8 Little Steps To Make The NX1 Perfect - A Firmware Review of Version 1.20

Marcus Sundman wrote:

Regarding problem # 2:

It's not only about "focus once", but we really need proper back button auto-focus. That is, to be able to configure the camera such that:

a) the shutter button never focuses, and

b) another button will focus:

b1) if you press it once it auto-focuses once, and

b2) if you keep it pressed it continuously focuses, and

b3) whenever you don't press it the focus is locked.

So, no switching modes on/off, but simply focus only while pressing the focus button.

I basically meant that when saying "focus once" (except for b2). But if you could configure the camera in such way that pressing the back-button does either a single AF or a continuous AF (like explained by you in b2, while the shutter button won't focus), this would be even better.

It might be achievable by adding an option which disables the (half-)shutter button for focussing and transfers this function to the back-button (AF ON). The "AF ON" button was one of my reasons for buying the NX1 instread of waiting for a smaller and cheaper model:

"One reason for choosing the NX1 instead of waiting for the NX500 is because I like to take pictures in manual mode and I would miss all the dials and buttons with the latter model." (original post)

I don't understand why Samsung did add such a button (AF ON) on the NX1 but not such a "back-button autofocus function" as explained above. The button on the back is easily reachable, has a useful label, but just the firmware isn't much useful in this regard. Something must have been going wrong during the design of the firmware

But all those ideas of back-button focussing are just dreams. Right not, not even the "AF Start + Lock" function works properly (which could serve as a workaround for the single AF case) because it blocks the command wheels as described in the section named "Second bug" of my update post.

I track that bug (the blocking of the command wheels) as issue #9 in my list of open issues.

Regards,
Jan