Wednesday 22 April 2015

Samsung NX1: More thoughts

"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

Look... the adders have been dancing! I'll share some photos at the end of next week, but for now will continue with my thoughts on the Samsung NX1.

Look back to my previous post for initial thoughts, and my conclusions will be early next week.



I am one for a camera having to be comfortable in the hand, and easy to use. You don't want that being an obstacle. Bit of a cliché I guess, but you have to feel like the camera is an extension of you and use it without second thought. I am so used to my Nikon, that I can change settings on the fly without my eye leaving the view finder.

The Samsung NX1 is a comfortable camera in the hand, it would be unfair to compare it to any other camera in this area, as this is all down to personal preference and what you get used to. But it certainly wasn't a pain to have to pick up and use. I mentioned in the last post I felt it was not built to the high standard of other DSLR's in it's price range... feels a bit less solid, protected and the bits that move feel flimsier, but I have had no problems with it up to now.



As with the build, button position is a preference thing and what you get used too. Overall things seem logical on the NX1, but for me personally I think they could improve on it. As I say, I like to change things on the fly... I could do this for most settings that I tinker with, but ISO was difficult and I found myself having to pull away from the view finder. You can a function button on the lens to anything though, so this would be an option.

As someone who uses single point focus, and moves it with the circle button on the back, it was a bit of a stretch with the thumb to use and could of been easier if placed higher. When shooting in portrait mode... it was a real stretch, and quite uncomfortable. A second joystick on the vertical camera grip wold solve this.

The displays were good, and the rear display is simply beautiful! The whole camera is a nice looking thing, but to me just doesn't look like a £2,500 piece of kit.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

The main selling points I have been seeing are the mega pixels, frames per second and ISO. I'll mention FPS at the end of the week, and briefly the others now.

The megapixels are 28mp. This is over double what my Nikon has available... I thought I may not notice it. Not being funny, I think megapixels are sometimes over rated. I can blow up my images to billboard size for the Centre with the 12mp the Nikon offers me as long as the image is good enough in camera, but I soon realised the options extra mp gives you.

The photo above is as it was taken in camera, and below a fairly heavy crop...


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

Still retains all the detail, and I could blow this crop up to a very large size with no loss of quality. Basically, if using the whole frame, the extra mp don't matter. But what the extra mp does do is gives you the option to heavily crop a photo and still have it retain the quality to use at large sizes.

More crops are below to show off the ISO.

Samsung are hailing the high ISO as vein innovative, and producing crystal clear images virtually free of noise even at 25600! I looked at this with a pinch of salt... all new cameras promise revolutionary improvements in noise at high ISO, and few truly deliver, but I was fairly impressed. Certainly no worse than any other camera I have used.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

This image was taken at ISO 400, and below is a crop. I rarely shoot lower than 400 hence no lower ISO images.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

Not sure who this will appear once uploaded and compressed for the blog, but there is no noise.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

Photographing at ISO 800, and again a crop below.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

Minimal noise, and easily comparable to other cameras I have used.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

This little owl was shot with an ISO of 1600.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

The crop shows noise is now creeping in. Remember, I don't do any noise reduction, this is all straight from camera. Personally I think this image is good at 1600... Uncropped it is hardly noticeable, and even zoomed in it is comparable to most other cameras at his range, and better than many I have used.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

Finally, this stoat shot at 3200. Full frame, again not really that noticeable and better than many cameras out there I have used, only bettered by the high end Nikon and Canon cameras.

The crop below shows more noise creeping in, but keep in mind this is 3200 in dull conditions. I was impressed.


"This content is created with the Samsung NX1, which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd."

The camera goes up to 25600. I have no more examples to show you here, but have tried them all... In high continuous shooting mode you can only set the ISO up to 6400. Not sure why, but on single frame or slow continuous shutter you can set it up to the max of 25600.

12800 and 25600 personally I think are not too great. Maybe my expectations are too high, but even uncropped you can see a lot of noise creeping in. Still usable, and I have to say far better than the Nikon I am currently using, but not the "crystal clear" they claim. 6400 is not too bad, and I would push it to this if I had to, but would try and keep to 3200 or below. 800 and below if thinking I need to crop it heavily later.

Anyway, few more thoughts for you there. Frames per second at the end of the week, with a round up the following week. I won't forget the dancing adders... if all goes to schedule, that will be the end of next week. May be able to get a few more of them in the meantime.

Thanks for looking :-)

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