We’ve all been there; we want to take a big group photo, so we have to find someone to take our group picture or set a timer on the camera for the picture taker to run quickly to make it into the camera shot.
Or have you ever been to a beach or beautiful landmark and wanted to capture the entire view? Smartphone cameras have come a long way in recent years with a lot of flagship phones now making the camera the selling point of the phone.
They can snap accurate and clear pictures, record smooth and clean video, but as great as they are, they lack one major feature. I often find that my smartphone can’t fit everything into the frame.
I was recently in New York, and when I was taking pictures of Times Square and the tall New York buildings, my Galaxy S8+’s camera just couldn’t fit everything into frame. I had multiple pictures to accurately capture the sheer size of everything around me. After the trip and when I took a look at my pictures, I noticed some of them ended up being blurry or missed small things around me that I wanted to show to others.
A lot of smartphones can capture a panorama shot, but this doesn’t work all too well when there are a lot of moving objects in the panorama, such as moving people in my New York photos.
So, I need a solution that can capture everything around me during a camera shot while still making the picture look as nice as my smartphone. Luckily, as with most technical problems, there is a product available to fulfil that need.
Whether capturing a 180-degree or 360-degree photo, the all-new Mi Sphere camera allows you to capture an entire scene with one single click of the camera’s shutter button.
Having recently reviewed the Mi Power Bank Pro, I raved at the stunning build quality and the presentation of the product. I called it the Apple of battery banks, and I am still using it to this very day.
Slowly but surely, the Mi brand is attempting to become the Chinese version of Apple by focusing their product lineup on build quality, presentation, and performance.
Meant for travelers, photographers, vloggers, and anyone else who enjoys taking photos or videos, the new Mi Sphere is a 360-degree capturing camera that turns a picture into a sphere. By using the Mi smartphone application, you can capture the entire moment with ease.
Welcome to my review of the Mi Sphere Camera.
Design
As much as their products remind me of Apple’s utmost build quality, their product line is vastly different from Apple’s. From laptops to ridable scooters, Mi has a lot of experience in a lot of product markets.
Focusing on the Mi Sphere today, we have a professional, yet small 360-degree camera that should be winning awards for its clean design.
Compacted into a flat and tiny rectangular shape, the Mi Sphere is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or even shirt pocket. The rectangular shaped body measures 3 inches long, 2.65 inches tall, and only 0.94 inches in width.
Regarding building materials, it uses a combination of plastic and aluminum. The plastic is found on the two large faces of the Mi Sphere and the aluminum holds the two faces together while adding strength to the camera.
Aside from the single red record button, the entire camera is matte black, and the paint finish has a satisfying feel to it. I wouldn’t call the color rough, but it’s not glossy smooth either. Instead, it’s a real matte finish and looks and feels premium.
What stands out are the two protruding 3.5K ultra-high definition cameras. These cameras are centered on the two faces of the rectangular body. The outer rings of the cameras are surrounded by a grooved aluminum piece with the lenses covered by glass.
If you take a moment to admire the glass of the lenses, you will notice they use fisheye lenses that help the cameras to capture a 360-degree view.
On an I/O tour around the camera, we find two upward-facing microphones, a power and wireless toggle switch, a larger record or image snap button, and on the bottom, there is a ¼-inch universal tripod mount and two speakers. There are also status LEDs for wireless, recording, and picture taking.
Cleverly hidden behind a splash-resistant door is the camera’s microSD card slot and the micro USB charging slot. For a camera such as this one, I would have liked Mi to include a USB C charging slot rather than micro USB.
Included in the small Mi Sphere box is a dual-purpose tripod. The dual-purpose tripod allows the feet to close into themselves to allow you to hold the camera in your hands. By doing so, you can hold it high into the sky and still have it capture you below. It also keeps your fingers off the camera which could cause your hand to look all skewed in the image.
Next, the tripod extends its feet outwards to one set position. This is great for setting up the camera on a desk or table and then using the smartphone app to take a picture. Recalling my introduction to this review, this would be great for capturing a large group photo.
Excluding the charging cable, the only other useful accessory included in the box is a dimpled vinyl carry pouch with a suede inside. The camera fits snuggly inside the carry pouch, and if you have the tripod connected to the camera, it sticks out the top slightly.
Functionality
You can use any microSD card with the Mi Sphere, but for the best results, Mi highly recommends you use a Class 10 UHS 3 microSD card. Unfortunately and annoyingly, Mi does not include a microSD card with your Mi Sphere, so, I opted to buy and use this Samsung card rated for 4K UHD video recording. As the pictures and images take up a lot of space, I opted for the 64GB microSD card.
To get started with the Mi Sphere, you first have to charge it. I couldn’t find a teardown of the Mi Sphere, but just by looking at the size of the cameras, it must be quite cramped inside the rectangular body. Yet somehow Mi was able to fit a 1600mAh battery inside.
The high capacity battery allows the camera to perform for a surprisingly long time. The camera is rated for 90 minutes of 7K video recording with the wireless functionality turned off. The standby time is weeks, and if you are using it to take pictures, it will last weeks. When the battery does drop down, it only takes a couple of hours to recharge.
To get started using the Mi Sphere, you’ll need to download their free iOS or Android smartphone application. Your smartphone will connect to the Mi Sphere through a wireless connection with the default password outlined in the user manual.
Inside the app, it’s more hit or miss for me. It is separated into two different groups, the first page being a social media page and the second page being for your actual camera. Personally, I think these two pages should be swapped.
The social media page allows you to create an Mi account and then share your Mi Sphere images with other people. It’s neat in that you get to see people and images from around the world, but when you are being rushed to get a camera shot for yourself, it’s just another menu to get past in using your Mi Sphere.
You get to the settings and view of your Mi Sphere by clicking the yellow image capture button. Don’t be alarmed if the image on your smartphone is all blurry. The Mi Sphere uses two 3.5K ultra-high definition cameras creating a 7K picture or 4K video. This is a lot of bandwidth, and it’s difficult to quickly stream to your device via wireless, so, Mi downgrades the streaming quality of the app’s viewable image.
Objects and people can be made out in the blurry image, but this is an excellent case of don’t believe what you see because the end result is stunning.
Within the settings of the camera, you can turn on a timer, take images in an interval, or bracket images to get more lows and highs in an image. At the top of the app, you can see the camera’s status including battery, storage, remaining photos, and remaining video in minutes.
For example, my 64GB Samsung microSD card can hold 6735 photos at 7K and 154 minutes of 4K 30FPS video.
Next, there are four additional professional settings you can mess with. Mi allows you to change the scene from auto to outdoors, overcast, etc., brightness and darkness, ISO, and the shutter speed.
For more nitpicking changes, there is yet another menu that you can dive into to change resolution, white balance, exposure, recording cycle, and a few other minor details.
There is a slight delay in what you see on the app from what the camera sees, but not enough to make a huge difference. Just remain still for a few seconds while taking a picture.
To take your first picture, you can either tap the record button on the Mi Sphere or use the app and press the capture button. You hold the record button for a few seconds to start recording instead.
An audible beep will count down when the Mi Sphere is taking an image and then half a second later it will snap the photo. The photos are saved to the internal storage and can be viewed in the Mi app. Alternatively, you can download the image or video to your smartphone to have when you aren’t connected to the Mi Sphere.
When you go to view your first picture, wait for a second as the image will still be blurry. The app will download the image automatically to your smartphone, and then the blurriness will all go away. The 7K image is clear with even far away objects being recognizable.
For capture, the camera uses two Sony IMX 206 sensors with a CMOS size of 1/2.3. The sensor can capture images with a maximum resolution of 6912×3456 and video at 3456 x 1728 at 30 FPS. When the content is streamed to your phone, it maxes out at 1440 x 720p at 30FPS.
The Ambarella A12 image processor saves images as a jpeg format while video is encoded using H.264 and saved as an mp4 format.
Both lenses capture 190 degree images, and then these are stitched together using the image processor. In both video and pictures, there is a slight void where the lenses cannot see around the camera, but the image stitch is done so well that you can’t tell that part of the image is missing.
My advice is that when taking a picture, make sure that the main object(s) of the picture is not directly on the side, top, or bottom of the camera.
Taking a picture, whether using the app or the physical button, is as easy as saying cheese for the shot. Images are quick, and video recording happens on a dime.
Being IP67 water and dust resistant rated, the Mi Sphere is certainly a camera that can go anywhere and capture anything. I would easily be okay taking this to the beach or out to a forest or a mountaintop.
Starting with image quality, everything was perfect in my book. Close up objects are clear, and you can make out small details in the image. Far away objects get a little blurry, but that is to be expected as it is recording a 360-degree view.
You can zoom into an image quite far away, and everything is always in the shot. Even after the image is processed the stitching between the two cameras is so seamless that you can’t tell it’s using only two cameras.
To add a little bit of spice to your images or videos, Mi allows you to alter your 360-degree images. This is best shown on their product page. You can take your image and turn it into a sphere, plane, planet, or VR image.
In actual use, I stuck with using a sphere or plane setting, but the little planet shot can lead to some interesting videos. Just take a look at how neat this picture turned out for Mi when standing on a bridge over a highway:
Video recording carries the same likeness that I have for image quality. The videos are smooth and clear with closer objects being clearer than far away ones. You can adjust settings for video quality such as time lapse and have fun with it by making it a little planet.
All in all, the camera aspects of the Mi Sphere are what you would expect from an everyday normal camera. This one just takes 7K images with the ability to capture everything around it. Both the functionality of the app and camera offer a smooth and fun experience.
My Final Thoughts
I’ve really enjoyed my Mi Sphere 360-degree camera. Its small body, rugged frame, and well-designed looks give it a stunning appearance that draws the attention of people around you.
I am a huge fan of how you can capture everyone and everything all in one picture or recording. With the long-lasting battery and large capacity microSD card, you can go a long way before needing to recharge or offload images. The Mi Sphere is truly a great vacation or outdoor travel accessory.
Priced at $287.60, I find that the Mi Sphere is a great device with great ability. I couldn’t find a flaw with my Mi Sphere and would recommend it any day of the week if someone was looking for a fun point and shoot camera that did a little more than just take close up images.
Moreover, Mi has continued to support the Mi Sphere by offering software and firmware improvements through the Mi application. If they continue the support, then this would be the equivalent of an Apple 360-degree camera, and it well deserves its nearly perfect five stars on Amazon.
Buy it now:
© 2018 Justin Vendette