How to enable continuous shooting on Xiaomi: the complete guide

Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a situation where you need to capture a fast-moving object or an emotional moment that lasts only a fraction of a second. The standard mode of photography, taking one shot at the press of a button, is often powerless here, because it is easy to miss the perfect angle.

Fortunately, in the MIUI shell and the new HyperOS, developers have provided several ways to implement this feature, although they are not always obvious to the beginner. Unlike standard camera applications where everything is brought to the surface, in Xiaomi, some options can be hidden or require a certain sequence of actions. Understanding how the memory buffer and image processing algorithms work will help you get better results.

In this article, we will take a closer look at all the available methods for activating continuous photos, consider the resolution and speed settings, and talk about how to avoid common errors that lead to frame blur.

Basic method of activation through long pressing

The easiest and most common way to start serial shooting on most Xiaomi models is to use long-term shutter pressing. This method works in standard Photo mode and does not require switching to complex settings menus. You just need to open the Camera app and point the lens at the object.

When you press the down button, the device will start taking high-frequency shots while you're holding your finger on the screen. The number of frames per second depends on the CPU power and the speed of writing to the internal drive. It's important to understand that at this point, autofocus and exposure can be recalculated periodically, which sometimes leads to spikes in the brightness in the series.

It is worth noting that on some older models or when shooting at maximum resolution (for example, 108 MP or 200 MP), this method can work with delays. In such cases, the system forcibly reduces the speed of serial shooting to have time to process each frame.

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For maximum speed, turn off the AI Camera option in the camera settings, as it takes time to analyze the scene for each frame.

Once you release your finger, all the images you take are saved as a separate album or group, and the MIUI smart sorting system automatically prompts you to select the best shots from the series, marking the ones where the eyes are open and the lubrication is minimal, saving you a lot of time when selecting photos.

Using Burst Shot Mode in the Camera Interface

In the updated versions of the camera interface Xiaomi often has a separate tool, which is called Burst Shot or "Series", which can be placed in an additional menu of modes, which opens swipe to the right or left in the lower menu of scene selection, which is optimized specifically for sports and action.

Unlike a simple long-press, Burst mode can have its own resolution and save format settings. Here you may encounter a limit on the number of frames in a single series or the duration of recording. The interface usually shows a real-time frame count, which helps control the process.

Activating this mode requires pre-preparedness, and you need to make sure that there is enough free space in the device's memory, because a continuous stream of high-quality data quickly fills the buffer, and if the memory is overflowing, the shooting will be interrupted automatically.

• 📸 Open the Camera app and find the “More” menu or swipe by modes.
• ⚙️ Select "Series" or "Burst" from the list of available scenes.
• 🎯 Point the camera at the object and press the down button to start recording the series.
• 🛑 Release the button to stop the process and proceed to editing.

Some users prefer this method because it visually separates the regular photos from the serial ones without mixing them in the general gallery feed, making it easier to navigate through media files, especially if you take a lot of pictures throughout the day.

Set up parameters in Pro-mode for advanced

For those who want to have full control of the process, there's Pro mode (Manual), where you can set shutter speed, ISO and focal length, which is critical for shooting fast-moving objects without lubricating. This mode also has a serial shooting feature, but it works differently.

In manual mode, you can lock exposure and focus so that they don't "jump" between frames. This provides stable brightness and sharpness throughout the series. To activate continuous shooting in Pro mode, you often need to pinch the down button or use a separate setting in the mode settings menu.

Pro-mode settings:


1. Shutter speed: 1/500 seconds and shorter (for freezing traffic)




ISO: Auto or minimum possible (for noise reduction)




Focus: Manual (MF) - fix on the object

You need to be prepared to use manual settings, you need to get the lighting in advance to set the settings right, and if you get the shutter speed wrong, all the frames in the series can be dark or, conversely, illuminated.

⚠️ Warning: When shooting in Pro mode with short exposure in the room, additional lighting may be required, since the matrix will not have time to gain light in a fraction of a second.

Also worth mentioning is the RAW format. If you turn on RAW save in Pro mode, the speed of serial shooting drasticaly will drop due to the huge file size. For fast series, it is better to use standard JPEG or HEIF.

Comparison of shooting modes and their impact on speed

Different camera modes affect your device performance and total frames per second differently, and understanding these differences will help you choose the best scenario for your particular situation. Below is a table showing how fast you shoot depends on your chosen parameters.

As you can see from the table, top speeds are achieved in standard mode using pixel binning technology (combining pixels to improve light sensitivity). Ultra-high resolution modes sacrifice speed for detail, making them unsuitable for shooting fast motion.

In addition, turning on various beauty filters or retouches in real time can also reduce the performance of the image processing (ISP).If your goal is to capture a moment, it is better to temporarily turn off all the "improvers".

Solving delays and lags

A common problem for Xiaomi users is lag (latency) when shooting serially, when the phone “thinks” after a series of 5-10 frames. This is due to overflow of the RAM buffer or slow writing to the flash drive. To minimize this effect, it is recommended to periodically restart the device.

It's also worth checking if there are a lot of heavy applications running in the background that consume CPU resources. Closing unnecessary tasks can free up the necessary power to quickly process the photo stream. In some cases, cleaning the camera application cache through system settings helps.

If the problem persists, it may be overheating, because the long-term active operation of the camera heats up the smartphone, and the system artificially lowers the performance (trottling) to protect the components.

• 🔥 Watch the temperature of the body - overheating causes brakes.
• 🗑️ Clean the gallery from unnecessary videos and photos for speed.
• 🔄 Update the Camera app via GetApps Store or Google Play.

⚠️ Note: Use of cheap microSD cards of low speed class (below Class) 10/U3) can completely block the possibility of fast serial shooting, if the photos are saved to the map.

Analysis and selection of the best frames in the series

Once the series is done, it's a matter of processing. The Xiaomi Gallery offers a handy tool for working with photo groups. When you open the album, you'll see a stack of photos marked with a serial icon. When you click on it, you'll go to the frame-by-frame scroll mode.

Here you can select some of the best shots and save them as separate files, deleting the rest so you don't take up space. MIUI algorithms often asterisk the best shots based on sharpness and facial expressions, which is especially useful when shooting children or animals.

You can use a built-in editor or third-party applications to process the image in depth. Since the frames in the series have the same exposure settings (unless you used auto-mode with changing parameters), batch processing will apply edits to all selected photos at once.

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Use the Save Selected feature to avoid storing dozens of duplicates while taking up your phone’s memory, and leave only the best moments.

Remember, the original files of a series shoot can be very large, and cleaning up a series of bad ones regularly is a good habit for keeping order in the digital archive, and it will also speed up the gallery app itself.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)