Sony shows samples of AI-infused Xperia 1 VIII camera. It’s a milestone I can’t digest
Sony has a camera legacy that many brands, whether they make cameras or smartphones, dream about. The company has rewritten what full-frame sensors can do with its Alpha series.
That rendering of skin tones, that restraint in saturation, that commitment to accurate white balance; the company’s color science is why photographers, videographers, and photographers like myself, in the consumer technology space, swear by color science and camera hardware.
So when the official Sony Xperia X account posted a side-by-side comparison of “Basic vs. AI Camera Assistant”, specifically to improve Xperia Intelligence on the company’s new Xperia 1 VIII, I kept staring at my screen for minutes. Not out of admiration, but out of genuine disbelief. I can say this unequivocally: whoever approved those samples has never used a Sony Alpha series camera, or never talked to someone who does.
What exactly is Sony’s Xperia Intelligence doing in these images?
Let me pass this on in technical terms, because what happened in those pictures deserves to be discussed. In the first image, Sony’s Xperia Intelligence boosted the midtone exposure so much that it cut out the highlights in the grass and the human face.
Details are blown, while dynamic range is wasted. Similarly, in the shot with the vase, a new AI-based algorithm has crushed the shadows so hard that the floor loses all its texture. While the original image has depth and the appearance of wood grain, the edited one looks like it has a flat, high-contrast filter applied, with the slider pulled up.
Then there’s the sandwich. I can’t really figure out what Sony’s AI saw when it decided that those reds and greens needed to be discarded. Seriously, it looks like someone tuned the exposure and brightness sliders in the photo, without realizing that they’re blowing out the fine details and colors.
In all three samples, the AI introduces a forced warm yellow-orange, with different intensity, an artificial white balance shift that moves the entire shot away from neutral or natural colors to what looks like an Instagram or Snapchat filter. They all look like they were taken from a sensor that’s been pushed past its traditional ISO ceiling, which has plenty of noise.
I would say that all the pictures looked better the way they were, but Sony’s AI Camera Assistant or Xperia Intelligence corrected them better than any post-production correction. And remember, the photos were posted to promote the unique photo effects that consumers can experience with the new Xperia 1 VIII.
Sony can’t afford the identity crisis
The Xperia 1 series has always been Sony’s answer to the question: what if a smartphone camera behaved like a camera? However, what the Xperia Intelligence seems to be doing is chasing a heavily and unnecessarily processed aesthetic, which, I would say, looks worse than a Samsung, Google, or Apple smartphone could do.
While the originals in the tweet are really well rendered, with natural-looking colors, and a decent amount of dynamic range, the AI versions look like the Xperia camera got tired of being too good. For those who buy the Xperia 1 VIII for its camera, and that is probably the reason why they would like it, get comfortable with the settings menu in advance; that’s all i have to say.
