YI M1 Noise Profile

Hi, @paperdigits.
Sorry for the OT, but I would to know your thoughts after some time using this nice little camera.
I have a Canon EOS 1100d, not an high end model, do you think that changing to yi m1 would be a mistake, or quality is not so bad?
This while I’m trying to find a good offer for a 1st mark of Sony alpha7

Hi @Dario_M,

I like this little camera pretty well. I recently went to Mexico for 3 weeks and it was my only camera. Obviously the size is great for travel. I had heavily considered a Sony, but I hate Sony software and they always seems to be doing something strange (memory stick, star eating, bizarre file formats historically) so I passed on the Sony.

I aimed for this camera to replace my phone camera, which is horrible.

The down points of this camera, in my opinion are:

  • no on-board flash (it has a standard hotshoe though)
  • focusing misses some times
  • kit zoom lens is soft (though sort of expected for a kit lens at this price)
  • on long exposures, especially many long exposures, the sense noise and hot pixels are bad
  • no view finder, it’s the touch screen on the back
  • I can’t get the time lapse to change the exposure, but this could be user error

The good:

  • wow, compact and tiny, especially with the tiny, prime lens I have on it
  • 20MP is lots of megapixels, better than anything else at the price point
  • great in daylight into the evening
  • 4K video
  • time lapse shoots to video or raw stills
  • battery can be changed
  • charges over micro USB, so I can use my phone charger
  • Yi has put a a lot of firmware updates, so they are actively trying to improve this camera, which is nice

Ultimately, I had $100 in amazon points, which made this a super cheap purchase. It’s hard to argue with the price point.

1 Like

Perfect, thanks.

If you have any specific questions or want some specific (within reason) sample from the camera, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks. I would like to understand if it could be an upgrade from eos 1100d in term of quality of raw.
1100d is not one of the best camera especially at iso above 400.
Even if equally performing, m1 could be a choice, for the weight.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that yes, quality of raw is probably better. Note that it’ll depend completely on what lens you’re using, because if the lens is soft, then the image is soft. But the 1100D came out in 2011, and I think sensor tech as made quite a few strides in the last ~6 years (the M1 is a year or two old at this point).

I can certainly provide you some high ISO samples, if that’d help. I think it is pretty usable at ISO 800.

Yes I know. But I use some m42 lenses that should do the magic :wink:
I think that, using the 4/3 mount, it shouldn’t be a problem, with the right adapter

Yes, please.