Is Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Good for Zoom Photography? (2025 Review)

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the top-tier model in Samsung's Galaxy S24 series, launched in January 2024. It's a massive, no-compromise smartphone that fuses S Pen productivity with cutting-edge camera hardware. The phone's 6.8-inch edge-to-edge display is protected by Gorilla Glass Armor, and its titanium frame gives it a premium, durable feel. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chip, which provides immense processing power for AI tasks and mobile gaming. With up to 1TB of storage, it's meant to house huge photo and video libraries, though the base model starts at 256GB. The device runs on Android 14 and Samsung's One UI 6.1, with promises of seven years of updates. However, the star of the show is the camera system. The S24 Ultra's 200MP main sensor uses pixel binning to give sharp, high-detail 12MP (or 50MP in Pro mode) images. The two telephoto lenses are what set it apart: a 3x 10MP lens for moderate zoom and a 5x 50MP periscope lens that can be cropped to 10x without losing much quality. This is possible because the 50MP periscope has a wide field of view at 5x, so cropping into the center effectively gives you a 10x zoom with a 12MP output. In good light, the results rival actual optical 10x zoom on some cameras. The phone also comes with Samsung's Nightography mode for low-light telephoto shots, object-tracking autofocus, and a 'Space Zoom' interface that shoots up to 100x digital zoom. Samsung has heavily promoted the ability to photograph the moon with this phone, though the AI enhancement there has sparked controversy. For photographers, the S24 Ultra is not merely a phone; it's a compact camera with battery life and connectivity, which makes it a versatile daily companion. On Amazon, the device is sold in multiple unlocked and carrier variants, often with discounts and bundle deals with cases and charging accessories.

Zoom photography is a broad and popular activity because it lets you photograph subjects without physically approaching them. This could be a shy bird in a tree, your child scoring a soccer goal from the other side of the field, a guitar solo from the nosebleed seats of a stadium, or the lunar surface on a crisp night. The essence is simple: you need optical or digital magnification to place a distant scene into a tight composition. But the art lies in doing that while maintaining acceptable sharpness, color, and realism. At its core, zoom photography requires several key capabilities. First, a lens with true optical zoom—not just digital cropping—because optical zoom preserves resolution. Second, optical image stabilization (OIS) to reduce blur from slight hand movements, because every degree of shake is magnified at high zoom. Third, a sensor that can offer enough resolution to allow additional cropping without becoming muddy. Fourth, software that can reconstruct detail or at least not destroy it with overzealous noise reduction. And finally, a viewfinder that lets you accurately aim at a distant subject. Different zoom photography niches place unique demands. Wildlife enthusiasts might need fast autofocus to track moving animals. Travel photographers often shoot in bright midday light, which is forgiving. Concert and indoor event photographers face low light and high-ISO noise. Moon and astrophotography require manually focused, tripod-stabilized, long-exposure settings. Sports photographers need rapid burst shooting and continuous autofocus. A single device that handles all of this well is rare, and the S24 Ultra positions itself as a do-it-all zoom machine. But no phone is perfect, so our job is to see where the S24 Ultra shines and where it stumbles.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's zoom story begins with its periscope telephoto lens. The 50MP 5x periscope is a significant upgrade over the previous S23 Ultra's 10x periscope. At first glance, that might seem like a downgrade, but Samsung cleverly designed the 5x lens with a larger sensor (1/2.52”) and larger pixels, so it captures more light. Combined with pixel binning to 12MP at 5x, the output is remarkably detailed. At 10x, the phone uses a 'super-resolution' crop from the middle of the 50MP sensor, giving you a 12MP image that Samsung calls 'optical-quality.' In practice, casual photographers can't tell the difference between this and true 10x optical zoom, because the 50MP sensor has enough information to create a smooth, sharp final image. Real-world testing by technology reviewers has confirmed that the S24 Ultra produces outstanding 5x zoom photos in daylight, with excellent color and sharp reproduction. At 10x, there is a slight loss of fine texture, but it still looks far better than any digital zoom from older phones. Up to 20x or 30x, the results become softer but remain acceptable for social media as long as you're not expecting pixel-perfect details. Beyond 30x, Space Zoom begins to rely heavily on AI scene recognition and algorithm-driven detail enhancement. The infamous 100x Moon Mode is a prime example where the phone automatically adds craters so the result looks like a photograph even though it's partly a computer's imagination. Many astrophotography enthusiasts point out that this is not a true reproduction, which makes it controversial for purists. When compared to its main rivals, the S24 Ultra often wins in zoom photography. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 5x tetraprism telephoto with only 12MP and no 10x option, so the Samsung gives you more flexibility for distant subjects. The Google Pixel 8 Pro also has a 5x periscope with 48MP and adds impressive Super Res Zoom, but the S24 Ultra typically retains more fine detail at 10x and 30x. Some phones from Chinese brands, like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with a 3x and 5x periscope combo, offer similarly impressive zoom, but they often have other trade-offs in software experience and availability. In head-to-head blind tests, the S24 Ultra usually ranks top for detail at higher zoom levels. However, high zoom is not a silver bullet. Low-light telephoto photography remains the S24 Ultra's Achilles heel. The 5x lens has a fairly small aperture (f/3.4), so in dim lighting, it struggles to capture enough light, and as you push past 10x, noise levels shoot up. Even Nightography can't fully compensate for the physical limits of such a tiny lens. Additionally, autofocus at high zoom can be slow to lock onto moving subjects. For sports, you will miss some shots, especially indoor arenas. The 200MP main sensor helps when you simply crop in, but it doesn't give you optical reach. One hidden advantage of the S24 Ultra is its camera app and Expert RAW support. Advanced photographers can shoot full 50MP telephoto photos in Pro mode, giving them huge files that can be edited heavily in Lightroom or Photoshop. The phone's sensor-shift OIS also works with video, allowing stable 4K zoom video at up to 20x. That's a killer feature for anyone capturing wildlife or events on the move. The built-in S Pen can be used as a Bluetooth shutter remote, so you can mount the phone on a tripod and trigger the shutter from a distance, eliminating vibration from tapping the screen. Customer feedback on Amazon and photography communities highlights that the S24 Ultra feels like a game-changer for travel and hobby photography. Many users say it replaces a dedicated bridge camera. But there are also honest complaints: after a few weeks, some users noticed that the phone's AI tends to oversmooth textures at high zoom, creating 'plastic' water reflections or foliage. Others mention that 100x zoom is not practically useful because you can't find the subject in the narrow view and the image looks smeared. Nevertheless, for day-to-day zoom shots between 3x and 30x, the S24 Ultra remains an excellent tool.