Xiaomi 14 Ultra - A Photographer’s Review

you see this right here, look at that little Leica logo, yeah, now I'm interested, now you got my attention, but don't worry, I'm not one of those

photographer

s, I'm not a Leica fan and I don't wear anything with a Leica logo this is a serious

review

Hi everyone, today I'm using the

xiaomi

14 Ultra for a day of photography in the city. Now this video is not going to be an in-depth

review

, a spec sheet analysis. I'll leave it to the professional tech YouTubers. I'm only interested in the camera because it's co-designed with Leica and that's actually quite interesting, so let's take some photos and see what it's like to use.

What is the experience of using this camera? How do you feel? how easy it is how convenient it is and obviously how the photos look in the end and most importantly let's have some fun so I'm in the pro mode of the camera here and I'm actually going to set the shutter speed. at 500 of a second or at least that, if the light is good I'll do it faster, but most of the time when you use camera phones the closing speed is automatic, everything is automatic. I go to pro mode Sho Speed ​​500 per second, which is typical for the street stuff I like to shoot.

I don't want anything to be blurry, so yeah, I'm confident using the phone and I know that nothing should be blurry, so it's good to be confident. You know what Stair Shadow really does, it makes 2D look like 3D because it's shooting as a true color profile. I can switch between vibrant and authentic, but I think the authentic looks great. Straight out of the camera, I'm not sure how much editing I'm going to do with these images. I think they look great as is. I think the phone is doing a good job. Yeah, it's pretty impressive how the graffiti keeps going.

It then follows the subject even when I switch between focal lengths, the autofocus is on point, it knows exactly what to focus on, when to focus on it, it's pretty impressive, in fact I saw this little text and thought I was shooting straight away. no no no what do you have what are you shooting with m10p not m240 exactly m240 p is that thing have a nice day shooting buddy I saw your face I thought it was me, I see you I actually stopped to take a photo of this poster where did they all come from who Who, Wait, Wait, Wait, What's going on here?

Let's take a photo of this. I've seen green trash cans and a red trash can and I'm not saying this is going to be a good photo, but I saw it. I saw the colors. Now I'm going to draw them using the word sketch because I did a workshop with Matt Stewart last year and he mentioned how he uses the camera on his phone to line up possible compositions or at least play with things he's seen. he may not take the photo, he may not take out his camera to take the photo, but at least he's developing his eye and it's easy to use a camera phone to do it, so this is effectively a sketch, it may not be a photo , it may be a photo but I'm just seeing what the frame looks like as a composition and then if it becomes a real photo then it does but it may not but I've seen some rubbish is what I'm saying that I love. how are you all, what are you doing pointing your phone camera at the bins, but I've seen a red bin, red rubbish, green bins, green signs, red signs, no one is going to see that photo, you just saw me trying to take one photo of some containers.

I'm not going to show it to anyone, but my point is that if you see a photograph or a potential photograph, you see some colors or you see some compositions, just draw with your phone camera because it's a lot easier than legitimately trying to get a good one. photography, so it's just about training your eye I guess, but everyone thinks you're weird because I guess that's weird, it's just some containers, so you know, this works really well. I don't really know what it is, but the woman on a green phone, the painting or the photograph on the ground is a nice composition that there is a sketch right there but this one was a little more successful.

I didn't know if it would be a photograph. I was just playing with it to see what the composition would look like. Thanks Matt. Stewart, I'm going to start using the word draw a lot more, but it looks great, right? We should have lunch. Oh, that looks evil these days too. I don't know what's up with posters and things on walls nowadays, but I'm enjoying it and it's a lot of fun to use. I love it. Well, there's no point in having a coffee and not taking a photo like her, that'll break all the rules, isn't that good?

Something I was interested in trying. was the

xiaomi

14 Ultra photography kit now this kit is essentially an extra case that you can also attach a grip to and on that grip you have more power but also a couple of extra buttons like a shutter button, this really changes what the phone is about more point and shoot and the whole ergonomics of using the device changes, so for the next section of the video I was interested in going to a busier section of London, walking down Oxford Street and treating this phone as if it were a normal camera.

If you were trying to do more run and gun street photography, let's see how it goes, so we're in a millisecond with auto ISO auto aperture on the main wide angle lens, which is 23 mil, it feels like a point and shoot. the grip feels like you're not using a phone, it feels like you know it, it feels different, it feels great, the dog with a nap, right, hey, hey, hey, okay, let's dive into some thoughts on the 14 Ultra now, right off the bat, is fantastic. Did everything I wanted, responded well, images look great. I have no complaints, which I would probably say about most new phones you decide to buy.

I don't think anyone will sit here on YouTube and tell you that. that a1200b phone, no matter whose it is, will have a crappy camera. I think they will all be quite good, but the experience of using it and the capture capacity of a device is very important and by capture capacity I mean. I really want to use it to take photos now, whether it's a dedicated camera or just the camera you have in your pocket. I think having fun with it is the first most important point nowadays if you are a new

photographer

or you are interested in taking photos and you don't have a camera yet but you have a phone like this or you are interested in getting a phone like this, it is strange for I would say this, but as a photographer, if you are not willing to spend more than the price of this phone, then I would simply buy the phone and use it for your photographs, which brings me to the reason that in this camera app there is the pr mode which allows you to change the aperture which allows you to change the shutter speed and white balance, all of which is fantastic practice for photographers interested in developing their skills and knowledge base and then spending a little more money later and buy a camera even if you didn't buy one.

Being able to fully customize your settings and modify settings to your photo-taking preferences is great, and coming from a professional photographer, this phone was really easy, really simple, and really fun to use all day long. Something I enjoyed using this camera was the lie. profiles so that the truer and more vibrant color profiles that you can choose from when you're shooting a lot of mobile phones, in my opinion, look too sharp and a bit clinical, so it was nice to see some profiles that provide a bit of character. and a subtle look at your images. I really liked the authentic look and most of the images in this video were taken straight out of the camera with that profile and some of them were also taken with a vibrant look so I think that's a nice touch, let's quickly touch on the kit Photography.

Now, this is an extra that you have to pay for, but it was really fun to have this grip on the phone when I was doing more gun style street photography, just shooting here, there and everywhere. finding little moments like you would with street photography holding this and having a shutter button didn't feel like I was using a phone and it felt like point and shoot, felt like it was easy to capture moments, responded quickly when closing Feels good to press the button and if I'm totally honest I thought I'd use this with a phone. You know, you might as well use the phone as is.

I didn't think there would be much difference, but yeah, I forgot I was holding it. At one point I picked up a phone and I was walking down Oxus Street in London, yeah, shooting and I was actually very impressed with this. It's a nice touch and there's battery here too so using the cameras all day for photography is the The battery will run a lot faster that's obvious but if it also charges you'll get a little boost from using the grp and then also It was very helpful or easy to just take it off, put it back in my bag and then continue.

Using the phone like a normal phone, so again it was quite nice at the beginning of this video. I made fun of the Leica logo a bit, but on a more serious note, what does it mean for this xiaomi 14 Ultra? Interestingly, the phone's camera actually wears a summery look. lenses, which means you get the best possible hardware within such a small camera system, but this also means you get a better experience with a similar user interface, such as the shutter sound, and also co-engineering the fit of color, as I mentioned that more authentic and vibrant profiles look great.

I can really see and feel how Leica has left its mark on this device and from a photographer's perspective I can easily recommend this phone to anyone who wants a mobile phone that also takes great images. I would always recommend people buy a camera if they want to take it a little more seriously and are interested in taking their photography to a new level, but until then using a camera phone like this is a smart idea.