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Xiaomi's native Camera app usually gives users some headaches. It is not usually as intuitive as other proposals, but that does not mean that it does not have powerful functions that allow us to play with our creativity and take good photographs.
We have already mentioned a series of tricks that you can apply to take better photos on Xiaomi, and now we will tell you a secret. There are hidden functions in the MIUI camera that you can activate by following a couple of steps.
And since we are talking about the native Xiaomi app, these hidden camera options should be available for most of the brand's phones with MIUI 10 and MIUI 11.
How to activate hidden camera functions
One thing to keep in mind is that these options are experimental features, so they will change over time. Depending on the model of your Xiaomi it is possible that you have all the experimental functions of the moment or only some.
To bring these functions to life and appear in the Camera Settings, just follow these steps, which you can do from mobile, or if you prefer from a computer.
Assuming you want to do the process from your mobile, open a File Manager and go to Main Storage (in case you have an SD card) or Internal Memory, and select the DCIM >> Camera folder.
Inside the Camera folder create an empty file with the name "lab_options_visible" (without the quotes).
And if you prefer to carry out the process from your computer, then you connect your mobile with the option to transfer files and follow the same steps.
Viewing Features in Camera
Now that these hidden options are activated, go to the Camera application and look for Settings >> Additional Settings, and you will notice this difference:
In addition to the normal configuration options, a number of new features appear. The images are from a Redmi Note 7, so the functions that appear on your mobile may be different. You will still see that approximately 10 additional functions are added.
When you enter Settings you will see a message that says "Experimental features." Do not panic, as it is normal, the system informs you that you have experimental functions activated.
What are these functions for? Some are already active in the app, but this gives you more control to activate or disable them at your discretion. Most of the functions use algorithms to improve different aspects of the photo.
For example, “Turn on MFNR” reduces noise, “Turn on SR” works with the super resolution of the camera and, on the other hand, “Internal magic tools” implements a series of improvements to increase the quality of the image.
But there are also others that allow the user to customize the camera interface when taking pictures, for example, "Hide face detection frame automatically" allows disabling the frame that appears in portrait mode when using face detection.
If after testing them you want to remove them from the Camera app interface, you can reverse the process by deleting the file you created in DCIM.
Illustrative image of the Xiaomi Mi9
