After being voted the best camera smartphone of the year, the Mi 12S Ultra is making headlines again. Xiaomi presented the Mi 12S Ultra concept with a second 1-inch sensor and a Leica M lens, and the manufacturer wanted to showcase the possibilities offered by a partnership with Leica.
- This Mi 12S Ultra concept car can be turned into an SLR camera
- Concept smartphone with second 1-inch image sensor
Mi 12S Ultra Concept: Improved camera module with Leica M lens
Xiaomi shows off its partnership with Leica in this 12S Ultra concept / © Xiaomi / Leica.
Before you start looking for where to buy, know that the Mi 12S Ultra with Leica M lens is just a concept. Therefore, Xiaomi just wants to show what it is capable of. On the Sina Weibo social network, the Chinese manufacturer showed a prototype of the revised Mi 12S Ultra along with test photos.
In your opinion, the Mi 12S Ultra is already the best camera smartphone of 2022. Our DXOMARK colleagues thought otherwise and crowned the Mate 50 Pro, but Huawei’s latest flagship didn’t take part in our blind test. In contrast, according to Xiaomi, the Mi 12S Ultra Concept produced at the same time as the known production model has no chance. It has a second 1-inch Sony IMX989 image sensor in place of its telephoto lens.
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The camera module is protected by a sapphire crystal and a Leica M lens. For the test photos, Xiaomi used a 5000 Euro Leica Summilux-M with a focal length of 35mm and an aperture of f/1.4. For those wondering how to mount a lens on a smartphone, the Mi 12S Ultra has a specially reinforced frame.
The first test photos are promising
Xiaomi also posted the first test photos on its Weibo account, which are really impressive, as you can see in the image below. The advantage of this concept is that the Leica M lenses are already very compact right from the start. Still, a rather large adapter ring is required, as the distance between the Leica lens and the Sony image sensor must be exactly 2.78 cm.
Also, the Mi 12S Ultra’s 1-inch sensor isn’t comparable to the full-frame Leica M. So only a fraction of the Leica M lenses can be used, but the shooting ring of the expensive lens shows where smartphone photography can go.
© Xiaomi/Leica
© Xiaomi/Leica
© Xiaomi/Leica
© Xiaomi/Leica
What do you think of this Mi 12S Ultra concept? Are you ready to buy such a smartphone?
