Samsung Digital Camera, Camcorder, Review, Photogallery, Travel: This is the NX10 a new concept lens interchangeable camera from Samsung

Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera Samsung NX10

Finally, the hero in the rumor from 2009 is being released. It’s the NX10 a new concept lens interchangeable camera from Samsung.

The NX10 has both advantages of hardware of DSLRs and convenient use of compact digital cameras.

It will be released with the NX lenses such as 18-55mm F3.5-5.6, 50-200mm F4-5.6, and 30mm pancake lens and has 123×87×39.8mm of size and 353g of weight. 23.4×15.6mm size APC-S type CMOS is installed in the camera with 14.6M pixels. The reason I introduce this with Samsung’s own lenses is that it supports ‘Contrast AF’.

Unlike most of the DSLR cameras has phase based AF, this product has Contrast AF which sets focus by using the difference of contrast, so it has live view with 100% of visibility and VGA level Electronic Viewfinder. Moreover, unlike the common sense ‘Contrast AF is slower than phase based AF, because the body and lens are communicated’, the NX10 allows fast focusing and high speed continuous shots, and with the NX lens having OIS, more vivid pictures without hand-blur can be taken.

On the left and right side of the NX10, memory slot for up to 4GB of SD card and 8GB of SDHC card, DC IN port, Shutter release port, HDMI, USB/AV OUT port are located.

The BP1310 Li-Ion battery taking 150 minutes to be fully charged allows taking 400 pictures and recording 130 min of videos. By using a power saving mode appropriately, more time can be secured, but like we take an additional memory, an additional memory would be better. If you use a built-in flash, it’s needed more.

The mode dial of the NX10 is similar to a mode dial of DSLR cameras. Program mode P, aperture A, shutter S, and manual M are located. These modes allow users to take their own pictures and by their preference, sometimes there are frequently used mode and setting values.

Night Scenery, Portrait, Smart Auto, and Video for 720p HD can be selected by this mode dial and on the upper side, dial for adjustment and shutter button are located. On the left, flash button and built-in speaker are located and on the center, Hot shoe for an external flash is located.

The NX10 has 640×480 610K pixels 3” (7.6cm) AMOLED for better outdoor visibility and 920K EVF with the same resolution makes the camera mirrorless and look like a DSLR, and it also helps get more visibility under the daylight. For your reference, eye sensor is located on the right below for automatic screen change when using the viewfinder.

On the left upper side from the AMOLED, menu button and EVF eye sight adjustment dial are located. Through the dial, focus of eyes and viewfinder can be adjusted and on the right side, DISP and Fn buttons are located. If you don’t know what you see while setting things, please push the DISP button. Then you will see detailed explanation of the menu.

Under the Fn button, direction key (5 way) is located and AF/MF which is a selection among Single, continuous auto focus, and manual focus, White Balance, ISO from 100 to 3200, Metering among spot, center weighted, and multi can be made. Playback and delete button are located. The delete button can load Picture Wizard function to adjust color, saturation, sharpness, and contrast and 3 different settings can be saved allowing more various color shootings.

I felt more convenience in arrangement of exposure buttons and function setting like AEL, exposure correction, and green button while using the NX10 than other DSLRs. Exposure is one of the most important components in shooting. Frequently used exposure correction button and AEL button play an important role. Especially, after pushing AEL button, the exposure value will be maintained until the next shooting, so for different angle shooting, the same exposure can conveniently be applied and through other settings, focus lock or both lock can be set.

While changing modes and setting values, sometimes we miss something. Especially, in exposure correction and selection AF, we need to change the location of focus a lot by using the dial, but we used to forget to change it and take it with the previous value. On the upper side of the NX10, the green button initializes frequently used settings such as exposure correction, focus, program shife, detailed setting of Picture Wizard, and micro adjustment of white balance by one click, so it’s very convenient and easy to use, because it’s located right behind the shutter and dial.

Pushing DISP button, various information is displayed on the screen. Especially, looking at various setting information, it looks like a compact digital camera. Even if you get accustomed to those button I explained, it’s very important to check the current status.

They are the screens of Program P, Aperture A, Shutter S, and M manual mode. Basically, these 4 modes are controlled by the combination of dial and exposure correction button. For example, in A mode, aperture value is adjusted by dial, and while holding the exposure correction button, exposure value is adjusted. It’s convenient to adjust it in the AMOLED. For example, blub exposure for Night Scenery, Fireworks, and celestial body can be set by rotating dial once more from shutter speed 30 sec in manual mode.

From these 4 modes, by pushing Fn button, 7 settings are possible such as photo size, quality, AF, flash, color space, Smart Range, and OIS (Only OIS lens).

I don’t think additional explanation is always good in the world a lot of camera clubs out there. I think it’s more important to understand the specification and feature of the lens, take your own shots even in inclement weather conditions, and enjoy the results..

Samsung has investigated what customers want in the compact digital camera market and through their convenient functions, they’ve been doing great with normal users. Let’s take a look at the convenient modes on the powerful hardware of the NX10.

Convenient modes representing Samsung cameras such as ‘Night’, ‘Portrait’, ‘Landscape’, ‘Scene’, and ‘Smart Auto’ have been strongly supported by customers. Especially, ‘Portrait’, ‘Scene’, and ‘Smart Auto’ would be even more convenient and cool, because various lenses can be mounted. These modes can basically take shots with changing exposure according to the F value of lenses. The screen next to each mode can be edited by pushing Fn button and different by each mode. For example, in ‘Portrait’ mode, ‘Face Detection AF’ and ‘Self Guide AF’ up to 10 faces, in ‘Scene mode’, 9 scene modes, and in ‘Smart auto’, 16 scenes are automatically recognized.

The NX10 can take 720p HD video for 25 min. And it also supports 640 or 320 resolution video recording for web site. Program (P) setting aperture automatically and Aperture (A) which users set aperture can be set. With them, a fader effect which gets darker or brighter at the beginning or ending can be applied.

This camera has 3 shooting menus, normal setting menu, and 1 user setting menu.

The NX10 supports various images like as 3:2 size 4592 X 3056 of 14M to 1929 X 1280 of 2M and 16:9 size 4592 X 2584 of 12M to1920 X 1080 of 2M and 4592 X 3056 RAW images. 9 White balance options and up to ISO 3200 from 100 are supported. When it comes to Color Space, it needs more explanation. When printing out images by using cameras or printers, the range of color reproduction is different and it is called Color Space. Therefore, in order to match colors, there are some standards. For the color reproduction in LCD monitor, printer, and Samsung RAW converter 3, sRGB is good enough. For your information, the file extension of the RAW is SRW and when taking shots in Adobe RGB mode, ‘-‘ will be put on the front of the file name.

Shooting 2 menu like managing light has a lot of AF mode settings by using 5 way direction key. Especially, because AF area and metering determine the location of focus and the area, it affects a lot on the color feeling. When it comes to a flash as an auxiliary light, there are 1^st curtain sync, and 2^nd curtain sync. It selects when the flash goes off such as when the shutter is opening or closing.

Above images were taken in continuous shooting. The NX10 takes 3 shots per sec and in Burst mode, 30 shots per sec in 1472×976 resolution. Bracket taking 3 consecutive shots with +- level of different Exposure, White balance, and Picture Wizard is supported.

Shooting 3 menu is a Bracketing menu. Generally, bracketing takes different shots with +- exposure and blue and amber or magenta and green among 4 colors such as Green, Amber, magenta, and Blue. When taking outdoor shots or making another feeling from the same picture, it’s useful. Picture Wizard BKT takes 3 consecutive shots with 3 different user settings. I’d like to recommend using Smart Range for normal users and it automatically corrects loss due to the difference in the shading of the picture. ISO 100 can’t be selected if using this, but by pushing Fn button, it can be changed.

User setting has convenience of controls. When it comes to exposure compensation which is the most frequently used function in the NX10, it can be set to 1/3 or 1/2 drop when rotating a dial once. It’s better to set high sensitivity and long time noise reduction. Display setting coming out by DISP button can be selected from icon, guideline, and histogram.

The most convenient function of the user setting is AEL and depth preview button. Especially, for AEL, exposure, focus, or both can be set or and depth preview button is more convenient if selecting one touch White balance.

When it comes to normal setting, Setting 1 and 2 have basic settings such as format, initialization, and language. However, Setting 3 has features of the NX10. It has a sensor cleaning function which cleans the APS-C CMOS sensor. Ultra sonic type sensor cleaning can be used from the menu and automatic cleaning is also possible when booting. Through Samsung Anynet+, various products from Samsung can be connected together and HDMI output is also available.

I liked the firmware update the most. Previously, film cameras became luxurious items, but in DSLR generation, the firmware update is the best way to make it more perfect in various environments. For your information, the firmware update of the NX10 is separately provided for the body firmware and lens firmware.

Images seeing from AMOLED are great in the NX10. They are even better than a monitor. The images can be sorted by file, date(day), and week.

I remember that I talked about the possibility of domestic DSLR cameras with camera manias. There were optimists and pessimists, but there was no made in Korea at that time.

The NX10 is the first lens interchangeable type camera not just from Samsung, but from Korea having its own lens mount. This means a lot, but comparing the size of the APS-C CMOS with DSLR cameras, the weight is much different.

The images by the NX10 are great and beautiful. For those who want to change their camera to a DSLR from a compact camera or have a DSLR inferior to the NX10, please remember this camera, because this is the camera in your life, not just a camera for certain time.