Xiaomi Mi A1 celebrated the new year by rolling out official Global Stable Pure Android 8.0 to Xiaomi Mi A1 owners. (more…)
Category: Xiaomi
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Xiaomi is coming to America
Not surprisingly Xiaomi is now in talks with USA carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. (more…)
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Xiaomi Mi7 will be the first phone with Snapdragon 845, which can record 480fps HDR at 720P
Incredibly, it won’t be Samsung, or Sony, or HTC with the latest Qualcomm flagship SoC, but Xiaomi Mi7. (more…)
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Xiaomi Huami Amazfit Pace 2 review specifications
Huami, a subsidiary of Xiaomi has released a new version of the Amazfit Pace. (more…)
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Xiaomi Mi A1 receives Oreo as promised
As promised, Xiaomi Mi A1 will be receiving Android 8 Oreo. The beta has already been pushed out to testers. (more…)
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Xiaomi to stop updates for 6 legacy models
Xiaomi has long provided excellent software update support for their phones, putting even some of the big brands to shame. (more…)
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Xiaomi Mi A1 dual camera setup is as effective as iPhone 8 Plus and offers true 2x optical zoom
While we know that most China phone dual-camera setups are useless, there are some budget-priced phones that carry effective dual-camera setups; you don’t need to spend $800 on an iPhone 8 to get quality dual-camera results. (more…)
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Xiaomi Yi M1 ILC camera still very much alive. Gets a huge new firmware update.
There was a massive commotion last year when Xiaomi released their Mi Y1 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (ILC) with the 4K capable 20MP Sony IMX269. I was hoping there would be a follow up 2nd generation release to the brazen Y1, but the very quick calming down of the initial furor pretty much killed that hope off.
Until now. Xiaomi has released a huge firmware update to the Mi Y1, which gives a clue that the Xiaomi ILC isn’t dead at all, just taking a quick rest.
The firmware update to the Mi Y1 addresses a number of problems with the Mi Y1 which plagued its initial release.
The new firmware update means the MFT camera from Xiaomi isn’t dead at all and that we may see a 2nd iteration in the future.
The updates include:
New:
- Added exposure control in the mode P/A/S/M for video capture
- Added AF/MF control for video capture.
- Added RAW+JPG format for still capture
- Added still image option in Time Lapse
- Added the option to shoot 1-3 images when using the self-timer function with an initial 2 second or 10 second timer settings
- Added a histogram in live view mode for both still and video capture
- Added new focus viewing modes with improved image quality including: 6x, 8x and 10x magnification in MF mode
- Added 2 ways to show the Metering mode in the UI
- Added the user guide (Restoring factory settings to view)
- Added multiple selection of images for deletion.
- Added 2 new options for the display grid
- AE algorithm optimization
- Master Guide template display logic optimized
- Improved AF speed
Fixed
- Fixed some known bugs, and improved the overall stability of the system.
Changed
- Change the thumbnails on each screen from 9 to 12 images.
To my eyes, the biggest moves are with video, adding manual exposure control and the addition of tap to focus and manual focus during video. These are huge, as while the Mi Y1 has 4K video capabilities, it was very very basic with limited versatility without these new additions.
For enthusiasts who like to shoot RAW, but not necessarily always want to develop every photo, the new firmware update allows shooters RAW + jpg, which gives us the flexibility to quickly share JPGs without any fussing, and/or the possibility of advanced editing with the RAWs.
In a beautiful move by Xiaomi they made the Y1 M1 a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) lens mount system. This gives Mi Y1 instantly and natively (no adapters needed) the ability to use any of the big selection of MFT lenses already available. That includes excellent lenses from the likes of Olympus and Panasonic.
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4K on Xiaomi Mi Max 2
One of the relatively new innovations in mobile phones is 4K video. Combined with manual settings such as focus lock and exposure lock we can have powerful video tools in $200 ballpark mobiles.
It’s worth mentioning that standalone cameras are still lagging behind where 4K is concerned, with some cameras costing as much as $1300 still not including 4K video.
Even if you don’t have a 4K monitor or TV, there are still some interesting things that can be done.
Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) — Thanks to the extra resolution from 4K, we can digitally crop and adjust video to account for camera shake while maintaining great quality, especially when downsampling 4K to 1080P. Some phones have the EIS option in-phone, but if your phone doesn’t have it, it can be done with 3rd party video editing software, or with YouTube’s auto EIS fix.
Higher quality 1080P video — This is particularly helpful with EIS, but even if not using EIS, when we downsample 4K to 1080P we will have significantly higher quality 1080P video than if we shot at 1080P.
Frame grabs — Either through video software or a screenshot, we can snag 8MP still shots from 4K video. Consider a moment where someone jumps in the air and you want to catch them at the highest point, or someone blows out candles on a birthday cake. This can also be done with burst photography, but the 4K video gives us the best of both worlds, a video of the moment and the possibility of still frame grabs from video.
1080P screenshot from 4K (click to see at full 1080P) Here are several 4K videoes from the Sony IMX386 sensor. This first is shot with Xiaomi’s default camera in Center Focus mode. You will see it occasionally hunting for focus, which can be quite distracting. There has been no EIS applied to this video.
Here is a similar Sony IMX386 4K video from Xiaomi Mi Max 2 with Tap To Focus. This mode gives us much more control and gets rid of the distracting auto-focusing. At the end of this clip, you will see me tapping to macro focus.
This is a short video demonstrating Tap To Focus with the Xiaomi default camera app.
Open Camera is one of my favorite apps. This allows us to not only lock focus, it also allows to lock and unlock exposure while filming. At about 6 seconds in I lock exposure to maintain the blue skies. I then go to get some closeup video of a small flower, but it’s too dark so I unlock exposure so the camera can appropriately expose the flower.
Here we have a short video demonstrating YouTube’s auto-shake fix. This was shot using exposure lock and tap to focus with Open Camera.
While these are shot at default bit rate, Open Camera also gives us the option to choose bit rates up to 100Mb/s which can greatly improve video quality.
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Xiaomi Redmi 5 certification and rumored specs
Images of the upcoming Redmi 5 Plus show it with dual-cameras and an 18:9 display covering a massive portion of the front real estate. (more…)
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Google and Xiaomi have teamed up big time
“The Mi A1 is an entirely new type of device.” said Xiaomi Senior VP Wang Xiang, “Google came to us in Q4 of last year as they were seeking to evolve their Android One program.” (more…)
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Xiaomi secures $1 billion loan to finance international expansion
From 18 banks across the world, Xiaomi has been granted a $1 billion loan (more…)