The Galaxy S9 is the first smartphone on the market with a variable aperture camera. The 12-megapixel rear camera has the ability to switch from f/1.5 aperture (lowest ever on a smartphone) to f/2.4 automatically as well as with a single tap in manual mode. Some of you might be wondering how has Samsung made variable aperture work on a smartphone camera and now there's a video that will explain just that.
YouTuber JerryRigEverything has posted a new video in which he tears down the Galaxy S9's camera. The primary sensor is the same on the Galaxy S9+ as well, in case you didn't already know that. The video explains how the variable aperture works from a hardware perspective.
Galaxy S9 camera teardown
It's evident right off the bat that the optical image stabilization is present. The lens is capable of moving around ever so slightly to counter shaking that tends to ruin photos and videos.
The aperture variation happens on the exterior of the lens, a fact that becomes evident after the metal housing surrounding the camera is removed. The control mechanism is located to the left where there's a little switch which does the needful. The aperture variation happens electronically and automatically in the camera.
The aperture switching and optical image stabilization are accomplished by using magnets and each magnet lines up with copper coils inside the camera housing. It's a pretty interesting and complicated setup.
The idea behind variable aperture is to adjust how much light is available in a scene for better performance. With f/1.5, more light can be captured in low-light scenes without increasing the noise in the picture while in f/2.4 it's used to ensure that daytime shots aren't overexposed. We tested the Galaxy S9's variable aperture thoroughly in our Galaxy S9 review so do check that out to find out more about this new feature.
Don't forget to watch the video as well to see the inner workings of Samsung's latest smartphone camera which will eventually make its way to other devices as well.
