For users of Samsung S22 Ultra (and S23 Ultra, and maybe other variants).
I noticed that the new Lightroom AI denoise algorithm doesn't work with this phone's DNG files.
I went back to RAW photos I shot in December, and guess what? Those RAW photos can be denoised by the new LR algorithm!

After digging deeper, I realised that something happend in between.
Most likely, a firmware update screwed things up.

Below is the before/after EXIF data.


We can clearly see that the new DNGs are not uncompressed RAW anymore, but Linear RAW with embedded JPEG compression.
This explains why LR AI Denoise doesn't work on these files anymore

I suspect that the problem started sometimes in April, when Expert RAW was added as an option inside the default camera app, in Pro mode.

Expert RAW always had these linear RAW files (since these are HDR DNGs), and I suspect that when the two things were combined, the Expert RAW DNG generating algoritm replaced the original RAW algorithm. Not good.

Also, as a side note: The x3 and x10 sensors have 10Mpix native resolution (3648 x 2736), but the outputs of Expert RAW and the regular camera app in photo mode are 12Mpix (4000 x 3000)!

So Expert RAW is upscaling the output of the x3 and x10 cameras. This is not what RAW files are supposed to do. It only confirms that the DNG is in fact a JPEG file in a DNG container.

Anyways, I opened a case with Samsung. Hopefully they will realise the error and restore the original capabilities.

Post on reddit, spread the word. Samsung is a scummy company with misleading marketing.

Already posted on r/GalaxyS22 (4.7k views), r/S22Ultra (5.9k views), and r/s22ultraphotography (599 views) before talking to Samsung.

But, I don't have much hope from Reddit; if there is a chance to fix it, it will come from logging that ticket with Samsung.

Update:

I now have a new S24U, and unfortunately, Samsung continues to underutilize this phone's great capabilities with subpar software.

The S24U has inherited the algorithm mentioned above, producing preprocessed RAW files incompatible with the excellent Lightroom Denoise AI algorithm.

While GCam can overcome this limitation for the S22 and S23 by producing uncompressed RAW (or lossless compressed RAW that preserves ALL sensor information), we have a problem with the S24U.

All third-party apps attempting to produce RAW with the main camera are producing scrambled photos (the other three cameras work fine).

I tried:
- GCam
- Lightroom Mobile
- Open Camera
- MotionCam Pro
- Camera FV-5 Pro
- Snap Camera HDR

All have the same issue, which seems to stem from an incompatible API for the main camera. Hopefully, Samsung will offer a fix for this.