Xiaomi has just announced a brand new Camera under the Yi brand name. The latest Yi M1 is a high-end mirrorless camera featuring the Sony IMX 269 sensor. The compact camera supports 4K video recording and comes in two color choices namely Silver and Matte Black. Yi, also known as XiaoYi will begin selling the camera in China from September 23 with a starting price of 2199 Yuan or about Rs. 22,068 or $330.
Earlier: Xiaomi Yi 4K Action Camera
The newest camera is launched by YI (Young Inventors), a daughter company of Xiaomi. The YI M1 mirrorless camera is built with the top of the line 20.16 MP Sony IMX 269 sensor. The camera can shoot up to 50 MP resolution photos and 4K videos at 30 frames per second. It natively supports RAW image capturing and can shoot photographs with up to 25,600 ISO.
Speaking about the focusing technique, the YI M1 uses Contrast Detection Auto Focus and supports as many as 81 focus points. The camera features single as well as continuous autofocusing, and you can either use touch to focus or the manual mechanism. The newest mirrorless camera comes with an inbuilt 3-inch touch screen with 720 x 480 resolution.
Xiaomi has equipped the YI M1 with a broad range of exposure controls. There is an electronically controlled mechanical shutter in the camera. The wide range of exposure modes includes auto-programmed, automatic, shutter speed priority, aperture priority and also has the option for manual adjustments. The camera can shoot HDR (High Dynamic Range) photographs.
In YI M1 sports pretty rich video recording capabilities. It can shoot 4K (3840 x 2160) and 2K (2048 x 1536) videos at 30 fps, and Full HD (1080p) and HD (720p) videos at up to 60 fps. The camera even supports slow motion 640 x 480 video recording at 240 fps. Audio of is recorded in stereo format. The camera can take in up to 512 GB SD cards.
Coming to connectivity, the mirrorless camera has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro HDMI and USB 2.0. The camera can also be controlled remotely through a smart device. Xiaomi or XiaoYi claims to have made the user interface of the camera really simple, and even an amateur can get hold of it.
The interchangeable lens supported camera has two different lens kits. The 12 – 40 mm lens comes with an aperture size of f/3.5. The other is a macro lens with 42.5 focal length and f/1.8 aperture. While the former supports both Auto and Manual Focus, the macro lens only supports Auto Focus.
The Xiaomi Yi M1 mirror-less camera will be sold in two retail packages. One will come with the standard 12 – 40 mm lens kit and shall be priced at 2199 Yuan ($330 or Rs. 22,068 approximately). Another will include both the standard and the macro lens and will be sold for 2999 Yuan ($450 / Rs. 30,097 approx.). As of now, the YI M1 will be sold only in China through JD.com, and there is no date about the USA launch.
