6S+ and Photo Limitations in Zoom

[dk001]

Let me start off with ... confusion.
I did a recent day trip to a local archeological site and took a lot of photos. These were all UHD photos.
Here is the issue and I don't know if it a limitation of iOS9 or my iPhone 6S+...
In standard view both my iPhone and Note 5 display the photos very well. However, when I zoom in...
The iPhone will only allow the viewer limited zoom capability.
See the examples below.

These are the 6S+ and Note 5 standard view.

This is the 6S+ and Note 5 max zoom.

Anyone know what the issue on the iPhone is? I was able to recreate this limitation with a iPhone 6 Plus.
This really annoys me that Apple is potentially limiting great photo viewing. Intentionally.
Appreciate any explanations.

 

[v3rlon]

There is no physical zoom on either camera. The digital zoom is just cropping in on the sensor. While you may get a 12MP image, when you zoom in, there is less actual data making that picture resulting in quality loss. While there are algorithms to fill in what was lost, the camera is just 'estimating' what the other pixels should be. Apple decided that was about as far as you could go for a decent image in most cases. Samsung decided to go a little further.

To my eye, the Samsung max zoom clearly shows the image degrading at 1x. Note the edges of the orange flag, for example. The iOS image holds up a little better, but on close inspection you see similar issues. In this particular instance, be it how the camera was held or (more likely) how the software that shrank them down for this post processed them, that degradation seems a little worse. So if you zoomed in to match on the POSTED image, I think the Samsung would still be a better image. You have the originals to see if this is true there as well.

If you want the iOS photo to match the Samsung, just crop it (or hit Command + for a non destructive version).

 

[dk001]

There is no physical zoom on either camera. The digital zoom is just cropping in on the sensor. While you may get a 12MP image, when you zoom in, there is less actual data making that picture resulting in quality loss. While there are algorithms to fill in what was lost, the camera is just 'estimating' what the other pixels should be. Apple decided that was about as far as you could go for a decent image in most cases. Samsung decided to go a little further.

To my eye, the Samsung max zoom clearly shows the image degrading at 1x. Note the edges of the orange flag, for example. The iOS image holds up a little better, but on close inspection you see similar issues. In this particular instance, be it how the camera was held or (more likely) how the software that shrank them down for this post processed them, that degradation seems a little worse. So if you zoomed in to match on the POSTED image, I think the Samsung would still be a better image. You have the originals to see if this is true there as well.

If you want the iOS photo to match the Samsung, just crop it (or hit Command + for a non destructive version).

Thanks for the info
It is the same photo imported to both devices. I'm going to play around a bit as the pixelation might be a result of the transfer. Still doesn't explain the lack of zoom depth on iOS....
Looks much better on my rMB