Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: New Camera Tricks to Level Up Your Photos!

How far can the same hardware go with new software? Looks like we’ll find out when the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra finally releases.

Initial leaks point towards the phone having similar hardware to the stellar Galaxy S25 Ultra with the 200 MP wide camera though it might get a slightly improved 12MP telephoto camera, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 12MP selfie camera to round it out. However, there are reported improvements when it comes to the software and image processing pipeline, all aimed at addressing common photography pain points.

And nearly all of them come bundled as part of its latest Camera Assistant app.

New Video Softening

Samsung already offers photo softening within its Camera Assistant app and recent leaks point towards expanding this to video as well. Like the pre-existing option, users can toggle between off, medium, or high depending on their preferred intensity. A good option for people who are after a more aesthetic look.

Softening the photos and videos can also help smoothen skin tones and even reduce digital noise, especially when shooting portraits or filming outdoors. Samsung phones tend to have a rather saturated and colorful look, which may work against people trying to take more natural shots.

Sensitivity and Autofocus Adjustment

Staying with the original leaks, the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s also coming with autofocus adjustment within the Camera Assistant. They’re additional manual controls which should allow users to adjust how fast and how often the camera focuses on different subjects moving in and out of the frame.

People who’ve shot with professional cameras should be familiar with this feature and should be well aware of how useful it is for taking certain shots. And yes, it’s said to work with videos too though right now, it’s not yet available within the ongoing One UI 8.5 beta available to select Galaxy S25 devices right now.

Possible Lens Flare Reduction

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 series are reportedly getting an “enhanced lens and coating” technology, which should help with lens flaring; a very common issue even in high-end camera phones. It’s simply due to the nature of the smaller lenses and their use of computational tricks, not really a specific problem to any specific manufacturer. Still, at least this could be a great step forward for mobile photography.

A potential benefit of all these software improvements is that there’s a chance that last-gen, yet still highly capable models like the Galaxy S25 or even the Galaxy S24 Ultra. No need to keep swapping out perfectly good hardware just to chase incremental improvements!

Of course, we’ll have to wait until the next Unpacked event in order to know for sure and we’ll definitely be covering that event when it comes.

In the meantime, if you are looking to upgrade your devices today, then you can browse through our extensive Samsung Galaxy collection here at Kimstore, including foldables like the ultra-thin Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7!

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