OK gang - I need your help (advice) to learn to appreciate the NX300...

Hello all:

As some of you know, I'm no slouch when it comes to having used various brand digital cameras over the years, and since 1999 I've owned over 100 different models. I tend to make it a point to learn to use each camera to its specific strengths and am able to coax some wonderful images from the vast majority of them. There have only been several models that I've used in the past that just didn't cut the mustard, but I won't get into those here.

Lately, the cameras that I've really come to love - specifically within the areas of Dynamic Range and high ISO capabilities - are the Fuji X-E1 and the Olympus E-M5. To clarify, when using these two cameras I am amazed at the DR that I can pull from those files - and files with let's say completely burned out highlghts (i.e. skies) that were white, could easily be recovered, with the end result being....let's say blue skies again. Not every camera can do this. Of course, I shoot in RAW mode only most of the time because I find that the files hold much more information this way.  The other night I did an event, using the E-M5 at ISO's 3200 and 4000 and the cleanliness of the images were superb.

OK - now enter the NX-300. When I first began using this model, I was shooting at ISO 1600 and below. Even then I noticed that some of the ISO 1600 images weren't as clean as some of this camera's other brand contemporaries, but I ignored this, assuming it must have been something I've done wrong. Keep in mind, I'm no amateur and do not overlook key factors in the options of each camera, and that's not a careless boast.

Well last night I took around 450 images with the NX300 - all shot in RAW mode, AWB, ISO 3200 at a small town murder mystery dinner theater indoors with a low lighting scenario. When I got the images home and transferred them to my PC, I pulled a few up in Lightroom 5.3 (and ACR 8.3). What I was met with was a horrible amount of both chrominance and color noise in the shadows and clothing of the folks present. OK I thought, I'll just make the necessary adjustments in Lightroom using the Chrominance and Color Noise sliders (which almost always work with other cameras I've used). But alas, although some of the noise was removed, much remained - and the end result was that unless I applied even more heavy NR with the likes of Topaz, or Neat Image, or Nik Define in Photoshop (which then totally ruined the image - read "Water Colors" here), I'm left with a highly substandard image.

In addition, at higher ISO's, I'm not left with much DR with many highlights completely blown out. I checked all of my settings (i.e. Saturation 0 or neutral, sharpening - standard or O, and contrast at -2. My HDR setting was on Smart HDR (not off).

Now add what appears to be numerous hot pixels (at ISO 3200), and I'm left to wonder...."Is this NX300 a one trick pony, meaning is it a superb lower ISO camera, at the expense of not being able to effectively do higher ISO's?"

I was so angry with the images I obtained last evening (after converting a good 50 of them) - and again, I'm no novice and am often able to elicit (and save) many a superb image from a variety of ISO's - that I deleted all of them after trying to use various software to save them (i.e. Lightroom, ACR, DXO Optics Pro, Stoner Photo Professional, Capture One).

Talk to me here - what have you experienced? Or do I have what may be a faulty camera.

Thanks