NX500 Image joy and screen sadness

In bright sun or bright shade, the NX500 screen is almost impossible to see and do composition work. I have the LCD set to maximum brightness. From what I was reading, I was hoping that the NX500 would have a brighter screen than the NX300 which I found unacceptable. I do live in the Central Coast of California where the sun is bright but this appears to be a real problem for camera usability. I am going to try a ClearViewer and a hand over the screen but this is hard for me to do with a cane, need something to lean on or a monopod. With a cane, my ideal is a camera I can use with one hand.

I am really missing an EVF. I wonder when Samsung will come out with the NX50. I want to stay small and light.

With my 16mm, 30mm, and old 20-50mm, the still images are impressive! With my 30mm and printing 8 x 10 inch prints, I can get a 3D looking pop. I have shot up to ISO 2500 with nice low noise (JPEG and RAW w/Silklypix). Given my success at 2500, I am going to open up Auto ISO to 5000 or 6400 and see how that works. I will have to see how these higher ISO images compare to by Nikon Df. I leave the Df auto-ISO set at 12,800. The Df is only 16mp so down-sampling the NX500 images may be a nice surprise. I shall see.

For the kind of use I do, evf-less camera are unusable for 70% of time. I hated nx200 and nx300 for this, and as soon as the nx500 was announced w/o an evf, I bought the nx1. I'd prefer a rangefinder camera, but I guess that samsung does not consider it a possibility.

So nx1 is a great compromise.

But nx500 would have simply be a no-go for me.

I have a hoodman loupe that works great in bright light. You lose any touch ability, but you can see great!

Which Hoodman did you get.
--
Hank K
Nikon Df, Samsung NX500, Olympus EM1, Em5ii, and Nikon Coolpix A

Hank Photo wrote:

Which Hoodman did you get.
--
Hank K
Nikon Df, Samsung NX500, Olympus EM1, Em5ii, and Nikon Coolpix A

Link

Mine is slightly different (This one ), it was for my canon dslr. The baseplate is a little too big and sticks out but it still works fine and serves it's purpose. The first one I linked to looks like it has a smaller baseplate made for a mirrorless camera.

They are expensive, but they not only block out light but magnify the screen as well. It makes it really easy to check focus!

Hank Photo wrote:

In bright sun or bright shade, the NX500 screen is almost impossible to see and do composition work. I have the LCD set to maximum brightness. From what I was reading, I was hoping that the NX500 would have a brighter screen than the NX300 which I found unacceptable. I do live in the Central Coast of California where the sun is bright but this appears to be a real problem for camera usability. I am going to try a ClearViewer and a hand over the screen but this is hard for me to do with a cane, need something to lean on or a monopod. With a cane, my ideal is a camera I can use with one hand.

I am really missing an EVF. I wonder when Samsung will come out with the NX50. I want to stay small and light.

With my 16mm, 30mm, and old 20-50mm, the still images are impressive! With my 30mm and printing 8 x 10 inch prints, I can get a 3D looking pop. I have shot up to ISO 2500 with nice low noise (JPEG and RAW w/Silklypix). Given my success at 2500, I am going to open up Auto ISO to 5000 or 6400 and see how that works. I will have to see how these higher ISO images compare to by Nikon Df. I leave the Df auto-ISO set at 12,800. The Df is only 16mp so down-sampling the NX500 images may be a nice surprise. I shall see.

I agree with everything you are saying, and if you think the likes of the Samsung NX200/300/500 series are the only ones doing this, then obviously that is mistaken notion.

In the end, it's all a tradeoff of sorts.  The NX500 series will fill the niche of certain users, and when Samsung (well, hopefully) releases the NX50, then that will provide even more of a step-up, with the NX1 lying at the top of the pile.

But mannnnn, it's the IQ that offsets it all for me.  There are other superb performers that utilize LCD-only scenarios and I've come to enjoy them also for their outstanding IQ capabilities, and they are:

Samsung NX300

Fuji X-A1

Canon EOS M and M2

Panasonic G6 (now the G7)

Yes, it would have been nice if Samsung had gone down the path of making available optional add-on EVF's such as the Olympus E-P5, E-PL5 and E-PL7 series, but different strokes for different brands.  And yes, it gets downright frustrating trying to compose in bright scenarios where it's almost impossible to view your subject area with all of these cameras.  Heck those bright scenarios it comes down to guessing and hoping you nail the scene.

But as you said, the IQ is absolutely superb - and that's what the endgame is with any camera, I would imagine.  So I'll bitch and moan with all of these LCD-only types of cameras, but when I look at the IQ, I just begin to smile.

Either my camera was effective or the lens was but the IQ I saw was mediocre at best.  Out of 19 shots only 3 were sharp and the others were very soft or out of focus.  This was shooting static objects (photos and things in my office) and shutter speed was at least 1/80sec with IS on.  Taking the best image and comparing it with the same shot taken with the EM5-II was not contest with the EM-5II substantially better (JPGS, not raw).  Even after manually tweaking the JPGs I could not achieve comparable image quality.

I imagine one could argue that a camera and/or lens was defective.  I do know that the 16-50 PZ is one ultra sharp lens - that's for sure.  As for the camera, if it is defective - and you don't know that as of yet - then there's only one thing to do in that scenario and that's send it in.

But let me ask you this - are you shooting the camera with everything in default mode?  Some folks, regardless of the cameras they buy, leave everything on default mode and shoot in that manner (JPG's).  As a result, some of their results show hit or miss approaches.  In other-words, there usually isn't much consistency with how their photos turn out.

When I get a camera - regardless of what brand - I set that baby up to shoot RAW, make image IQ adjustments and ensure (if available) that the IS is enabled.  I've yet to be disappointed with the cameras I've used or owned.  In addition, if you know your lighting scenarios and how a camera meter will react to a given scene, that helps also.  All too often (well, with some folks that is) they'll point a camera at a scene, keeping it on matrix metering, and all of a sudden wind up with images that are over or underexposed, and they can't figure out why (because they didn't realize that certain parts of a scene will influence the metering one way or another).  I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I had to chime in.

I'll be curious to see what settings you've used and if IS was engaged.  Do you shoot in Program mode or do you shoot in one of the other modes - i.e. Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Manual modes?  How about image format type?  RAW or JPG?  I guess I could go on and on and on....

As Johnnie Behiri write here:

http://www.cinema5d.com/exclusive-samsung-nx500-footage/

His is using the Kinotehnik 16/9 Viewfinder:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/769581-REG/LCD_Viewfinder_LCDVF169_LCDVF_16_9_Viewfinder.html

I shot today in the bright sun of the desert Southwest and I thought that the screen was right up there with the best rear screens.  I would rather have a viewfinder - and have a few cameras that do - but I was able to compose my pictures and clearly see everything in the frame.  It was very similar to the Sony RX100 on the sunny setting.  So, no complaints from me.  I plan to go hiking on Monday at Valley of Fire, so I'll test to see how the NX500 does compared to my D800 and A7R.  My trick is to wear a big brimmed hat and use the brim to shade the screen of the camera.  Works like a charm as long as you are not farsighted.  Cheers.