Samsung NX cameras and audio/Mic Input - The reason for the flop in sales of the NX cameras...

For instance let’s take the NX500, the first question is would I buy one? Amongst others I have NX300 so it would seem like a natural progression, but I was offended by the typical marketing strategy that once affected another camera I bought the Canon EOS 300D. That strategy is FIRMWARE CRIPPLING, I loath it.

Take a great camera like the NX1 and then using the same sensor and works put it into a different body. Save costs by making the body and mount less robust, take away the EVF remove the mic input, make it obvious that the NX1 is a much better camera hence a higher price. BUT, we really don’t want people buying this camera over the NX1 so now we will f*** it up by reducing the capabilities in firmware, we’ll have to give them 4K but let’s not do the full frame sampling let’s instead introduce a ridiculous crop factor which means that nobody can use it seriously, then they will have to buy the NX1 instead, simples!

There is no doubt in my mind that the NX500 could produce video every bit as good as the NX1 with a simple firmware change, They made some rubbish excuse about a “different engine” which angers me that they expect us to believe that they are going to spend the money on developing a different chip-set from one that already works and probably costs nothing to manufacture after the initial R&D. This made me lose respect for Samsung which is sad because I would have bought one or two NX500’s to back up my NX1, so they lost two sales from me alone.

Personally I don’t care about the audio I would always capture sound separately anyway because then you can source sound from different places and mix it afterwards for much superior results.

Firmware crippling is a terrible waste but an all too common practice by manufacturers and I’m not just talking cameras.