Why Samsung Hacked A Traditional Photo Booth | Planet Booth

One of the biggest mobile phone manufacturers in the world showed off their new camera technology with the help of the most familiar tech on the high street.

After the phone booth finally started to disappear from towns and cities around the world, the photo booth became one of the most ubiquitous pieces of technology found on the high street.

Besides still being a vitally important part of ID applications, corporate photo booth hire has become a major part of networking events, as it allows professionals to show another side to themselves.

With that said, high street photo booths tend to be relatively rigid in how they are made to function effectively as a source of ID photos.

However, Samsung tried something a little different to promote the camera technology powering its newest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S23.

They placed an ordinary-looking booth that they described as the “least advanced” in town in the centre of London’s Piccadilly Circus, which could be used like any other booth. However, there was a twist.

Once the pictures had been taken, the user was instructed to look up, and instead of the digital picture appearing on the side of the booth, their face was on a high-resolution billboard.

What Samsung had done was replace the traditional photograph sensor used in the booth with their ISOCELL HP2 technology, a tiny camera sensor that allows for 200-megapixel pictures of the type that could be used on giant billboards or posters.

The billboard even zoomed in on details, highlighting the potential fidelity of a sensor small enough to fit on a fingernail.

Naturally, this was a short-term publicity stunt, although Samsung has claimed they will wheel out the booth again due to the popularity of the campaign.

It is also quite a clever way to show off the technology, as the lighting in a photo booth is by definition bright and evenly distributed, which is far better than the conditions a smartphone is often required to take photographs in.

Whilst Samsung’s campaign did draw attention to the S23, what is arguably even more important is highlighting how important and useful traditional photo booths are to this very day.