it does not apply any image overlaying to the photo. 
"When a user takes a photo of the Moon, the AI-based scene optimization technology recognizes the Moon as the main object and takes multiple shots for multi-frame composition, after which AI enhances the details of the image quality and colors," a Samsung spokesperson said. "Users can deactivate the AI-based Scene Optimizer, which will disable automatic detail enhancements to the photo."

In this case, while the use of the word “fake” could be a subject of debate, the evidence shows that the picture captured by the Samsung smartphone is less photo and more generated image, reported The Verge. 

Whether the test results are accurate or not, it gives Apple Inc. AAPL iPhone fans an opportunity to get back at Samsung as the duo has often been pitted against each other. 

Why It’s Important: Samsung’s Moon photography has been a source of controversy since the release of its S20 Ultra and its 100x “Space Zoom” feature in 2020, the report noted. 

The company has been accused of using pre-stored textures to create its Moon photographs, but Samsung has refuted these claims, stating that the process is more intricate than simply copying and pasting textures.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Viral TikTok Video Shows You How To Deliver Perfect Shots Of Moon On iPhone 14