Since the recent April 2026 update for Galaxy S26 Ultra, many users have been complaining about camera issues. First, it was a document scan issue, then an Expert RAW issue, and now another problem has been found in the S26 Ultra camera. If you’ve been using Close Focus Enhancement on your Galaxy S26 Ultra and wondering why your photos look nothing like what you framed, you’re not imagining it. This is a real bug, and Samsung has now officially acknowledged it.
Galaxy S26 Ultra Camera Close-up Issue
When you enable Close Focus Enhancement and shoot a close-up item, the S26 Ultra appears to switch lenses mid-process, but the preview doesn’t follow. So you carefully compose your shot on the screen, hit the shutter, and the final image comes out cropped differently from what you saw. The result is a noticeable shift in composition once the photo is processed.
The Answer from Camera Manager
Samsung’s Camera Manager on the official Samsung Community South Korea has now responded to this particular issue. The camera team confirmed they have identified the root cause as a lens transition issue that triggers during ultra-close shooting when Close Focus Enhancement is active. A software fix is in development, but Samsung has been upfront that they cannot commit to a specific update timeline due to technical and environmental factors involved.
It’s not a hardware defect. This is purely a software bug, and it could be solved in a future software update.
The Quick Solution for Now
The only working workaround at the moment is simple: turn off Close Focus Enhancement. While turning off Focus Enhancer appears to fix the problem, it becomes difficult to get focus right for close-up photos without it. So it’s a trade-off, you lose some of the assisted macro focus behavior, but at least your shots come out looking exactly like what you composed on screen.
Author’s Take
It is not the first time a user has raised an issue on the Samsung Community forum. When we investigated other users’ issues on Samsung Community South Korea, we found that many users had raised complaints, and Camera Manager had given the same answer. It means Samsung is still working on the fix, and we can expect the issue to be solved in the next May 2026 firmware update.
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