(funky music)
(camera clicks)
- Okay, fine.
I know this guys been watching me.
This is the 14 hundred dollar Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
with one of the craziest zoom lenses
on a smartphone to date.
This is Michael McKeever,
a New York City private investigator.
- I've been a private eye for over 30 years.
Well I work in the street a lot, I do a lot of surveillance
so being out of my car and getting pictures
of people without them knowing,
that's just another day at the office for me, really.
- [Narrator] Sure, having a better zoom lens
has some appeal in every day life.
Yeah, for birding and things.
But I couldn't think of a real reason
anyone needed an 100x zoom on their smartphone
except of course if your job is
to watch people without them knowing.
So we had Mike test in three situations
to see how the Galaxy S20 Ultra compares
to the iPhone 11 Pro Max,
his go to Sony camcorder,
and the one thousand dollar Nikon CoolPix P1000.
Test one: from a car into an apartment window.
Distance: about 50 feet.
Okay, maybe I set the scene inside of it.
- The Samsung takes an awesome picture.
We wouldn't normally be shooting
into someone's apartment like this.
But it is an impressive camera.
- [Narrator] Turns out, PIs don't really
shoot into people's homes
because it can break privacy laws.
When comparing shots, it was nuts how much better
the Samsung was compared to the iPhone.
That's because the Galaxy S20 has this new telephoto lens.
But what Samsung calls a folded zoom mechanism.
It uses the phone's three lenses to create
10X hybrid optical zoom,
then magnifies that for 100x digital zoom.
That's a lot of marketing jargon.
But what you need to know
is that shots between 10x and 30x are crisp.
Shots up to 100x, not so much.
- But the quality of the pictures is good,
until you get to the really max zoom.
- [Narrator] As you may have guessed,
that Nikon's 125x optical zoom produced a crazy clear image.
Just look at the detail in my earring.
The Sony, with its 30x optical zoom,
wasn't too shabby either.
Test two: a moving subject.
Distance: about 150 feet.
- When you go to the hundreds,
it's hard to even find her in the frame.
- [Narrator] The results.
It's so hard to take a shot of a moving object
past the 30x setting.
- The tripod I would never do.
Unless I was a wedding photographer maybe.
- [Narrator] And even then, the shots at 30x were clearer
and said a lot more about the scene.
Nothing beat the Nikon though for getting
the action of the pic.
For moving shots like this,
Mike prefers his camcorder.
And I see why.
By the way, it was a scratch, not a pick.
Test three: text on a computer screen.
Distance: about 15 feet.
I wrote the first line in 14 point font.
The second in 24 point.
The results.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra can really capture some things
you may not want people seeing on your screen.
- It's good, the quality of the picture is good.
As far as the magnification, the 30x is really good.
Would really be useful.
- [Narrator] And while the quality isn't
as good as the Nikon
or even Mike's trusty camcorder,
it's a heck of a lot more discrete.
- How you been Mike?
- Good.
- Been watching me?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
So would you buy one?
- Would I buy one?
I would buy one, yeah, I mean I'm kind of
locked in on apple now with so many things,
but yeah it's definitely an improvement I think
as far as cameras go.
- [Narrator] I agree and the shots are really impressive
for a smartphone.
But do we want everyone to have PI tools in their pocket?
- Some guys focus on trying to get the best equipment.
I don't really ascribe to that.
I feel like, Eric Clapton's not a great guitar player
because he bought the most expensive guitar in the world.
It has to do with the skill of the operator.
- [Narrator] Still, I'd close the windows.