Samsung’s Sky Portal Lit Up Sydney Harbour. The Camera Test Says Otherwise.

Samsung premiered a film above Sydney Harbour this week, screened on an 8m by 2.5m LED screen hanging from a Huey helicopter at golden hour. The five-minute cut was shot entirely on Galaxy S26 series phones and is the centerpiece of Samsung’s return to Vivid Sydney as a Major Partner for a fifth consecutive year. Crowds watched the aerial display above Farm Cove before a choreographed burst of pyrotechnics, visuals, and sound closed the night.

The pitch is that the Galaxy S26 Ultra now stands in for cinema gear. The independent test lab DXOMARK ranks the same phone well down its global camera chart, with a score of 157 and a string of rivals ahead of it, including the Apple iPhone 17 Pro and the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra. The contrast between Samsung’s aerial spectacle and the lab’s reading is the story inside the spectacle.

The Phone Film Above Sydney Harbour

The Sky Portal screen lifted off a barge at Farm Cove and rose 150m above Sydney Harbour on a Huey helicopter. It carried the five-minute film that Samsung Electronics Australia had cut from Galaxy S26 footage of a single day in Sydney. According to Samsung, the display weighed over a tonne and measured 8m by 2.5m.

Samsung’s official Sky Portal announcement confirms the stunt took place during golden hour, as the sun was about to set. Crowds along the harbour watched the screen pass overhead before a choreographed show of pyrotechnics, visuals, and sound capped the night. The activation forms part of Samsung’s broader Sky Portal experience running alongside the Vivid Sydney light festival.

Eric Chou, Vice President of Mobile eXperience at Samsung Australia, called the flight a defining moment in Samsung’s statement on the premiere and said Samsung wanted to show Sydney’s story through the eyes of its people. He framed the moments as truly breathtaking once they were captured with Galaxy, flying above one of the world’s most iconic harbours. Samsung’s statement framed the night as more than a product launch, with the five-minute cut and the air display intended to feel like a shared Sydney moment. The display was produced in partnership with INVNT, the global brand experience agency that Samsung worked with on the activation.

Building a Film Out of Other People’s Footage

The aerial film is built almost entirely out of user submissions. Samsung Electronics Australia put the call out for Sydneysiders to film a 24 hours-long slice of their city on any Galaxy device, then curated the entries into a five-minute reel. Samsung’s statement said the project received thousands of submissions, with Team Galaxy photographers Benjamin Lee and Tim Northey shaping the final cut. The brief asked Sydneysiders to capture a set of themes:

• Creativity
• Movement
• Joy
• Connection
• Curiosity

Lee said in Samsung’s statement that an S26 Ultra in his pocket is powerful enough to capture high quality cinematic moments on a whim, pointing to the moment when phones no longer need separate cinema rigs. Northey called the camera seamless and said it gave him the freedom to leave heavier gear behind and just focus on capturing the moment. The submission model gives Samsung first-party footage at scale, with the curation falling to Lee and Northey rather than a public vote.

Capturing the best of Sydney with the Galaxy S26 Ultra was such a seamless experience thanks to the quality and versatility of the camera. For a shoot like this, having that level of capability in a device that fits in your pocket gives you the freedom to leave heavier gear behind and just focus on capturing the moment.

Tim Northey, Team Galaxy photographer and co-creator of the Sky Portal film, in Samsung’s statement on the Sky Portal premiere.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra Samsung Is Pitching

The phone doing the work is the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung’s top-shelf flagship for 2026. Samsung’s US product page lists a 200-megapixel Wide main camera at f/1.4, a 50-megapixel Ultra Wide at f/1.9, a 50-megapixel 5x telephoto at f/2.9, and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto at f/2.4. Samsung says the main sensor’s wider aperture delivers 47% more light than its predecessor.

On paper, the sensor stack is what makes the aerial film feasible, and the headline numbers are:

• 200MP main sensor, f/1.4 aperture, 47% brighter than the prior generation per Samsung
• 50MP ultra-wide, f/1.9
• 50MP 5x telephoto, f/2.9
• 10MP 3x telephoto, f/2.4
• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, paired with a larger vapor chamber for thermal headroom

The wider aperture on the main sensor is the spec Samsung leans on hardest, with the company claiming a 47% light gain over the prior generation. Super Steady with Horizontal Lock is the second spec, and the one Samsung’s Sky Portal Studio leans on at First Fleet Park. The Galaxy S26 Ultra also carries a 12MP front camera with an AI image signal processor, plus 100x AI-powered Space Zoom for stills. The film above Sydney Harbour leaned on the wide, stable, low-light-friendly main sensor being carried into the sky on a helicopter, not on the zoom range. The marketing test of the S26 Ultra is whether the hardware alone can carry a five-minute cinematic reel, with Samsung’s image processing doing the rest behind the scenes.

Three Portals on the Ground at First Fleet Park

The aerial film is the headline, but the ground-level companion is where most festivalgoers will actually meet the phone. Samsung’s Sky Portal Studio sits at First Fleet Park in The Rocks, a short walk from Circular Quay, and runs free from 22 May to 13 June between 6pm and 11pm each night. Vivid Sydney itself frames the Studio on Vivid Sydney’s Samsung partner page as where technology meets art, and where every visitor becomes the creator.

The Studio is built as three portals, each one a guided showcase of a Galaxy S26 Ultra feature, and visitors move from zone to zone before finishing at a Creative Studio where they can edit what they shot:

• Defy Gravity: Spin a colorful LED backdrop, capture stabilised video with Horizontal Lock
• Unleash your Creativity: Use Photo Assist to swap backgrounds, outfits, or objects in stills
• Infinite Possibilities: Trigger a hands-free Palm Selfie with a wave of the hand
• Creative Studio: Edit and refine the photos and videos captured through the portals

The setup is open every night, with no fee and no separate ticket needed to enter. Each portal demos one phone feature, in a sequence that takes a first-time visitor about twenty minutes from start to finish. The ground-level Studio is the more accessible part of the Sky Portal umbrella, and the on-ground version of the same creative pitch the aerial film carries into the sky.

The Independent Camera Score That Cuts Against the Pitch

The independent test lab DXOMARK runs every flagship through a controlled camera suite. The Galaxy S26 Ultra came out with an overall camera score of 157 in the lab’s published review, behind several rivals on the same chart.

DXOMARK’s pros list names good white balance in most conditions, wide dynamic range, pretty effective video stabilization, and high levels of detail in macro photos. The cons list names exposure and color instabilities in various conditions, background noise in indoor and low light portraits, loss of fine face detail in real-life scenes, and slight frame shifts during small panning shots in video. The full read sits at the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s independent camera test.

DXOMARK’s chart puts the Apple iPhone 17 Pro at 186, the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra at 184, the Vivo X300 Pro at 180, and the Vivo X300 Ultra at 175, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra trailing at 157 in the same leaderboard. DXOMARK’s own framing of the S26 Ultra: the phone “does not yet challenge the segment leaders, but remains a substantial and coherent upgrade that strengthens Samsung’s position and brings it closer to the front of the pack without fully closing the gap.” That language reads closer to catching up than leading. Samsung’s marketing claims of cinematic quality, when set against the same chart, are claims of a phone in the chasing pack, not at the top of it.

The aerial film does not disprove that verdict, because no independent lab has measured a Huey-mounted phone reel. It does, however, show what Samsung is choosing to claim with the S26 Ultra. Samsung says the phone is good enough to carry a five-minute cinematic edit above one of the world’s most photographed harbours, while the lab puts the same phone well behind the segment leaders on the same leaderboard.

Samsung’s Fifth Year in a Festival Already Off-Key

The Sky Portal sits inside a festival Samsung has now sponsored for five years running. Travel and Tour World reports that Kia and Samsung Electronics Australia are each back for their fifth consecutive year of involvement with Vivid Sydney, alongside new Major Partner IREN. The 2026 festival runs 22 May to 13 June, spans 23 nights, includes more than 200 events, and is the first Vivid Sydney edition to run without an overarching creative theme. More than 80% of the 2026 program is free, per Travel and Tour World.

The festival’s other aerial flagship ended differently. The Vivid Sydney drone show, called Star-Bound and presented by IREN, saw 89 drones fall out of formation above Cockle Bay on its second night and plunge into Darling Harbour, ending both performances of the night and triggering the cancellation of the next two evenings of shows. The operator SkyMagic blamed an unforeseen shift in the radio frequency environment that arrived only after take-off, invisible to the pre-flight checks and rehearsals the company had already completed.

Vivid Sydney Festival Director Brett Sheehy AO, in Samsung’s statement, called Samsung an important partner of Vivid Sydney and said the Sky Portal Studio invites festivalgoers to move from spectators into creators. The Sky Portal film contest is also still open, with submissions running through the Sydney with Galaxy contest site until 10 June and three Samsung gift packs valued at over $3,200 each on the line. The same Vivid Sydney week also saw a separate aerial story go the wrong way, with 89 drones falling into Darling Harbour during the Star-Bound show, as that report made clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where and when is the Sky Portal Studio at Vivid Sydney?

The Sky Portal Studio sits at First Fleet Park in The Rocks, Sydney, and runs free from 22 May to 13 June 2026, per Samsung’s official announcement. Lights come on at 6pm and run until 11pm each night, alongside the rest of Vivid Sydney’s 23-night program. The Studio is the ground-level companion to the Sky Portal aerial film that flew over Sydney Harbour at golden hour.

How can I watch the Sky Portal aerial film?

The aerial film sits on Samsung Australia’s YouTube channel, per Samsung’s statement on the premiere. The five-minute cut was screened on the 8m by 2.5m Sky Portal screen above Sydney Harbour, and the same creative idea runs on the ground through the three Sky Portal Studio zones at First Fleet Park. Samsung has not announced any public rebroadcast beyond the YouTube upload.

How did the Galaxy S26 Ultra score on DXOMARK?

DXOMARK gave the Galaxy S26 Ultra an overall camera score of 157 in its independent test suite, with strong points in white balance, dynamic range, video stabilization, and macro detail. The same DXOMARK chart puts the Apple iPhone 17 Pro at 186 and the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra at 184, both ahead of the S26 Ultra, while the lab also flagged exposure instability, indoor and low-light noise, and fine-face-detail loss as the phone’s weak points.

Is the Vivid Sydney drone show still running?

The Vivid Sydney drone show, called Star-Bound, was cancelled after 89 drones fell into Darling Harbour on the show’s second night, and the next two evenings of shows were also pulled. The festival is otherwise running as scheduled until 13 June, with Samsung’s Sky Portal Studio and the broader 23-night program continuing. The operator SkyMagic blamed an unforeseen shift in the radio frequency environment for the failure.