They’re Using Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Wrong – Camera Test & Creative Workflow

I'm sure you know the specs, you saw the reviews, but I want to see how this phone fits into my workflow, because I want to have just a powerful travel-friendly media station with me without being too bulky, but still capable to keep up with my workload. So I'm not 100% sure, but I have a feeling this phone is really close to it. So this phone is a great example of how great hardware can make photography experience better, not only with the built-in cameras, which are, you know, five cameras over here, by the way, but also this Galaxy Fold 7 has all the power to make some awesome creative work done merging my full-frame camera setup with it, editing raw photos on the go, let's say, and so much more I'll show in today's video. But also, what is really crazy, I want to see if I can merge this phone with this film camera. Yeah, I know, it's almost 50 years old, and I don't know yet if it's gonna work or not. So all this, including my signature camera test, we'll find out in this video. And I literally have like five minutes before me and you guys have to go to a camera shop with this Galaxy Fold 7, so you are in for a really unique episode today. And it all started here. As you know, when traveling, I use S25 Ultra the most this year, so I had to transfer the files to this Galaxy Fold 7. I genuinely want to have this one as my daily driver, and I just don't want to carry all the phones with me at all times. It's thin, surprisingly comfortable, and the form factor feels more natural than I expect. The outer display is narrow, but I actually think it's a plus. It sits in the hand better, you can type with one hand easily, and for quick replies, checking messages, it just feels right. And all of that is just when the phone is folded. Now, if you open it, then it's slimmer than two memory cards. Just think about it for a second. Okay, so when we're inside the camera app, there are basically two main settings here. So it's the resolution and the camera selection. You have 12 megapixels, you have 50 and 200. So in this case, I want to show you how useful it is sometimes to have 200 megapixels on the main camera. Maybe I'll adjust my framing. Hold on, just like so. And you see, when I zoom in on the subject, I get all these defined and fine details over here, which I would not be able to see if I were using the lower resolution. So that's really helpful in that case. But if you switch into the 12 megapixels, you get the selection of all the cameras. So you start with ultra wide-angle camera. I also want to have more symmetrical framing, maybe like so. Obviously, you have the main one, which I just showed you, and the 3x telephoto for capturing something further away, like so. And guys, I started digging this foldable concept because look how cool it looks on the bigger screen. This is the shot I just took with the ultra wide-angle lens, and you get really clear details over here. I know the ultra wide-angle camera may be not a highlight of this phone, but still it looks very impressive on a bigger monitor. I call it monitor, on a bigger display. Now, before buying the Galaxy Fold 7, I think many people would go to YouTube and watch the reviews first, just to learn more about it. And that's where I think there is a big misconception about this phone's camera. Since most people just focus on selfies in 200 megapixel mode, but the real power of having the preview on the outer screen of the Galaxy Fold 7 is that when you take pictures of other people, a person can see herself on the outer screen, and it makes posing so much better. You know, usually my wife always stops talking to me for the rest of the day after she sees the pictures I took of her. Well, with this phone, it never happened. And it's all because she can see framing here as in the mirror. And if you saw my previous video with the studio photo shoot, it always helps to give the reference shot to the model for better posing. So with this Galaxy Fold 7, you have a live feed basically. But what about the image quality? You see, this phone might have the similar camera sensor as some other phones, but the experience is completely different. And I was expecting to see more greenish tint photos, but I feel like they really worked on the image processing here. There is zero editing to these shots you're seeing right now, and I think they look great. Oh my god, guys, it is time. See, when I saw this phone has 200 megapixel photos, I wanted to have an experiment just to see if the Snapdragon chip can handle my editing. So this is the camera that my family used for generations. And I still use it when I travel to this day. So I gave the 35 millimeter films to a photo studio so they can give me the negatives back. And then I will try to scan them myself with the Galaxy Fold 7 and also with my full frame camera setup and then convert the negatives to positive and hopefully get some really cool pictures without using a laptop at all or any AI software that does this kind of effect. So yeah, let's go. Okay, now I just need to get there on time and pick up my negatives so I can actually try it out with the Z Fold 7. So I'm like a few minutes before closing, hopefully it's still open. Okay, so I was lucky, I got there just like one minute before closing and I got my negatives. Now I just need to take those shots in 200 megapixels. Fingers crossed, it's gonna work. By the way, look at this. Maybe I'll take a shot with the Z Fold here. So usually the way this scan works is that you have to backlit the negative and then take high resolution photo or scan and then you upload it and run through a software, either Lightroom or some other app for photo development. I think I'm gonna walk a little bit more just to take a few more shots with the camera so I get an idea how good this phone is. And then we'll try to scan our film. And a little spoiler, in the photo lab they have professional scanners that cost many thousands of dollars, so their results will be sharper for sure. But when they do scan the photos, they still use some color tune-up. Yes, a lot of people think that they just take the film and you get the results as it was captured with the camera like this. But no, they still apply some color enhancements or some editing basically. So sometimes you can get the photos back that you're not happy with, not because the photo was bad, but because a person who developed this photo applied some sort of editing that he thought is looking good. Meanwhile, you might not even enjoy this edit. So what I'm about to do gives me full control over the final image basically. But the main reason I want to do it is that every photo feels just more intentional. It feels not just like a hundred photos, hundred shots that you take daily, but it's rather a moment with a story behind it. It's more intentional. And I'm sure many of you have negatives like this at home from back in the days, maybe at your parents' or grandparents' house. So I think you should bring your old photos back to life because these are all memories that are probably forgotten, but I'll show you how you can recover them. So just put the negative over bright source of light and try to fill up the frame as much as possible. Then take a photo, preferably in the highest resolution. I'm going to be using 200 megapixel on this phone. Or if you have any camera for that matter, you can also try it yourself. Then after you took the pictures, go into Lightroom, choose your frames. And you see, since these are negative, lights and shadows are inverted. So on those negatives, you see the sky as a dark area and something in the shadow is light. And now we need to turn these negatives into a positives. And it's all done in just two steps. You go into the exposure adjustments, click curve and just invert these curves. So what's in the shadows area on the left, you bring it up. What's on the right and the highlights, you bring it down. And now all we have to do is just white balance adjustment. Go into the color tab, hit qualifier and select as a reference point, this film sprocket outline. From here, if the shot is too bright, you can just adjust the exposure slider and that's it. And just so you know, the results may vary a bit for your photos because we're taking them in different conditions, obviously different lighting scenarios. So just try slightly to adjust the white balance exposure and I'm sure you will get awesome results. And you see this film sprocket isn't from any third-party app actually. It's not an overlay. This is real film and it works so snappy. And keep in mind, I only found out today that I had power saving mode enabled, which turns out reduces the performance to 70%. But there was no delay or app crashes. So I can actually have a phone even more powerful now if I just turn on regular normal mode, which is ridiculous. I don't know, like what's the limit here? What should I throw at it so it, you know, stutters? You know what, I should throw it at some raw photography test to see how the snapdragon chip handles it. But first let's talk about filming videos on this phone. Now you see filming videos, I would separate in two types. First one would be just regular auto mode and it's for when you're filming for your friends, family or just regular stories. And in that case, usually with this phone and any phones, I use the 4k, here it's ultra HD and 30fps and I have log disabled. And sometimes if I have backlit scenario, like right now, I would enable HDR. So in that case, I would get more dynamic range and it just launches more computational processing of the shot and you would get better result in more complex lighting. And in that case, you would just choose your main camera, telephoto or ultra wide. But for the best results and more dynamic range, I would obviously use the One X main camera. And the second type of videos would be if you want to have more intentional shot, you want to work a little bit on the framing and you know you will use this shot maybe in your videos or you will edit it. So in that case, I will enable log recording. I will be editing this footage, color grading, I can add the contrast and will be able to convert it from the log footage into Rec. 709. Even right now I'm filming in log and this is the image straight out the full frame camera. And once you color grade it, this is the result that you get. And same on this phone. So this is awesome that you get all these options. Hope you get the difference between these two types of videos. Obviously, no phone will give you the same image quality as a professional camera, but at the same time, no professional camera will give you the convenience and just overall great camera package in the size of a phone. So over here I have the main camera filming in log right now and you see the image quality is just beautiful. We have plenty of light and that's just enough to get even the separation between the foreground and the background. And yes, I'm using the external microphone right now, but even with it, I have the amazing software inside to have the noise reduction applied if I need to. Because we still are on the bridge and we have cars driving by, so that really does help a lot. You also can do it ride built-in and this is the result you get. So you know guys, I've been carrying the phone all day today with me and I gotta tell you, I heard a lot of people actually not happy that the phone is so slim and they would prefer previous model, but for me, it actually feels really nice in the pocket. Even I saw photos of previous flips and they look much chunkier, so I think that would not be as comfortable to have. Especially if you're daily driving it and carrying it in your pocket, not like you're driving a car from spot to spot, it doesn't really matter the size of the phone. But if you're using public transport, if you live in the city, then in that case for sure having a phone, the slimmer the better, at least for me. I'm not so sure if you agree with me, let me know in the comments and see what other people say down there too. Oh, opportunity to take a photo. Nah, that's not it, that's not the shot. Here's what makes this snapdragon power phone different. Now before getting this phone, I had no idea what to use the internal screen for, but eventually I used it in so many cases. Like here, I took many photos in raw on my full frame camera and now I don't even have to carry my laptop with me. I connect the Z Fold 7 to my camera wirelessly and I can preview all the photos on a bigger internal screen. I can also select the best shots and import it into the gallery. And how cool is that, that the phone actually recognizes all the raw photos and you can see them marked as raw. This is awesome. And usually I'd sit at my desk for about like 30-60 minutes to select the best shots before editing, but snapdragon did their with the chip, so now I can do all my creative stuff on the tram, in between locations and all of that fits here. And you see, after you import all your photos for editing, this is where the foldable form factor actually shows its advantage over any other phone. And maybe yes, I do wish there was a S Pen support here, but even without it, I can connect the mouse here and since the screen is so big, it almost becomes like a portable desktop experience when you're traveling. And since the Galaxy Fold 7 supports the multi-window mode, I can open reference photo and color grade my shots even more precise. And once I'm happy with all the edits I applied to one photo, I can copy all the adjustments and apply it to the rest of the shots. So I don't even have to grade individual photos, I can just batch select them and apply all the edits here. And then I would export jpeg straight into the gallery, post it to my social media or send it to a client, doesn't matter. And nobody will ever know that I edited those RAW photos on a phone. I mean, I already got some feedback from you guys when posting these shots, so that's actually cool. And just look how crazy fast the RAW files load. And even zooming in to check the focus is buttery smooth as well. Now listen, if you don't know, this phone just as any other Ultra from Samsung allows me to connect the phone to a monitor like this one behind me and expand all this experience onto a bigger screen. And one window can be my photo editing software, another one is for YouTube or whatever you want. And this is really next level. I showed the Samsung DeX in my very first videos on Samsung Galaxy and it still surprises me to this day. And if you're filming videos on bigger cameras, what I'm about to show you might actually be very useful to you. You know, the internal screen has so many benefits. And one of this, if you're a solo creator as I am right now, you can just open the phone and see the whole preview what this camera is filming. Not so sure if you're gonna see it because I'm using a filter on the lens. I'm really surprised because sun is hitting directly on the screen and I can see everything perfect. So, you know, I can frame my shot, like rule of thirds guys, back to the basics. Yeah, something like this. Pretend like I'm shooting for a video. So instead of a preview on the tiny screen like this one, I can actually, whoa, almost dropped the phone. Come on, look at that. And despite the fact that it's a foldable panel inside, it's still very high quality and very color accurate. Actually wild how sharp it is. Now there is a rumor online that you're better off using 200 megapixel with the main camera and then you would just crop on the details instead of using the 3x telephoto camera. But you know, I tested it in many scenarios and this is not true. Here is just the test for you. I have 200 megapixel mode enabled and I will try to frame so the subject is right in the middle. As you know, the frame is usually the sharpest in the center. So that's what I will focus on. All right, so this is 200 megapixels and now I switch into the telephoto 3x 3. And now let's zoom in on the details and see the comparison side by side. If I switch into the telephoto camera, the shot looks just clear as you see. I think that's just self-explanatory. If you want to reach further and you want to capture some details, obviously it is better to use the 3x telephoto camera. Actually really good framing, look at that. You see, I have my subject in the this grid line over here and I'm trying to also frame this window on the roof. So you see the viewer's eye just goes in a way diagonally from this window into the statue. It looks really cool. The same shot I'll do with the 200 megapixel camera. Hold on, I just took it in 12 megapixels. Now I will do it with 200 megapixel camera. So one, two. Now let's zoom in and see. You can see how the photo processing actually clears up the shadows and just uses the sharpness, everything. So there's a lot of processing going on within this phone and surprisingly I'm even guys screen recording right now and I have power saving mode enabled. I enabled also the airplane mode to avoid receiving any notifications or calls during this recording but still the battery is performing pretty decent. I have right now, I don't know, we're filming maybe for a few hours already and it's 73% it's okay. So there is a lot of power delivered by this snapdragon chip so I have no problems with the speed of this phone. It's really snappy and by the way there is also this compression which you get with the telephoto camera which just gives you a different field of view and just different type of shots so I wouldn't compare it at all. But also there is more to the telephoto lens photos that you probably didn't know about. Check this out. So as we've established 1x photo in 200 megapixel cropped is not as sharp as 3x 12 megapixel if we zoomed in. But also if within the camera app we go into the 3x and zoom to 10 20 or 30x these values will be sharper than just the stock three times if you zoom in. So check this out. So this is three times telephoto cropped on the computer and this is 10x and look how sharper it is even though it's the same identical camera but the computational photography makes the 10x much crisper and sharper than if you decide to zoom in in post. So that just proves the point that computational photography really makes a huge difference within these modern phones and this Galaxy Fold 7 is no exception. So when you are having so many camera options on just one phone how do you actually decide which one you should choose and which mode to choose? I would make it simple. If you are taking a shot of the scene then use main camera. It's amazing, has great dynamic range and computational photo processing gives really vivid shots for everyday photos by combining multiple exposures into one single shot so you get every single detail possible if you're taking photos during very bright day or during sunset. I think these shots speak for themselves. These are not edited at all. It's all processed within the phone. Now if you want to take a photo of a subject not a scene but something more isolated then in that case you should use telephoto camera as it will retain more details especially if the subject is further away. To me the Galaxy Fold 7 is made for creativity. I have not seen any other phone that covered all my needs for full frame camera setup for editing on the go while still having overall great camera package that allows me to capture everyday moment. But there is more. I even showed this phone the other day to my mom who is a professional painter and she said having a bigger screen when you're outside is really game-changing for references. If you take a shot of the scene if it changes quickly you can just you know freeze it in time you don't have to carry a tablet with you or a computer for that matter. It's all in this foldable format. So now she says she wants one of these as well. Maybe next year mom when I'll update to Fold 8 I'll share this one with you. Another thing that I noticed right away is that the display film inside is really I don't know just nice to the touch. It's unlike many phones that I tried this year. It really feels smooth like there is some special film or something and it's for the external screen as well. And I'm sure you're a regular subscriber of my channel and you know that I love unique tech like this and the Galaxy Fold 7 is what it is. And you know in a way it's ironic that this phone feels so futuristic in person but it brought me back so many memories when I was developing these films because I still remember the days when my mom used to take me and this camera to a camera shop just to get the film developed and then we would put those negatives under magnifying glass and we would have to mark each individual shots that we wanted to be printed and then we had to give it back and we have to wait for a few weeks and it was always so exciting getting those shots back in an envelope. You open it you I don't know just felt so special. It was like opening a birthday gift. So for some reason this Fold 7 while being so futuristic, modern, fast and snappy brought back so many memories. I really hope you will try it at home with your negatives and if you still have troubles or questions you can drop them down in the comment section and I'll try to assist you. And as always make sure you are subscribed guys. I'm trying to reach 200,000 and we are very close. And huge thanks to Snapdragon for powering this Galaxy Fold 7 because without this speed none of this video would have been possible. And guys I will see you in the next video. Bye-bye!