So while the S22 Ultra has to take the win here from a zoom perspective, the Pixel 7 Pro is my personal preference as an all-round photography tool. I've really enjoyed the shots I've gotten with it. The Pixel's 5x is a real sweet spot and its images at that zoom level are crystal clear. The 10x zoom on the S22 Ultra is certainly longer, but I would typically use it less often when out and about.

But, it's not zooming in so far as to make it difficult to shoot with. It gives me more reach than the iPhone, opening up interesting creative compositions in my scenes. Personally, I love the 5x zoom of the Pixel 7 Pro. Slight jumps in field of view and focus instabilities are evident as the selected camera snaps the image sharp, but the delay is short and we considered it acceptable.

But it's important to ask yourself how often you would use a 10x zoom over a 5x zoom. Using the on-screen zoom buttons, you can also step zoom between ultra-wide, 1x, 2x, 6x, and 10x magnification, and again, performance is generally pretty good. Its 10x optical zoom lens means it can zoom you into amazing details and help you find unique compositions in your landscape without any loss in quality. But the reality is that for everyday photography, either phone will be a superb creative tool to put in your pocket.īut there's no question that in terms of pure reach, the S22 Ultra remains the zoom king. And while the S22 Ultra has sometimes delivered warmer-looking images in some scenarios, the Pixel's shots looked better in others, with it typically delivering more true-to-life colors and contrast. In my testing I found both phones are capable of taking superb images in a variety of conditions. A considerable amount of that weight comes from the 17 glass elements in the lens (arranged into 12 groups).Watch this: Pixel 7 Pro Review: Google's Best Phone Gets Better It weighs roughly 3.1 pounds and extends to a length of 14 inches at full-zoom. While you don’t need a truck to carry the P1000, it’s still a sizable chunk of gear. To give you a rough idea of size, a 3000mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/8 built for a DSLR sensor would need to have a front lens element with a diameter of about 360mm (more than 14 inches)!”

If you were to design and build a 24-3000mm DSLR lens for an FX-format sensor, you might need a truck to carry it. “Thirty years ago Nikon developed an AI Zoom-Nikkor 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P IF-ED lens, and it weighed 16kg! And that’s for 1200-1700mm. We could in theory design the same spec lens for a DSLR, but it would be nearly impossible to create the parts and assemble such a lens in the factory,” a Nikon representative told us via email. Zooming all the way to its longest setting doubles the length of the P1000.

Zoom camera test