Xiaomi Mi 8 128GB (Global version) photo facilities, part 1 – general photo modes
I would like to show you my test of the newest, recently announced phone Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB RAM 128GB (Global version). My wife ordered this smartphone in August when the Xiaomi Mi 8 was released. Traditionally my test will cover the photo & video facilities, which are really wide in this model. Interestingly the user is able to take macro pictures and night photography. Moreover, this smartphone gives you the ability to capture the night sky and zoom in on remote objects. All this stuff I would like to present to you in the following articles. The 20MP front camera is awesome. It is supersaturated like cameras from Samsung and has good sharpness and dynamic range. Thanks to this the camera performs well in nearly every situation. The rear camera has 12MP, although the portrait mode still leaves a lot to be desired. A front-facing portrait mode is very well. Both cameras don’t have an extreme amount of contrast but instead focus on tonality.
The Xiaomi Mi 8 has also perfect video facilities. You can make slow-motion and timelapse movies. More details about this I will bring you in the next article.
The first part of my test includes an overall insight into the photo facilities of the Xiaomi Mi 8 128GB (Global version).
Once you open the Camera app, you have basic options, as you can find in each modern smartphone (Pic. 1).
Pic. 1 A top interface of the photo app on Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version).
Option 1st – Flash and 2nd – HDR (Pic. 2) are commonly known.
Pic. 2 The HDR options in Xiaomi Mi 8.
An interesting option 3rd – the AI camera (Pic. 3). The AI-powered camera is a new kind of camera, which makes up for the smartphone’s lack of zoom lenses. Because smartphones don’t have the same optics as digital cameras do, a computational photography solution is needed. In practice using the AI camera helps to smooth the skin, remove some blemishes, etc.
Pic. 3 The AI camera in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone: 1 – switched off, 2 – switched on. Hemingford Road, Cambridge, UK.
With the AI camera, also 4th feature is associated, where the user can select a professional image on the app and apply the same white balance, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO (Pic. 2).
Pic. 4 Filter selection in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
Basically, the Xiaomi Mi 8 photo app offers 12 color filters and 2 grey ones. The 5th option represents photo settings (Pic. 4).
Pic. 5 Basic photo settings in Xiaomi mi 8 smartphones.
At this stage focus on the Settings option in the top left corner (Pic. 5), where you can find all preferences, ready to adjust for your needs (Pic. 6).
Pic. 6 Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version) camera settings.
Let’s take a look at the options at the bottom of the screen, where you have a few main options to choose from. Firstly, leave the video options, because they will be described in the next article. Secondly have a look at the main photo options, as I said before. The user has a few ways to take a good picture of the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. There are Photo, Portrait, Square, Panorama, and Manual (Pic. 7).
Pic. 7 Main photo options in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
Now I would like to come through each option, showing you all the details of the Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version) photo features.
A simple photo (Photo mode) taken by the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone looks like this below (Pic. 8).
Pic. 8 Coleridge Recreation Ground, Cambridge, UK.
To help set the picture sharpness you can use the autofocus, which is to be seen as a white circle with a white smallish circle inside. When setting your camera onto some object you can adjust the focus by touching your finger on the screen. Then this white autofocus circle should appear. By hanging your finger certainly on this circle, you can lock the autofocus (Pic. 9). This option can be useful when you are taking a photo in low light conditions. I will describe it more in a further article. To unlock the autofocus you need just press the yellow circle.
Pic. 9 The autofocus in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. A white circle means, that it can change depending on both the distance to some object and the manual setting by the user when pressing the screen in someplace. A yellow circle with a padlock inside means, that autofocus has been locked. Always the moment of locking the comment as per at the bottom of the screen appears. Hemingford Road, Cambridge, UK.
Next to the autofocus, you may have seen two opposite (up and down) arrows. You can use them by clicking and dragging them up & down. Then the picture brightness is to be adjusted (Pic. 10). You can use it also when your autofocus is locked. This option is available for all imaging modes, except the Panorama mode.
Pic. 10 A photo brightness adjustment in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. Corrie Road, Cambridge, UK.
Returning to filter selection, as shown in pic. 4 and also pic. 11 the option is available for normal photo mode, Square, and Manual modes in every single setting. As I wrote above there are 12 colored filters and 2 greys for these 3 modes.
Pic. 11 Filter selections in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
See some example photos with filters below:
Pic. 12 A vivid filter, Coleridge Recreation Ground, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 13 An Amour filter, Mill Road, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 14 A Cookie filter, Mill Road, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 15 A Calm filter, Mill Road, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 16 A Gourmet filter, Mill Road, Cambridge, UK.
Other options, as you can use for Photo and Square mode are Tilt & shift and Straighten. The Tilt & Shift option contains two settings, which are circle and parallel (Pic. 17, 18).
Pic. 17 The parallel tilt & shift mode in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
Pic. 18 The circular tilt & shift mode in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
The Straighten mode allows you to take a properly rotated picture when you keep your device at some weird angle (Pic. 19). Remember, that only a framed section of your screen produces the image. In effect, the image size is lower as well as the photographed area, which has been cropped automatically by the device.
Pic. 19 The straighten option in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
The Photo, Portrait, and Square modes can also enhance the picture with Beauty and Beauty Pro setting, which adds up some tints and better focus (Pic. 20).
Pic. 20 The beauty features in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone: 1 – Beauty Pro, 2 – Beauty, 3 – Beauty switched off. Hemingford Road, Cambridge, UK.
A good feature provided by the photo app in Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version) is the Timer mode, available for all modes except the Panorama. You can use the timer for the purpose of a 3-sec or 5-sec picture delay (Pic. 21).
Pic. 21 The timer feature provided by the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
Next jump to the general picture settings, as shown in the pic. 6. Amidst a lot of options to be adjusted by the user, like camera frame, picture quality, or auto exposure settings we can find a very useful option, like Gridlines (Pic. 21, 22), assuring you, that you are taking a photo under a right angle.
Pic. 22 The gridlines in Xiaomi Mi 8 help to rotate your field of view correctly. Coleridge Recreation Ground, Cambridge, UK.
It’s good to look at other options: Saturation and Contrast. Using them you can adjust your picture on the entry step already. Both saturation and contrast can work with each other, giving you about 50 combinations (Pic. 23 – 26).
Pic. 23 The contrast changes setting examples: 1 – highest, 2 – normal, 3 – lowest. Argyle Street, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 24 The saturation settings examples: 1 – lowest, 2 – lower, 3 – normal, 4 – highest. Mill Road, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 25 All saturation settings available in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone: 1 – highest, 2 – higher, 3 – high, 4 – normal, 5 – low, 6 – lower, 7 – lowest. Ginko Biloba tree.
Pic. 26 All contrast settings available in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone: 1 – lowest, 2 – lower, 3 – low, 4 – normal, 5 – high, 6 – higher, 7 – highest. These options have been checked with the “lower” saturation settings. You can do it also for another 6 saturation settings and another way around, totaling 49 all combinations. Ginko Biloba tree.
See another example photo below:
Pic. 27 The lowest contrast example in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. Rustal Road, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 28 The highest contrast example in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. Cumulus clouds above Greville Road in Cambridge, UK.
It’s time to jump to the next mode, which is a Portrait. This is another of the most often selected mode in order to take a picture of people. The portrait mode contains a few different options for taking photos. First of all, your object must be placed at least 2,5 m from the device. Otherwise, the shutter won’t work at all. Some facilities will work with using a front camera, although for other options you will have to switch to the rear camera. These options will represent all amenities with face correction (Pic. 27).
Pic. 27 Beauty and remodeling options for rear camera in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
Filter selections are different for the Portrait mode. They correspond to the portrait session (Pic. 28).
Pic. 29 Filter options for Portrait mode in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
In general, the Portrait mode allows you to select 12 colored filters and 1 grey one (Pic. 29). As a result, you can get a portrait photo like below (Pic. 30).
Pic. 30 An example of a portrait photo made by the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
The Portrait mode in Xiaomi Mi 8 can perfectly distinguish the closer, portrait object from further elements in the background. It results in a nice bokeh provided (Pic. 30, 31). Bear in mind, that your autofocus can behave incorrectly when a photographed person is a bit further. As a result, the person’s outline might be not sharp enough (Pic. 31).
Pic. 31 Perfect bokeh created by Portrait mode in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. The photo was taken from a few meters away, so autofocus was not perfect enough, leaving blurry outlines in places.
Well, we came through the Portrait mode then. The next one is the Square one. This mode is exactly the same, with the same options and settings provided as for Photo mode. The only difference is, that the Square mode takes square pictures. The typical size of the picture taken by the smartphone is usually in frame 3:4 or 16:9. This mode can change the picture frame to a square shape (Pic. 2, 32-33).
Pic. 32 The Square mode shows a square-looking picture on your screen.
Pic. 33 An example of a square picture taken by the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. Romsey Mill Memorial Stone, Cambridge, UK.
Another very useful mode is the Panorama mode. In this case, there is no option to set various options and settings, as we could do in other modes. When deciding to take panorama pictures you have only choice from the main camera settings and not all, unlike other modes (Pic. 34).
Pic. 34 The camera settings are available for the Panorama mode in Xiaomi Mi 8.
The panorama pictures are quite good. The big advantage is, that you can stop your panorama in any place. Moreover, the device better copes with the parallax, so even when we move a bit, the vista will remain smooth (Pic. 35). However, once you are close enough to some object and you move a bit, then some discrepancies at the stitches can be discernable (Pic. 36).
Pic. 35 An example of a panoramic picture taken by the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone. The device is handling well with a parallax, giving a smooth vista. Mill Road, Cambridge, UK.
Pic. 36 When your movements are too big, then the device cannot handle properly with a parallax. The result is pointed out by red arrows; an electric line, which is thin, looks like a cut, separate objects. In the case of bigger objects, like a car on the middle bottom, might be totally misshapen. Hemingford Road, Cambridge, UK.
The aforementioned picture (Pic. 36) is a good example of the issue, that we shouldn’t do making panoramic photos. We must avoid objects, being in motion. Otherwise, we get some deformed elements. It refers to every device with Panorama mode.
The last mode, which can bother the user is the Manual mode. It seems to be very well developed in the Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version) due to a multitude of options to be set manually. Firstly – a white balance. There are a lot of options for this, beginning with the automatic setting, and finishing at a very wide temperature range scale from 2000 to 8000 K (Pic. 37).
Pic. 37 A white balance manual settings in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
The aperture manual settings are also amazing, with a range of up to 100 (Pic. 38).
Pic. 38 The aperture manual settings in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
The shutter speed provided in the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone is simply amazing! It can compete with some digital cameras without hesitation. The maximum shutter speed starts from 1/1000 s, but the minimum reaches 32 s, which allows the user to take awesome pictures during the night. This phone can be also used for astrophotography, which I will talk more about in a future article. Remember, that this range is achievable for a wide lens. When you have a telephoto (tele) lens selected (marked with a red circle), then a minimum shutter speed reaches 1/2 sec only.
Pic. 39 A shutter speed manual settings in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
The ISO range is from 100 to 3200, which is also amazing! (Pic. 40).
Pic. 40 ISO manual settings in Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone.
I have presented all photo features offered by the Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version) smartphone. This is only general information for all users and people planning to buy this device. In the next articles, I would like to focus on the Zoom and Macro facilities as well as the night photography and videos. The section on image retouching is also to be developed at the summary stage. See some example photos taken by Xiaomi Mi 8 6GB 128GB (Global version) below.
Pic. 41 Coffee time, 1/25s, f1.8, 4mm, ISO 900.
Pic. 42 Inside the Holy Trinity Collegiate Church in Tattershall, UK. 1/250s, f.1/8, 4mm, ISO 900.
Pic. 43 A beautiful Tattershall Castle during the autumn. 1/400s, 4mm, f1.8, ISO 100.
Pic. 44 The Blue Bell Inn in Belchford, Lincolnshire. 1/500s, 4mm, f1.8, ISO 100.
Pic. 45 Would you like a biscuit? 1/25s, 4mm, f1.8, ISO 900.
Mariusz Krukar
Links:
1. What is AI camera?
2. Xiaomi Mi 8 review
3. Xiaomi Mi 8 128gb – specification
4. Gsmarena.com: Xiaomi Mi 8 – specification, details
5. Xda-developers.com: Xiaomi Mi 8 nowe comes with 8GB and 128GB storage model
6. Xiaomi Mi 8 review detailed
7. Xiaomi Mi 8 – Preview
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