Kisaha
•
Senior Member
•
Posts: 2,300
Re: Be aware of quality issues...
2
Kubicide wrote:
caver3d 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.
Wow, do I ever disagree with this. You certainly did a hatchet job on Samsung, and unfortunately, swayed the OP. I own the Sony A7RII and A7R, the Pentax K1, and two Samsung NX1 cameras, plus other cameras. I have several NX lenses including the two S lenses - 16-50mm and 50-150mm. I do NOT have the problems this poster has had. I have encountered minor play with most lenses and mounts in all systems - including Sony. The NX1 is impressive, with great build, AF is excellent, and nearly all the lenses are SHARP (even the kit lenses are surprisingly good). I would say, go for the NX1. The prices won't fall much, and the NX system remains in great demand - and there are good reasons for this. Whenever I see negative posts like the one above, I always wonder how much of the issues are actually related to the "photographer" as opposed to the system.
caver3d
Lol, well, not sure what there is to disagree with. This was my experience. And it was dreadful. And implying loose lens mounts is a user error is pretty funny! Suspect we simply have different levels of standards which is fine. Mine is high - not too high - but it has to be equal to that of Nikon or Canon or Fujinon or Olympus. And, unfortunately, Samsung wasn't and was actually far below the others.
Anyway, all manufacturers have there issues and struggles. But its likely Samsung had too many. There's reasons why they're not in the biz anymore. It wasn't because they lacked technical performance. It wasn't that they had crazy high prices. We can only use our imaginations as to why they exited but something made it unprofitable.
Even if the NX-1 was perfect it would still be a questionable decision to buy into a system that is dead IMO.
NX had never crazy prices, not the bodies, nor the lenses. From the forums and own experience, all the brands seem to have QC issues as of late, because most are produced in various factories, with the lowest wages possible. If you frequent other brands forum, like I do, you will see that there are more complaints from all other brands, than here.
The XC10, a very expensive Canon video camera has a ghosting issue, that Canon never admitted, and put out a newer version (XC15) to try to fix this, rendering all the XC10's almost a no-go for knowable consumers, and they have lost half their price in less than one year.
Sony cameras and cheap lenses are completely hit and miss, some overheat in 5 minutes, some hold for 15minutes, you never know what you are buying. Their cheap lenses, are very cheaply built and much inferior to NX ones, actually the cheap NX ones are some of the best in industry e.g the PZ one, is the best such lens I have ever seen, the 50-200 also. The pancakes as well.
There were people at the Nikon forums, declaring that they would have to wait for the D500 at least six months after its release, to see how the QC was, as even the Nikon fans weren't sure about the QC, Nikon is seriously having some issues as of late.
Olympus had to recall a lot of new cameras a year (or two?) ago, and many many more examples.
Fuji seem to have less issues -made in Japan- but it is the brand I am least familiar (no close friends or business partners own one, know 2 Nikon photographers though, very pleased, have almost move to Fuji).
