Another Alley Treasure

I sometimes wonder why San Diegans put such valuable items in alleys for free. Take this bureau that my wife and I came upon yesterday. The condition is, at the least, very good. Craftmanship is excellent, and the dresser is solid wood—no particle board! Some antique shop might even put a hefty price tag on the discard. If we had need, or space, I would have stood guard while Annie fetched the car.

The find presented opportunity to test one of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra‘s higher megapixel modes. Standard default is 3:4 at 12MP. But 50MP and 200MP are available at the tap of a finger. The Featured Image and companion were shot at the former. Original files measure 8160 x 6120 pixels and weigh in at 14.6MB and 13.1MB, respectively, before being cropped 3:2.

Vitals for both: f/1.7, ISO 10, 1/280 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 12:31 p.m. PST. Captured detail is superb, showing off every nick and scratch in the paint (do zoom in to see). The second shot means to add ambiance, by revealing the beer bottles neatly boxed for some scavenger of recyclables to take.

Hours later, when returning to see if the bureau was still there (it wasn’t), I came upon a classic car that demanded to be captured at 200MP. The detail is absolutely remarkable for a smartphone. But at monstrous 51MB and 16320 x 12240 pixels, a file like this will fill up storage pretty fast.