You may not see a dedicated Night Mode in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which Samsung hid inside Camera Assistant settings, but what Expert RAW can do with your night photography goes far beyond the built-in camera app.

Both the Auto mode in the Galaxy S26 Ultra camera and Night Mode produce identical shots. Same exposure times, roughly four seconds. Same brightness, same color rendering. The difference is invisible in side-by-side testing.

Samsung did the right thing here.

Why force users through a separate tap when the main mode already does the work?

If you desperately want the dedicated night mode back, Samsung will make you earn it. You have to download Camera Assistant from the Galaxy Store. That app also restores Dual Rec and Single Take.

Well, the shots John Velasco of Tom’s Guide pulled came out impressively bright, turning genuinely dark scenery into frames that look like someone dragged a light source into the shot.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra holds onto detail in ways competitors fumble. Tree definition, shadow gradients, fine textures in low contrast areas, and it handles all of it.

Image – Galaxy S26 Ultra Night Mode Shots | Left – Auto / Right – Night | Source – Tom’s Guide

What Expert RAW actually unlocks

Once you have Expert RAW installed, the phone transforms. The app carries some insane modes seasoned Samsung users are familiar with, including a dedicated astrophotography mode, virtual aperture controls, and ND filter simulation.

The astrophotography test

Exposure times in this mode range from 30 seconds to 12 minutes. A tripod is not optional. The Galaxy S26 Ultra needs to be completely still, propped against something solid at minimum. Any movement during those extended exposures.

Shots from astrophotography mode captured stars invisible to the naked eye. Tree branches resolved with a sharpness that looked almost clinical.

Expert RAW pulled rich green grass tones, rendered individual shingles on a shed roof, and held the sky together without blowing out.

Image – Galaxy S26 Ultra Expert RAW Night Shots | Source – Tom’s Guide

The built-in night mode is fast, reliable, and good enough for every casual low-light situation you will encounter. Expert RAW’s astrophotography mode exists in a different category entirely.

It’s slow, demanding, and requires planning, but the images it produces don’t look like phone photos. They look like something a dedicated mirrorless shooter would bring back from a dark field at midnight.

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