The other day while hunting dragonflies along the Mousam river at Old Falls Pond I looked up to see this Monarch sitting on a bush about 10 feet away, perfectly backlit for a shot. In a normal situation that is easy reach for my Canon SX50HS and the 1800mm equivalent I shoot most bugs with, but this was the day I had forgotten the SD card in the Laptop after processing the morning’s images and I was left with only the 18x reach of my Samsung Smart Camera.  That is a measly 432mm equivalent field of view. The Samsung does have Intelligent Zoom, which scales back the number of pixels captured rather than enlarging pixels to fill a larger frame and simulate a longer lens. It has two steps: 10mp and 5mp. I ran it up to the end of the 10mp range, which should be something like 600mm equivalent field of view. I am actually quite pleased with the results…not pleased enough to leave my Canon at home on my bug hunts, but pleased enough to be confident that the Samsung will deliver in a pinch, even for the occasional tel-macro.

Program with -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.