Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Camera: Specs, Zoom and Low Light

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has Samsung's brightest camera system to date.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra maintains the same four-camera setup as last year's Galaxy S25 Ultra. However, this year's flagship has two brighter cameras. The 200MP main camera now has an F1.4 aperture (compared to F1.7 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra), and the 50MP 5x telephoto has an F2.9 aperture (compared to F3.4 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra).

In this guide, we'll walk you through the Galaxy S26 Ultra's confirmed camera specs (as well as what each camera does), plus where it fares better or worse compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

S26 Ultra camera specs (per Samsung.com)

What the F1.4 aperture actually does

Samsung claims a 47% brightness boost for the Wide camera, which should translate into improved low-light video and Nightography photos.

You'll also notice a hair shallower depth of field in 1x shots (compared to Samsung's previous F1.7 phones), although any difference is going to be subtle with such a small sensor. The brighter camera also means faster shutter speeds at a given ISO setting.

ProVisual Engine and the new image processor

Samsung claims that the NPU in its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor is 39% faster than the one found in the Snapdragon chip inside the S25 Ultra. The chip also has Samsung’s customised Image Enhancer, which smooths and sharpens visuals in real time across different apps.

Rather than from sensor swaps, most of the improvements to image quality come from changes to the image processing pipeline, which should result in better balanced HDR and colour in JPEGs, as well as more accurate skin tones.

Zoom: both telephotos stay, and the 5x gets brighter

The 50MP 5x telephoto camera no longer uses a periscope lens. Samsung instead utilises what it calls an ALoP (All Lens on Prism) camera module, which features a smaller prism design with a round opening. Bokeh highlights will be rendered as circles or ovals instead of the squarish shapes seen previously. The lens also now sports an F2.9 aperture (instead of F3.4 last year), which Samsung claims will let in 37% more light. Low-light and night-time photos taken at 5x zoom should benefit the most from this change. On the flip side, minimum focus distance has gotten noticeably worse on the 5x camera. According to measurements done by GSMArena, the S26 Ultra’s 5x telephoto can only focus on objects as close as about 52cm, which is twice as far compared to the S25 Ultra’s 26cm. Samsung’s own support page even recommends a minimum shooting distance of 80cm when using the 5x camera. So if you want to get up close and personal with flowers or food using the telephoto cameras, you may have to step back or resort to the 3x one instead. The 10MP 3x telephoto camera remains essentially unchanged with an F2.4 aperture. According to GSMArena, it utilises a marginally smaller image sensor (1/3.94-inch instead of 1/3.52-inch on the S25 Ultra). Past 10x, just as on the S25 Ultra, you’re using digital zoom and AI-enhanced upscaling (see our S26 Ultra zoom guide for details on each zoom step).

Video improvements

• Up to 8K video recording at 24 or 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps, 10-bit HDR recording, HDR10+ support (via GSMArena)
• Near-lossless video recording in Log or HDR using Samsung’s APV codec (with live LUT preview when recording Log video)
• “Nightography Video” mode utilising the brighter F1.4 aperture of the main camera (47% brighter than the F1.7 aperture of the main camera on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, according to Samsung)
• Expert RAW (DNG) and Pro Video modes also make another appearance

What hasn't changed

Expert RAW is currently distributed as a stand-alone application. Controls for ISO, shutter speed, white balance and manual focus all remain the same in Pro mode. For low-light photography, you’re getting better image processing and a brighter lens – the sensor is still 200MP and 1/1.3 inch, just like the S25 Ultra. For starting values by situation, see our S26 Ultra settings page, and our S26 Ultra camera guide walks through the menus.

Should you upgrade from the S25 Ultra?

In our S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra comparison we discuss the nuances, but essentially, the daylight performance is very similar given the identical 50MP ultra wide and the near-identical 3x telephoto (same resolution at 10MP and aperture at F2.4) on the S25 Ultra. The brighter F1.4 main and F2.9 5x telephoto lenses are nice upgrades, but only worth it if you take a lot of low-light photos/videos. The 50MP ultra wide (up from 12MP on the S24 Ultra) might help sway the decision if coming from an S24 Ultra or older. If you'd rather wait, the Galaxy S27 Ultra is rumoured to launch in early 2027. Thinking of going with Google's latest phones? Our Samsung vs Pixel camera comparison compares the S26 Ultra to the Pixel 11 Pro, while our Samsung vs iPhone comparison pits it up against the iPhone 18 Pro.

Prices went up $100 for the 256GB and 512GB, and $200 for the 1TB on October 1, 2026 in the US, as the table shows. Our release date and price guide tracks the changes.