Product Reviews
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but for the buffer...
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July 25, 2012
- By:
Jay
Purchased and returned, though not at Henry’s.
Even an U1 SDHC card rated to write at 90MBs per second can’t empty this camera’s slow butter quickly enough to record more than 2 or 3 raw shots in 5 seconds.
Put differently when shooting single shots, the buffer completely bogs down after 2 or 3 raws and then takes 10 or more seconds to clear/empty even with the fastest readily available SDHC cards. During that clearing time it is impossible to shoot more raws. Even tried a slower Samsung manufactured class ten 10 SDHC card, and the results are even slower than with the U1 card. Yes all cards were formatted in the camera.
Didn’t really try the kit zoom, except for a brief video test, explained below. Though really like most of my other Samsung lenses.
Now some minor problems that would not have caused me to return this camera:
The build quality is not as high as my two NX100 bodies, for example the OK/Enter button on the back of the NX20 spins. The very shinny silver letters of the PASM dial disappear into the black dial they are elevated above–for two reasons, silver can look black and the sides of the raised letters are in fact black. When switching the PASM dial the screen shows a silly picture of an example of say aperture control; there may be a way of turning this off, but I didn’t find it.
With older Samsung zoom lenses, not the kit lens with this NX20 body, when recording video the built-in microphones picks up the near ultrasonic sounds of the auto focus mechanism in the those older zooms. This is not a problem with the included kit zoom lens.
When shooting above ISO 2500 in really dark conditions, a few dead pixels were evident in the electronic viewfinder (aka EVF). No it was not sensor dust.
Now some really good things about this camera.
Can shoot raw through ISO 4000 with really good results. (Raws extracted with Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop CS5.)
Excellent EVF, though not quite as good as the one in the Sony Nex 7.
Amazing clarity and resolution with the articulated screen. I’ve never seen anything close to the NX20's AMOLED screen, except the optical systems used by dslrs or rangefinders.
Very good video colour. Sound also seemed good, basically full manual video control when shooting–including ISO/gain. The screen and the EVF are so sharp that manual focus is easy. Though I couldn’t figure out how to switch between the two screens once I'd started recording video. Didn’t find audio input level controls or a balance control either.
If I really needed a new video camera, I’d have really considered keeping the NX20 solely as a video camera.
Lightweight and quiet.
If it weren’t for the terrible buffer problems, I’ve have kept this camera. Given the fact that this problem was known about months ago in the Samsung NX200, I don’t see why Samsung released the NX20–the buffer isn’t any real problem on the older NX100 with a 14MP sensor. No other new, 2012, dslr or mirrorless body has buffer problems like the NX20.
(NB: Yes one can shoot in highspeed continuous and capture more than 3 raws in 5 seconds, but in that mode the buffer still takes time to catch up, empty that is, once you stop shooting, and then you can’t go back to shooting single shots during that time.)
Could have easily been four of five stars.
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