CSC with a touch of class
There’s lots of action right now in the
compact system camera (CSC) segment, which pairs compact camera bodies with
interchangeable lenses for a DSLR-like experience without the internal mirror
or associated bulk. It’s an area where Samsung has been making steady headway
with an expanding range of lenses that now includes a new 45mm prime lens for
shooting 3D stills and movies.
It works exclusively with the latest
arrival - the faux leather-clad Samsung NX300. The Samsung NX300 is priced at
$748, making it the same price as the Samsung NX1000 when it came out, and
considerably cheaper than the Samsung NX210 and Samsung NX20’s original full
prices. Retro credentials aside, this camera bears more than a passing
resemblance to its siblings, the Samsung NX210 and NX1000.
It’s
an area where Samsung has been making steady headway with an expanding range of
lenses that now includes a new 45mm prime lens for shooting 3D stills and
movies.
There are similarities elsewhere, too, with
each model - and Samsung NX20, which is the only one to feature an integrated
electronic viewfinder - sporting a 20.3MP APS-C sensor.
The Samsung NX300 boasts 14 scene modes,
with the usual suspects supplemented by more creative options for blurring
moving water and shooting streaking headlights at night.
There’s no dedicated movie mode, which in
our book is a plus. You can shoot movies in any regular stills mode and won’t
risk missing a shot the next time you switch back on.
Best quality footage hits 60fps at 1,920 x
1,080, unless you’ve opted for the 3D lens, in which case it’s halved to 30fps.
If that’s a bit rich for your needs you can trim the res as far as 320 x 240,
and the frame rate to 24fps.There’s a flash in the box, but it’s not
integrated.
Build quality
We’ve got no complaints where build is
concerned. The Samsung NX300 may be slightly heavier than its predecessors, but
the body has a reassuring rigidity to it, and it’s capped by a brushed aluminum
top plate. Access to the battery and card slot is through a flap beneath the
grip, which is sufficiently offset from the mount point not to foul a tripod
head, so you can change your battery or card without detaching it.
Around the back, the bright AMO LED screen
is easy to use in direct sunlight, and it’s larger than most rivals, stretching
to 3.31 inches/84mm corner to corner. It’s articulated, so you can tilt it up
and down to reach more creative angles, and it’s the first touch-sensitive
screen on Samsung’s semi-pro lineup.
The regular full menus are clearly
structured and organized across tabs. Each of the entries is large enough to
accurately target with a fairly chunky finger, and any controls that need to be
dragged are responsive. There’s a dedicated Wi-Fi position on the mode dial
that enables you to access a range of functions, including backing up shots to
Microsoft SkyDrive or shooting direct to your PC or Mac.
The
regular full menus are clearly structured and organized across tabs
Performance
Samsung claims a maximum autofocus speed of
0.08 seconds courtesy of the Samsung NX300’s combined phase detection and
contrast AF system. It has 105 phase detection focus points, and 247 contrast
focus points. It works well in general use, even in poor light, and the option
to tap the screen to set the point of focus manually is much quicker than
stepping between a limited number of points using hardware buttons. It also
sports face detection for up to a maximum of 10 faces in any frame. Detail is
crisp in both raw files and JPEGs, and colors are spot on, in images shot both
in well-lit conditions and under overcast skies.
Image quality
Samsung has thrown every feature and
top-end spec it could at the NX300, and it’s paid off. A large, vibrant screen,
20.3 megapixel sensor, 1/6000 sec maximum shutter speed and best focus time of
just 0.08 seconds should be enough to satisfy all but a very small number Of
Ultra High-End users.
Image quality is great and colors are
accurate, although the kit lens doesn’t get the best from the high pixel count,
especially if you shoot JPEG images. Low light performance is good, too, which
gives you the freedom to shoot in situations that might otherwise give you
pause for thought.
The overall image quality was hard to
fault, and it should be easy for even novices to achieve high quality results
thanks to the integral smart shooting modes and the intuitive iFunction lens
system.
The
overall image quality was hard to fault, and it should be easy for even novices
to achieve high quality results thanks to the integral smart shooting modes and
the intuitive iFunction lens system
The Samsung NX300, like the Samsung NX210
and Samsung NX200 before it, sits at the larger end of the scale, with a lens
that rivals that of a traditional DSLR for bulk and a body that’s considerably
larger than a compact camera.
Although this is easily accounted for by
the larger sensor, we would love for Samsung to find some way to trim it down
just a little to create a truly compact system camera but this aside, it’s a
very impressive device.
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Samsung
NX300
·
Weight: 284g (without battery)
·
Dimensions: 122 x 63.7 x 40.7mm
·
Output Size: 5472 x 3648
·
Sensor: 23.5 x 15.7mm 20.3MP CMOS
·
Focal Length Mag: 1.5x
·
LCD: AMOLED 3.3in, 768k dots touch screen
·
File Format: Raw, JPEG
·
Shutter Speeds: 30secs- 1/6000sec
·
Exposure Modes: Smart Auto, Program, Aperture
Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Lens Priority, Smart, Wi-Fi
·
Compression: Super fine, Fine, Normal
·
Color Space: sRGB / Adobe RGB
·
Metering System: TTL 221 (17 x 13) Block
segment
·
White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy,
Fluorescent (W, N, D), Tungsten, Flash, Custom, K (Manual)
·
Memory Card: SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-1 Support
·
Connectivity: USB 2.0 (micro USB Jack), Wi-Fi,
NFC
·
Power: BP1130 re-chargable
·
Max Flash Sync: 1/180 sec
·
Built-in Image Stabilization: No
·
Dust Reduction: Yes
·
Exposure Comp: +/-3EV (1/3EV step)
·
White Balance Bracket: Auto Exposure Bracket
(+3EV), WB, PW
·
Color Temp Control: Yes
·
Drive Mode: 8.6fps
·
Lens Mount: Samsung NX
·
Live Mode: Yes
·
Viewfinder Type: N/A
·
Field of View: N/A
·
Focusing Modes: Single AF, Continuous AF, MF,
Touch AF & Shutter
·
AF Points: 105 points (Phase Detection AF),
247 points (Contrast AF)
·
DoF Preview: No
·
PC Socket: No
·
Built-in Flash: No
·
ISO: 100-25,600
·
Video: Full HD (1920x1080) 50,25,24p
·
Movie Mode: Yes
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