Overall good camera

Coming from DLSR Systems from Nikon (d7000), Canon (two 40d's and a 7d) and Pentax (K20D, K-x), I have to say I'm pretty much satisfied with this small camera.

I was looking for something to carry around everytime, and nx3000 is a great camera to go out, very small with the powerzoom, or with a Samsung pancake. I paid 265€ for a open box, wich is nothing short of a bargain, specially considering it comes with a copy of Lightroom 5.

Build quality is great(for the price), and I found design very attractive. The lens build quality is good also, without wobbling on extension. Also Ifunc button it's very clever and give you another control ring, making twin control dials in a sub 300€ camera, with is great. Camera battery is good for a day out and usb charging is convenient.

In the other hand, micro SD cards and camera strap are simply a CRAP.

Camera offers great quality in good light, but fails to impress in low light, specially in JPG. In Raw results are a lot more cleaner with a little pp work in Lightroom, but it isn't on par with 4/3 cameras or Sony Nex line. Otherwise, results are good up to higher sensitivities for web use or good sized prints, if you work a little. It also applies to DR, which I found a little restricted compared to it's m 4/3 or Sony peers, but easily worked around thanks to pretty accurate metering.

Working on RAW+jpg slow down the camera too much for my taste.

AF is another weak point of the camera, working great in good light (in photo) but becoming very unreliable and missing a lot in low light. This makes me want to try nx300, which phase detection af would make more usable in low light scenarios.

Also manual focus assist is poorly developed and hard to use because of the magnification which does not allow the user to go back to the full view of the shot when used.

Wifi is great and easy to use when you get used, and also let's you downscale quality to 2mp, which I found convenient. Note that RAW files can not be sent to a smartphone, only jpg files.

Lens is also pretty decent, with a correct stabilizer, and very useful powerzoom for video. Distortion and corner shading is auto corrected at some sharpness wise loose but it's not that bad and I find the compromise in between lens range, quality and small size a pretty handy package. Also AF is good, should be better on nx300.

Overall, I find the camera to be pretty good for a everyday carry out camera, and Samsung lens range is one of the most cheap and good in terms of optical quality, specially if you look at pancakes like the 30mm or fixed focal lenghts.

Teje wrote:

Coming from DLSR Systems from Nikon (d7000), Canon (two 40d's and a 7d) and Pentax (K20D, K-x), I have to say I'm pretty much satisfied with this small camera.

I was looking for something to carry around everytime, and nx3000 is a great camera to go out, very small with the powerzoom, or with a Samsung pancake. I paid 265€ for a open box, wich is nothing short of a bargain, specially considering it comes with a copy of Lightroom 5.

Build quality is great(for the price), and I found design very attractive. The lens build quality is good also, without wobbling on extension. Also Ifunc button it's very clever and give you another control ring, making twin control dials in a sub 300€ camera, with is great. Camera battery is good for a day out and usb charging is convenient.

In the other hand, micro SD cards and camera strap are simply a CRAP.

Camera offers great quality in good light, but fails to impress in low light, specially in JPG. In Raw results are a lot more cleaner with a little pp work in Lightroom, but it isn't on par with 4/3 cameras or Sony Nex line. Otherwise, results are good up to higher sensitivities for web use or good sized prints, if you work a little. It also applies to DR, which I found a little restricted compared to it's m 4/3 or Sony peers, but easily worked around thanks to pretty accurate metering.

Working on RAW+jpg slow down the camera too much for my taste.

AF is another weak point of the camera, working great in good light (in photo) but becoming very unreliable and missing a lot in low light. This makes me want to try nx300, which phase detection af would make more usable in low light scenarios.

Also manual focus assist is poorly developed and hard to use because of the magnification which does not allow the user to go back to the full view of the shot when used.

Wifi is great and easy to use when you get used, and also let's you downscale quality to 2mp, which I found convenient. Note that RAW files can not be sent to a smartphone, only jpg files.

Lens is also pretty decent, with a correct stabilizer, and very useful powerzoom for video. Distortion and corner shading is auto corrected at some sharpness wise loose but it's not that bad and I find the compromise in between lens range, quality and small size a pretty handy package. Also AF is good, should be better on nx300.

Overall, I find the camera to be pretty good for a everyday carry out camera, and Samsung lens range is one of the most cheap and good in terms of optical quality, specially if you look at pancakes like the 30mm or fixed focal lenghts.

I am a bit curious on your remark on the M4/3  high iso better than NX3000. I have a EPL5 and I can't agree on that, Olympus cheats on high ISO worst being EM10 where actual iso 1600 = 851.

Reviews suggest the PDAF sensor does better at high I so as well so the nx300 will help there as well.  The focus in low light will still be an issue at times though as PDAF does not switch on in really low light.. but DMF focus override is just like quick shift from Pentax plus focus peaking helps a lot!  It comes in colors too, I am using red

ChuckTa wrote:

Teje wrote:

Camera offers great quality in good light, but fails to impress in low light, specially in JPG. In Raw results are a lot more cleaner with a little pp work in Lightroom, but it isn't on par with 4/3 cameras or Sony Nex line. Otherwise, results are good up to higher sensitivities for web use or good sized prints, if you work a little. It also applies to DR, which I found a little restricted compared to it's m 4/3 or Sony peers, but easily worked around thanks to pretty accurate metering.

I am a bit curious on your remark on the M4/3 high iso better than NX3000. I have a EPL5 and I can't agree on that, Olympus cheats on high ISO worst being EM10 where actual iso 1600 = 851.

I agree--Samsung's 20MP sensors have higher low ISO performance than m4/3, as shown on DxO Mark. I don't know why you think they perform worse than micro 4/3rds--that's not true.  Same for DR.

Here's an example for NX300, which is on par with NX3000:

http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Samsung/NX-300

(it does better than Canon's crop sensors too).

P.S.: DPR's editing function is being buggy again--won't save the post, so I'll add another:

Having owned a Nikon D5200 with really great low light performance and high sensor score on DxO Mark, I can say with confidence that low light performance of NX300 (and consequently NX3000) should absolutely be better than just "acceptable" and is reasonably good for APS-C. I wouldn't use JPEG out of camera for it, but processed RAW is fine up to ISO3200 for low light indoor shots of people and objects.

Teje wrote:

Also manual focus assist is poorly developed and hard to use because of the magnification which does not allow the user to go back to the full view of the shot when used.

Just wanted to pickup on this point (others have already voiced similar opinions concerning low-light capabilities so I won't repeat them here but I am in agreement with them).

I have an NX3000. Both with legacy lenses attached via an adaptor or by switching an AF lens to manual mode I have no problem switching between magnification mode and normal mode. With an NX (AF) lens in MF mode - lifting the finger off the shutter button or depressing it returns the view to normal.. With legacy lenses - depressing either the shutter or OK button returns the view to normal.