Xiaomi Yi M1 - Is It Worth It?

Xiaomi Yi M1 Mirrorless Camera (taken from fonearena.com)

Dari pameran foto paling populer di Jerman, Photokina, kita disuguhi banyak kamera baru bulan ini. Sony mengeluarkan DSLR A99 II yang akhirnya menjawab dahaga para pemakai lensa A-Mount, Fuji melakukan langkah brilian dengan mengeluarkan kamera medium format Fuji GFX, dan meninggalkan format full frame sehingga tidak terasa overlapping dengan mirrorless Fuji X-seriesnya.

From Photokina 2016 we got a plethora of new toys to play with. Sony with the A99 II DSLR which answered the prayers of many A-mount lens die hards, Fuji that takes a leap over Full Frame to cross to Medium Format teritory with the Fuji GFX. Fuji moves for me is a brilliant one, since this eliminates the biggest concern that I've been cautioning people about. That someday Fuji might go Full Format 35mm and leaving all the Fuji X users in similar fate to Nikon DX users back before Nikon D3 was released in 2007.

Sony A99 II

Meski banyak produk dengan teknologi tinggi dan inovasi baru, kamera yang paling banyak mendapatkan atensi di sosial media adalah kamera dengan teknologi jadul dan tanpa inovasi baru, Xiaomi Yi M1. Kenapa banyak yang perhatian? karena produsen satu ini adalah market distruptor paling kuat di dunia.

Despite all the breakthrough and innovation, one product that garners the most chatter in my social media is Xiaomi Yi M1, a mirrorless camera without any new technologies inside it.

What's the fuss about then? Xiaomi is one company whose presence are always as a market disruptor, and they did a great job at it.

2014-2015 Smartphone marketshare China - Taken from www.marketrealist.net

Xiaomi, the Apple and Go Pro Alternatives

Sejak pertama muncul, Xiaomi memiliki strategi untuk mengekor market leader di sektor yang ingin dimasukinya, pertama dengan Handphone Xiaomi yang menyajikan specs tinggi dengan harga terjangkau. Ditambah lagi desain handset yang mirip dengan Iphone.

Korban kedua Xiaomi adalah Go Pro, produsen action camera terkemuka di USA yang produknya disaingi dengan specs setara dan harga yang jauh lebih murah, untuk specs sama saya pernah melihat harga Xiaomi hanya 1/2 dari Go Pro.

Xiaomi have always been a great follower, whose strategy is to mimic the market leader with a similar specs and design, but with a much lower price. Apple was the first company on their eye sight, followed by Go Pro, whose action camera market share are also gobbled up by Xiaomi Yi.

You can read in this link about Go Pro Hero vs Xiaomi Yi : http://www.newsshooter.com/2016/05/21/can-the-249-chinese-4k-yi-action-cam-beat-gopro-at-their-own-game/

Xiaomi M1 Pro & Cons

Key Specifications

• 20MP Four Thirds sensor
• 3" 1.04M-dot touchscreen LCD
• 81 Point Contrast Detect AF system rated to -4EV
• Touch to focus and one touch image capture
• 5fps continuous shooting
• 4K/30P video recording capability
• Built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE

Membaca dari first hand experience beberapa reviewer dan spesifikasi dasar, ada beberapa hal yang menjadi kelemahan Xiaomi Yi, beberapa di antaranya : 

• Tidak adanya View Finder / Jendela Bidik
• Tidak ada built in Flash
• Tidak ada Zoom in di Live Preview / Focus Magnifier
• Minimnya tombol (fitur-fitur diakses melalui menu di LCD touchscreen)
• Micro 4/3 CMOS sensor (bukan APS-c)

Yang perlu saya jelaskan mungkin point 3 tentang focus magnifier. Biasanya kamera mirrorless tidak terlalu cepat dalam focus, jadi dalam kondisi cahaya tidak optimal, saya suka menggunakan focus manual. Untuk memastikan focus manual tepat, perlu fitur focus magnifier, yaitu saat live preview / tampilan gambar langsung di LCD / EVF, saya bisa zoom in untuk memperbesar tampilan live preview dan memastikan apakah titik yang saya bidik sudah terfokus dengan baik

Berikut Video tentang proses focus tersebut : 

Reading About the Xiaomi M1 first impressions and it's chart, there are some features that is lacking on the camera, here are some of them :

• No Optical / Electronic Viewfinder
• No Built in Flash
• Can't Zoom in in Live Preview / Focus Magnifier mode not available
• Very few physical buttons (you access the features from the LCD Touch Screen menu)
• Micro 4/3 CMOS sensor instead of APS-c

Above, you can watch the video of focus magnifier process in case you're not familiar with it.

Xiaomi Yi M1 with 42.5mm f/1.8 lens and 12-24mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

The Xiaomi M1 Competitors?

Untuk harga sekitar Rp 4.400.000 dengan lensa kit 12-40mm f3.5-5.6 , kebanyakan kamera mirrorless generasi terbaru masih lebih mahal, jadi kompetitor utamanya mungkin dengan kamera generasi terdahulu seperti Olympus EPL6, Panasonic GF7, Sony A5000 dan Canon EOS M3, dan sebagian besarnya masih lebih mahal juga dibandingkan M1. 

Walaupun demikian kamera dari produsen kawakan tersebut memiliki flash built in (sebagian memiliki sensor lebih besar) dan fitur-fitur lengkap serta desainnya lebih memperhatikan kebutuhan fotografer yang perlu banyak tombol yang ergonomis.

(dual kit lens 12-40mm & 42,5mm f1.8 = $450)

On the price level of $330 or about Rp 4.400.000 with 12-40mm f3.5-5.6 lens kit, all new entry level mirrorless seems a tad more expensive, so the other camera that competes on that price level are the previous generations camera, such as Olympus EPL6, Panasonic GF7, Sony A5000 and Canon EOS M3, and some of them are still much more expensive compared to M1.

Despite that, the other cameras have built in flash (some have bigger sensors) and a great features, none of them took the spartan design that M1 uses.

(The Dual kit lens 12-40mm & 42.5mm f/1.8 costs $450)

Leica M - Backside Buttons

Xiaomi Yi M1 - Backside Buttons

Ada yang bilang desain Xiaomi Yi M1 ini mengambil inspirasi dari Leica M9, sayangnya yang diambil hanya tampilan tampak depan semata, tombol-tombol serta dial di M9 jauh lebih banyak dan penempatannya pas, sedangkan M1 bagian belakangnya bisa dilihat, lebih mirip MP4 player jadul sayangnya.

Some says that Xiaomi Yi M1 takes Leica M9 as its design inspiration, too bad they only took the appearance of M9, the ergonomic buttons and design were scraped for something much more barren.

Meninjau beberapa hal di atas, menurut saya Xiaomi Yi M1 cocok untuk penghobi fotografi baru yang ingin upgrade dari kamera HP. Tapi penggunanya perlu paham kalau banyak fitur yang tidak sama dengan kamera konvensional. 
Kamera ini jadi Air-Asia nya dunia kamera :)

Saat Xiaomi Yi Action camera diluncurkan, banyak yang mengkritik karena tidak adanya LCD sehingga untuk akses gambarnya diperlukan HP.
Walaupun demikian, action camera tersebut tetap meledak di pasaran karena memilki segmentasi pasar yang berbeda dari Go Pro.

Jadi tinggal menunggu waktu untuk melihat apakah mirrorless pertama Xiaomi ini bakal sesukses action cameranya, menurut saya asal tidak ada kekeliruan fatal seperti respon kamera terlalu lambat dsb, saya rasa kamera ini bakal cukup diminati.

My preliminary conclusion is that this camera would be suitable for someone wanting to own their first mirrorless camera, upgrading from their phone built in cameras.
But user need to know, that design-wise (usability and ergonomic issue) this camera is a different approach altogether compared with traditional camera maker.
This is the Air-Asia equivalent for cameras :)

Xiaomi took the same route when designing their action camera, sans LCD viewer, and it did great in the market still.

This time, we'll see if the same formula works on the mirrorless camera.

This is a video of a hands-on experience from a Chinese youtube video maker, you can see a bit of the camera performance here.