Samsung NX 30 mm f/2 or Nikkor 28 mm f/2.8?

If you practice you'll probably get better shots with a good manual in low light than the 30 in similar conditions.

However,  fully manual requires more work on your part. Each movement requies more tuning. I find I almost have to predict where my dogs might move in order to use manual action focus or pick a spot and wait.

arvidb wrote:

So I just bought an NX500, and I also just recently bought a Nikkor 28 mm f/2.8 AI-s lens on Ebay. Both are in the mail on their way to me. My old camera is a Nikon D40 and one of the reasons I got a new, mirrorless camera is that I want to try my hands at using older manual focus lenses (because they can be bargains - great optics for their price apparently? - and also since I like their build quality).

Do you think I will get by with the manual focus Nikkor on the NX500 or should I buy a Samsung 30 mm f/2 while stocks last? (After watching this lens test I don't feel particularly impressed by the 30 mm f/2 Samsung, but it's the only Samsung lens that has an attractive focal length and aperture to me).

On the plus side for the 30 mm is that it is a pancake lens (small).

How difficult is it to learn to use manual focusing effectively in say an indoor "dinner with friends" setting? What if I throw a dog in the situation? Will I really get more in-focus shots with the 30 mm in low light than with a good manual focus lens?

If it isn't clear yet I'm an amateur who takes photographs sporadically, but I do have an interest in learning better photography techniques and I think it would be fun to learn to use these older manual focus lenses.

I have a few legacy lenses that I use with my NX300 and I enjoy them when I'm playing around, but generally I stick with the autofocus lenses when I want to be sure to get the shot.  I use the 30mm f2 as my primary lens and it serves my purposes well, it is sharp wide open at f2 and keeps the camera somewhat pocketable with its compact size which is not something I can say about my legacy lenses.

I'd say try the manual lens first, if it meets your needs then there you have it.

arvidb wrote:

So I just bought an NX500, and I also just recently bought a Nikkor 28 mm f/2.8 AI-s lens on Ebay. Both are in the mail on their way to me. My old camera is a Nikon D40 and one of the reasons I got a new, mirrorless camera is that I want to try my hands at using older manual focus lenses (because they can be bargains - great optics for their price apparently? - and also since I like their build quality).

Do you think I will get by with the manual focus Nikkor on the NX500 or should I buy a Samsung 30 mm f/2 while stocks last? (After watching this lens test I don't feel particularly impressed by the 30 mm f/2 Samsung, but it's the only Samsung lens that has an attractive focal length and aperture to me).

On the plus side for the 30 mm is that it is a pancake lens (small).

How difficult is it to learn to use manual focusing effectively in say an indoor "dinner with friends" setting? What if I throw a dog in the situation? Will I really get more in-focus shots with the 30 mm in low light than with a good manual focus lens?

If it isn't clear yet I'm an amateur who takes photographs sporadically, but I do have an interest in learning better photography techniques and I think it would be fun to learn to use these older manual focus lenses.

Depending the dog! This past weekend,  could manage some shots on a Cane Corso (with the 45) but the smaller(and faster, and non still-able) dogs of the company were almost impossible to photograph! With the 30mm is impossible, is not a dog and kids lens. The biggest advantage is the size (+cost/performance ratio).

You can do most things with manual, and still you can travel around the world on a bicycle, but most people get an airplane!

Get your set first (doesn't the NX500 come with a 16-50pz lens?), practice/experiment, and you will decide for your needs later on, there are a few cheap NX lenses that can be attractive (the 30mm was my 3rd NX lens after the kit and the 50-200, and know days I am using it less thanthe fisheye and the 45mm).

I don't know Nikkor. I know Samsung 30mm f2. This is the best prime for NX system. It's sharp wide open, has excellent color and contrast. It doesn't have very fast AF but is not bad either. If you bought NX500, do yoursefl a favour and buy 30mm.

Great replies everyone, thanks!

So it looks like I won't purchase the 30/2.0. I have done some manual focus photography with my Nikon D40 and I think I really won't mind it - as long as the subject is relatively still and as long as the focusing aids are usable (these are totally absent from the D40 of course, which made it quite difficult on that camera).

It's true that the NX500 comes with a 16-50PZ lens, and I hear that it is pretty fast at auto focusing. Maybe it will be a satisfactory lens for daylight "action" photos!

The image below of my cat hunting dry food was shot at night in a room lit with a single compact flourescent uplight. The lens is a manual focus Micro-Nikkor 105 mm f/4 lens (at f/4). I used the D40's maximum ISO of 1600 and had to brighten it an additional 3 EV in darktable (I used curves to somewhat limit the noise in the shadows, but the end result is about +3 EV). I also had to convert it to B&W due to the color noise, but I actually think it turned out great this way!

I really like this kind of natural light (no flash) photography. The noise gets excessive with the D40 and a low exposure like this, but I'm hoping the NX500 will be much better. And I guess that there's not much to be done except a better sensor - a wider aperture had given too small a depth of field, longer exposure would have caused motion blur, and flash would have ruined the "mood".

Is this what is called zone focusing?

I'm not sure I'm into flash photography (except fill flash), especially if it entails setting up the flashes beforehand. But still interesting to hear about the techniques available. Maybe I just haven't learned how to get good photos using flash yet!

arvidb wrote:

Is this what is called zone focusing?

I'm not sure I'm into flash photography (except fill flash), especially if it entails setting up the flashes beforehand. But still interesting to hear about the techniques available. Maybe I just haven't learned how to get good photos using flash yet!

Zone focusing is when you close the aperture of the lens down (usually f8 since it's a good middle ground between depth of field and light admission) to create a deeper depth of field and set the focus of the lens so that anything within a certain range (or zone) will be likely to be in focus, eliminating the need for critical focusing.

Your manual lens will have a focusing scale on it with aperture notations to the left and to the right of the focus mark.  These are indicating to you what distance range will be in focus given a certain aperture, the smaller the aperture (larger number) the more comes into focus over a greater distance.

Yes .If this is the focal length you like you should buy it .

Thanks for the info TillmanB! Pretty much what dezinerd said then, I guess:

dezinerd wrote:

For an indoor dinner just do what we did when this lens was new. Set the f stop to f8, set the focus to 6 or 8 feet. Then just blast away. Some people used to tape the focus ring so it would not move as in dim banquet halls you might have trouble reading the distance scale and focusing manually in dim light was almost impossible.

parakalien wrote:

I'm a little late to the thread but thought I'd share my experiences.

I have the 45 f1.8, 30 f2, 16-50 pz, and rokinon 24 f1.4

The rokinon is similar to the nikkor in focal length and the fact that it's fully manual.

I shoot mostly video and I LOVE the manual aperture and focus, so I may be a bit biased, but other than the small size (and decently sharp pictures) of the 30, I much prefer the rokinon 24.

I find the AF on the 30 to be slow and inaccurate while on the 45 the AF is excellent and very quick.

When using focus peaking (I like to set it to red and low for best results) I prefer manual focusing. Keep practicing and I think you will too.

I agree with your opinion just wanted to mention that 30/2 is closer to 28/2.8 than the 24/1.4 to the 28/2.8! The NX is a pancake ofcourse..

dezinerd wrote:

The image below of my cat hunting dry food was shot at night in a room lit with a single compact flourescent uplight. The lens is a manual focus Micro-Nikkor 105 mm f/4 lens (at f/4). I used the D40's maximum ISO of 1600 and had to brighten it an additional 3 EV in darktable (I used curves to somewhat limit the noise in the shadows, but the end result is about +3 EV). I also had to convert it to B&W due to the color noise, but I actually think it turned out great this way!

Well one thing that is known is that fur sucks up light. ... It does not hurt to have some detail in the eyes either.

Something like this?

I really like the NX500 with Nikkor lenses!

The Nikkor 28/2.8 is great, not the least since it can focus very close (0.25 times magnification). Also, manual focus is a breeze with the focus assist on the NX500 (I switched it to green color). It's just annoying that it's not possible to choose focus spot.

SAMSUNG 30mm f2 at f2