Nx1 buffer performance

Hi all

I have a love hate relationship with my nx30/300. I shoot mostly with my lx100 these days for convenience. Always fun to shoot -- convenient, responsive, and reasonably sharp -- but I'm never really emotionally connected to the photos I see when I get back and edit in Lightroom on a big screen. Contrast this to my nx cameras and glass where I LOVE the shots I get with the 30 45 and 85. But I HATE the small buffer and long clearing time on nx30/300 and often miss lots of shots).

I was looking at imaging resource tests of the NX1. It looks pretty slow considering it's UHS-ii. 1.8 fps when buffer is full. That is much slower than contemporary UHS-ii cameras (Olympus, g9, a7iii, Fuji xt2/xt3). It's probably on par with my lx100.

I was wondering if the newest NX1 firmware might be better than what they used in the IR tests. What do people see in the real world with the latest firmware and SanDisk uhs-ii cards?

The NX1s are still really pricey for a four year old camera whose line had been discontinued and I don't want to shell out all that much if the buffer full rate isn't that much better than my lx100.

(I kick myself at least once a year for not buying the nx1 during the fire sale)

Thanks

I just did a quick non-scientific test with my NX1 and Transcend UHS-II card (Read 285MB/s and Write 180MB/s).

If you shoot 12-15fps, the buffer size is about 25-35 RAW images (depending on the size of the RAWs). The buffer clearing time is about 3 seconds. If you keep shooting with the buffer full, the frame rate drops to about 4-6 fps.

If you shoot 8 fps, the buffer size is about 50-80 RAWs.. The buffer clearing time is about 6-7 seconds. If you keep shooting with the buffer full, the frame rate does drop to about 2 fps.

So, my understanding is that the physical buffer of the camera can store about 25 RAWs, but the buffer can appear bigger because it is clearing as you shoot. The frame rate can vary when the buffer is full. When you are at 15 fps the buffer fills up quickly with not so many RAWs, so it doesn't have much to clear and you can still shoot 4-6 fps when it is full and clearing. When you are at 8 fps, it could take 80 RAWs for the frame rate to slow down, so it drops to 2 fps because there is a lot more frames to transfer and it can't sustain a 4-6 fps while clearing like the previous scenario.

The clearing time is about 3 seconds per 25-35 RAWs, which is pretty good I think. I am measuring from the time I stop shooting, although the camera doesn't wait until then.

Giannis Ch wrote:

I just did a quick non-scientific test with my NX1 and Transcend UHS-II card (Read 285MB/s and Write 180MB/s).

If you shoot 12-15fps, the buffer size is about 25-35 RAW images (depending on the size of the RAWs). The buffer clearing time is about 3 seconds. If you keep shooting with the buffer full, the frame rate drops to about 4-6 fps.

If you shoot 8 fps, the buffer size is about 50-80 RAWs.. The buffer clearing time is about 6-7 seconds. If you keep shooting with the buffer full, the frame rate does drop to about 2 fps.

So, my understanding is that the physical buffer of the camera can store about 25 RAWs, but the buffer can appear bigger because it is clearing as you shoot. The frame rate can vary when the buffer is full. When you are at 15 fps the buffer fills up quickly with not so many RAWs, so it doesn't have much to clear and you can still shoot 4-6 fps when it is full and clearing. When you are at 8 fps, it could take 80 RAWs for the frame rate to slow down, so it drops to 2 fps because there is a lot more frames to transfer and it can't sustain a 4-6 fps while clearing like the previous scenario.

The clearing time is about 3 seconds per 25-35 RAWs, which is pretty good I think. I am measuring from the time I stop shooting, although the camera doesn't wait until then.

Thanks! That's way faster than imaging resources. Wonder if that's because of the SD card or firmware version.

shademaster wrote:

Giannis Ch wrote:

I just did a quick non-scientific test with my NX1 and Transcend UHS-II card (Read 285MB/s and Write 180MB/s).

If you shoot 12-15fps, the buffer size is about 25-35 RAW images (depending on the size of the RAWs). The buffer clearing time is about 3 seconds. If you keep shooting with the buffer full, the frame rate drops to about 4-6 fps.

If you shoot 8 fps, the buffer size is about 50-80 RAWs.. The buffer clearing time is about 6-7 seconds. If you keep shooting with the buffer full, the frame rate does drop to about 2 fps.

So, my understanding is that the physical buffer of the camera can store about 25 RAWs, but the buffer can appear bigger because it is clearing as you shoot. The frame rate can vary when the buffer is full. When you are at 15 fps the buffer fills up quickly with not so many RAWs, so it doesn't have much to clear and you can still shoot 4-6 fps when it is full and clearing. When you are at 8 fps, it could take 80 RAWs for the frame rate to slow down, so it drops to 2 fps because there is a lot more frames to transfer and it can't sustain a 4-6 fps while clearing like the previous scenario.

The clearing time is about 3 seconds per 25-35 RAWs, which is pretty good I think. I am measuring from the time I stop shooting, although the camera doesn't wait until then.

Thanks! That's way faster than imaging resources. Wonder if that's because of the SD card or firmware version.

The buffer was improved in firmware v1.4.  From what I recall, previous firmware versions did not support UHS-II and unfortunately, most buffer tests that you see online were conducted with the older firmware.

I did a quick retest, because of the Sony Tough card I got (R300MB/s, W299MB/s). The buffer clearing time of 35 RAWs of 29MB each was 2 seconds.

In the same scenario, with the Transcend UHS-II card (R285MB/s and W180MB/s) it was 5 seconds.

And with the Lexar 1000x it was 24 seconds.