50-150mm S lens

viking79 wrote:

BostonBoy wrote:

Krazyheaven wrote:

Thanks for sharing. The nx line is awesome for what it has. I just wanted to make one small correction. You brought into the system after samsung unofficially exited the camera market.

Correct. However, since I'm in Europe, and Samsung officially made a statement in late Nov '15 in Germany and other countries to exit the local market, and being a high-tech veteran, the writing was on the wall. It's unsustainable to maintain a high cost, high performance R&D team and limit the market to "only" a few countries, even for such huge markets like the US.

I think it would be fine long term, just not one Samsung wanted to spend money in when they are having issues with smartphone sales. Still, their profit is incredibly high, so I wish they would have sank a little money into it, but I imagine they saw it as a market they could never make large profits in.

It so happened that I ran into a dealership in Switzerland late Dec and was able to negotiate a good price for a complete system (NX1 Body, Battery Grip, both F2.8 Zoom "Pro" lenses). No complaints, it was an "informed" decision. I'm using a variety of systems, DSLR and Mirroless, and the NX1 system has some advantages. However, the AF is still not one of them, even in V1.4, at least not for "Sports".

The AF is still plenty good and incredibly fast for a mirrorless system. I can't imagine how good a 2nd or 3rd generation would be.

I would hope that even if Samsung doesn't continue in the camera business, that someone would invest in the NX technology (and maybe they have) as it doesn't make sense to just kill it.

Eric

Eric - I  agree. I would like to see them to continue to invest and improve on an overall capable system. However, the Korean Mgmt Team took the US business rules ("don't throw good business money after bad business money") to heart and stopped the bleeding. Only Samsung knows how much bleeding that was, as I've never seen public numbers specifically for the Imaging Business Unit.

That being said: In 2014 it was a stellar camera, but not enough to convince the masses to switch to a new system / mount. In the meantime they have been overtaken by others (Sony and Fuji comes to mind) and I think they stopped competing altogether. Only a matter of time then until already non-stellar sales numbers dropped further. They have given up, sad to say, since I do believe they have the core technology and engineering prowess in house. It's just not part of their strategy any more.

In regards to the AF: Capable, yes, but even with the Pro-Glass I experience the occasional hunting, and the keeper rate with fast burst is less then optimal, even with not-so-fast moving subjects. I'd say my new Fuji XPro2 blows it out of the water, and so does a few other mirrorless systems I regularly shoot with. I'm not even talking about the latest DSLR Canikon offerings here, such as D1X II or D5/D500. Plus, the sensor is definitely noisier in low light than the latest offerings out there (Fuji XPro2 Night Shoot @ ISO 6400 with the wonderful ACross Film Simulation attached, FYI).

Just to be clear, I'm not a brand-fanboy, I'm a results-fanboy, and I use whatever the best offering for me is. The Samsung NX1 stays in the Arsenal for now, as it is still very good for the next 1-2 years to come. And who knows? Maybe Samsung or a successor for their Imaging Business might have gotten their act together by then. There is always hope. In the meantime, the camera won't stop working, so I will continue to use it.

Enjoy,

- R

Lisa Ann II, Newburyport, MA