Details of the Cooperation with Leica | Xiaomi 12 Ultra First Look
Today’s morning, Xiaomi finally announced the news of its strategic imaging partnership with the world-renowned camera maker Leica this morning. Which caused a lot of buzz on the internet for a while.
Shortly after the news was issued, Leica’s CEO Matthias Harsch also released a message on the social media platform, saying that he was honored to reach a long-term strategic partnership with Xiaomi, which is unprecedented in-depth cooperation. He also emphasized that this is the first high-end flagship jointly developed by Leica and Xiaomi, which will bring a huge breakthrough in imaging.
In addition, in the camera, Xiaomi 12 Ultra is not stuck with a Leica Coke label, or then add a few Leica filters in the system and be done with it, but achieves the hardware and algorithm level of in-depth cooperation with Leica, so the machine will likely become this year’s annual image flagship after the release.
Xiaomi also shared a video about Xiaomi and Leica’s collaboration. In the video, Xiaomi 12 Ultra first look was also unveiled. The appearance is not much suspense. Officially, there are ultra-high resolution lens sets, new sensors, support for extremely high dynamic range and extreme noise control, and full link integration of hardware and software. Sounds very Dior, when the time comes to see how the real machine performs.
Many netizens have a lot of doubts, in response, Lei Jun also released a long article this afternoon to answer some questions and reveal details of the cooperation with Leica.
Below is Lei Jun’s complete article (translated)
This morning we announced: that Xiaomi and Leica have reached a strategic imaging partnership. Many friends in the photography industry congratulated me, and one photographer told me that the imaging circle is very excited and had many questions. There are many topics of interest, and I have selected a few to talk about.
- What kind of changes will this cooperation bring to mobile imaging?
This is a big topic, and the first jointly developed work will be released in July. Now, let me first give a small example: before a photographer friend told me that in the past few years, the phone has long been not a “sweeper”, the flagship products can also be clear and exquisite, but from the real creation, there is still a distance. For example, the night shot, from the past “a black” to now can shoot “bright”, is already huge progress. But to shoot the night scene as bright as the day, is it right? Is it right to have at least a “sense of night” for night scenes? When you see our latest work, you will understand our new direction of development.
- How deep is the cooperation with Leica?
It’s been 109 years since Leica was born, and its tone and aesthetic are considered to be the top benchmark in the imaging world. Some people say “other brands define the camera, Leica defines the image”, which may be a bit exaggerated, but it does fully reflect the profound accumulation of the century-old imaging legend.
We chose Leica not only because of their profound accumulation but also because of the depth of cooperation that we expected.
Unprecedented depth is the common feeling of Leica and us in this cooperation. From optics, imaging, image processing, experience, and the whole chain of smartphone imaging, this is a comprehensive integration of the imaging capabilities of both sides.
To achieve our common goal, Leica has sent a team of engineers to Beijing to work side by side with Xiaomi’s engineers, in addition to the collaboration between China and Germany.
- How is the cooperation progressing so far?
After a long period of in-depth joint research and development, our first product with Leica will finally be available to you in July this year. At present, the image performance of this work has exceeded the expectations of the engineers on both sides.
Recently, I entrusted our general manager of Xiaomi Western Europe, Owen, to lead our headquarters and a team of imaging experts in Europe to Leica Park, Leica’s headquarters in Germany, where the engineers in Germany and Beijing held a “final joint tuning kick-off meeting” to improve the performance. In the next month or so, the joint development team will be working hard to make the final fine-tuning.
- A new idea for me
Because of this collaboration, I am also learning more about photography and starting to pick up the camera again. In the early years, I also had a special interest in taking pictures and bought a lot of photographic equipment, as well as Leica cameras.
Now that I am back on the photography road, Leica has also sent experts to give me a customized photography training course. My colleagues joke with me that after being an IT digital blogger, I want to be a car blogger, and now I want to be a photography blogger? Do you have that much time? I said, of course, I can, time is all squeezed out. They asked me what I was going to shoot. I’m going to shoot cars! That way I can do the work of a car blogger while being a photography blogger.
Please feel free to leave me comments on what you expect from our collaboration and co-development work, as well as suggestions on how I can be a good image blogger. I believe that this July, our first collaborative work will make you feel that this is the “decisive moment to start a new era of mobile image”.
