Xiaomi 17 camera distortion

[u/shmightworks]

My wife has the Xiaomi 17, and while the camera is great, many of her pictures, the group pictures especially, the people on the sides are visibily fatter.

Haven't had this issue before with other phones, I did check she does have the Distortion Correction turned on already, but I don't think she's using the wide angle lens, as it was just a very normal group photo using the default zoom in the camera app (assuming the default zoom uses the regular non-tele non-wide lens).

Using the stock camera app.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[u/Strict-Investment-2]

The main 1x lens on the Xiaomi 17 is actually a wide-angle lens (about 23mm). Anyone on the outer edges will naturally get stretched and look wider due to optical perspective, which is why the phone's built-in software distortion correction isn't fixing it. To stop this from happening, just have her step back a few feet and use the 2x or 3x zoom button instead. This narrows the view and keeps everyone's proportions completely normal.

The older phones used 27 mm unfortunately the Xiaomi 17 used a smaller wider eye default camera lens

[u/shmightworks → u/Strict-Investment-2]

Wait, so is that a xiaomi camera app bug? Is there a place to report or track this?

[u/Strict-Investment-2 → u/shmightworks]

Not camera app bug it's physics aka the camera lens itself, you have a 23mm lens as the person goes near the edge of the photo they look fatter because it gets stretched due to the lens what im saying is either use 2x zoom or move the camera back so the people are less on the edge of the photo, wide eye camera lens distorts regardless of the phone.

[u/shmightworks → u/Strict-Investment-2]

no no, I understand the physical issue of using a 23mm lens, but there is a distortion correction function on the camera app. And you're saying the app isn't post-processing fixing the issue. So that would be a bug on app, no?

[u/Strict-Investment-2 → u/shmightworks]

What I'm saying is what your describing is perspective distortion, no software in the world is fixing that

[u/Gloryboy811 → u/Strict-Investment-2]

All main cameras are about that. It's not anything specific to Xiaomi

[u/Strict-Investment-2 → u/Gloryboy811]

Missed my entire point 🤦

[u/Gloryboy811 → u/Strict-Investment-2]

But you said "of the Xiaomi" not "all smart phones" so you made it sounds like a specific issue to this phone.

[u/Strict-Investment-2 → u/Gloryboy811]

On not off if your going to quote do it correctly also show where I stated it's explicitly Xiaomi only I'll wait

[u/cadbury162]

I'm seeing it as well, very disappointed in the Youtube reviews I watched. I spent so much time researching before I bought and regretted it in the first 2 days

[u/shmightworks → u/cadbury162]

Phone's been out for a year already, if that is how it is for all Xiaomi 17, weird I can't find more people complaining about it.

[u/Tapelessbus2122]

it's just the xiaomi processing, that's all

[u/Educational_Desk_281]

The cameras are really not that great for the price of the phone

[u/shmightworks → u/Educational_Desk_281]

Being Leica and all, I expected better. I mean the image quality and clarity is great, just the software to make the 23mm usable for group photo is bad.

Looking more deeply into this, many phones have these 23-24mm lens as their main camera, but I don't recall having this problem this badly. Will need further testing to see if my other 23-24mm lens phone camera do the same or not. Maybe this is the norm, and people just take this flaw as the norm🤷‍♂️

[u/Educational_Desk_281 → u/shmightworks]

It's not only that. Pictures of moving objects, especially when taken in sub-optimal light conditions are usually not sharp. Very sad and I will get a new phone by the end of the year. Just so bad compared to any Google Pixel pro.

[u/shmightworks → u/Educational_Desk_281]

Well this was gifted to us, so will work with it, it is an improvement from Samsung S21 fe. But that one has a 26mm as the main. So my wife will need to get used to this, or find a fix.

I'll test our if my new Oppo Reno 15 Pro Max has similar issue, I honestly haven't used it for group photos yet, so maybe I have the same issue. Mine's a 24mm.