Redditor shows that Samsung Ultra phone fakes photos of the moon

A Redditor has shown that Samsung phones fake photos of the moon. In a post, ibreakphotos shows that Samsung software fills in details of the moon that were not there, which is only possible if the software loads the moon details itself.

To prove the faking of the moon photos, ibreakphotos made a setup with a picture of the moon at 170×170 pixels with blur over it to remove all details. The Redditor then darkened the room and took a photo with the S23 Ultra from across the room.

This made it clear that the Samsung phone was in post-processing with more details than were in the original image. The Redditor repeated the experiment with an image of the moon half behind another image and the software did not sharpen it, probably because the software did not recognize it as the moon.

Samsung has not yet responded to the controversy. The manufacturer has said before that it mainly uses algorithms to sharpen the picture by using multiple frames with different exposures, just like any photo in night mode works. That is not the case here, because the software puts details in the image that were not present in the source material. Huawei has previously been accused of faking moon photos. The Space Zoom function has been on Samsung’s most expensive phones, the Ultra phones from the S series, for three years. These are the S20 Ultra, S21 Ultra, S22 Ultra and S23 Ultra.