Samsung NX300 Smart Digital Camera - Hands on Field Test

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The meaning of "Digital" in Digital Camera is changing. With the Smart Cameras from Samsung we see the shift one step further from just image capturing devices.

Ok, lets take a closer look at this camera.



First the official specifications

Image Sensor

• CMOS Image Sensor
• 23.5 x 15.7mm Sensor Size
• Approx 20.3 Megapixels
• Approx 21.6 Megapixels
• RGB Primary Colour Filter

Distortion Correct

• LDC On / Off (depends on Lens)

Exposure

• TTL 221 (17 x 13) Block segment
  Metering : Multi, Centre-weighted, SpotMetering range : EV 0-18 (ISO 100 · 30mm, F2)
• ±3 EV (1/3EV step)
• CUSTOM Key applicable
• Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, 25600 (1 or 1/3EV step)
  * AUTO ISO upper level is selectable. (Up to ISO 1600)

White Balance

• Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent (W, N, D), Tungsten, Flash, Custom, K (Manual)
• Each 7 steps in Amber / Blue / Green / Magenta axis

Shooting

• Smart Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Lens Priority, Smart, Wi-Fi
• Beauty Face, Landscape, Macro, Action Freeze, Rich Tone, Panorama, Waterfall, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, Fireworks, Light Trace, Creative Shot, Best Face
• Vignetting, Minature, Coloured Pencil, Watercolour, Wash Drawing, Oil Sketch, Ink Sketch, Acryl, Negative, Selective Colour (R / G / B / Y 4 Colours)
• JPEG (3:2)：20M (5472 x 3648), 10.1M (3888 x 2592), 5.9M (2976 x 1984), 2M (1728 x 1152), 5M (2736 x 1824) : Burst mode only JPEG (16:9)：16.9M (5472 x 3080), 7.8M (3712 x 2088), 4.9M (2944 x 1656), 2.1M (1920 x 1080) JPEG (1:1) ：13.3M (3648 x 3648), 7M (2640 x 2640), 4M (2000 x 2000), 1.1M (1024 x 1024) RAW : 20M (5472 x 3648) * 3D Lens Image Size : JPEG (16:9) 4.1M (2688 x 1512), (16:9) 2.1M (1920 x 1080)
• Super fine , Fine, Normal
• SRW (ver.2.0.0)
• sRGB / Adobe RGB

Physical Specification

• 122 x 63.7 x 40.7mm (excluding the projection part)
• 284 g (without battery)
• 0 - 40°C Operating Temperature
• 5 - 85% Operating Humidity

System Requirement

• PC with processor better than Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 2.2 GHz or higher
  Minimum 512MB RAM (Over 1GB recommended) Windows XP SP2 / Vista / 7 / 8250MB of available hard-disk space (Over 1GB recommend) USB 2.0 port CD-ROM drive nVIDIA Geforce 7600GT or later / Ati X1600 series or later 1024 x 768 pixels, 16-bit colour display compatible monitor (1280 x 1024, 32-bit colour display recommended) Microsoft DirectX 9.0c or later
• Mac OS 10.5 or higher Minimum 256MB RAM Minimum 110MB of available hard-disk space USB port CD-ROM drive
  

Pretty small camera but still not pocketable, depending on the lens you mount.


your right thumb can reach all of the controls, also note the dedicated movie recording button.


USB port and a HDMI port on the right side, the use of a USB port for charging allows me to charge the camera with external batteries and also no bulky chargers to bring along, all devices should follow this standard.

Interface

• USB 2.0 (micro USB Jack)
• NTSC, PALHDMI 1.4a
• External Release available
• DC 5V, 1A via Micro USB port

The 3.31" (84mm) AMOLED Tilt Display flips up 90º and down 45º, useful for overhead and low angle of view shots
NFC too! to connect to other NFC capable devices.

Display

• AMOLED with Touch (C-type Touch Control Enabled) and Tilt (Up 90°, Down 45°)
• 84mm (3.31")
• WVGA ( 800 x 480 ) 768k dots (Pentile)
• Approx 100% Field of View
• Grid (4types), Histgram, Icons : On / Off, Distance Scale : ft / m / Off

 

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Power

• Rechargeable battery : BP1130 (1130mAh)
• 160 min / 320 shots (CIPA Standard)

Storage

• SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-1 Support
• RAW (SRW ver2.0.0), JPEG (EXIF 2.21), MPO(for 3D), DCF, DPOF 1.1
• 20M : RAW 3920M (3:2) : Super Fine 130, Fine 163, Normal 21710.1M (3:2) : Super Fine 277, Fine 356, Normal 5055.9M (3:2) : Super Fine 471, Fine 570, Normal 7272M (3:2) : Super Fine 1053, Fine 1426, Normal 1941 Burst (5M) : Super Fine 430, Fine 514, Normal 63816.9M (16:9) : Super Fine 153, Fine 190, Normal 2517.8M (16:9) : Super Fine 346, Fine 417, Normal 5684.9M (16:9) : Super Fine 512, Fine 670, Normal 8962.1M (16:9) : Super Fine 1015, Fine 1349, Normal 170013.3M (1:1) : Super Fine 217, Fine 227, Normal 2847M (1:1) : Super Fine 336, Fine 465, Normal 5924M (1:1) : Super Fine 559, Fine 752, Normal 12031.1M (1:1) : Super Fine 2149, Fine 2471, Normal 2819 Movie : 1920 x 1080 60p: High Quality 10m 10s, Normal 12m 43s 1920 x 1080 30p : High Quality 17m 41s, Normal 22m 9s 1920 x 810 24p : High Quality 21m 35s, Normal 27m 2s 1280 x 720 60p: High Quality 16m 51s, Normal 21m 6s 1280 x 720 30p: High Quality 29m 11s, Normal 36m 35s 640 x 480 30p : High Quality 120m 47s, Normal 153m 30s 320 x 240 30p: High Quality 218m 48s, Normal 278m 24s
  *These figures are measure under the Samsung standard.

S/W and PC OS

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, iLauncher, Adobe Reader

Yes you saw that correctly, it comes with a copy of Adobe Lightroom

Lens

• Samsung Lenses for Samsung NX Mount
• Samsung NX Mount

i-Function

• i-Depth, i-Zoom (x 1.2, 1.4, 1.7, 2.0)

Focusing

• Phase Detection & Contrast AF
• Single AF, Continuous AF, MF, Touch AF&Shutter
• Total AF Point : 105 points (Phase Detection AF), 247 points (Contrast AF) Selection : 1 point ( Free selection ) Multi : Normal 21 (3 x 7) points (Cross point 1), Closeup 35 points
  Face Detection : Max. 10 faces
• AF-Assist Lamp available

Drive Mode

• Single, Continuous, Burst (5M size only), Self-timer, Bracket (AE / WB / PW)
• JPEG : High (8.6fps) , Normal (up to 5fps) selectableBurst : 10, 15, 30fps selectable, 30 shots by 1 release
  RAW : High (8.6fps), Normal (up to 5fps) selectable
• Auto Exposure Bracket (±3EV), WB, PW
• 2 - 30sec. (1sec. step)
• via Micro USB port

Dynamic Range Expansion

• OFF / Smart Range+ / HDR

Image Play

• Single image, Thumbnails (3 / 15 / 40 images), Slide show, Movie
• Smart Filter, Red-eye fix, Backlight., Resize, Rotate, Face Retouch, Brightness, Contrast
• Vignetting, Minature, Coloured Pencil, Watercolour, Wash Drawing, Oil Sketch, Ink Sketch, Acryl, Negative, Selective Colour (R / G / B / Y 4 Colours)

Languages

• 29 Languages (Korean, English, Danish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Czech, French, Portuguese, Polish, Finnish, Russian, Norsk, Simplified / Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Thai, Greek, Hungarian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian,Serbian, Croatian)

Wireless

• IEEE 802.11b/g/n support Dual Channel. AutoShare. Cloud. Email. Auto Backup. Remote Viewfinder. Mobile Link. Wi-Fi Direct. AllSharePlay. Social Sharing

Image Stabilization

• Lens Shift (Depends on Lens)
• OIS Mode1 / Mode2 / OFF

Dust Reduction

• Supersonic drive Dust Reduction Type

Shutter Speed

• Electronically controlled vertical-run focal plane shutter
• Auto：1/6000sec. ~ 30sec. Manual：1/6000sec. ~ 30sec. (1/3EV step) Bulb (Limit time : 4min.)

Flash

• External Flash only (Bundle with SEF8A)
• Smart Flash, Auto, Auto+Red-eye reduction, Fill-in, Fill-in+Red-eye reduction, 1st Curtain, 2nd Curtain, Off
• 8 (at ISO 100) (SEF8A)
• 28mm wide-angle (Equivalent to 35mm)
• Less than 1/180sec.
• -2 - +2EV (1/2EV step)
• Samsung External Flash available
• Hot Shoe

Picture Wizard

• Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, Custom (1 ~ 3)
• Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, Colour

Movie Clip

• MP4 (H.264)
• Movie : H.264 , Sound : AAC
• Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual
• With Audio or without Audio (user selectable, recording time : 29 minutes 59 seconds)
• Vignetting, Minature, Coloured Pencil, Watercolour, Wash Drawing, Oil Sketch, Ink Sketch, Acryl, Negative, Selective Colour (R / G / B / Y 4 Colours) (1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, 640 x 480, 320 x 240)
• 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 810, 1280 x 720 , 640 x 480, 320 x 240 for Sharing
• 60fps, 30fps, 24fps (1920 x 810 Only) (* 3D - 30fps Only)
• x0.25 (640, 320 only), x0.5 (1280, 640, 320 only), x5, x10, x20
• High Quality , Normal
• Stereo Sound
• Still Image Capture, Time Trimming

GPS

• Geo-tagging w / Optional GPS Module (WGS84)

 

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to be cont. lots of pictures

 

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lets start with some high ISO Noise tests

 

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what do you think?

 

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just in time for a test shoot

 

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and the final XMM picture

 

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time for some food

 

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will post more later

like what you see so far?

 

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with the 60mm macro lens

 

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out in the sunlight

 

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in the dark interior of a temple

 

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f5.6 1/80s ISO200


f5.6 1/60s ISO200


f5.6 1/60s ISO200