Samsung NX100 Brief Hands-on Preview ~ Digital Photography Review

Added Jan 6, 2010, Under: Samsung

Preview based on a pre-production Samsung NX100

New new new samsung was the first company outside the Little Four Thirds wide range to launch a mirrorless interchangable relationships picture digital photographic camera. The incredibly DSLR-like NX10 designed little pressure about its mirrorless development, focusing instead on providing acquainted capbilities and actions in less scaly program with little relationships. Now its sibling design, the NX100 needs a a little bit different strategy - it eschews the conventional design of the NX10 and instead preserves the easier review of a lightweight picture digital photographic camera. And, although its stylistic minimalism makes it appear somewhat monolithic, it's almost similar in sizing to its apparent co-workers - the Panasonic GF1 and Olympus E-P2.

The power digital camera's more lightweight measurements sound right of Samsung's formerly declared 20-50mm F3.5-5.6 'compact zoom capability ability capability lens' that comes together with the NX100. It's a sinkable zoom capability ability capability that is instantly just like the Olympus 14-42mm kit zoom capability ability capability for Little Four Thirds. It isn't picture continuous and, beginning at 30 mm comparative, isn't quite as versatile as most kit zooms (which usually start at 27 or 28mm equiv), but it does mean the picture digital photographic camera program continues to be awesome and little even with the zoom capability ability capability set up.

The actual requirements is quite just like the NX10 - it uses the same 14.6 mega-pixel indication, power and wonderful VGA-equivalent OLED display but it income a wide range of features and modifications that NX10 entrepreneurs will wish to get later on firmware up-dates. However there's one significant omission - the NX100 doesn't have a built-in display.

Probably the greatest obtain is a operate New new new samsung has known as i-Function. The two relationships released together with the NX100 - there's a 20mm F2.8 primary as well as the 20-50mm - both operate an 'iFn' option on their staying flanks that allow the concentrate jewelry to be used to control various picture digital photographic camera features. Based on getting operate iFn can be used to improve shutter quantity, aperture and visibility contract with the option to add ISO and shiny stability, determined by on how you way to use the picture digital photographic camera.

In addition there are a sequence of changes that help create the picture digital photographic camera more personalized - the option to choose the greatest ISO value the picture digital photographic camera will use in Vehicle ISO, for example. In themselves these are little changes but they're the types of solutions that allow customers to better modify the picture digital photographic camera to their way of managing, which we like to see.

The NX100's unadorned design makes it look rather large but it's of a similar size to the Olympus E-P2 (and, consequently Panasonic's GF1), despite using a larger sensor. It can't compete with the whittled-down minimalism of Sony's NEX-5 though.


When the standard kit zooms are taken into account, the NEX loses some of its size advantage, particularly against the Samsung and Olympus which have retractable zooms. However, while the Olympus and Sony both offer ranges of around 28-82mm equivalent, the Samsung offers the more restrictive 30-75mm. It's also worth noting that both the other combinations here offer image stabilization, either in the camera or in the zoom lens, which the Samsung doesn't.

Accessories

Alongside the NX100, Samsung has launched a range of accessories, including a flashgun, GPS unit and EVF that slots into the back of the camera.

	The SEF-15A flash has a guide number of 15 (at ISO 100), giving it a similar output to the built-in units in most DSLRs. It's powered by two AAA batteries and, though it can cover focal lengths as wide as 28mm equivalent, it cannot be tilted or bounced.
	Samsung has gone down the now familiar sub-hot shoe accessory port route.
	This allows connections of the optional EVF10 viewfinder. It's a 201,000 dot unit, giving an effective resolution of 320 x 224 pixels. It offers 0.83x magnification and 98% coverage.
	There's also a GPS unti available that slots into the hot shoe. There are a series of menu options on the camera to control it but, having only seen a mockup it's not clear the degree to which the unit will communicate with the camera.