How does the basic Xiaomi 14 take photos? Strong during the day, strong at night – SMARTmania.cz

• Although the Xiaomi 14 is only the “basic” version of the flagship series, it definitely has a lot to offer
• The trio of 50 Mpx sensors offers excellent results day and night
• In general, he was very surprised by the wide-angle sensor, which excels not only during the day

Xiaomi 14, as a basic flagship model, will be among the bestsellers in the price segment of 20-25 thousand crowns. Of course, the excellent equipment in this price range must also include a camera that will satisfy users, whether they want to take photos during the day, at night, or just take selfies. We have already checked how the Xiaomi 14 performs in this regard in a comprehensive review – now we will take a closer look at which cameras you have the honor of.

Overview of cameras

On the back of the phone there is a square photo module, which hides a trio of cameras, dual LEDs for illumination and finally also a sensor for laser autofocus. The individual cameras look exactly like this:

• Main – OmniVision OVX900 “Light Hunter 900”, Leica cover, resolution 50.3 Mpx, 1/1.31″ chip size, aperture f/1.6, focal length 23 millimeters, optical image stabilization (OIS), laser focus (Laser AF)
• Telephoto lens – Samsung Isocell JN1, Leica cover, resolution 50 Mpx, chip size 1/2.76″, aperture f/2.0, focal length 75 millimeters, 3.2x optical zoom, up to 60x digital zoom, OIS
• Wide angle – Samsung Isocell JN1, Leica cover, resolution 50 Mpx, chip size 1/2.76″, aperture f/2.0, focal length 14 millimeters, angle of view 115°, electronic image stabilization
• Front – OmniVision OV32B, resolution 32 Mpx, aperture f/2.0, focal length 21 millimeters

The photo application is easy to use and relatively clear. In it, you can easily switch between photo modes (main, night, portrait, professional, video), while you can also edit the individual modes from the lower carousel and add only the ones you use to your hand. Under the item More, you will also find other, less well-known options, such as a supermoon or taking photos in full 50 Mpx resolution.

Main camera at night and day

The main camera delivers the expected flagship-level quality during the day. It can maintain both sharpness, fine details, wide dynamic range, accurate color reproduction and consistent performance both outdoors and indoors.

Tip: all test images in full resolution can be found here.

Thanks to the cooperation with the German photo master Leica, Xiaomi can once again offer switching of individual color modes: Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant. There have been practically no changes here compared to previous generations – the Vibrant mode artificially increases color saturation, but in a certain constellation, it can result in very artistic images. However, I stuck with Authentic mode for the rest of the testing.

At night, the novelty makes a good name for its sensor, which it calls “Light Hunter” or “Light Fusion”. In most cases, you will get very clean and sharp photos at night, and the processing of light on the sensor and the occasional work with shadows will also please you.

What is less pleasing are portraits at night. In such a case, the camera fails almost immediately, it cannot separate the foreground from the background at all, the image either blurs entirely or sharpens the whole. It’s a shame, because otherwise I have to praise the portraits beyond measure.

Zoom camera: 3.2x zoom

We are not talking about portraits by pure chance. In this particular case, we come across one of the rational uses of a zoom telephoto lens with 3.2x optical zoom. When taking portraits, you can bet on the basic 23mm focus thanks to the main camera or try the secondary sensor in the form of a telephoto lens and its zoom, which is then equal to a 60mm focal length.

However, the main use is zooming itself. A maximum of 3.2x optical zoom is available, the rest is provided by the chipset and is actually a cutout from the main camera. However, it must be recognized that at the maximum 60x zoom, practically nothing can be seen and it is not suitable for photography as such. But in the case of an emergency solution, such a solid zoom can come in handy.

And now a little surprise. Xiaomi also deployed a telephoto lens to work with macro photography. To be more specific – a wide-angle lens, or a directly dedicated macro sensor, usually takes care of this. In this case, I can only praise the quality of the images. It is also a nice advantage that you don’t have to put the camera a few centimeters away from the photographed object. However, the obligatory macro vs. we cannot supply optical zoom in this case.

Wide-angle camera: wow by day, surprise by night

The wide-angle sensor works extremely well during the day, the image is not distorted by a fisheye in any way, and there is no very visible noise or pixelation at the edges of the image. This is of course due to the high resolution, but also to the well-functioning electronic stabilization.

However, I was personally surprised by how well the Xiaomi 14 can handle wide-angle shots at night. Yes, in the interior with not quite natural lighting, the sharpness sometimes faltered and noise appeared, but otherwise the wide-angle sensor surprised. There is no overburning, saturation to yellow shades and the like. Big kudos to Xiaomi.

Selfie camera

I had a very pleasant feeling about the selfie camera during the entire testing and I must say that the quality is at a high level. However, I don’t feel that it somehow stands out above the price category: by default, it takes photos in full resolution of 32 Mpx, it can produce a very believable bokeh effect, and it also offers a whole range of typical Asian enhancers, such as various filters, digital skin toning and the like.

At night, you need to take into account the fact that the camera has nowhere to take light, so it doesn’t really know what is shadow and what is just darkness. The night selfies are therefore very flat, even though I have to remind you that they are again trying for a great bokeh effect. In any case, I recommend night selfie photos without portraits and with backlight directly in the application.