Out of Camera: the Xiaomi 14 Ultra at the Paris Olympics

A new Multicore series

Today I’m starting a new weekly series on Multicore called Out of Camera. The idea is that it’ll serve both as a way for me to share my photography and to show how various cameras perform in the real world.

I test so many cameras and phones, often directly against each other, that it can be hard for me to get into the mindset of using them normally for actual photography. With each Out of Camera entry, I’ll take one camera along for a single event, location or trip and see what I can come up with.

These posts will pretty much be pure photo essays with minimal explanation unless something really warrants it. I’ll describe what I was using up front then let you know what I think at the end after you’ve seen the photos for yourself and made up your own mind.

I’m using a previous trip for this first entry, but it was very much in the spirit of what I’m planning to do with the series. Last August I went to Paris for the Olympic Games and I shot with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with its Photography Kit grip the whole way.

I’ve been using Xiaomi’s Ultra phones as my go-to compact cameras for a while, but I knew this event would be a big test for the 14 Ultra. At the same time, I had pretty high expectations and didn’t want to regret not bringing a dedicated camera along on such a one-off trip.

Here’s the hardware I was working with:

• 23mm-equivalent lens with 50-megapixel 1” sensor and f/1.6-4 variable aperture

• 75mm 3.2x telephoto lens with 50-megapixel 1/2.51” sensor and f/1.8 aperture

• 120mm 5x periscope telephoto lens with 50-megapixel 1/2.51” sensor and f/2.5 aperture

• 12mm ultrawide lens with 50-megapixel 1/2.51” sensor and f/1.8 aperture

As always, none of these images have been edited in any way beyond occasional straightening and cropping. In this case, I used Xiaomi’s default Leica Authentic mode for almost every shot. They’re all straight… out of camera.

Okay, Paris, let’s do this.

Overall, I would say the Xiaomi 14 Ultra did pretty well here, and I’m glad I brought it along instead of a mirrorless setup or any other phone. These don’t look like typical smartphone photos to me — they’re more like what I’d get out of something like a Sony RX100 after spending a bunch of time editing RAW files.

The colour reproduction in Leica Authentic mode is generally attractive and consistent, at least to my eyes, though it can be tripped up under complicated lighting conditions. The pool in the water polo games often appeared to be different shades of blue, for example. And while I generally appreciate the 14 Ultra’s willingness to blow out highlights and keep shadows dark, I did find that sometimes it’d give you unexpected results like an overly bright volleyball court.

The biggest challenge here, unsurprisingly, was telephoto. While we got pretty lucky with some of our seats, there’s a reason most photographers on the field use 70-200mm zooms. The 14 Ultra’s 120mm-equivalent 5x lens is solid in daylight situations, like the beach volleyball games, but the 3.2x 75mm was a lot more usable for the indoor events.

Even though the two cameras use the same sensor, the 3.2x is almost a stop faster, meaning it takes in nearly twice as much light and, all things being equal, can use twice as fast the shutter speed for the same exposure. The tradeoff, of course, is that you’re getting much less reach. I’d often use the Pro mode to dial in a faster shutter speed on the 5x and live with the increased noise, though that’s not the best option when sharing unedited photos.

I do wish I’d had the just-announced 15 Ultra for these Olympics, because its biggest upgrade is the zoom setup. There’s a 3x f/1.8 lens with the same sensor as before, and a new 4.3x f/2.6 telephoto with a gigantic 1/1.4" 200-megapixel sensor; my early results have been extremely promising.

That one will have to wait for a future Out of Camera. For now, thanks for reading.