Mobile World Congress is getting much closer every day. While we sadly won’t be able to spring for the trip to Barcelona Spain, we will be here getting the info that comes from it out to you guys. All the major, and a bunch of the minor, OEMs will all be in attendance. Of course the big news that everyone is waiting on is the the Samsung Galaxy S5, which is supposedly going to be unveiled at the Unpacked 5 event on February 24th. True to tech tradition, all sorts of leaks about what the Galaxy S5 will and won’t have are circulating and a new round of treats have surfaced over at SamMobile that gives us some more to talk about.
- 16 Megapixel sensor
- Shoots 4k UHD video at 30fps
- Shoot 1080p video at 60fps
That is cool and all, but it is the rest of the information that makes it a bit cooler. The Galaxy S5 will have a dedicated camera button. No, not one you actually push down. Instead they are referring to it as ‘Side Touch’. Apparently it will similar to capacitive buttons, but on the side of the device where a normal physical hardware camera button would be. Unfortunately they say their are limitations to its use. For instance you won’t be able to use it in Portrait Mode, Easy Mode or while recording a video.
The Galaxy S5 will also have an enormous amount of camera modes built-in at launch. The list includes ones we are all familiar with like HDR, Night, Eraser, Best Face and Best Photo. There are a number of new modes that will be added in though, like 3D Tour Shot, Focus Select and Golf. The 3D Tour Shot lets you create a interactive virtual tour of your surroundings. Sounds like photosphere to me, but I am sure it has some element of a Samsung twist to it. Focus Select is what it sounds like. It lets you draw the focus to a particular spot or focal point and and give the image the great depth of field that we all love. Golf is a cool addition where someone can take a photo video of you during your gold swing so you can play it backwards and forwards to see where your mistakes are.
There is one more camera mode that is mentioned, but no one seems to have really talked about it. SamMobile lists it, but apparently its presence doesn’t mean much. There is a Aqua mode. They say it is  “Appropriate for taking pictures underwater.” Does that mean the Galaxy S5 is also on par with the Xperia Z line and is water resistant to a point? I am not sure. That leads me to think that either the Galaxy S5, or one of its planned variants, will be submersible on purpose. Samsung didn’t have much luck with Galaxy S4 Active and water damage. It could simply be a mode that is specifically set up to take images of water too. For instance lakes, waterfalls and rivers where the blues and whites and reflective surface properties would be handled automatically. That is what I am more inclined to lean towards, but a Galaxy S5 Active style device is also weighing heavy on my mind.
They go on to talk about various camera effects to spice up your images also. With so many apps like instagram, Snapseed and even Photoshop express, all the additional effects seem like extra fluff. While the list of effects is rather large, Samsung will also be allowing you to download even more custom effects when you want. Again, sounds like they are taking the direction of Sony with the Xperia Z lines new camera.
Source: SamMobile
