NX300 Black Screen Issue

A curiosity if anyone has dealt with this – I’ve been lurking a long time but finally found an issue that hadn’t been covered here (successfully). And perhaps my band-aid can be helpful.

The camera came on with a black screen in capture but the menu overlays showed and playback was functional, and so I went through everything to get it working – swapped lenses, batteries, reset, re-installed firmware. Shutter didn’t appear to be down. Nothing. Then I read elsewhere that someone dropped it while working on it and the image returned. So I gave it a moderate slap on the side – worked. The image came back. This has happened three times in maybe a few months now – and the camera has been almost wholly unused in that time. Each time, the slap worked. I know slapping high-end electronics isn’t an ideal fix, but it has worked and spits out perfect images.

My question is basically, is this a failing sensor? Or could it be a loose internal piece? It strikes me as more mechanical, but I’m very far from an expert and I’m not sure if this is how a sensor would begin to fail, or if there's more going on with the shutter than I'm noticing. I’m not adverse to opening it up to take a peek.

I know a sensor is a costly fix, if it can even be done anymore, but I was going to be in the market for an upgrade anyway, and was likely moving on from Samsung, but I was really hoping to wait awhile. I'm perfectly happy with it for now otherwise since I tend to prefer film.

cg9916 wrote:

A curiosity if anyone has dealt with this – I’ve been lurking a long time but finally found an issue that hadn’t been covered here (successfully). And perhaps my band-aid can be helpful.

The camera came on with a black screen in capture but the menu overlays showed and playback was functional, and so I went through everything to get it working – swapped lenses, batteries, reset, re-installed firmware. Shutter didn’t appear to be down. Nothing. Then I read elsewhere that someone dropped it while working on it and the image returned. So I gave it a moderate slap on the side – worked. The image came back. This has happened three times in maybe a few months now – and the camera has been almost wholly unused in that time. Each time, the slap worked. I know slapping high-end electronics isn’t an ideal fix, but it has worked and spits out perfect images.

My question is basically, is this a failing sensor? Or could it be a loose internal piece?

This seems most likely, but, I have those exact symptoms minus the tap on the side fixing it and it occurs exactly and only when the 50-150 S lens is mounted.  When that lens is placed on the camera each time the screen goes black exactly like that.  The other S lens works no problem.  My NX300 is not on the newest firmware though, it's on the one just before that, so perhaps support for the 50-150 wasn't added yet.  Even though we have similar symptoms we have different triggering conditions and treatments, yours being much more chaotic while mine is completely predictable.

It strikes me as more mechanical, but I’m very far from an expert and I’m not sure if this is how a sensor would begin to fail, or if there's more going on with the shutter than I'm noticing. I’m not adverse to opening it up to take a peek.

I know a sensor is a costly fix, if it can even be done anymore, but I was going to be in the market for an upgrade anyway, and was likely moving on from Samsung, but I was really hoping to wait awhile. I'm perfectly happy with it for now otherwise since I tend to prefer film.