Samsung S20/S21 Ultra: Camera is Blurry on 1x Zoom (Fix)

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and S21 Ultra users have reported multiple times on community forums that they are experiencing blurry/out-of-focused images when they switch to the 1x zoom mode to take photos on their smartphones.

What surprises the users is that blurriness only occurs when using the 1x zoom. According to them, the other zoom modes such as 2x, 3x, 4x, and 5x photos are perfectly fine. If they try to take a photo in 1x mode, they cannot focus on the object they want.

Source: Samsung Community

According to our research on this problem, most of the time, the reason why the camera gets blurry when using the 1x zoom is a hardware failure of the camera unit of these two device models. However, are also software issues such as defective updates, and glitches that cause this problem

You can do a couple of fixes to get rid of this problem and take sharp and detailed images from your Galaxy S20/S21 Ultra. And in this guide, we will show you those solutions that you can try.

So if the camera is blurry in 1x zoom mode on your Samsung Galaxy S20/S21 Ultra, this guide will save your day!

How to fix 1x zoom mode blur on your Samsung Galaxy S20/S21 Ultra

First, your should take some basic troubleshooting steps in case if there is a software-based issue is the reason for your case.

Then, we will show you extra steps to take and fix the blurry images on your Galaxy S20/S21 Ultra.

Let’s start troubleshooting…

Fix 01 – Reset Camera settings

If there are misconfigurations on the camera of your smartphone that cause blurry images on 1x mode, then resetting camera settings may fix the issue.

To reset camera settings, follow the steps below;

Open Camera
Tap on the settings icon at the top left side
Scroll down and tap on “Reset camera settings”

Fix 02 – Do a software update

As we said earlier, bugs that come with software updates can also cause this problem. Once you updated the software, there is no way to revert the update.

However, since Samsung often releases software updates, you can check for any new update and install it

Note

Check our software update trackers for Samsung Galaxy S21.

If you need instructions on checking for new updates, follow these steps;

Open Settings
Tap on Software update
Tap on the “Download and install” option

Now your Galaxy device will start looking for updates and it will let you know if it found any updates to install.

Fix 03 – Disable the Scene optimizer feature on the camera

If you don’t know, the Scene optimizer is a feature that enhances the image quality based on the scene (detect by an AI). Based on our tests, disabling this feature somehow helps to fix the focus on 1x zoom mode.

So it is worth giving a try. Here is what you need to do;

Open the Camera app
Tap on the Settings icon
On the top, there should be the scene optimizer feature. If it is already turned on, tap on the toggle to disable the feature
Then restart the camera app

Once you restart the camera app, check the 1x mode and see if it has worked.

Fix 04 – Switch between the modes/video to photos

These are actually tricks rather than permanent solutions that you can try to fix the blur temporarily when you take photos in 1x mode.

While you try the other solutions given below, try these tricks to take perfect shots.

Switch to video mode, and switch back to photo mode again
Switch between zoom modes like from 2x to 1x and see if it helps to get the focus again

Fix 05 – Slightly tap on the camera unit

Again, this is another trick that a lot of Galaxy S20/S21 Ultra users have done (they have reported this trick on the Samsung community too) to temporarily fix the blurry images.

What they did was slightly tap on the rear camera unit before taking photos in 1x mode. Try that out and see if it works.

The reason why this trick works is because of the hardware problem with the telephoto lenses and the primary sensor of the rear camera unit. When it works normally, it fails to move the lenses to focus correctly. Once you tap on the unit, it reset the lens and then the blurriness goes away.

Fix 06 – Send the device to replace the camera unit

While you do the above tricks to temporarily fix the issue, look for a way you can take the device to a Samsung repair center. If you are located in the US region, there aren’t Samsung service centers in every area. So you might have to ship the device to replace the camera unit.

This will be easy if your device is still covered by the Samsung hardware warranty. Contact Samsung customer support, they will guide you on how to get the camera unit replaced from them.

Wrapping Up

If you love taking photos on your Galaxy S20/S21, then the blur issue in the 1x zoom mode of your device can be a serious issue for you. That is why we wrote this guide to help you resolve it.

Hope this guide helped you to fix this problem. And if you still have any questions regarding this guide, don’t forget to leave a comment below.

Have a nice day!

Samsung S20/S21 Ultra: Camera is Blurry on 1x Zoom (Fix)