Bonding with the EX1

So I've had the Samsung EX1 for more than a year now. Of course I haven't shot with it that long because half a year ago I... misplaced the charger, and found it only last month. Still, it's been long enough I've begun to form an opinion on the camera.

Let's start with the good stuff: the lens is amazing. f/2.8 and be there, baby! so dang sharp it can produce color moiré right at the edges of the frame, something I haven't even seen with my Minolta 50/1.7---though to be fair, the Samsung only has to outresolve a 10 Mpx sensor and the Minolta ain't known for the quality of its corners, even on APS-C. Its build quality is similarly impressive, feeling less like a compact digital and more like a slab of metal that takes pictures, always a pleasant feeling for those of us who've shot with manual SLRs and rangefinders. And its ergonomics are... well no, not perfect, but certainly a step above most other cameras I've tried, lone exception being my cousin's Nikon D300 and that's on a whole 'nother ballpark from this petite beauty.

More crucially, though, and even if I gain some flames for this comment, I find the EX1's sensor to be equivalent if not superior to 35mm film in detail resolved on an ISO-to-ISO basis, which coupled with its superb optics and surprisingly grain-like noise means I've sacrificed little and gained much by switching from my old film cameras to the Samsung. And as a bonus the camera doesn't utterly suck at color ISO1600---not great, no, but with some light NR still a far cry from the horrors of Fuji Superia 1600, cursed be its name.

The bad stuff? the usual: DR kinda blows, the camera only qualifies as "pocketable" by the loosest of definitions, since it weights half a ton it's not something you want in your pocket in any case, and of course that damned charger. There's also the issue I've found of JPEGs sometimes undersaturating greens and oversaturating reds, which makes foliage look dry and people sunburned, but it's easily fixed by shooting RAW and processing in Lightroom. But there's another... issue, I've found, and though it's deeply personal it's nevertheless something I would've liked improved even a bit in a theoretical EX3 (as the EX2F suffers from much the same "problem"): the lens is too short.

Now, I do like 72mm; it's basically the same FOV as the 50mm workhorse I use on my SLR, it's a focal length I'm confortable with. But as a wide. You see, my main focus is portraiture so on the SLR I typically shoot with a 55-200mm, and before it (and the EX1) I used to shoot with a Fuji S5200 with a 38-380mm equivalent lens, which stayed more often than not in the 100-200mm range that's ideal for portraiture. So, while I had enough experience with fast normals in the past, I've fallen out of shape composing with non-telephoto lenses as of late, and that's impairing my ability to use the EX1 to its utmost. Still, it's a matter of practice and I'm certainly looking forward to be reacquainted with it---the camera is certainly worth it.

Well, that's that, somehow felt like sharing my thoughts. And now, a reward for reading that long rant: photos! a selection of what I could find dredging around my Lightroom database, mostly random family shots hope you all enjoy them.

The camera's impressive optics, external controls and grain-like noise make it incredible for B&W.

Its lack of DR can be tamed, with work, though a couple extra stops never hurt anybody

A wide! and uncropped, even! maybe there's still hope for my compositional skills. Also, this camera rocks for shooting 1:1 B&W photos from waist-level

Or maybe I'm hopeless after all---not only full tele, but cropped down to ~7 Mpx as well. Oh well, still like the results and that's what counts.