Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Xiaomi Smart Factory located in Beijing China. In addition to being able to see the manufacturing process of smart devices, Xiaomi also provided a little explanation about their latest device that has been launched globally, namely the Xiaomi 17 series but more focused on the performance of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra camera. In addition, there was a question and answer session with the engineers behind the Xiaomi 17 Ultra camera technology and here are some questions that were asked.
Question – Xiaomi used to use variable aperture technology in the Ultra model camera system, but now it has been replaced with mechanical continuous optical zoom technology, is this variable aperture technology no longer relevant to use and is more suitable to be replaced with zoom capabilities?
Answer – Variable aperture technology is indeed very impressive and we are actually still evaluating whether to use it in the future but for now we think that mechanical continuous optical zoom technology is the best for users and can guarantee better image quality. We also take opinions from users and media partners to continue to evaluate what is better in the future. Therefore, we have not completely abandoned variable aperture technology.
Question – What are the challenges faced in realizing this mechanical continuous optical zoom technology on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra?
Answer – The challenge in putting this zoom technology is that we need to sacrifice an additional telephoto lens that was on the previous model to accommodate the components suitable for the mechanical zoom.
In addition, we need to ensure that all focal lengths from 75mm to 100mm can function properly. It is quite complex because we need to ensure that each focal length can provide the same focus accuracy for each distance.
Then, because there are moving components in the camera module, it poses some challenges to the assembly of the components themselves and requires high precision to get the desired results. However, we managed to overcome all of that and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra was born.
Question – How can LOFIC HDR technology achieve a better Dynamic Range level than before?
Answer – Compared to previous HDR technology, it has several issues. For example, Multi Frame HDR has motion blur and ghosting problems because it takes many pictures and processes them into one.
Dual Gain Conversion (DCG) technology cannot control too much light and can cause overexposure and make it difficult to get the right highlights in the picture.
With LOFIC HDR combined with a 1-inch sensor, we added an extra capacitor in the sensor to control excess light to get better Dynamic Range quality. Imagine the light source is like rain that is held by the sensor as a small bucket when it is full it will overflow and cause overexposure. So with LOFIC HDR, we put a large bucket which is an additional capacitor next to the small bucket to prevent water from overflowing and solve the overexposure problem.
So, that's a little bit about the technology behind the Xiaomi 17 Ultra camera capabilities. It can be said that it is more sophisticated and can make it easier for casual and professional users to record high-quality pictures.
