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Help with GAS: get the NX500?

Started Oct 7, 2015 | Discussions thread
BeardedManMatt Regular Member • Posts: 106
Re: Help with GAS: get the NX500?

shademaster wrote:

My question: if I decide to blow my dough on NX500, is it enough of an upgrade to NX300 to justify it? I'm not unhappy with NX300, but sometimes I wish it were more responsive regarding AF and "Processing... processing... processing". I'm worried about the higher resolution and what that means for processing times. I guess I get: i) better sensor, ii) faster AF, iii) second control dial, iv) 16-50PZ. Anything else?

What are people's thoughts on a side by side comparison of NX300/NX500.

Alternatives would be to blow dough on NX30, NX1, 16-50S (the latter two being a lot of dough).

I just did this last week from the NX300M to the NX500. Everybody says the AF is improved but I feel like it's taken 2 steps backwards. I just tried to focus on the face of some kitchen scales from about 3m away at 200mm. Identical settings on both bodies and the NX300M focused on the numbers every time, the NX500 was constantly hunting and giving up. I'm considering making a comparison video on this and posting it for others thoughts, I'm sure it can't be normal.

The NX500 has a slightly more ergonomic design so I'm no longer hitting the video button by mistake. It also has a new screen that you can actually see in direct sunlight which is a huge plus. Processing times still feel slow after burst mode and you only get around 6-8 images in RAW but it is 28mp vs 20mp so that's pretty good. But for general speed of the two cameras to me they feel pretty similar. The second dial is great, the OSD looks cleaner although I no longer get helpful hints when I hover over something, a pain when I don't know which OIS mode does what (maybe I can enable that in settings somewhere). It also has a built in intervalometer which the earlier models don't have and more video options with x0.25 (100p) at 720p now compared to 480p? on the 300 model plus the 4K.

So should you upgrade? We had a deal here in Australia last week where the NX500 body was just $399 AUD ($288 USD) and that was just too good to pass up. If you find a great sale then I would say go for it, but the benefits are not substantial enough to pay RRP IMO.

 BeardedManMatt's gear list:BeardedManMatt's gear list
Samsung NX500 Samsung NX 30mm F2 Pancake Samsung NX 50-200mm F4-5.6 OIS Samsung 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 power zoom Samyang 12mm F2.0 NCS CS
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