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The Xperia Mini features a 5MP camera with LED flash, that's also capable of recording 720p HD video clips.
There aren't many fancy options on the camera, with the majority of the scene modes hidden away. The default setting is to let the Xperia Mini automatically detect scenes for you, which can lead to some interesting choices, especially in low-light conditions.
Engaging manual control by pressing the Capture Mode toggle lets you select from nine pre-determined scenes - the usual standards such as Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sports and Party.
The camera's very quick to launch and use, firing off sequences of shots rapidly without getting bogged down in any way.
The physical camera button itself is a nice feature, too, with Sony Ericsson sticking on a nice, soft button that's sensitive enough to fire off shots without making you jerk the phone around and miss your moment of magic.
Camera output is OK. Photos at the highest 5MP setting come off the phone at 2592x1944 resolution, and are certainly bright and colourful. In fact, it's actually a little too trigger happy with the colours, as bright reds and greens really explode and are quite exaggerated.
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BRIGHT LIGHT: Greens are very green. The camera really loves doing green. If you have a lot of green stuff, this is definitely the camera for you.
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PORTRAIT: Detail disappears a bit when viewed at full size, but results are definitely good enough for social network spamming and printing out to a decent standard.
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LANDSCAPE: Landscape mode produces bright shots, but again you'll notice detail in the distance disappearing into a blurry mush when viewed at original resolution.
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SUNSET: Evening performance is good. The camera calms down on the colour emphasising, doing a nice job of picking out detail even when light is fading, also balancing light and dark areas well.
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INDOORS: Again, contrasting areas of light and dark are handled subtly and rather nicely.
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NIGHT PORTRAIT: When the camera engages its own Night Portrait mode, it's not great. The exposure time rises, which makes it very tough to take a photo that isn't blurry. At least the flash works well and red-eye isn't an issue.
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MACRO: The Xperia Mini auto-detects scenes pretty well, engaging its own macro mode if you get in close.
