It was a cold winter afternoon in Wetzlar, Germany, a small town surrounded by industry where the center of traditional photography is located: Leitz Park, a factory, museum and office complex where the camera manufacturer Leica exposes its present and, above all, its past. Also your future, that’s why we were there.
I was lucky enough to visit the Leica headquarters for the release of the Xiaomi 13, smartphones to which Leica puts its experience in imaging to provide them with unique processing characteristics. And one of those responsible for the software included in the latest from Xiaomi is Pablo Acevedo, head of mobile development and engineering at the German company. Apart from this position, Pablo is a photographer, he led the camera department at BQ and worked as an image engineer at DXOMARK. With this resume, I planned my interview around the field of mobile photography. This is how the conversation went.
This is how Xiaomi makes money – they lure you in and get you
As a photographer, do you take just your phone on vacation or do you pack your camera too, just in case?
Today?
Yes, to this day.
I only carry a mobile.
Do you really know that all the photos that the mobile will take will leave them as you want?
A distinction must be made here and it is that photography for me became a profession years ago. And not artistic photography, but technical photography. In other words, mobile devices in general to take photos. To this day, I trust my mobile so much that I don’t take a camera with me. Because I like to travel light, I am one of the people who does not check luggage. And, as you know, you are going to carry your mobile with you. And with the quality that mobile phones give you today, sometimes the photos are even better than those of a large camera; especially when what you are going to do are landscape photographs, daytime photographs with good light conditions. The times that I take a professional camera, an SLR or a mirrorless, is when I know that I am going to have a very challenging situation in which I know that there is going to be low light or that I am going to need to shoot very high ISOs to compensate for shutter times. very short exposure. So I take the mirrorless. But if not, I calmly take my mobile. And I have no problem printing photos, I don’t print advertising-size photos either, with that I have plenty. Apart from the occasion that I have taken a camera, especially Leica cameras…
sweeping for home
Exactly. Well, I think that since 2018, 2019… Yes, with the latest BQ mobiles I no longer had a camera.
I was going to ask you precisely about that. I think BQ disappeared just after you guys got a really good camera.
I have a little thorn in my head that BQ could not continue its journey as the company it was. I owe everything to BQ, practically, in the world of mobile photography. I started at BQ in 2015, just when the M range models were launched; and from then on to the X2 Pro, which was the last device I worked on in the camera.
I reviewed it and I loved it
Well it’s a shame. It’s a shame because, well, it’s hard to compete against everything that comes from Asia, obviously, because the ecosystem is there. Simply, due to the proximity to the supply chain and support. Besides, at that time, the salaries in China were much cheaper than the salaries in Spain. And well, could not continue further. But it is true that in the X, in the X Pro and in the X2 Pro we had very good sensors. And not only the sensors, the work that took place on what is called the ISP tuning, the image signal processor. We work a lot there. There we already had a team of six people only dedicated to tuning the device. Besides, the company invested heavily in third-party algorithms. So, thanks to the in-house work and the integration of those third-party algorithms, the X, X Pro, and X2 Pro were wonderful phones. As for the camera at least. I feel very proud. And everything that happened afterwards makes me very angry.
I understand that you applied all that learning not only to Leica, but also to the Xiaomi 13 Pro
Exactly. All this experience that I have gained over the years in these projects is part of my baggage, it is part of my contribution to the cooperation between Leica and Xiaomi.
Xiaomi 13 Pro
You spoke before that the phone offers a more technical catch. Would you say that the phone is more technical and that with the camera we still have a certain feeling of a more emotional capture of photography?
I am no longer a photographer. I tried it at the time because I liked photography, but later I understood that what I liked about photography was the technological part, how to get there, the technical challenge of how to capture this image the way I want it. Since I’m not an artist, well, in the end I stayed there. And there is a bit of everything. What the mobile phone tries to do is cover as many situations as possible. In other words, take a good photograph in as many situations as possible, without putting the weight on the photographer. Because mobile phone users are from professionals to our grandmothers. And everyone wants to take pictures. So, there is that difference where the photographer who has a camera, a professional camera, a reflex camera, a camera in which you have to invest money in just the camera and other money in the lenses, is completely different.
The person who invests money in equipment sees photography in a different way. He sees photography in a more artistic way, in general, than a person who buys a cell phone and looks for one that has a good camera because from time to time he takes photos. There are also people who are looking for a mobile phone that has a very good camera, that is, as close as possible to a professional result. Those people, of course, are going to be looking at detail and they are going to use that mobile phone to take emotional photography, of course. And that is what we are trying to do with Xiaomi right now: bring the photographic experience of professional cameras to mobile phones. For the users who are looking for it and for the users who don’t know it to discover a new world in which they say: “Ok. If I do it in auto mode it comes out like this. But if I do it in the professional mode, in which I I choose the parameters…”. And so they can learn about photography. And, who knows, tomorrow they might buy a Leica.
Now that you mention looking for the image parameters. With a mobile like the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which has such a level of image quality and photography customization, what advice would you give to a person who only shoots and that’s it? How could you really take advantage of the phone, its potential?
I really like it when I talk about photography with friends: what do you take the photos of your son with? You have a small child. What do you take photos of the child with? There are people who tell me: “No, I bought a low-end SLR and I shoot all the photos with that one.” And there are other people who tell me: “No, I take the phone, I put it in portrait mode, I change the light parameters, I worry that the focus is on the eye and things like that.” In order for people to love photography in the way that we love it, we must try to educate the population in the capabilities of the camera. Because, usually, people take out the camera in default mode, take the picture and that’s it. But if you explain to them that you have a portrait mode, what does this do to you, that you have a different way of using the three cameras that, for example, the Xiaomi 13 has. What is each one worth to you? Well look: I’m going to use this for portraits, for example, the new 75 mm; I am going to use this one for landscapes because I have an equivalent to 14 millimeters. Why use each camera or why use each camera feature? Is something important.
Leica Museum in Leitz Park
Something that also happens is that, thanks to artificial intelligence, the mobile is capable of detecting what it is that you are trying to photograph. Here you could change the camera, here you could move away a bit for the framing… I also think there will be a lot of path there, which will help people understand photography better and like photography more. In other words, that they go out to take photos without it being… “Ah, I’m here and I want to take a photo of this.” That is something that was very important to me in my beginnings in photography. He said: “I want to go out with my camera, just to take pictures. I haven’t met anyone for coffee, I’m going out to take pictures.” And I think that today with the mobile that does not happen so much. The people who consider going out to take photos are generally people who have a camera, a mirrorless, a professional camera. Mobile photography has a lot of moment today. The best camera is always the one you have with you, that’s a lifelong phrase. There is a lot of room for people to keep learning and keep looking for different ways to love photography.
What would you say are the challenges of mobile photography for the future?
Hardware is a big part of the entire photo capture process, but the software is there. And artificial intelligence today is everywhere. We just have to open Google and search for ChatGPT or Mid-Journey. All these tools based on artificial intelligence are going to help, I’m sure, they are going to help photography, photographic quality, improve in the future. There is no doubt about it.
You have a frame, it will detect it automatically and it will give you suggestions. Not only will it give you suggestions, but the camera itself, internally, will make certain decisions based on the response of that artificial intelligence, of that algorithm. And once that image has been captured, once you have clicked the button, the artificial intelligence will detect what elements are in the photo and what they are, what are the best parameters in each area of the photo to obtain the best possible result. .
As a Leica engineer, what project are you most proud of?
Well, right now with the Xiaomi 13. I have to tell the truth: I’ve been at Leica for a year and a month; and last year’s projects were the 12 series, the Xiaomi 12S Pro and the normal one. But they were only sold in China. So, with the 13 Pro and the 13 is the project that I’m most proud of because it’s coming to Europe, because I’m going to be able to buy it for my mother, for example. [risas]. No, other than that, it’s because I really think there’s been a quantum leap in terms of image quality that we’ve managed to bring to these devices.
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