The Samsung S9 and S9+ and Note 9 are capable of absolutely stunning footage when used with FiLMiC Pro v6 for Android, and we have worked hard to bring the best possible shooting experience to both handsets. However there are two issues that can impact on the available features you have access to and overall performance on the S9/S9+.
Samsung’s implementation of the camera framework
Firstly, Samsung’s implementation of the Android camera framework denies third party developers access to some feature that are available in the native Samsung camera app. This includes high-speed framerates such as 60fps, 120fps and 240fps.
On Exynos equipped devices we have found a workaround that allows us to deliver high speed framerates even though not officially supported (up to 240fps at 1080p, and up to 60fps at 4k), however this is not applicable to snapdragon equipped devices (see below for more information).
Also Note:
Autofocus is currently unsupported at 60fps+ from 1080p to 3k resolutions on Exynos devices and must be adjusted manually. We are currently looking into potential workarounds against this issue until Samsung correct the problem by means of a system update.
The current Samsung camera framework implementation also prevents third party developers from supporting the dual lenses found on the S9+. At present only the wide lens is supported.
Finally, in order to deliver stable 4k performance we need to use Samsung's 'limited' mode that prevents access to the cinematographer kit LOG/FLAT profiles as well as custom white balance controls.
The Snapdragon CPU
And secondly, in addition to Samsung’s restrictive implementation of the camera framework, they chose to produce the S9 and S9+ with two different CPUs: an Exynos version - and a Snapdragon version.
You can find out which CPU your devices uses with the app
AIDA64
.
Unfortunately not all chips are created equal and the Snapdragon version has the following limitations for video:
No support for 60fps at any resolution
Whilst we can bypass the Samsung 60fps limitation on Exynos devices, this is impossible on Snapdragon devices.
No support for 120fps.
Whilst we can bypass the Samsung 120fps limitation on Exynos devices, this is impossible on Snapdragon devices.
Automatic White Balance UI doesn’t update.
The camera driver doesn’t provide information about the current white balance being applied, so we cannot reflect this status on the UI on snapdragon equipped devices.
HDR video unsupported
On Exynos versions of the S9/S9+ we can support access to high dynamic range video recordings, however this is not currently supported on Snapdragon equipped handsets.
