Xiaomi 13 Ultra: Why these cameras are so special!

SomeGadgetGuy's Gear List

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0:00 This Phone is Special
2:01 Matched Hardware
3:46 Matched Software
5:31 Variable Aperture
6:38 Why is this important?

#android #xiaomi13ultra #photography

[DerrickBest]

I've forgotten how much this channel/reviewer influenced my last few phones over the past decade. Honor, Huawei, Redmi. And it's funny how much of an Android fan I have been since day one. (Shout out HTC dream/original G1)
My daily driver needs aren't as "refined" as the 13 Ultra would be. But man I would love play with a phone at powerful this one.

[Gabilleta]

This phone has me seriously considering importing it. The collection of cameras are wonderful. Hoping Xiaomi releases the international version soon.

[RockstarRomania]

An interesting note about the cameras. Xiaomi chose the Sony IMX858 sensor instead of the IMX890 used on the ultrawide/mid-tele of the Oppo Find X6 Pro because it's essentially the miniaturized version of the IMX989, using the same LN2 noise reduction, DOL-HDR and 12-bit ADC as the IMX989, on top of having the Multi Camera Synchronization System.

That should explain why the photos taken by all 4 cameras are so, so consistent, making the entire camera setup feel like a streamlined solution compared to everything I saw on phones so far.

[fist]

love the enthusiasm on the camera details not just on this phone, but all the phones that you reviewed. No other channels that i watch goes in depth like you do. Better for you not to care how others are doing their channel but you focus on what you do best.

[TheHopelessGeek]

Wow, such an amazing phone 👏🏼 Yes, not having consistent camera features on ALL sensors is frustrating 😅

[FAT]

I like what Xiaomi have done with the ultrawide and telephoto cameras. Since we won't be seeing optical zoom camera coming back on smartphones, it's a welcome move to use identical sensor for them. Oppo got it close with the vanilla Find X6. The ultrawide camera is completely different, but both the main and telephoto camera use the same sensor.

[joisaacs]

Always the best camera hardware and software reviews on the tube!

[nikytamayo]

"Who's down for looking at some pretty pictures?"

Do you even have to ask?



Those photos finally feel like they're worth the Leica tag. Nice punchy contrast (without clipping), subtle vignetting that's situation dependent, great natural detail (at least at Youtube reaolution), fantastic bokeh. Looks like a winner, so far.

Most people don't appreciate how much sensor matching counts until they're trying to color match photo sets taken on even just two of the thre or four rear cameras for consistent looks across the set.

[josephnevin]

A lot of information in a single video and that is what i love about some gadget guy.

[naybordesign]

Very informative video. This is the kind of non bias reviews the public needs! Thank you for this review!

[PsychMan]

As someone whose taking pictures on thr Xiaomi 13 Pro i very much enjou the camera hardware on this phone than my S23 Ultra that i use for work. Everything about just looks good and that the telephoto lense on that phone has pumped out some incredible portrait shots for me.

[davidburns]

"there's never a winner camera phone but the Xiaomi 13 ultra is probably the closest ever to curb stomping the competition into submission"

[ARTKING_CREATIONS]

Finally the only creator who understands the art of informative review. Im tired of these hype nonsense and influencers just doing videos for some extra cents. Defies the whole point of a product being launched only to be "reviewed" in the first week or month then, thats all... So stupid

[benleonheart]

Super nice! I hope google *cough cough* gets inspiration from this phone's camera consistency

[vladimirkraus]

My biggest disappointment with recent Xiaomi phones (13 Pro in my case) is their proclaimed "natural-color" authentic mode. My conclusion is that there is absolutely nothing natural about the pictures taken in this mode. They are definitely more artistic but absolutely not natural. I must say I hate the vigneting in authentic mode which unfortunatelly cannot be switched off - once you see the vigneting in the photos, you cannot unsee it. And everyone was asking why my pictures have dark corners. So vignetting is easy to spot. I bought Xiaomi because of authentic mode promises about producing more natural pictures (unlike other unnatural oversaturated and oversharpened shit like Samsung). But I ended up shooting Vivid because it is less terrible than Authentic.

Moreover the exposition in AUTO mode is definitely not perfect. Photos taken at bright daylight feel much darker than they should be and at low light they are too bright. You can adjust exposition manually in AUTO but you need to do it for every shot and it is impossible to be consistent among shots. AUTO mode produces also oversharpened pictures despite many reviewers claims about less artificial sharpenning than the competition. Not true, IMO. Maybe a little bit better than notoriously oversharpened Samsung but still oversharpened.

So I ended up shooting always in PRO mode. Fortunately Xiaomi has the option to adjust saturation, contrast and sharpness. And this is actually what I liked about Xiaomi the most, other brands do not allow this. So shooting in PRO in vivid mode with saturation minus 1 and sharpness minus 1 and this produces quite natural photos. And manually take care about correct exposition of course. Then it was quite good. But this worked well only for the main camera, for ultrawide and tele, the pictures were not so good. Also 50 MP mode disappointed me, 12 MP pictures were often better, especially in lower light.

After one week I sold my phone. The capabilities did not convince me that the high price tag is deserved. I am staying with my old Huawei P30 Pro which makes acceptable pictures (yes, Xiaomi was way better but it was 5 times more expensive and is much bigger and heavier) and in situations where I care about taking good picture I am still using my Sony RX 100 VI. No phone can match it. Only for handheld night photo, I am using the phone.

PS: I am talking about 13 Pro but I am afraid Ultra will share the same weaknesses. 13 Pro has very bad ultrawide camera (compared to the main camera) and just a mediocre tele camera. I expect that this is what will be probably much better in Ultra.

PPS: Recently I also had shortly Vivo X80 Pro and Samsung S22 Plus. Both were worse than Xiaomi 13 Pro however... So Xiaomi is not bad but not great either.

[madmann]

It's crazy for those of us who are old enough to remember when there were .3 mega pickle phones and nearly every smartphone review would preface the camera segment "a camera phone was never intended to replace your camera." OH how times have changed lol.

[derrickmugumya]

U are the perfect person to review a smartphone for real man ❤

[osheadavis]

Closely matched senors is something I've been waiting for!!

[BarryJohnson]

Matched hardware! Say it again for the people in the back. Yep, thanks for reminding us about flickr at the end.

[judenjilah]

I like your videos because I learn a lot photography. Most YouTubers just say things they don't know