I want a Samsung NX1 + 85mm F1.4 (GAS problem)

Manzur Fahim wrote:

Kubicide wrote:

Just a heads-up to hopefully help your GAS: Samsung quality can be quite bad...

I, too, was struck with Samsung GAS in early 2015 and bought what ended up being multiple NX-1's before finally giving up. This was when the kit with S zoom lens, grip and stuff was on sale for ~$2100 which was a great price (Amazon). It was the near-perfect camera for me on paper with 4K video, 120 Hz 1080p and 29 Mpixel stills, and the shots that did come out were excellent - absolutely loved the Samsung BSI sensor and camera processing. Also absolutely loved the fast f/2 zoom. But the quality of everything was terrible. It wasn't as if just one thing had issues - everything had some sort of a problem even the exchanged replacements. But the main issue was with loose lens mounting on every single body. In the multiple kits I tried they all had this problem and one was so bad it would clunk and actually move/rotate ~2 or 3mm (!) when simply turning the zoom. Another also made the clunk sound and produced an error message related to lens disconnect. A third kit did the same movement with no error but had a problem with the lens stabilizer not seen in the other two where 2 out 3 shots would be inexplicably blurred. Turning off the OS would fix it but I wouldn't live with that compromise. And one body had a huge cluster (>20) of stuck / hot red pixels right in the center at base ISO right out of the box. And of course there's no in-body pixel mapping.

Other issues included a command dial on one that would randomly not work - it was like the signal was missed when it was turned. Purchased a new, sealed 85mm only to open the box and see oil/liquid residue on the aperture blades and even FOD / black dot on the inside of the rear element. Also had the 50-150 which was a fantastic lens optically but would again fit loosely on the body and clunk whenever the zoom or focus rings were rotated. Even small issues would happen like the blue gasket lens seal constantly being pinched even when carefully mounting the lens - just a bad design there with tolerance being wrong in either the lens or the body mount.

Performance wise autofocus was often very poor when taking stills but very good for video. Rolling shutter was also pretty bad in 4K and disappointing, but actually quite good in 1080p. But the image quality was simply superb with great colors, tones, contrast, and was the reason I kept trying to stay with Samsung and the NX-1. Had the quality issues not happened then the only real critique I'd have was with the weight as the S lens and body are quite heavy mainly due to the big front optic and metal lens construction.

Anyway, the quality problems are real and if you search the net you'll find many examples from the 2015 timeframe in particular when the NX-1 was 'hot'. And YouTube has many examples of the issues. The lens issues (loose fit, bad stab) plagued most of the S lenses and NX-1 pretty hard. Some folks were fine with the issues; I wasn't especially with Nikon as my baseline. I never had anywhere near these problems with Nikon nor Canon, Fuji or Olympus.

It was quite disappointing to say the least. But must have been karma saving me future headaches with Samsung abandoning the line at the end of 2015. They surely were aware of the quality issues and it was likely one factor among many as to why they exited the business.

So IMO throwing any money into NX now is simply a waste of money no matter how tempting. I found the D500 turned out to be a far, far better solution with the only loss being in the video side (which was secondary to me compared to taking good stills). And I actually found the Nikon 16-80 lens to be much better than the S lens, and only miss the slightly faster f/2 versus f/2.8 speed.

Thank you very much. I wasn't aware of these issues, and now I know. Thank you very much, and you should know that the temptation is gone. I cannot live with these issues so I'll save the money, hopefully a new D810 replacement will come soon

Have a great day everyone!

Whilst I appreciate that there have been issues with nx equipment, I wouldn't like to speculate as to whether these issues are more frequent than with any other manufacturers.

I haven't had any quality issues with any of my kit - maybe I was lucky, or maybe the poster here was unlucky. Perhaps other users will chime in with their experiences.