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Asked: 2025-04-25T19:32:15+00:00 In:

15U Vs Full frame Thoughts

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So I recently went on a holiday to Japan and Korea with my 15U and a Lumix S9 full frame camera with an 18-40 lenses on it. I’m not much of a photographer so in the main shoot auto but played with aspect ratio and luts on the camera, and with exposure mainly on the Xiaomi.

So to be clear I’m not going to claim the Xiaomi is “as good” as the S9, but having taken loads of photos with both and then sorted into a holiday album and looking at everything on the phone, a tablet and a 55 inch 4k screen (though disclaimer TV not pro monitor) to my eyes and from my experience the camera doesn’t…. Add much. Reason being:

1. Phone is smaller, fits in a pocket and has usable images up to at least 10x and maybe even more like 17x on the 15u (at a push). Whereas witj the 18-40 on the full frame the usable crop runs out at 100mm ISH so right at a none cropped zoom off the phone. Of course you could carry bigger camera lens but…

2. The camera was a pain to carry round, the phone wasn’t

3. Generally the detail in the images was comparable on both

4. At night the phone was better as the software can manage exposure better (given it was bright neon signs in a night environment so difficult to expose for)

I would say the wins from the camera were:

1. It has some aspect ratios like 65:24 that looks amazing in some scenes (even though it’s a crop)

2. It’s high Res mode is more consistent than the phone. Exposure and colours goes all over the place when using HD (50 and 200mp) on the 15U.

3. It has more consistent colours full stop. It handles highlights and vivids better than the phone too

4. Whilst not great at night – it’s dusk / sunset shots were very strong.

I will try and do a post sharing some images of each but I thought I was interesting to give some real world views / feedback of my thoughts.

Overall – the camera is sitting in a cupboard except for special occasions, the phone can handle most everything.

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19 Answers

  1. SpiritBombv2

    Could you please post some pictures here maybe in comment section, some of your best shots from 15U?

  2. SpiritBombv2

    https://preview.redd.it/bejkyszwozwe1.jpeg?width=6144&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=342bda71ae99e79dc33aee9af0c7af5158d7c2fe

    This is one of the favorite shots I have taken with my Xiaomi 15 Ultra from last two weeks.

  3. Original_Shegypt

    I love the 15 ultra but saying details comparable is far from the truth specially at night even APSC can beat easily.

    And about the exposure I don’t know what camera do you have because even this area Xiaomi isn’t the greatest but we all know that a camera specially a pro one isn’t desiend to point and shoot however it gives you the ability to make the photo like you want but even with that doesn’t make 15 ultra better at night.

  4. Original_Shegypt

    I love the 15 ultra but saying details comparable is far from the truth specially at night even APSC can beat easily.

    And about the exposure I don’t know what camera do you have because even this area Xiaomi isn’t the greatest but we all know that a camera specially a pro one isn’t desiend to point and shoot however it gives you the ability to make the photo like you want but even with that doesn’t make 15 ultra better at night.

  5. DaveG28

    Sigh. Ok was I not clear enough that this was about my experience with it? But of course you know my experience better than me.

    Anyway – what is sadi was the screen I had compared them on, on those sorry but actually no the details aren’t noticeably different. The camera exposure is what happens when you are wanting to see video screen, neon lights *and* the dark streets too – exactly the type of thing night mode does ok mobiles but which isn’t on cameras. Yes I’m sure I could have set up the camera exposure to do one of those things or even more maybe lower it then edit the crap out of it in post.

    Or, you know, I can just get the picture out of my camera.

    Anyway – of you want to show your experiences – go ahead – but you don’t get to decide what *my* experience was.

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  14. DaveG28

    I’ve added some samples in replies of comparison shots between the two highlighting some of the points in the original post.

  15. DaveG28

    Love that!

  16. Top-Veterinarian-565

    I have the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and it has completely replaced my Canon DSLR. Far more convenient for street and travel photography and the best all-round for catching both photos and videos that are in the moment.

    I’ve been trying to resist upgrading to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra but seeing these pictures make me want to…

  17. CallMeMrRaider

    I am a Xiaomi 15U user. I absolutely love the camera module, the photographic capability is several notches better than my old Pixel 7 Pro, cannot wait to see what Xiaomi / Vivo comes up with in future.

    But it is not about to replace my Sony A1/A9 during photographic trips.

    If you are referring to technical image quality, well taken photos on 1 inch sensor between 15U and full frame is still discernible on larger displays ( I work with a 43″ 4k monitor ) , the differences for the smaller sensor module is visible in 2k 27″ monitor. But for daily sharing on small phone display estate sizes 15U is competent.

    The only thing 15 Ultra definitely replaces will be small sensor point and shoots, or if you are using ur mirrorless as a point and then smartphone computation processing will provide better straight out of camera pictures.

    https://preview.redd.it/b4gwjmvhf3xe1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a18e155eb8423b9f25e6eaa542104dccb71515e7

    End of the day if you are looking for straight out of camera convenience , smartphones in general do better since computation processing is taken care of backend.

    Dedicated camera systems require user to take care of that processing.

    As to how much you value the convenience over the quality is subjective and personal, again I am pretty happy with 15 Ultra for daily stuffs.

  18. CallMeMrRaider

    https://preview.redd.it/i2ymtzpph3xe1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b98f1877ce0b44ec309e20c1a8b45c52690b8590

    Macro uses smaller sensor, technical controls are still lacking, image quality takes a hit but for the sheer convenience for phone level sharing the flexibility and tradeoff may be hard to beat but again depends on where you draw the line and your target audience.

  19. DaveG28

    Yeah and that was all I was doing – my experience. Lugging the S9 around wasn’t, for me, worth the very minimal difference in quality for where I’m going to then show the images (4k TVs, tablets and phones).