In 2025, do you really need a mirrorless or cinema camera for pro photography and video? Not necessarily. The Samsung Galaxy S25 range of smartphones, led by the Galaxy S25 Ultra, provide the image quality and versatility to handle many kinds of shoots, while new Galaxy AI* features allow you to edit on the go, streamlining your workflow.
Some misconceptions persist, leading people to believe a device that can fit in your pocket can’t do the job of a pro camera. But it’s about time they were debunked. Here’s why those myths no longer stand up to and could even be holding back your photography.
Myth 1: Smartphone image quality isn’t good enough
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra can shoot stills at up to 200 megapixels and video up to an 8k at 30fps and 4K at 120fps. That competes with many professional full-frame cameras and provides more than enough resolution to be able to crop in and isolate details on landscape shots and create jump cuts in video.
In short, the Galaxy S25 Ultra can rival pro cameras with high resolution stills and video ideal for detailed cropping and cinematic edits.
Myth 2: A smartphone camera doesn’t provide enough versatility
The Galaxy S25 Ultra can rival the versatility cameras with interchangeable lenses with a wide main camera, 0.5 ultrawide and up to 100x super resolution zoom, providing an option for every situation.
AI-enhanced high resolution zoom is a game-changer for filming at concerts and other events, using AI to retain clarity and sharpness at up to X100. That compares to just 15x on the closest comparable device from another brand. Portraits look stunning at X5, and the 0.5 lens’s macro capabilities allow you to get in tight for impressive close ups.
For video you can even use two lenses at once. Dual recording allows you to record the same footage using, say, the wide and telephoto, and then combine the footage in your edit, something that would normally require two cameras and even two operators.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra's versatile wide, ultrawide and 100x AI-powered zoom lenses provide a complete content creation setup suitable for events, portraits, and macro shots, and its dual lens video recording mimics multi-camera setups – minus the crew.
Myth 3: Smartphone file formats don’t allow professional editing
In Pro Mode, the Samsung Galaxy S25 range can capture uncompressed RAW images with all the shadow and highlight data you need for flexible editing. Video can now be captured as flat log footage maintaining a wide dynamic range for precise professional colour grading.
The S25’s file formats can absolutely be used for professional editing, providing plenty of flexibility for impactful colour and tone adjustments.
Myth 4: It’s harder to take great photos on a phone
Samsung Galaxy AI Scene Optimizer can apply automatic post-processing based on context to eliminate the need for editing. The Galaxy range also has some of the AI-powered features you find on high-end mirrorless cameras, including automatic focus tracking that can lock on to your subject.
Many users say they find Galaxy AI features make it much easier to take great photos on a Samsung Galaxy phone than on a traditional camera.
Myth 5: Phones can’t take good photos in low light
The Samsung Galaxy AI Night Mode uses innovative AI processing to stack multiple photos into spectacular Nightography shots, whether it’s a dimly lit restaurant or a nocturnal landscape with stars. Like with a traditional camera, using a tripod will ensure optimum results.
On the latest Samsung Galaxy range, the difficulties that camera phones used to have with blurry, washed-out nighttime photography are a thing of the past.
Myth 6: Smartphones don’t allow precise manual control for professional photography
Pro Mode on the Samsung Galaxy S25 allows you to control all the parameters you would in manual mode on a professional DSLR or mirrorless camera, including shutter speed, EV, ISO and white balance.
There’s a choice of focus modes as well as manual focus, and the camera app provides an exposure monitor and focus peaking to guide you. You can also use Samsung’s dedicated Expert RAW app for virtual apertures to create a shallow depth of field and even a virtual ND filter on the Galaxy S25 Ultra to allow long exposures.
With Pro Mode on a Samsung Galaxy S25 smartphone, you have all of the professional control that you have on a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
Myth 7: You can’t edit photos properly on a phone
Reviewers have noted that the Galaxy S25 leads the way in terms of Generative AI tools for photo editing, including object removal that rivals that of many desktop apps, preserving context while removing even the shadows of unwanted distractions.
Galaxy AI Photo Assist** can suggest edits, saving you time and reducing the pressure to get the perfect picture in the moment, and Portrait mode*** allows you to blur the background to simulate shallow depth of field and make our subject pop. For video, Instant Slow-mo**** allows you to add a slow-motion effect to any footage even if you didn’t record it at a high frame rate.
A Galaxy S25 not provides an alternative to a laptop for editing on the go, but it can also reduce friction in your workflow because it allows you to capture content and edit all on the same device.
With those myths debunked, it’s worth also remembering the inherent strengths the Galaxy S25, and particularly the Galaxy S25 Ultra, offers for pro photography and video. Battery life can last an entire day while the battery on many cameras will last a few hours - or as little as half an hour if you’re shooting 4K video
Storage and memory options go up to 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra retails at less than half the price of a flagship mirrorless camera, offering great value for money when you consider that it also provides all the benefits of a phone. It becomes clear that the Samsung Galaxy S25 is worth considering not just as back up but as a main device for photography and video. Samsung’s rumoured upcoming new foldable devices are likely to build on these features further, so stay tuned for more advances.
*Samsung account login is required for certain AI features.
**Requires network connection and Samsung account login. A visible watermark is overlaid on the saved image to indicate it was generated by Galaxy AI. Accuracy of output not guaranteed.
***Results may vary depending on light condition, subject and/or shooting conditions.
****Samsung account login is required. Available on Samsung Video Player and Samsung Gallery. May not be available on certain video file types. Accuracy of results not guaranteed.
