Re: Be aware of quality issues...
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
Hi,
What swayed me is that if I buy a Samsung NX1 camera and lenses from ebay (since Samsung does not sale them anymore), and if they have any issues, or develop some issues after some time, I cannot go back to Samsung and ask them to fix it, can I? With other company, I can. And as I said, this was something I wanted to acquire as it is a worthy APS-C camera, but the risk of spending over £1000 for body and lenses, and then not being able to get support if I need swayed me from buying it but his experience helped a lot, as although I may not suffer the same luck, something else could happen and I'll be stuck with a camera that I am not comfortable using anymore
