A personal Samsung 16-50 PZ f3.5-5.6 Review plus comparisons

Ben Herrmann wrote:

OK - enough with comparisons. As you can see, I'm giving this lens 4 stars. It really should be 4 and a half stars, but because of the zoom button scenario (an issue for me that may not be an issue for you), I'm giving it just 4.

Ben,

An excellent review.  I have just quickly scanned down the responses and discovered that tjobbe has beaten me to it on the main thing I was about to tell you about the lens (I have one too), but it bears repeating here anyway: you don't have to use the buttons to zoom.  The focus ring acts as the zoom ring when it's not being used for anything else - it is also far speedier than the buttons, and seems a bit "smart" in that it seems to speed up if you flick it round with gusto.

In this, it is actually quite similar to the power zoom lens you're not aware of (from your mention of this and the Panasonic 14-42 X being the only ones) - the Sony 16-50 PZ, which is the standard zoom on Sony's NEX/Alpha APS-C line (since the NEX-5R), and which is rather more similar to the Samsung in design than the Panasonic is.  Though like you, I am impressed with the Samsung's optics whereas the Sony one varies a bit from example to example and can be quite mediocre in some cases.

While zooming with the Samsung PZ lens, it is slower in speed than the zoom on the Panasonic PZ version. So be prepared for it to take its time zooming.

If you have your NX300 updated to firmware v1.41, you can pick the zoom speed for the buttons in the menu - the default is medium (so you could have them even slower!) but there is also a fast option.  In case you don't have that version of the firmware installed yet, you will also discover on loading it that you will then have a permanent display (in most display modes) of the focal length it is set to during shooting.