Samsung releases source code for NX300 and NX2000 mirrorless cameras

Not at all, the future isn't a dumb camera that needs to be programmed before use. The future is a camera such as this that is programmed out of the box, but can be customised how you want it, if you want it.

And we want it, just ask every Nikon, Pentax, and Sony user that envy the hacks available to Canon and Panasonic shooters. Well envy no more because this will change all of that. It might take time before the likes of Panasonic and Sony follow suit, but they will have no choice eventually.

People will not be manupulated by the manufacturers when there are open systems out there. This is the best news I've heard in years, and it's most welcome among what seems to have been a depressing nose-dive ever since phones and tablets started screwing everything up.

This move is obviously a reaction to take back what was being lost to phones, and that's good news because it means proper cameras, with all of their dedicated hardware, are in the front seat again.

I don't need nikon or sony, since the nx300, for me, is already better than their cameras and fits my needs much better in term of size and iq.

tecnoworld, why you always promote samsung? cyber army from sangsung ??

Me neither, and I'm quite a fan of Sony.

The Samsung hardware always was high-grade compared to what other manufacturers offer at the same price point, I've noticed that every time I've picked up a premium or even semi-premium Samsung.

Sure yeah: not at all, not that I wouldn't like to, since working with them would allow me to improve furter their products according to my needs :-) I simply speak for my personal experience and above all, I'd like to see a big community to grow around the nx system, since the more the better, in these cases. Would mean more support, more lenses, more models. Many ppl seem to just ignore the existence of nx or prefer other systems w/o even knowing the specs and the qualities of nx. Try it before speaking bad of it :-)

Think of it this way: a premise for future "firmware updates" that will include more photographic features than your camera originally had.

Interested?

Have you tried to take a shot of a lightning with and without chdk?
Have you ever taken a shot 60s long in any canon older than 2 years? have you ever had the ability to customize bracketing in any number of shots you like, to customize time lapse? Do you have any means for movement detection shots without CHDK?

Strange! Both the nx200 and nx300 I own are mainly made of metal...perhaps you have a nx20? That's more plastic, indeed.

Nx300 is getting enthusiastic reviews and, according to some local shops, it's selling quite better than older models. Anyway I understand your point and with nx100 and nx200 I also was very happy to buy at great deals, but I think that in the ling run, this trend could be detrimental for nx image. That's why I think it would be better if nx300 can keep a premium price for quite a bit, so to be recognized as the high end camera which it is.

You should go to the xda-forums and see how many devs have dumped Samsung for Sony and to a lesser extent HTC. The current AOSP ROMS for Samsung SII and SIII are not fully functional as you cannot get driver source code for example.

Indeed, both Samsung and Sony are probably obliged to release this source code, due to the open source licensing of the GNU/Linux software used in the cameras.

Both Samsung and Sony are releasing what they are obliged to release by the licences of the packages they're using. Even the RX100 has source available on that website, but only for a fraction of the software on the camera and nothing terribly interesting- Linux kernel, busybox, filesystem utils, and hostname. Similar sets of source packages for the NEX and Alpha cameras.

Neither Sony or Samsung are releasing or will ever release the source to the actual camera applications. I'd love it if they did, but it'll never happen.

We're actually working on the NX300 right now (should have some studio work online in a few days) and we reviewed the NX200/210.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/samsung-nx210

Can dpreview also include an assessment of the NX300 with its 2D/3D lens? Some of us are stereophotographers and would very much like to know more about this combo (besides the other non-dpreview reviews).

@Barney: when reviewing the NX300, please point what for me is its only big flaw/bug, i.e.: the fact that in continuous shooting in Raw, the buffer contains only 5 pics, while in older cameras (NX200) that had bigger raw, it could contain 8. I'm more than sure this is something which could be fixed via fw, since the buffer is bigger and, as said, the raw are smaller than before. It's important that Samsung knows that its users demand for a fix to this. Thanks in advance.

NX200 already had a good score, and NX300 is so much better now!

not to mention Samsung destroyed Nokia and HTC when they entered the cellphone business..
But its the traditional camera manufacturers who should be worried, not Sony. They seem to be the dinosaurs in the camera market.

I just tested few RAW files from NX300 and it was pleasant suprise. They sorta went back to NX10/11/100 AA and files are really pretty good. I would even go so far and say that they are probably above most mirrorless competition.

Only problem with Samsung (apart from still very miserable marketing) is their quality testing. As they produce in pretty massive batches, they often are bit subpar. Im not sure why that tiny bit which they export isnt carefuly tested.

Decentered lens, random deaths of cams, ton of various issues. Buggy early firmwares (tho thats standart these days, Sony aint better). Its bit like Sigma. :D Except in their case only thing buggy is usually AF.

Yea and another "problem" is that Samsung is what it is. Which means company that makes everything from aircraft carriers over fridges to those cameras. Camera division is only small part and if they decide it can be radically changed or even removed from existence. They dont need to care. And they really dont much.

wlad:

The Samsung camera bodies have a ways to go before they challenge Canon+Nikon. Perhaps, knowing how good the lenses can be, someone would pick an NX300 over a low end Canon DSLR, but that's a long shot still. (But that same someone would also look at Olympus and Panasonic.)

Samsung shouldn't have dropped the option of an EVF on the NX300, the NX100 had the option. Also I'm not sure that Samsung should have dropped the ring control on the back of the NX300.

Yea and no EVF on NX300 is really what prevents me from buying.. Im not south Korean. And Im pretty positive that even there photographers prefer EVF or OVF over regular screen.

Tho thats truly only problem I have with that camera (that says a lot actually :D).

I own a nx100, a nx200 and a new nx300 (bought 1 month ago) and I never had a single quality problem with them. Besides I own a lot of NX lenses, paid quite a few considering their qiality, and all of them are sharp and surely not decentered!

p.s.: NX300 has very fast operations, much faster than nx20/200 and has also PDAF focus, adding to CDAF, which makes focusing very fast with some lenses.

the second part, of course, could be done out of camera. There are plenty sw easy to use, for that. But the first, which as you say should be trivial having a source code, would be a great selling point for Samsung NX.

yes, the nx300 runs on a quad core cortex a9 cpu (same as galaxy S3 smartphone) exynos 4412, with a neon coprocessor. It's a very very powerful CPU, possibly the fastest ever mounted on a camera. The camera is, indeed, very fast in operations. I hope it gets a nice review on DPR soon, as it already got on a lot of sites and magazines around the web. If you look at my album, you can see some pics made with it.

and what do you thing the 'firmware' is ? It's the operating system of the camera. You know, the thing you get the source codes for from Samsung

Samsung has bad IQ so I don't see how this will improve it

would you care to elaborate on your sentence? Why do you say it has bad IQ? Did you ever try nx300? Perhaps the very first models (NX5, 10 and 100) were not on par with NEX or Fuji, but I can assure you that since when the newer 20Mpixel sensor is used, the raw output is of great quality. Now, with the nx300, they also updated the jpg engine alot, and the OOC output is highly usable up to ISO 6400 and even beyond. Please come on the samsung forum and you'll find many good photographers confirming what I just said.

Have you ever used an NX camera? The IQ of even the original NX series-NX10, NX11, NX100-is quite good. The 30mm f2 is a stunner of a lens...not sure where you are getting this opinion from.

Yes I hate Samsung just Like you hate Sony HowaboutRAW

Hey I can say the same to you buddy have you ever used these bad Sony lenses like the Zeiss ZA Lenses or have you ever even use a Sony camera, you are the most close minded Samsung fanboy I have ever seen, stop making claims of how great Samsung is and back it up with real world tests and measurements.