Samsung Galaxy Diary 21 Ultra: Director's Camera Mode - Feel Like Tarantino

In general, the idea of ​​shooting video with two cameras at once - the main and the front - has been floating around in the industry for several years now.

years.And switching between cameras while shooting video has been a standard option since the advent of dual cameras with a zoom function. But the Samsung developers, we must give them credit, figured out how to wrap it all up beautifully to present it to the smartphone user. As a result, another camera mode for video shooting was born in the Galaxy S21 series smartphones (there are four of them, by the way, and this is only video shooting) with the apt name “Director Mode”. The other three are regular video, portrait video (with filters like the similar photo mode and a professional mode with manual settings for everything possible). In fact, only two things are implemented here: a special interface solution for switching between three cameras (the “periscope” is not involved) and two video visualization schemes from the front camera (there is a third option where the front camera is not used): with a split screen into two parts and good old picture-in-picture.

Director's mode: how it works

When activating the mode in the camera interfacethree windows appear showing images from three lenses with different focal lengths. This seemingly trivial decision creates emotional involvement in the shooting process: the operator immediately becomes the director and sees what the picture will be like even before he switches the camera. It's so simple and cool that it should become an industry standard and appear in smartphones from other manufacturers. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a well-known fruit company “invents” the same move in a year or two, as has happened more than once. Moreover, if three windows overlap the required image in the frame or are simply annoying, they can be hidden by swiping this block to the right with one finger movement (to return it back, you will have to pull the resulting arrow to the left).

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In the upper left corner there is an iconunfolding three buttons that control the operation of the front camera. They have three modes: single (regular) shooting, dividing the screen into two equal (square) parts and “picture in picture”, when the window with the front camera broadcast is located in the upper left corner of the screen. It is impossible to move this window to another location (I believe that such an opportunity may appear in the future, not all at once, something must be left for new functions)

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Visually, the modes with the operation of two cameras in the frame look like this:

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An example of a video shot in Director's Mode with a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra:

Who can use it?

The beauty and elegance of the solution is that the world is alreadyI’m used to game streamers who broadcast not only the progress of games, but also a picture of themselves and their loved ones. Of course, no one forces you to insert yourself into all your videos, but for bloggers this can actually be a useful solution. Of course, this is not a real stream in the original understanding of the term - it is not streaming on the Internet, but recording a video to a file, but no one is stopping such a video from being embedded in videos and published on the same YouTube (Facebook or Instagram). In this case, the manufacturer does not impose his vision of how to use and why the technology - he just provides new tools for creativity and self-expression. And users themselves will figure out (or won’t figure out) how and for what purposes all this can be useful.

Three things to remember about Director's Mode on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

• It allows you to see the image from three cameras even before switching the picture
• Can be added to the video broadcast from the front camera in one of two rendering options
• This is an opportunity to diversify your video and add lively emotions to it while shooting.