Seriously underrated

[strata83]

I think this camera is seriously underrated and, perhaps not surprisingly, Samsung is to blame: they priced it too high right from the beginning. On paper it's competitive with other top-end mirrorless cameras of the same vintage (Sony NEX-7, Olympus OM-D E-M5). However, it has a couple of pretty significant downsides.

The biggest asset of this cameras is its sensor. I like it more than the critically acclaimed Sony 16MP sensor: it has the same very wide dynamic range, but is much less prone to clipping of individual channels. This makes the NX20 and its siblings my favorite cameras for color output.

The build quality of the NX20 itself is very nice. Its casing is plastic, but it feels very solid and dense. The only thing I don't like in terms of build is the EVF eyecup which is made of a rather hard material and is uncomfortable to press my eye against.

The ergonomics of the camera are awesome. I seriously recommend other mirrorless camera makers to borrow a page or two from the Samsung's book. The number of controls and their location are perfect, the menus are very well laid out and easy to operate. I prefer the ergonomics of this camera to both Olympus E-M5 and Sony NEX-7 (I used both before the NX20).

I suspected I wouldn't use the NX20's Wi-Fi functionality, but it's surprisingly useful. I shoot RAW + 2MP normal JPEGs and use Samsung's excellent Mobile Link app to copy JPEG files to my smartphone and post them to social media. 2MP is plenty for Facebook or Twitter.

The biggest problem of the NX20 is its operational speed, or lack thereof. Even changing the shooting modes feels sluggish (thanks to obnoxious animations that can't be turned off). The RAW files are unnecessarily huge (33-35 MB) and it takes a long time to write them down to the memory card. It's even worse if you shoot RAW+JPEG. However, if you use SanDisk Extreme Pro memory cards (rated for 90MB/s sustained write speed), the camera is okay in terms of speed — not as fast as the current generation of Micro 4/3 cameras, but fast enough for my uses.

The AF speed, once again, is okay — I can describe it as being on par with Sony NEX-7. However, in low light the camera sometimes simply refuses to focus, which can be rather puzzling.

I worked around the downsides the NX20 by buying Nikon 1 V1 double kit when it was on firesale: that camera obviously doesn't have the same excellent image quality, but it's competitive with top-end professional DSLRs in terms of speed with its excellent AF, unmatched continuous shooting performance and no shutter lag. I use Nikon 1 V1 for action and Samsung NX20 for everything else and I'm pretty happy with this setup.

 

[tecnoworld]

As you suggested, the NX20 (like the NX200 I own) is really, really slow. The older NX10/11/100 were much faster. Indeed, among the three cameras I own, the nx200 is the one I use with less pleasure, even if its IQ is really good.

NX300 much improved on operational speed, also thx to the great touch interface, but still has the tiny buffer problem, which is ridicolous compared to most of the competitors around. A real pity.

Samsung should invest a lot to improve operational speed + buffer size + buffer and I/O performance in the upcoming models.

p.s.: I heard the Galaxy NX, despite its powerful hardware, has the same limitations of NX300.

 

[arbuz]

Being an owner of NX20 for over a year now, I fully agree with your review. The funny point is that I was also thinking of buying cheap Nikon V1 to take photos of my kids. I did not do it so far and I went NX300 route + the reportedly fastest focusing NX lenses 18-200 and 45mm. SO far I have mixed results. While AF difference between NX20 and NX300 using the same glass is rather minor, the lenses + setting aperture for big deep of field allowed me to capture more pictures in focus in dynamic situations. However Nikon v1 is not yet of the table. I am mosty hesitant because of it's pciture quality...

 

[Kaziklu]

The Autofocus is slow, and has issues, a phase detection system would be so useful. Obvious it is only really an issue in low contrast situations.


It isn't bad, and I can use Direct Manual Focus and I do. This still leaves it bad for Sports and the like, but I'm surprised by the low light score, the reason being the only downside (the sensor being older) is there aren't really fast lens' (in my prefered shooting) I still get good use in poor light without a flash. I'll go to ISO 2000 with out worrying too much. I'll pop it to 3200 or even 4000 in a pinch. These are really high ISOs if I had a faster tele I wouldn't need the extra ISO at all.


The rest is spot on, but I do think it does really well in low light.. not no light that I've heard people complaining about... Honestly ISO 2000 with a little post noise reduction produces clean images, even going up to 3200 is usually ok depending on the lighting. (I've recently taken a street concert shot in Toronto at 3200 that was really very decent).

 

[jonathanj]

Spot on, in my opinion - I also use the NX20 in conjunction with a Nikon V1 (with the 10-100mm). The combination works extremely well.

Although I'm very happy with the NX20, and delighted with the general quality of the images produced, the speed of the camera is a fairly significant factor when comparing it to other cameras. The irritating animations, leisurely write times, and endless "processing" are no less annoying after a year of use than they were when I bought the camera!

I hope that this gets fixed in any NX30 - just getting rid of the animations and "processing" message would be a great start!

(PS: has anyone else noticed that although trying to change a setting (e.g. ISO) while the camera is saving an image results in the "processing" message being displayed, changing the same setting using the iFn button and lens ring works fine?! So does that mean getting rid of the "processing" message would just be a firmware fix away?)

 

[tecnoworld]

I often feel as if the slugginess in operations of nx cameras is due to the way in which the sw is implemented. The hw is indeed quite powerful. The nx300 is much faster than previous gen, but still has small buffer and a slow processing speed when transfering pics from buffer to sd card. And it has a quad core arm chip inside, running at 800mhz...

 

[Laurie899]

Thanks for your review it fits my experience. I have owned an NX20 for a year and enjoy it very much even with its limitations. I mostly do street/social documentary, pictorial or architectural work and love the ergonomics and menu. The great virtue for me is a camera system which is so light and portable delivering files (RAW) that are very mailable in PP and of excellent IQ. Like most other users I'm looking forward to the NX30 expecting that the write time/speed issues are resolved and that faster focus is delivered. Would also be nice if it was weather proofed. My concern is that the current excellent layout of buttons is not lost in favour of touch screen.

Laurie

 

[arbuz]

I don't agree that NX300 slowly transfers pictures to SD card. On this card:

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it takes 1 second (2 blinks of a diode) to save a picture. That's rather fast.

 

[tecnoworld]

I agree for the single picture it's very fast. I was referring to multiple pictures (raw+jpg continuous shooting). The buffer is tiny (keeps just 5 pictures) and after this, it takes a bit to transfer them to sd and clear the buffer again.

I tested my sd card on a pc and can do about 20-25MB/sec as writing speed.

 

[tecnoworld]

I agree about your concern.

And I add that the nx30 needs a huge buffer compared to other nx models, to appeal action/sport shooters. The present limit on nx300 (5 shots in a row) is very low by any standard. At least 15/20 pictures has to be bufferized, better if 30/40 like the new omd-em1.

Also the evf is a big concern. Both nx20 and galaxy nx use a sequential evf with a low res by todays standards. I hope also for this feature Samsung looks at olympus, which really delivered a great evf with the new omd.

 

[de_klaas]

strata83 wrote:
Even changing the shooting modes feels sluggish (thanks to obnoxious animations that can't be turned off).

Just half-press the shutterbutton and the animation will stop. It's not what I'd call a good solution, but it works for me.

 

[tecnoworld]

Fortunately the orrible animations can be turned off in nx300, at last...

 

[GDB]

I have been seriously shooting since 1961, starting with a range finder and working into film SLR's and in 2003 DSLR's.

I have been shooting with the NX20 since Christmas last year and in general have been pleased because I wanted a much lighter camera to take backpacking with me. It performed well and returned some great shots. However, I have always fought the always out-of-focus diopter EVF control and even resorted to taping it in place. Still no avail. Then it started taking blank white shots with variable numbers of thin black horizontal lines. This was only cured by hard booting (pulling battery out and reinserting). I probably lost 25-30 good shots on a recent backpack trip on the flanks of Mt. Rainier. I had to hard boot at least a dozen times on that trip. Finally, I gave up and returned to Canon, getting their SL1 with a couple of lenses. At least it works and has great low light capability.

So, in MHO, the workmanship and build quality of the NX20 leaves much to be desired, in addition to the horribly slow buffer. Otherwise, a nice camera that takes very good pictures and I haven't sold it yet.

Gary

 

[SunnyFlorida]

arbuz wrote:

Being an owner of NX20 for over a year now, I fully agree with your review. The funny point is that I was also thinking of buying cheap Nikon V1 to take photos of my kids. I did not do it so far and I went NX300 route + the reportedly fastest focusing NX lenses 18-200 and 45mm. SO far I have mixed results. While AF difference between NX20 and NX300 using the same glass is rather minor, the lenses + setting aperture for big deep of field allowed me to capture more pictures in focus in dynamic situations. However Nikon v1 is not yet of the table. I am mosty hesitant because of it's pciture quality...

The IQ of the Nikon 1 is several notches below APS-C sensor cameras, it's basically a P&S upgrade, but can't compete with larger sensor cameras.

 

[HankK]

Since you have the NX20 and NX300, could you comment on the Image Quality of the NX300 vs NX20. Is there a difference in high ISO, dynamic range, or shadow noise. I shoot RAW only.

 

[lol101]

tecnoworld wrote:

I often feel as if the slugginess in operations of nx cameras is due to the way in which the sw is implemented. The hw is indeed quite powerful. The nx300 is much faster than previous gen, but still has small buffer and a slow processing speed when transfering pics from buffer to sd card. And it has a quad core arm chip inside, running at 800mhz...

I tend to agree with that although I think it is a mix of hw and sw issues.

In most cameras, writing raw files takes more than a second, sometimes two but you mostly don't notice it because camera operation is still fully operational during write time.

For example on my Fuji X20, you can change settings and record new pictures while the camera is writing to card, on my NX1000, you can take another picture but trying to access menus or altering the setings prompts the dreaded "Processing" screen and you have to wait until it's done.

Waiting for the nx30 (next year?) to see if they managed to get things better (they already have reduced the size of raw files on the nx300 so there is hope...)

 

[strata83]

SunnyFlorida wrote:

The IQ of the Nikon 1 is several notches below APS-C sensor cameras, it's basically a P&S upgrade, but can't compete with larger sensor cameras.

Well, it can take photos that my NX20 can not. For example, this was taken on a very windy day, so manual focus was impossible; Nikon V1's 10fps C-AF mode was a godsend in those conditions.