With a dedicated Night mode, Samsung made it possible for consumers to take better pictures in low-light conditions with a single tap. With Android 10 and One UI 2.0, the company is enhancing the camera's Pro mode for those who prefer manually adjusting camera parameters when taking photos. On Android 10, the camera on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 allows one to set the ISO to 3200 and the shutter speed/exposure to 30 seconds.
Before Android 10, the ISO and shutter speed were limited to 800 and 10 seconds respectively. As you would expect, the phone needs to be kept absolutely still for using the highest ISO and the slowest shutter speed to avoid blur. But, the higher values should make those who use Pro mode very happy. We took a picture inside a dark room at different values – 30 second and 10 second exposure at 3200 and 800 ISO – and with the dedicated Night mode, and as you can see in the comparison shots below, the higher values make a considerable difference.
First, here's the result with the dedicated Night mode (yes, you can barely see anything, even with your screen brightness turned to maximum):
Now, check out how the same scene compares when it's shot with 10 second exposure (swipe right) and 30 (swipe left) second exposure, both at 800 ISO:
And here's the same scene at 10 second exposure (swipe right) and 30 second exposure with the ISO set to 3200:
We should mention that while the ISO goes up to 3200, there is pretty much no difference between ISO 1600 and 3200. Even 1600 is double that of the highest ISO value on Android Pie, however, so we're not complaining. It's possible 3200 ISO will have a noticeable effect in the stable Android 10 update after Samsung has further tuned the camera's Pro mode, or it may end up being removed altogether.
Sadly, One UI 2.0 does not bring back the ability to record videos in Pro mode, functionality that was removed with Android Pie. It also remains to be seen if the higher ISO and shutter speed values will be available on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9. Both devices use the exact same primary rear camera as the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10, but Samsung might keep some of the new stuff on One UI 2.0 and Android 10 exclusive to its latest two flagships.
What do you think of the enhanced shutter speed/exposure and ISO settings possible in Pro mode on Android 10? Let us know in the comments below, and to discover more of what One UI 2.0 and the next version of Android bring to Galaxy devices, check out our One UI 2.0 feature focus series of articles.
