Xiaomi Mi5s (128/4gb, Black): German Review And Photography

[Binnox]

Maybe there are some potential buyers from Germany who came here to find information about the Mi5s - so I'd like to share my review with you guys:

http://testberichte.kuefeldt.de/xiaomi-mi5s-smartphone-deep-gray-black-schwarz

I included some (winter) photography from the last month, too - so it may be helpful for people from different countries as well.

If I share pictures from the Mi5s camera on Instagram/Fb I usually edit them with Lightroom mobile.

My conclusion:
The Mi5s is a very high quality device with some flaws (fingerprint reader, pre installed camera app, some kind of wobbly side buttons) that's mostly interesting for tech loving persons with a little knowledge of alternative ROMs.
The Mi5 may be an interesting device, as well - if you'd like to have a slightly better fp reader and can go without the most current camera sensor.

 

[ceb1979]

Hello,

Thanks for the review. It's interesting.

Do you have taken these pictures with the pre installed camera app ? Or with another one ? If yes, which one ?

 

[Binnox]

Thanks a lot!

Do you have taken these pictures with the pre installed camera app ?

Yes these pictures are taken with the preinstalled camera app. If there are two similar photos the first one is the "normal" one and the second one with HDR mode.

Besides its flaws (raw mode) I like the fast exposure compensation of the stock app (tap to focus -> slide up/down for brightness -> tap the same spot to take the picture).

If I use different apps it's usually for taking raw photos while controlling all aspects manually.
For that I use the app "manual camera".
A free app would be "Lightroom mobile" - but it's a bit slow.
There are several other free ones but I only tried the mentioned programs.

 

[Stoik]

I use mostly at night/lowlight the manual mode on stock camera for best results.

Sample Photo is only downsized and bottom right 100% crops.

 

[ocaml]

You guys really live in beautiful places . The sad thing is that the minimal iso can only be 100, while in my previous phone (xperia Z1) and mostly other phones, that can be 50.

 

[Binnox]

I wouldn't say that ISO100 is a bad thing. All my current and last DSLRs have ISO100 at the lowest - and the Mi5s' noise is not that remarkable at that base ISO.
I don't see any disadvantage at this point.
But it's true that the noise is a bit exaggerating at high ISO levels.

-

Yep, Germany has some nice places.
But I'm sure your country has them as well ;-)

 

[ocaml]

yeah I heard that DSLRs have iso at lowest 100, but for most camera phones it's usually 50. There was a saying that iso 50 was achieved by -1 exposure or anyway by a software implementation. If so I hope that we can have it or I can know how to simulate this with special settings.

By the way, I notice that the preview in the manual mode never changes while I changing the iso and shutter speed. It always changes in my other phones and in 3rd party apps . It's extremely lag while setting to 1/3 s shutter though, this might be the reason. I wonder if this is due to the large signal data from sensor, or bad software. I tried RedMi, which has standard sensor, but the manual mode is the same( I should try another camera app, but this is going to be like research ). My friend said that this is how DSLR works (the preview won't tell you how dark/light if you change the shutter speed). I don't know because I don't own a DSLR.

Mi 5s is amazing because of the 1.55 sensor size. I heard that with a lower iso, the difference in size can be compensated. This means a phone with slightly worse sensor, but a larger aperture, and OIS, may have adequate performance. Just a guessing for this, I'm not professional.

We may have beautiful places, but Stoik really took very clean photo (I mean noise free). The streets in German remind me of the time in Span 2 years ago, you have lights and decorations across the street

 

[Stoik]

Here is other test sample, bottom photo is 100% crop from top 50% downsized photo, have used a tripod and manual mode ISO 200/4sec and set manual fotos to 90%.

Same was with my old Mi4, lowlight photos with auto are blury and manual mode shots better photos.

 

[Stoik]

Other interesting camera app works since last week update on mi5s, its bacon camera she can shot bayer raw photos and we can disable denoise under middle hamburger button, top on screen -> pic tune -> wavelet denoise.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fgnm.baconcamera&hl=de

 

[ocaml]

Other interesting camera app works since last week update on mi5s, its bacon camera she can shot bayer raw photos and we can disable denoise under middle hamburger button, top on screen -> pic tune -> wavelet denoise.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fgnm.baconcamera&hl=de

I tried this long time ago when I installed like 5,6 camera apps. I couldn't remember the reason why I gave up. It was good, but I tried to keep only one app at last. It says no API2, I wonder if some features will be affected. I thought Raw photos already have denoise disabled?

Now I use snap camera, which supports all the features.

I also tried Freedcam which supports EIS on Mi 5s/plus on API1, but it crashed a lot.

I wonder if you think it's normal that the preview of manual mode never changes with stock camera and get lag with 3rd apps when slow shutter speed is used(like 1/3 s)?

 

[Stoik]

Under certain light conditions will use i bacan camera for fast shots, but most the stock in manual mode. The stock camera is great, but he made a enrollment period in manual mode to give the best photography results.

 

[Stoik]

Today, i have a good scene with lowlight and manual mode, iso200 and 1/2sec exposure time. using a junction box to keep my phone still.

Downsized 50% and bottom crops 100%.

 

[xtreme-mi]

Great shot. By "junction box" - do you mean a tripod?

 

[Stoik]

Oh wrong translation, i meen powerbox to hold phone still with my hands. tripod its better, but i forget him.