Samsung Galaxy A52 5G features a quad camera on the back, which sounds quite familiar, matching the one on the Galaxy A71. It has the same sensors, 64 MP, 12 MP, 5 MP and 5 MP, but there are also some upgrades. To begin with, the main camera has optical stabilization...
Video-review Samsung Galaxy A52 5G, Camera section
Let's take it from the beginning, though. We start with a 32 MP selfie camera (Sony IMX616, combines 4 pixels in 1), cropped in the upper-central area of the screen, with F/2.2 aperture and 4K video at 30 FPS and HDR capture. Moving on to the rear camera, we find a Sony IMX682 main sensor with a size of 1/1.7 inch, 0.8 micron pixels and F/1.8 aperture. It has optical stabilization, a big plus on a midrange phone.
Combines 4 pixels in 1 and takes 16MP photos. It also has PDAF, and then it comes with a 12 MP camera, with a 1/3 inch sensor with 1.12 micron pixels. The focus is fixed, the viewing angle is wide, 123 degrees. Then comes a 5 MP Macro camera with fixed focus and a 5 MP Bokeh camera also with fixed focus. Both have F/2.4 aperture. The Camera application includes options such as Night, Single Take, Fun (Snapchat masks), AI that helps you with preset scenes, but also AR Doodle, Pro mode, Food, PRo Video and Super Slow Mo. There is also Slow Motion and Hyperlapse. We also find an extra special stabilization option.
The photos were taken at the beginning of June, on a fairly sunny day at first glance, but with an unexpected coolness, being a rainy and cold June. The shots are generously lit, they have vivid to very vivid colors, as if more vivid on the ultrawide camera. These photos are also a bit more whitish, especially if you look at the bark of the trees.
It sits well at the edge, if you look at the ruins of the orange building or the cherry blossoms. I am very satisfied with the clarity and details of the photos of toys from the children's playground, as well as the colors. When zooming, the colors change a little, especially after 2-3X. Admirable quality by the way at the same zoom. The Bokeh photo with the yellow bird turned out great, not a single nanometer blurred out or left out.
I also have some successful Macros with toy car headlights and figurine eyes, which are perhaps the best of 2021. I finally got as close as I wanted to the subject and the result is fabulous. I also have some flowers in Macro, a little harder to focus, but still visually pleasing. The selfies are excellent, not inferior to those obtained by a Galaxy S21. It seems a bit too processed at first glance.
Very rich in detail, with perfect clarity, excellent focus and glossy, expressive eyes. It's the first time I've noticed such good details on eyebrows and eyelashes. Certain areas are "too perfect" so to speak, it's clear that we have extra processing. You can take good Tinder and Linkedin photos without any problems. You can also enjoy landscape shots from the IO Park, with pedestrians, flowering trees, lawn, water, colorfully dressed people.
An ultrawide frame still reveals a somewhat whitish image, but I can respect the fact that we don't have too much distortion on the side, but a few details are lost in the upper left and upper right. I would place the quality of the photo captures between a Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S21, with excellent selfies and perfect closeups and macros. Very few things to correct.
In low light conditions there is a little more noise, but the photos remain well lit. The architectural details are rich, if you look at those balconies and facades. They can be posted quietly from a city break, with the appearance that you used a flagship. As usual, the ultrawide capture is not very flattering, as I have seen on dozens of phones, but it seems not as bad as on the predecessor and on other models. Practically, apart from the enlarged lights, I don't have many objections.
I like how the tiles on the floor look, as texture and details on both types of frames: normal and ultrawide. There are instances when the yellow emanating from the street light is too intense, "radioactive", closer to a mustard shade, but it doesn't always happen. The zoom does not really impress and extra reflections appear. I even caught the moon in the sky watching over Timisoara, in a way that flagships usually do. 2 years ago, the Galaxy A50 was taking unpostable pictures on social media at night, and the evolution is huge.
It's hard for me to say which are the pictures with Night Mode, because I didn't feel tempted to use it too often, but I would say that they are the ones with more intense yellow and caricature details at the level of vegetation. It's like I feel an upgrade here compared to the Galaxy A51.
We have reached the video and we start with the stabilization test. The image is clear, I don't see defocusing or other problems, but the colors are too intense in the vegetation and the background is very white and burnt by the sun, behind. The second stabilization test is with the Steady mode on and I seem to feel an improvement. There is not a bit of distortion when filming on the go, the colors look OK, maybe only the lower area of the vegetation, the lawn is too exposed.
The first 4K footage is full of details, but thinly stabilized when panning. The green is shown here as a shade darker than the feather, not the most realistic. The rest of the colors are a bit more OK. I know the selfie shooting was problematic on the A71 and A51, too intense in terms of brightness and contrast. Here, the stabilization is at an average level, I would say, and the face is expressive and seems more solidly lit, I don't have a ghost face. It also matters a lot how you position yourself in relation to the sun.
We also have some Single Take footage, worthy of YouTube Shorts or some Reels. I also ticked a Portrait VIdeo, with a slightly sunburned background, but inevitable in the weather conditions of that day.
The wind was quite edgy, but it didn't hit the microphones as badly as you'd expect, and definitely not as badly as that thin-voiced dog that broke my eardrums when I saw the clip on TV. We also have a panoramic shot of people walking on the stairs towards the lake, in the park, with a wealth of textures, colors, shades of clothes and hair. Poor zoom in this case and even a statue that was shaking when zoomed.
Excellent focus on foreground and background and alternated with Scrat's frenzy from Ice Age I still didn't put the camera in trouble. In the background, an amateur artist was singing "După ani i ani" and it's not bad at all. I like how the camera handled the shot with the toy Spiderman helicopter, with a lot of sun in front of it and generating a little weird reflection. And yet nothing is overexposed.
We also have Slow Motion footage that is quite pleasant to look at. The drops of water from the fountain look spectacular in the sunlight.
When filming at night, they exaggerate with "mustard", that is the dominant shade. The image is "wavy", it makes waves when moving, but it handles better than the Galaxy A50 and A51, visibly. There is also a zoom threshold that if you know how to reach you can get a decent video. The light sources are a bit amplified, large, but the Moon came out acceptable on the footage.
For the midrange area it is more than OK.