We’ve recently done some shooting
with Samsung’s NX20 compact system camera. Here a few of its pros and cons.
Pros
Electronic viewfinder
Due to a lack of regular DSLR mirror, the
viewfinder on the NX20 is not optical; nonetheless the electronic viewfinder
(EVF) offers a decent alternative with a very good 1 4440 000 dots crammed into
it. If you don’t want to use the EVF, the swivel type 3” AMOLED screen (a so-so
614 000 dots) at the back will have to suffice.
Samsung
NX20
Built-in Wi-Fi
Samsung is quite sharp with their Smart
range of cameras that features built-in Wi-Fi. Although it demands a fair bit
of setup and installation, once done and connected to a network, your camera
can auto backup to a selected PC; display pictures wirelessly on Android
smartphones; backup to Skydrive; or even mail images directly off the camera.
Pretty smart indeed, but you might find yourself struggling to troubleshoot
problems.
Custom setting and loads of
customization
Very few, if any, entry-level APS-C cameras
provide a custom setting directly on the top dial. With this you can, for
example, save a fast setup for shooting sport and another for monochrome, with
three custom slots available. With both top mounted scroll wheel, and a circular
d-pad dial at the back, you can adjust your aperture and speed in a heartbeat –
a feature usually found only in prosumer DSLR cameras.
It’s damn fast
Eight frames per second is fast in anyone’s
language, but for an entry-level consumer offering it’s excellent.
Cons
Bad battery life
Since the camera displays everything you
view electronically, it draws a lot of the battery, and the 1300 mAh
rechargeable battery is simply not up to the challenge. Seriously consider a
second battery if you intend to shoot often.
Since
the camera displays everything you view electronically, it draws a lot of the
battery
Autofocus searching
Unlike the Olympus OM-D EM-5 (granted it’s
more than double the price of the Samsung), we did have problems with the
NX20’s autofocus. It sometimes hunted for focus, requiring a second press of
the autofocus to latch on to the correct position.
Lack of second hand market
Unlike cameras from Canon or Nikon, your
second hand market for NX-mount lenses is very limited (that’s true of the rest
of the CSC manufacturers to). So if you opt for one of the other NX-mount
lenses, know that you’ll most probably have to dish out for a new one.
Unlike
cameras from Canon or Nikon, your second hand market for NX-mount lenses is
very limited (that’s true of the rest of the CSC manufacturers to).
New Samsung flagship camera
At CES 2013, the NX300 surpassed the NX20
as Samsung’s flagship model. This compact system camera includes a redesigned
20 megapixel sensor and hybrid autofocus (contrast and phase detection) for
fast autofocusing. Although it looks a lot like its older brother, the NX210,
the NX300’s 3.3” screen at the back can tilt upwards and downwards, much like
Sony’s NX range. No electronic viewfinder is included, so you’re pretty
dependent on this AMOLED screen (785k dots) for composition. The good news is
that it’s also touchscreen, which should enhance navigation through the menu
structure much easier. The bad news? Smudgy fingerprints might make composition
on the screen difficult.
Samsung
NX300
As we’ve seen with a number of new Samsung
cameras, there’s Wi-Fi onboard, allowing one to connect to a smartphone and
then post pictures directly from the camera to Facebook. Images can be saved in
the cloud, or auto backed-up on PC. The new NX300 is smaller than the NX20,
while featuring in-camera HDR and more autofocus points, making the fact that
it will apparently also be cheaper all the more delectable. It should launch in
the 2ndquarter of 2013, with no price available yet.
The Korean tech giant also introduced the
NX 45mm F1.8 2D/3D lens. According to Samsung, this is the first one-lens 3D
system capable of capturing both still images and full HD movies in 3D quality.
It’s debatable if the 3D trend has not all but passed, but nonetheless, users
of this lens will be able to capture both 3D stills and movies to playback on
3D televisions, with Samsung of course being able to help in that last regard
too.
|
Specifications
§
Price: $1,078
§
Sensor type: CMOS
§
Sensor size: 23.5 x 15.7mm
§
Total pixel: Approx. 21.6 Mega-pixels
§
Display type: Swivel Type AMOLED
§
Display size: 3”
§ Resolution:
VGA (640 x 480) 614k dots
|
