Samsung NX10 Review

First time I got hold of the NX10 from Samsung, I thought it’s a nice-looking compact dSLR. Turns out it’s not really an SLR, or even a micro-4/3 or even a hybrid. The Samsung NX10 falls under an entirely new category and Samsung intends to carve a market for it.

For a lack of a proper term, let’s just use “SLR-style” camera when we refer to the Samsung NX10. But first things first, the main features of this camera include:

• 14.6M APS-C CMOS
• Samsung NX Mount (25.5mm flange-back distance)
• 3.0” AM OLED
• 720p HD (MP4 H.264) video recording
• ISO 100 – 3200
• Supersonic Type Dust Reduction
• HDMI (Anynet +)
• 353g wieght
• 123mm x 87mm x 39.8mm dimension

The Samsung NX10 has only been introduced recently and the camera currently comes with 3 inter-changeable lenses and the one that came with this review unit is the pancake ens (30mm f/2.0). We didn’t get to try out the other two but the 30mm should be a good representative of the batch.

The camera body is small and compact — comparable to the size of the Olympus Pen or the Panasonic G1. It’s got a pretty solid construction and a simple design. If you’ve owned a dSLR before, you won’t have any problems familiarizing yourself with the NX10. It’s got both manual controls and the usual pre-sets.

On top of shooting 14.6-megapixel still images, the NX10 can also do 720p movie capture (H.264 @ 30 fps) which is a very useful feature mostly found on a lot of dSLR cameras nowadays .

I used the Auto settings when shooting sample photos and here are several pictures I took using the 30mm f/2.0 pancake lens. The pictures will speak for themselves and attest to the image quality taken by the camera.

They’re in the original state (4592×3056 pixels at 6MB each) so you can closely inspect the image quality (just click on the album to go to PicasaWeb). Generally, the photos are sharp and the colors are vivid. Even at night, the photos are still considerably sharp but already becomes grainy due to the high ISO (range is 100-3200) adjustments. If not, you can always use an external flash or the built-in pop-up flash (didn’t came in with one so we haven’t tested it).

One can also attribute these good shots to the high aperture opening of the pancake lens (30mm f/2). (Note: You’ll need to have a fast SD card here as it takes several seconds to write those 6MB files into the card.)

The 720p video recording is pretty easy take and the camera does it very well at 30 frames per second. Here’s a copy of a video capture I’ve uploaded to YouTube. The format is MP4 (H.264 codec) but the audio is only in mono. I was hoping they’d do stereo here.

Samsung also made the 3-inch screen using AMOLED so the display is amazingly bright and crisp. It also works even under direct sunlight or the outdoors. I think there’s a built-in proximity sensor of sorts since everytime you put your eyes near the viewfinder, the live-view screen turns off automatically.

Currently, the choice of lenses are very limited but Samsung has announced 5 more that will come out later this year: Standard Zoom Lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Non OIS; a Compact Zoom Lens 20-50mm f/3.5-5.6; a Wide Pancake Lens 20mm, f/2.8; a Super Zoom Lens 18-200mm, f/3.5-6.3 OIS and a Macro Lens 60mm f/2.8. It’s a pretty interesting pack, if I may add.

When the Samsung NX10 comes out mid-April, the NX10 Hera (with 80mm lens) will retail for Php40,990USD 698INR 59,214EUR 665CNY 5,087 while the NX10 Apollo (with 30mm lens) will be priced at Php 44,490USD 758INR 64,270EUR 722CNY 5,521. It’s a bit pricey, especially when you compare it to other entry-level dSLR cameras. Samsung aims to target consumers who are looking for dSLR-quality photos but still wants the compact and portability of a point-and-shoot camera.