Bargain Gem oft passed over

This is a Hidden Gem mirrorless with even more hidden and Gemlike 20-50 kit lens (Sharp edge to edge with little CA, far better than the 18-55 and most Mirrorless kit lenses) , In RAW it shames cams costing far more . Decent handling, fast accurate AF, totally superb sensor which holds up better than the canon 18Mp unit , the samsung 20Mp has a Weak AA filter, great Dynamic range and very decent & competitive High ISO performance.....

The cam has Decent build too despite being all plastic and feels a lot better in the hand than a NEX3 series. the whole plot is let only down by lack of EVF option, underused Ifunctionality (Forces you to press a button before using the lens ring - not set and forget like an S90 or RX100), massive RAW files and lacklustre JPG engine, the range of flashes could do with updating........ . Avoid 2000 model, it takes Micro SD and is run almost solely by touchscreen.

The NX1100 apears to be the same as the 1000 but with the QC bugs fixed (Dry joint issues causing WiFi malfunction and even worse, Lens communication failure in some samples) and with the 1100, Adobe Lightroom is thrown in. the NX210 added bling and an extra command dial but very little else to the 1000 series, even the build isn`t really any better despite the metal front, the 300 seems to offer little more too ....

IMO The real star NX is the 20 (or 30 if you`ve got money to burn), it`s smaller than you`d think and the EVF Rocks . funny how you don`t see many secondhand - loadsa the others even the 300 but not the 20 ....

This cam gets 5 stars because of the optically superb kit lens, the fantastic lens selection, the excellent sensor and the silly low price .

Hello Adam, I see you are still about.  

Thanks for your thoughts, I've been quite happy with my NX cams and lens. I quite like the 20-50 as well and the primes  are superb. I did recently pickup a 3rd gen 18-55 and find it quite improved over previous.

Nice to see you again.--
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I have to agree that from a sensor quality point of view this camera rocks. I picked one up for £120 as an X-demo model minus the 20-50mm lens, box, cables and software. But given I already had an NX100, 16mm, 30mm and 50-200mm lenses this worked out pretty well. My only real gripe was that it needed to use a different battery and charger, but have picked up one from amazon for about £15. Otherwise the high ISO output has been great (particularly compared with the NX100) but is even better than my Pentax K-01 which I already thought was really good. If it were possible to get decent long-focal length lenses for my NX cameras I would probably give up my Pentax stuff, but it just doesn't make sense to do so.

However for intended use - holiday landscapes, portraits, family pics and aerial photography (where I need a light weight camera that can be operated with a single hand but with high quality lenses) the NX x00 and x000 series cameras with pancake lenses really fit the bill.

Thanks Kimberley, I`m glad they improved the 18-55, the ones I used weren`t dreadful, they were just no better (as bad) as the various Oly/Pan M43 kit lenses and Can/Nikon/Pentax etc DSLR 18-55s ...... the 20-50 stands out for its pretty amazing detail - though RAW shooting makes the biggest difference, especially as the ISO goes up

The sensor is getting "old" now but still stands up very well which is no doubt why they`ve not bothered changing it, I`m glad they left the weak (sharp) AA filter on from the NX200 and didn`t mess with it .... one thing the Pentax K01 had was an excellent sensor so your comparison is praise indeed ...

I tried an NX5 body I got cheap last year and found it a wholly miserable camera with very poor LCD and EVF, slow and occasionally flaky AF and the output from the sensor didn`t seem as good as I remember the Pentax K20 to be and I was running better glass on the NX5 (the 20-50 and 30mm). .. Just shows where the big jump was (the NX200, fast accurate AF and 20Mp sensor launch)

Yes, that is why I never bothered changing my NX200, because I find the RAW files to be among the best I have seen and still see. IMO superior to all the Sony NEX camera series. The big jump came in NX200.

I only changed to the NX1100 for the WiFI (remote shutter) and the Mk2 Kit lens is better at the long end , a friend wanted the NX200 rather than a later model as it had the Frames scene mode for making blog pics for her kids which the 1100 removed so I sold it to her and got the 1100 ...

I don`t see a great deal of improvement in ISO in the NX300 . the original 200-1100 sensor is pretty OK in RAW at ISO3200, I`d say better than the 18Mp Canon one and probably on a par with or not far off the D7000 etc when resized down to 16Mp. I believe they added PDAF sensor points to the 300/30 sensor , they didn`t do the EOS-M or the Fujis any good.

Yup, the pixel level sharpness in RAW (Capture one used here) is about the same as the cams with no AA filter like the D7100 maximizing detail

jstop wrote:

Yes, that is why I never bothered changing my NX200

I have just got a second hand NX200 in addition to my NX300 for 120 Euro. Preis to quality ratio is unbeatable. And I like the build quality of NX200 more

I have just got a second hand NX200 in addition to my NX300 for 120 Euro. Preis to quality ratio is unbeatable. And I like the build quality of NX200 more

Unbelieveable - a Mirrorless body with the image quality of a NEX-7 for 120 Euros ! ..  faster / more accurate AF than the Sony too .