Rented the NX1

I rented the NX1 for a week. When it first arrived I was surprised at the size and weight compared to my NX20, even though I read that it was much bigger.  I really wasn't sure I was going to like it, which is why I wanted to rent before I buy. Well I'm sold. I really like all the ways you can customize the dials. So many more options than before that make shooting easier. The touchscreen being another awesome feature.  And the viewfinder is hands down better than the NX20. The IQ is stunning, although I'm still not sure about the noise at higher ISO's. I was hoping I would see a drastic difference over the NX20, and to me that is not the case.  Anyway, what I am wondering is are there usually Black Friday deals on Samsung cameras? I am ready to buy one, but I'm willing to wait a month if there will be BF deals coming.  I still love the NX20, but may part with it to put the money towards the NX1.  The rental goes back tomorrow and I"m going to miss it!

I don't know about BF deals, but NX1 price seems to fluctuate quite a bit week to week in the US. It was $1200 few weeks ago and then last week it jumped to $1500 before coming back down to $1200 this week. Adorama and B&H also have a 4% reward deal. That's $48 credit you can use later.

Regarding ISO noise, NX1 at 28MP has smaller pixels than NX20 at 20MP so pixel to pixel comparison is not quite fair to NX1 (if that's what you were doing). DXO rates NX1's ISO performance at 1363 and NX20 at 785. That's about 0.8 stops (quite noticeable) in favor of NX1 for same size prints. Per pixel basis, it should be log2(1363/785*20/28) = 0.3 stops in favor of NX1 which is not as noticeable.

The official claim though is that the photosensitive area of each pixel is still the same though, so at 100% zoom things shouldn't be very different, but the overall noise in the image should seem less when viewing the images at the same size rather than same zoom level. Of course I haven't put the sensors under a microscope myself though. ^_^

ttbek wrote:

The official claim though is that the photosensitive area of each pixel is still the same though, so at 100% zoom things shouldn't be very different, but the overall noise in the image should seem less when viewing the images at the same size rather than same zoom level. Of course I haven't put the sensors under a microscope myself though. ^_^

Neither have I. I didn't know about that claim. But it's not surprising because they are able to get 0.3 stops more out of NX1's pixel compared to NX20's pixel. (Additional 0.5 stop gain from pixel count increase to get total improvement of 0.8 stops.)

Lately the price has been going between $1200 and $1500.

Latest word from Samsung is the current $1200 is good until 10/24 when it will go back up to $1500.

So now would be a great time, or if your patient black Friday is always a great time to score some deals.

Smart move. I do the same thing if I'm going to be spending that much money on a camera or lens. I've saved myself a lot of hassle and heartache by renting something first