With my Samsung A21S I expected to be able to take photos then blow them up to print out as large posters, but the file sizes are just too small. Sure, the image files are fine for social media, online, or on computer screen, but they have limited value elsewhere in the real world (such as printing on a mug or clock even, say through Redbubble).
Looking online for solutions, there's a fair bit on reducing photo file size, which is pretty easy to do, eg. resize the image to 20% - 80% of the original file size, although I want the opposite of that.
I also came across these instructions:
Turn on the app » Camera » of your Samsung Galaxy A21S.
Put yourself in photo mode.
Click on the toothed wheel to access the parameters
All you have to do is edit the » Photo resolution » front or back of your Samsung Galaxy A21S depending on the one you want to modify.
Remember to test before keeping a final adjustment to ensure that the quality of your photos is sufficient compared to your desires.
However when I go to those Camera settings in my Australian-delivered A21S, I simply don't have an option to change my photo resolution. I can only see that I can change my Front and Rear video size (but only to lesser resolution anyway).
Once cropped a bit, the A21S photo file sizes are under 1 Mb, and so are too small to be used to print out at poster size. My very old Samsung Galaxy S5 created photo file sizes of 5-8 Mb, which meant you could print them on a lot larger scale than the A21S’s files. The purpose of this is, I want to add photos from my mobile to Redbubble, and then create cards, posters, mugs, etc from them (but the file sizes are so small, you can barely use them on anything apart from a small badge).
I believe the Galaxy S5 had a 16-megapixel camera in it, but even using the A21S’s 48 megapixel option, it barely creates a bigger file than the 12 megapixel A21S camera (and has slower reaction time to do a second photo).
I contacted the Customer Support Centre (I think it's in the Philippines), and that was a total waste of time. They just send you a lot of generic material, that creates a lot of work, especially as when you go into Safe mode you lose your formatting preferences, eg. you lose the aesthetic formatting / the phone returns to how it looked like when purchased. The phone should return to exactly how it looked before going into SAFE mode. The customer shouldn’t have to reset it all up again.
Anyway, this is what the Customer Support Centre (CSC) sent:
For now here are the steps on how to rectify the issue:
• Reset camera setting.
1. Open the Camera application. 2. Tap the Settings icon. 3. Scroll down and select Reset settings.
• Clear cache and data.
1. Open Settings and tap on Apps. 2. Tap on 3 dots on the upper right and tap on the show system app. 3. Tap on Camera app and storage. 4. Tap clear cache and data.
• Safe mode. For us to confirm if this is a third-party application issue.
1. Press and hold the power off key until it shows the power off logo. 2. Press and hold the power off logo until it shows safe mode. 3. Tap on safe mode and wait for the device to reboot. 4. Once on safe mode, you may try the Camera app again. 5. To return to normal mode, just swipe down the notification panel and tap on turn off safe mode. 6. Or just restart the device.
If the camera works fine into safe mode, uninstall the recent or suspecting application and check the Camera app to normal mode again.
• Software update. To improve the phone's performance and fix software related issue.
1. Open Settings and select Software update. 2. Select Download and install. 3. Your device will then check for any available updates. If there is one available, you will be able to tap on the Download button. 4. Once the download is complete, tap on Install now button.
It was all a just a waste of time and effort. Also, beware that you can lose data by following these CSC instructions, so you need to back up in advance, although that isn't covered in the instructions.
Dealing with the CSC in the Philippines was just a terrible customer experience.
Anyway, can someone please confirm if this phone can create much better quality photo image files of maybe around 10+ Mb that could be printed on a large scale, such as say a bed sheet or shower curtain, or even a half or quarter that size?
