NX Mini with 17mm my current favorite

Siralgovia wrote:

This a super unscientific test, and just a small report to the Samsung forum community (will add some pictures soon), but with the Corona virus restrictions may "hikes" have taken place around my immediate neighborhood instead of the beautiful trails in the Cascade mountains. And to try to keep myself from monotony, I'm bringing different camera/lens combinations every day to shoot the same scenes. The weather has been consistent and so have been my walking times and I finally had a chance to look at what I shot these past few days.

The sets I compared right now are the NX500 with the 30mm and 16-50pz as well as the NX300 with the same lens combination. I also brought the NX Mini with 17mm, 9-27mm and 9mm pancake.

I shot jpeg with base settings, aperture priority at 7.1, auto ISO, exposure compensation - 0.3.

I don't pixel peep but I look at clarity, sharpness at screen size, "3 D" feel and overall feel of the pictures. And of course that applies to what they look like on my laptop monitor.

The NX Mini with 17mm beats all the other combinations for me. Pictures are so tack sharp, yet smooth and realistic, just as I have seen the scene with my eyes. There's a sense of depth in the pictures.

To my eyes it beats the 30mm. I'm sure if you ran photographic test, scientific tests, the NX500 with 30mm will come out on top, but not in 'feel' for me. Maybe it shines in Raw development, but even though I always shoot in Raw plus superfine jpeg, I only develop about 10% of my pictures in Raw.

So for jpeg onscreen enjoyment, the NX Mini 17mm is hands down my favorite. I also prefer (and always have) the output of the NX300 over that of the NX500. I also prefer it's screen. The NX500 jpegs look flatter and less 3 dimensional to me.

My copy of the 9mm pancake is also tack sharp and it's output has more character than the 9-27mm.

I am considering selling my NX500 (very low shutter count) and lenses and keeping the NX 300 for my vintage lenses with adapter and using the NX Mini as my main travel camera. I love how compact it is.

And someone in this forum a while ago said he or she loves the way the NX Mini with 17mm 'sees things' and I have to agree, there is definitely a magic to it.

Delighted to hear another happy user of this underrated camera system. I'm also a happy owner of NX-m with three 3 lenses.