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The Ultimate Phone For Photographers?

Xiaomi recently unveiled its 15 Series smartphones—the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra. They’re calling them “the ultimate professional imagery flagship” devices, and they’re once again leaning on their partnership with Leica to back that up. Leica’s CEO even made another keynote appearance, just like last year, to emphasize how deep their collaboration runs.

The 15 Ultra keeps the same 50-megapixel Type 1 LYT-900 sensor from its predecessor, complete with a Summilux lens, f/1.63 aperture, and 14EV of dynamic range. Xiaomi says it now takes in double the light, making low-light shots even better. You still get 23mm, 28mm, and 35mm equivalent focal lengths, though the last two are just digital crops.

One surprising omission is the variable aperture from the 14 Ultra, which let users switch between f/1.63 and f/4. Xiaomi didn’t explain why they scrapped it, and they didn’t even mention it during the keynote. On the zoom side, the 15 Ultra’s 50-megapixel telephoto lens sticks to a 70mm equivalent at 3x optical zoom, while the 200-megapixel periscope telephoto gives you 100mm at 4.3x optical zoom.

Xiaomi is really hyping up its light-gathering power, claiming a 136% improvement despite a slightly narrower f/2.6 aperture. The hybrid zoom can stretch up to 200mm, 400mm, and beyond, though results will vary depending on how far you push it.

The periscope lens uses Samsung’s Isocell HP9 Type 1/1.4-inch sensor—the same one that impressed in the Vivo X200 Pro but was left out of Samsung’s own Galaxy S25 Ultra. It also doubles as a macro camera, letting you get as close as 10cm to your subject. The ultra-wide camera is slightly different this time, with a tighter 115-degree field of view instead of 122 degrees, though Xiaomi barely acknowledged the change during its presentation.

Xiaomi is also introducing a 24-layer ultra-low reflection glass coating across the entire camera module to cut down on reflections and glare, which have been pain points in previous models. Blown-out highlights are still the biggest challenge for dynamic range, but this should help.

While the Xiaomi 15 Ultra gets most of the attention, the standard Xiaomi 15 is still a strong offering. It carries over many of the Ultra’s features, including Summilux lenses with the same anti-reflective coating. Video specs are slightly pared down, with 4K at 60fps instead of 120fps. The main and telephoto cameras keep similar focal lengths, but the standard model lacks a periscope telephoto, instead opting for a wider 60mm equivalent telephoto lens.

Xiaomi is also introducing a new "Sunset Portrait" mode, which enhances golden hour lighting with optimized bokeh and skin tones. All the HyperAI and Gemini integrations from the Ultra are available here too, so the regular 15 isn’t missing out on software features.

For photography enthusiasts, Xiaomi is bringing back a photography kit for the 15 Ultra that’s more stylish and modular than previous versions. It now includes a built-in 2,000mAh battery, adding roughly one-third more battery life for longer shoots. There’s also an adapter for 67mm filters, plus dedicated zoom, exposure, and video recording controls.

As usual, Xiaomi isn’t officially selling these phones in the U.S. or Canada, but online vendors from other regions will likely ship them internationally. Pricing is set at 999 Euros for the Xiaomi 15 and 1,499 Euros for the 15 Ultra, translating to roughly $1,030 and $1,550, respectively.

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Interview with Martijn Jebbink

This week’s Interview with Martijn Jebbink, a very talented Photographer. I have known him for quite a while actually and I had the pleasure of watching his photography evolve over the years.

You can find him on Instagram as: @martijnjebbink_photography

His website: martijnjebbink.com

Enjoy the amazing Interview ;)

Can you tell us a bit about yourself ? 

Hi everyone. I am Martijn, a Dutch street-, landscape and architecture photographer. Since 3 years I live in Rome with my family.

I grew up in a small town in the Netherlands, surrounded by an impressive forest. In that environment I developed my way of looking at the world. At first, I didn’t see my own place in it, it just seemed odd to me. However, as I grew older, I developed a keen eye for composition, both in social settings and the natural world, and found my own path.

How did you get into photography? 

Well, first I should answer the question when I started to really look and to use my senses. In a tough period in my early life, I learned that the world around me, filled with immense creativity, could give me strength and joy. The only thing I had to do, was to feel and see both the light and the darkness.

When I picked up my first camera a few years later, like so many of us I frantically started to document my surroundings, family and friends. However, it was only 5 years ago when I realized photography offered so much more than documentation. I started experimenting with different types of cameras and lenses. Lately my photography has become more and more personal, because (on a good day) I am not recording just a scene with a piece of technology, but trying to communicate with you and others.

How do you approach storytelling through your photos?

Photos can tell stories on different levels at the same time, I think. Visible stories about the people or things captured, like a couch drifting by in the Tiber river, or two people arguing on the street. If we capture these things, and I do that often, it’s more about documenting than about telling stories if you ask me.

To me it becomes more interesting if there is a second layer, with a hidden story in the photo too, about something that may or may not have happened before the moment the shot was taken, or a future action you imagine when looking at the shot. As a photographer I am always trying to sense these hidden stories too.

And then there is a third level I think, when you can feel a certain photo also tells you something about the photographer. The fact that you can imagine her or his thoughts and feelings, but can never be sure, makes it all the more interesting.

How do you define street photography in your own terms?

For me, an important starting point for street photography is that, now that everyone has a camera in their pocket, a photo should have a sense of urgency. So when I am walking the streets I keep asking myself ‘what story wants to be told here?’ And second, street photography in my opinion is quite intrusive (I really recommend reading what Susan Sontag has written on this), so I always try to look at bigger scenes, at context and composition, not just individuals. I think it would be a big waste when 50 years from now we look back on this period, to find only portraits with blurred backgrounds.

Black&White Photography or Color? And why?

That really depends, my preferences evolve as I change as a person. For quite some time, black and white has been my favorite for its power of undistracted storytelling. Colours can absorb much of our attention, so when I want to tell a straightforward story with not much more than light, scene and composition, I often leave the colours out. However, lately I am having a lot of fun with more abstract colour photography, using different types of cinematic filters. With colour photography, I have to work harder and to use my senses in a more intense way to feel which parts (and therefore colours) of a scene should be included, and which ones can be left out without losing the whole point.

How do you capture emotion in your photos?

That’s a very good question. And maybe using the language of words is not going to help me here. Because that’s one of the things you begin to realize when you look at photos, that the ‘why’ of a certain image that touches you is just very hard, if not impossible, to put into words. It’s all about feelings, and feelings are so very personal, dependent on who you are and how your life has evolved. I don’t really know on a cognitive level why I am taking certain photos, I just feel it’s what I do. But as I said earlier, magic happens, and emotions can move between me and you, through a photograph. If someone says they are touched by a photo you took, it’s very interesting to ask them what it is that moves them. Of course it’s never the exact same thing as what moved you, but I think that’s really beautiful too.

What gear do you use?

Oh, I am afraid this will be embarrassing.. because I use quite a few different types of gear. But okay, here we go: for most photos, I use my full frame mirrorless camera (a Sony Alpha 7R) with a 20-70mm lens and one or two prime lenses (especially 35 and 50mm). And recently I am using more pocketable cameras with fixed lenses too, I have 35 and 40mm types from Fuji and Ricoh, both with telelens converters (to reach 50 and 60mm).

What are your favourite subjects to shoot?

Well, I guess the Silhouettes are my personal favourites. The people in these photos may seem a bit lonely or isolated, but they are always on their way to arrive somewhere.

To me, there's immense strength in our fragility, trying to live our lives and to be happy in this crazy, beautiful world. In my artwork I like to show us humans in a bigger environment, overwhelming and protecting us at the same time.

Is there a type of photography or genre you haven’t explored yet but would like to?

In the future I would love to learn all about portrait photography, especially portraits of women. I think there is still a lot of photography being made – especially by men - that in my opinion does not do justice to the personality and identity of the women, and there seems to be a lot of typecasting. I think it’s about time for male photographers to enter the modern world.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography means the world to me! What shall I say, it’s a very very important part of my life, of my longing for meaning, of expressing myself, of connecting with other people, of enjoying the immense beauty of this world. I don’t think I will ever stop loving photography, reading about photography, looking at the work of others, creating new things and experimenting with photography myself.

How did you find your photography style?

Haha, I don’t believe in that idea of having a defined genre or style. Of course, when you look at my photos, there might be a certain kind of consistency visible – and others will probably see this much clearer than I do. But for me, it just doesn’t work like that. I go out, and I don’t have a clue about the types of photos I will come home with. I have tried sometimes to force myself in making a certain pre-determined type of shots, but they are usually very boring. So now I am basically just following up on what I feel. The Italians have a very beautiful word for this: ‘sentire’. It means ‘to feel’, but it also means ‘to hear’, ‘to listen’ or ‘to sense’. So yes, I am making very sentimental photos!

How important is lighting in photography?

Photography is (literally) drawing or writing with light, and to me the use of (natural) light has a direct link to the strength of a photo. If you change the exposure or ISO in your camera for example, you will immediately feel a big difference in the way you perceive a certain scene. As photographers I think we should for example not be afraid of creating negative space – and the use of light plays an important role in that. The process of balancing the shadows and highlights in my visual work gives me great pleasure, and I find much inspiration in the old masters in painting like Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer.

How important is composition?

For me personally, composition is a very big thing. I have learned over the years to always look for lines and compositions that really contribute to the scene. Today these aspects are always in my mind when taking photos, but more on an intuitive level (just like the cameras I use are now part of my unconscious mind). Taking wider shots can also help you with the composition, because you can change your ideas in the editing process (as long as your shot is not too tight or too unbalanced, of course). As you can see, I really like strong diagonal lines, so I need to take those into account when I am out on the street. Recently, I am using composition more loosely, to create more abstract images.

What are your thoughts on AI in photography?

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16 Terabytes of Storage For Creatives

Western Digital (WD) is going all-in on hard drives with the launch of its new 26TB WD Red Pro HDD, built specifically for RAID arrays and network-attached storage (NAS). As data demands keep skyrocketing, WD says this high-capacity drive is designed to handle round-the-clock, multi-user environments, making it a solid choice for creative professionals and enterprise storage systems alike.

The new WD Red Pro is rated for up to 550TB of workload per year and has a lifespan of 2.5 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF). If you’re looking to get your hands on one, it’ll set you back $570.

Alongside the new drive, WD is rolling out a bunch of high-capacity G-branded RAID storage solutions aimed at both working professionals and backup-heavy workflows. The lineup includes the massive 208TB G-RAID Shuttle 8, which costs $8,200 and delivers read speeds up to 1700MB/s in RAID 5.

There’s also the smaller G-RAID Shuttle 4, which now maxes out at 104TB and is built to handle multi-stream 4K, 8K, and even VR workflows. For those who need a more compact option, the 52TB G-RAID Project 2 comes in at $1,700, while the 26TB G-DRIVE Project and standard G-DRIVE models are meant more for backup rather than active use, with read and write speeds of around 260MB/s.

WD’s renewed focus on HDDs comes after it officially split from SanDisk last year, leaving the SSD market to its former partner. The company is betting big on the increasing demand for high-capacity storage, especially with the explosion of AI, cloud computing, and massive data lakes.

Image credits: WD

Photo Analysis

Welcome to the new part of the Magazine Issue where we take a closer look at a photo and analyse it so that you can learn and better your own photography from it ;)

Photo by: @schoenberg.alexander

Let’s Analyse this Image

Composition

• What works well:

  • The window frame acts like a natural border, pulling your eyes straight to the city. It gives the shot a real sense of depth, like you're peeking into another world.

  • That open window? Perfect touch. It makes the scene feel inviting, like you could just step right into it.

  • The sun bursting through the frame is just amazing. It adds warmth and a bit of drama in the best way.

• What could be better:

  • The right side is a little heavier because of the open window. Maybe shifting the frame slightly could balance things out a bit.

Lighting

• What works well:

  • Golden hour is doing the most here. It makes everything feel warm, nostalgic, and just straight beautiful.

  • The contrast between the golden light and the cooler city tones is great. It creates that perfect balance of warmth and depth.

  • The way the sunlight catches the glass adds texture and makes the scene feel alive.

• What could be better:

  • The highlights on the right side some would maybe say are a little too strong. Dialing them back just a little could keep the details in the brightest spots.

  • The sky is stunning, however a tiny boost in contrast could make those clouds pop even more.

Color & Mood

• What works well:

  • The warm tones of the sunlight mixed with the cooler city shadows as already noted is great. It’s cozy but still has that urban, city feel.

  • The pastel colors in the sky add a dreamy/cinematic quality. Feels like a scene from a movie. (I love it)

  • The muted tones of the buildings keep the whole scene feeling natural.

• What could be better:

  • A little more blue in the shadows might make the warm tones stand out even more.

Story & Emotion

• What works well:

  • There’s this feeling of curiosity—like you’re standing there, looking out, wondering what’s next, why the window is open, who opened the window, what the person who opened up the window was looking at etc.

  • The mix of old architecture and modern skyline tells a story—kind of a conversation between past and present.

• What could be better:

  • A small human element—like a silhouette in the street (in the main frame) —could add an extra layer of storytelling.

  • A little motion blur on the cars below could make the city feel even more alive.

Photography Tip of the Week

The weekly photography tip is only accessible to Premium Subscribers of The Magazine For Photographers.

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Photographer of the Week

Photographer of the week goes to: Lennard Grohn

You can find him on Instagram as: @lennardgrohn

A few of his images:

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Computational Features Over Megapixels

The biggest advantage of Micro Four Thirds cameras is their size—both the cameras and lenses are much more compact compared to APS-C or full-frame setups. The trade-off, at least in some people’s eyes, is lower resolution. OM System says it's open to higher-resolution sensors in the future, but not if it comes at the cost of performance.

According to Kazuhiro Togashi, OM System’s VP of Brand Strategy and Product Planning, their current sensor is optimized for speed, reducing rolling shutter and enabling real-time computational photography features. He acknowledges that while higher megapixels could be appealing, resolution alone isn’t what makes a camera great. Instead, OM System sees computational photography as a way to enhance image quality without sacrificing speed or usability.

That said, they know marketing is an uphill battle. Megapixels are an easy number for consumers to latch onto, even though they don’t tell the whole story. “This is our big challenge,” says Hiroki Koyama, Director of Product Planning. “Average users basically believe that bigger is better. So we have to continue to appeal our strong points to the market.”

Right now, OM System isn’t willing to compromise features like Live ND, in-camera high-res multi-shot, and other computational tools just to bump up megapixels. If they do increase resolution, they want to make sure the camera can still deliver the fast, high-performance processing their users expect. That would require developing not just a new sensor but also a more powerful image processor.

“It’s hard, but it’s a good challenge,” Togashi says.

Image credits: OM System

The Rest of this Issue is for Premium Subscribers

The Premium Version of this Magazine is now on a ‘‘Pay What you Want’’ model. Meaning you get to decide the price.