Develop Bugs

Xiaomi mi6 optical zoom is actually digital?

Hello guys,
Ive been playing with my mi6 for a while and noticed a strange thing. Photos captured at 2x look actually more like a digital zoom than an optical, even though the resolution is the same as 1x. When you actually cover the left camera lens, the picture is still normal. No matter if you choose 1x or 2x.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

You can explicitly set the lens on manual mode.

marinespl said:
You can explicitly set the lens on manual mode.
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Thanks, you da real MVP!

Where can you change that? Still on MIUI8.

it does that in low light shots, cause the tele lens is so bad at low light that it prefers to shot in main camera and zoom it in.
sources : miui forum? red it when i bought it

ZackoFF96 said:
it does that in low light shots, cause the tele lens is so bad at low light that it prefers to shot in main camera and zoom it in.
sources : miui forum? red it when i bought it
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That's right, the telephoto sensor has 1.00µm pixel size at f/2.6 aperture, while the main sensor has 1.25µm pixel size at f/1.8 aperture.

Fake rear second camera?

Daisy should have second rear 5MPx camera but I dont think that is even used, it feels like just a hole. Doesnt help for bokeh, in low ligh, for zooming. If I covered it image was the same. Anyone knows when this camera take any effect?

same problem, bad front camera experience

itsaazim said:
same problem, bad front camera experience
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next time please read post before you write some unrelated text

I think so too

It is definitely not fake.
You can test by going to dialer and typing *#*#64663#*#*
In that test mode you can test each camera lens ( finger over lens) and that will verify both cams do in fact "work"
Not saying the software actually uses both, but the cams are in fact real

hossman said:
It is definitely not fake.
You can test by going to dialer and typing *#*#64663#*#*
In that test mode you can test each camera lens ( finger over lens) and that will verify both cams do in fact "work"
Not saying the software actually uses both, but the cams are in fact real
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Im not so sure in my case:laugh::laugh::laugh:
edit:same for dual back camera

With the stock camera app, it does work correctly. Perhaps you should contact warranty...

The portrait mode that focus only on what is close must be a proof that the second camera works, right?

If you cover the second camera in potrait mode in stock cam app, you will see that it is not working properly anymore

the 2nd camera only there to enhance DOF information
not to actually take a picture.
front camera is also able to fake the DOF but its slower and not so accurate when compared to the rear camera

hossman said:
It is definitely not fake.
You can test by going to dialer and typing *#*#64663#*#*
In that test mode you can test each camera lens ( finger over lens) and that will verify both cams do in fact "work"
Not saying the software actually uses both, but the cams are in fact real
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works for me! Thanks. I don't know why others doubt their smartphones

i also use this model and i think that secondary dual cam is just for show off it does not do any thing. its a mimic only for branding purpose.

So many people have no idea what they bought.
The first sensor is a 12MPx Sony sensor (bottom one) that captures standard photos, in focus.
The second sensor is a 5MPx Samsung sensor (top one) that analyzes the whole frame and returns RAW depth data for the camera app to process, to bring a better blur effect for the portrait mode.
This is a bonus to the classic software portrait mode, it helps. It's not useless, and it's not for show off.
The fact that it doesn't work as good in dark environment is because the Samsung sensor is cheap and can't give enough data in darkness.
Now, let's see when both cameras work at the same time (not applicable on this device):
- when the secondary sensor is black and white, this helps the pictures get more dynamic range
- when the secondary sensor is the same as the other sensor, this is used for 3D imaging (chech HTC 3D)
Now when 2 modules work independently and can be switched via software:
- when the main lens are normal and the other lens are wide lens
- when the main lens are normal and the other lens are zoom lens
Now, our device doesn't fit in either of the above categories and the best way to use the Portrait mode is to use a ToF sensor, but baring in mind the price of our device the ToF sensor was replaced with a standard, low quality camera sensor from Samsung.

Macro lens

So, the macro mode apparently uses a motor to move the ultrawide lens slightly to change the focus. If you cover up the main camera or the telephoto, macro still works. However, when turning on and off macro, if you look at the main camera, it moves slightly, while the ultrawide doesn't appear to move. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

tzzeri said:
So, the macro mode apparently uses a motor to move the ultrawide lens slightly to change the focus. If you cover up the main camera or the telephoto, macro still works. However, when turning on and off macro, if you look at the main camera, it moves slightly, while the ultrawide doesn't appear to move. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
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The main lens moves because it turns off the stabilizer at the time of switching modes. The ultra-wide lens also moves slightly when you turn on the macro mode.

Sam998 said:
The main lens moves because it turns off the stabilizer at the time of switching modes. The ultra-wide lens also moves slightly when you turn on the macro mode.
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Thanks. This is the first time I've had a phone with OIS, so I never realised it actually moves the lens. Just realised now that the lens also moves every time the camera is opened.

Question Photos flares.

I think Google should give a notice on foto flaring... Pixels has one of the worst flare effects...
What do you think about it?

Have you tried switching from wide angle to standard camera? (0.7x, 1, 2,4x zoom)

ocujos said:
Have you tried switching from wide angle to standard camera? (0.7x, 1, 2,4x zoom)
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Standard camera Flares

Light is reflecting off the lens. Since they probably don't make any ND filters, if you have some old sunglasses that aren't too dark, try placing the lens over the camera sensor. The lenses on my d-slr have coatings to help reduce it, along with the lens hood, but if you are shooting directly at bright light, it can still happen. When it does I just photoshop it out.
You can also try settings in manual mode (I use camera FV-5) to set the f/stop at a different setting to change the exposure.

p51d007 said:
Light is reflecting off the lens. Since they probably don't make any ND filters, if you have some old sunglasses that aren't too dark, try placing the lens over the camera sensor. The lenses on my d-slr have coatings to help reduce it, along with the lens hood, but if you are shooting directly at bright light, it can still happen. When it does I just photoshop it out.
You can also try settings in manual mode (I use camera FV-5) to set the f/stop at a different setting to change the exposure.
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Thanks for the tips... I already knew some of them... Google should do something deleting them using software... S21 ultra and s22 ultra have reflections of the lens too but don't have so annoying Flares..

It is more the light reflecting off the glass sheet that covers the whole of lens assembly than just lens flare, a cheap skin on it reduces it significantly. When using the night modes however it is difficult to stop simply because you are using multiple exposures and therefore stacking any flare on top of itself and multiplying the effect.
FWIW you cannot change the aperture, they are fixed and there is no diaphragm to open and close, hence the reason why you get really, really high shutter speeds when the light it good.
You will be able to alter the shutter speed though I'd have thought, it is an electronic shutter so it can pick any number it sees fit to limit the light coming to the sensor.

Question What is the zoom lens for?

Hi all. I am debating the switch from the regular 6 to the pro.
Looks I will be getting bigger higher refresh screen (pro) which is curved (con) and with worse battery life.
One thing that is not clear to me - is the zoom lens used in any other situations than when actively selecting it? For example - which of the lenses is being used when you select the portrait mode in the camera app? Is it using the telephoto lens to battle the fish eye effect?

monocay said:
Hi all. I am debating the switch from the regular 6 to the pro.
Looks I will be getting bigger higher refresh screen (pro) which is curved (con) and with worse battery life.
One thing that is not clear to me - is the zoom lens used in any other situations than when actively selecting it? For example - which of the lenses is being used when you select the portrait mode in the camera app? Is it using the telephoto lens to battle the fish eye effect?
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I have never gotten the telephoto lens to show up in gcam. Only the 50MP wide cam and the 12MP ultra wide cam. The 50 gives you zoom options but the 48MP telephoto never shows up

monocay said:
Hi all. I am debating the switch from the regular 6 to the pro.
Looks I will be getting bigger higher refresh screen (pro) which is curved (con) and with worse battery life.
One thing that is not clear to me - is the zoom lens used in any other situations than when actively selecting it? For example - which of the lenses is being used when you select the portrait mode in the camera app? Is it using the telephoto lens to battle the fish eye effect?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a 4x telephoto, which is a lot for portraits (so portraits are taken using main camera at 2x magnification).
No, it's not being used for enhancing ultrawide. I suppose it's also because if the same reason mentioned above (OnePlus uses it's 2x tele for this as well).
Telephoto is really only useful for zooming 4x and up all the way to 20x, when photos are still kinda useful (depending on a scenario), thanks to being a 50 MP sensor and some Google's AI magic.
I take a lot of zoomed pictures and I don't mind curved display. Battery is okay, 6 hours of SOT are real for me, usually on social networks and news scrolling. Sometimes I play a League of Legends, than it will drop to 4-5 hours.

Zoom lens is for... zooming in. I would think that would be self-explanatory?
It kicks in when the magnification reaches about 4.5x. Switching between sensors is exclusively a matter of changing the magnification level, not by "selecting" a particular camera. There are other details considered before switching sensors, such as exposure requirements.
You can tell which sensor is in use by briefly blocking sensors with your finger. When you see your finger on the screen, you found the sensor that is in use.

Yeah, thanks
What was not clear to me was if it is being used when shooting portrait photos, as some phones (e.g. Oneplus) do.
Looks like this is not the case.
I will stick with my vanilla 6 then, not missing out on much, subjectively.

monocay said:
Yeah, thanks
What was not clear to me was if it is being used when shooting portrait photos, as some phones (e.g. Oneplus) do.
Looks like this is not the case.
I will stick with my vanilla 6 then, not missing out on much, subjectively.
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Portrait photos can be made with ANY lens, depending on the distance and direction to the subject(s).

96carboard said:
Portrait photos can be made with ANY lens, depending on the distance and direction to the subject(s).
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Is it so? How does the portrait UI looks on Pixel 6 Pro? On the vanilla pixel I have the options to shoot it in 1x and 2x only. Does the pro version offer a higher magnification, using the zoom lens instead of main one?

monocay said:
Is it so? How does the portrait UI looks on Pixel 6 Pro? On the vanilla pixel I have the options to shoot it in 1x and 2x only. Does the pro version offer a higher magnification, using the zoom lens instead of main one?
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No. 1x and 2x are the only options available. The telephoto lens isn't used in portrait mode.