The night and preview of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus || Tech Review Pro

Before starting this note I must clarify something. And it is that these photos were taken during a trip to stock up and only on the way to and from my home, without censorship detours, in Techcetera, we are all supporting and complying with the quarantine measures.

As I was saying, this Friday after meeting my work commitments, I had to go out and stock up. It was necessary since certain basic products had run out. The entire tour lasted from 6:30 to 7 pm and this allowed me to test the night mode of the new Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus in various light ranges.

Go out, stock up and catch some shots.

The challenge, given the isolation conditions that these days demand, had some additional elements. Well, not because it was in supply, the time could be used in an irresponsible way, so the photos had to be taken without thinking much about the frame, without looking for that ideal angle or waiting for perfect lighting conditions, it was just pointed and shoot, nothing more, maximum 7 seconds per photo and that's it. Hence, in addition, almost all have been taken with the phone's ultra-wide-angle lens, you had to try to get as much information as possible in a photo.

Speaking of Night Mode

Samsung has had a somewhat particular relationship with the night mode since to achieve a good photo it is necessary to combine several factors.

The Note 10 already brought the night mode natively.

• A large aperture in the lens. That is, the lens diaphragm opens wide to let in more light. Since the times of the Galaxy S8, it already offered lenses with f: 1.7 aperture, which complies with the benefits to be considered luminous.
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• In addition to the above, a good ISO sensitivity that allows the sensor to capture light far beyond what the view allows.
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• A good optical stabilizer. Since these photos can last several seconds or even minutes, and since not everyone has a tripod in hand, the camera needs to be able to compensate for subtle and involuntary hand movements during the shot.
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• Software that combines everything. This being perhaps most important because for all this to work in perfect balance, the artificial intelligence and processing power of the phone is required to achieve a good shot.

Why do I say that Samsung's relationship with night mode has been strange?

Because despite having all the technical conditions to achieve excellent low-light photos, only up to the S10 was integrated via update and Note 10 was the first Samsung to bring it in native mode. However, better late than never and, as we said at the time with the S10 Plus, the biggest difference of Samsung's proposal with respect to other brands is: that it focuses on highlighting the light but, essentially respecting that it is from a night photograph. It does not try to turn night into day and it does not fall into resources of overexposure or exaggerated intensity in color for that.

And in the S20 Plus? How is it?

Here is one of the photos from the Night Mode of the Galaxy S10 Plus.

And in the S20 Plus? How is it?

This is already the second generation of the S line to integrate night mode and, it shows! In the S10 there were serious differences between the lenses that were used to take the shot, so I used to prefer the main one, almost exclusively, in total night conditions. In this case, the difference in power and processing capacity is strongly noticeable.
 

There was still some light in the sky. It was barely 6:35 pm.

The time to achieve a shot has been reduced quite a lot and very faithful to his proposal the night mode, he tries to highlight details, highlight colors and lights in the most faithful way, without over-exposing.
 

But as the night falls, the camera begins to show that it wants to highlight light, without losing detail.

Now, this has its pros and cons. If your thing is just to highlight every light pole and every light bulb, the Galaxy S20 Plus is not for you. In fact, as you can see in the photo of this building, when I wanted to force it to raise the light from the facade, in a shot against the light just as the Sun was going down, it was terrible, the camera tried to deal with each part of the shot without achieving it, that is not the nature of Samsung.
 

You should not force this mode, the camera has others that allow you to capture even this difficult shot.

Now, when the night has fallen, the camera comes to life, the colors, the scenes, the shots, and not over-exposing or exaggerating, it even allows you to read the signs! There is a more mature proposal that invites you to play and create great shots, highlighting the light at night, not trying to turn it into what it is not.
 

Capture the night as seen with the naked eye.

I hope soon, like you, to be able to go out and just enjoy the night through the lens of a good camera, for now, that of the S20 Plus, looks very promising.