Advantages NX500 over NX300.

I have owned 2 NX500, the NX300, NX3000, NX 3300, NX2000 and still own 2 NX Minis.

I rarely develop from RAW even though I always shoot RAW and jpeg simultaneously. And I just could not help but prefer the images coming from my NX300 and NX3000. The 2000 was OK but the 3300 was different to the NX3000. I could not put my finger on it but pictures lacked the 3D feel. And I had a similar experience with both NX500s. In jpeg I could not get them to match the clarity and 'realness' of the pictures coming from the NX300 especially, but also the NX3000.

I sold all but the Minis as I needed a main camera with a viewfinder. I did not want to invest in a NX1 but then found a good deal on the Galaxy NX. I haven't tried it yet since I bought it through German Ebay and it is at my parents house - I'm in the US).

In my opinion, for stills in jpeg, the NX300 is the better choice (for me). I just prefer the jpeg 'rendering'. Now RAW could be a different story.

Thanks.

Next generation if Samsung had continued would have liked to have seen a corner EVF like Panasonic, Sony, Fuji have perfected.  Nikon and Canon don't get it on their mirrorless APS-C.

I have NX100 and NX1000.  Don't consider the sensor on the NX100 to be good at all. NX1000 20MP sensor much improved.  Think I will look for a NX300.

Gesture wrote:

I want to pick up another NX body, but wonder whether I need the NX500 versus something more affordable. As forum people are realizing, I don't see any Samsung bargains out there. It is amazing to me how much used bodies and lenses are going for, but I see the same thing with Sony, Canon, Nikon, even 10 year old stuff. I've about given up on finding the 16mm or 20mm lenses or the macro. My fault at the time.

Thanks.

I tried the nx500 and it failed to produce nice jpeg color as the 300 and the 3000, so i sold the 500 and keep 300 and 3000 .. i even started a thread with samples here https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64775436

I have to agree. The nicest jpgs are coming from the NX3* cameras. NX30/300/3000.

But for a complete and more modern package NX1/NX500 are unbeatable. Resolution/Video AND autofocus, plus some other goodies.

Kisaha wrote:

I have to agree. The nicest jpgs are coming from the NX3* cameras. NX30/300/3000.

But for a complete and more modern package NX1/NX500 are unbeatable. Resolution/Video AND autofocus, plus some other goodies.

I agree on the good of the Nx1/500, but for me personally who shoot only portrait and street, the 300 n 3000 is sufficient, I'm not a video guy, but i don't know why nowadays if i want to shoot casual video like family and friends stuff, i will just use my iphone, those stabilisation and auto hdr on iphone are so good.🙂

Fizo82 wrote:

Kisaha wrote:

I have to agree. The nicest jpgs are coming from the NX3* cameras. NX30/300/3000.

But for a complete and more modern package NX1/NX500 are unbeatable. Resolution/Video AND autofocus, plus some other goodies.

I agree on the good of the Nx1/500, but for me personally who shoot only portrait and street, the 300 n 3000 is sufficient, I'm not a video guy, but i don't know why nowadays if i want to shoot casual video like family and friends stuff, i will just use my iphone, those stabilisation and auto hdr on iphone are so good.🙂

My friend just lost a couple of hundreds because of that. He thought would be doing just that, but the ghosting and flaring of the latest iPhone are just off the charts. Funny thing, you do not see that mentioned on most reviews!

He is selling it for 200€ less now, same day he bought it..

..and of course the the quality of video of an NX500 is nothing like a phone video, let's be serious about it! If you put the cheap 30mm or the 45mm you can get outstanding video.

Stabilization is a bit overated in my opinion, I have a DJI stabilizer for professional use and I have never used it, quite honestly, optical stabilization is just fine most of the times, if you know what to do, but I guess this is for another forum.

The NX3* cameras are excellent, but also with a lot less advanced auto focus, and you want that on street photography or taking pictures of kids (that is why I stopped using the NX3000 altogether, now is collecting dust somewhere in the house!).

NX300 is an amazing camera for sure, great build quality, except the known dial issue, which is quite annoying to be honest (and the known issue with video! With a better codec your iPhone would have nothing against a good ol' 1080p!).

What lenses do you use? The PZ has great optical stabilization for the price.

If only the 45mm had any stabilization..

Kisaha wrote:

Fizo82 wrote:

Kisaha wrote:

I have to agree. The nicest jpgs are coming from the NX3* cameras. NX30/300/3000.

But for a complete and more modern package NX1/NX500 are unbeatable. Resolution/Video AND autofocus, plus some other goodies.

I agree on the good of the Nx1/500, but for me personally who shoot only portrait and street, the 300 n 3000 is sufficient, I'm not a video guy, but i don't know why nowadays if i want to shoot casual video like family and friends stuff, i will just use my iphone, those stabilisation and auto hdr on iphone are so good.🙂

My friend just lost a couple of hundreds because of that. He thought would be doing just that, but the ghosting and flaring of the latest iPhone are just off the charts. Funny thing, you do not see that mentioned on most reviews!

He is selling it for 200€ less now, same day he bought it..

..and of course the the quality of video of an NX500 is nothing like a phone video, let's be serious about it! If you put the cheap 30mm or the 45mm you can get outstanding video.

Stabilization is a bit overated in my opinion, I have a DJI stabilizer for professional use and I have never used it, quite honestly, optical stabilization is just fine most of the times, if you know what to do, but I guess this is for another forum.

The NX3* cameras are excellent, but also with a lot less advanced auto focus, and you want that on street photography or taking pictures of kids (that is why I stopped using the NX3000 altogether, now is collecting dust somewhere in the house!).

NX300 is an amazing camera for sure, great build quality, except the known dial issue, which is quite annoying to be honest (and the known issue with video! With a better codec your iPhone would have nothing against a good ol' 1080p!).

What lenses do you use? The PZ has great optical stabilization for the price.

If only the 45mm had any stabilization..

Regarding the iphone, I’m still on iphone xs max, flaring isn’t that bad on this phone, by the way it’s just a casual video, if more serious video I’ll definitely go with camera. 
Lenses that i have for the nx system are 18-55mm 16-50mm pz, Pancake 30mm f2, 20mm 2.8. 16mm 2.4 and my rarely use 45mm 1.8.... I believe the Pz will be best for video.

Hi LiveM, yes, I kind of left Samsung because I did not enjoy the jpegs from my NX500. I owned 3 NX500 (two black and a brown). I bought the two black ones together since an ebay seller had a bunch of like new NX500s and I couldn't resist. I then sold my older brown copy and one of the black ones. But I did have about a month with all three and I tested all of them and the jpegs they produced looked identical.

I wanted to upgrade my glass. At this point I had the 20-50, 20, 30, 16-50 and was using a Canon 10-22 with an Iris adapter. To get the cash to upgrade I decided to sell my NX300, NX3000, and NX2000 and and one of my NX Minis since I had Samsung's flagship compact and assumed it would give me better output than the other NXs I owned. So at this point I had the Mini and my NX500.

Before upgrading to S glass we went on a small 5 day vacation and I took my remaining two NXs with me. When I got home I realized how much more lively and 3D like the NX Mini jpegs were over the NX500. I had compared the Mini jpegs to my other 20MP NXs in the past and while they have their own character they still shared that liveliness. It's not so much the colors it's more a lack of 3D or a flatness I experienced with the NX500. I played around with the picture wizard but still could not get the pictures to look less flat (flat in comparison to my other Samsungs). I'm mostly talking landscapes, I do have some beautiful portray shots (regarding color and feel) with the 30mm on the NX500 but I also have just as beautiful shots from my other NXs.

I'm sure there are plenty users that will disagree about the NX500. We all have our preferences and tastes about what we want from a jpeg, but I eventually could not live with the NX500 jpegs with the NX500 being my main camera.

I sold all my NX gear including all lenses except for my NX Mini. I moved to Micro Four Thirds and bought into a number of awesome lenses and a GX85 (which I sold now). However, after a while I started missing the Samsung colors and jpeg character. It is special and I missed it so much I ended up buying (and for the first time trying) the NX3300 with another 16-50.

And strangely enough I did not like the output. The NX3300 to me definitely had a different output than my NX3000 in the past. The NX3300 displayed a similar flatness to me so I too sold it. In fact, some of my most lively pictures came from my NX3000. It's default jpeg settings were a little on the over-sharpened contrasty side, but that can be easily changed. But the NX300 and NX3000 have very similar output.

Anyways, long response, but I realized I don't want to miss the Samsung output from my NX300 and NX3000, so I bought myself a Galaxy NX, as I found a good deal. It is supposedly based on the NX300. I bought 3 more lenses for it. I now have the 16-50, the 30, the 18-200 and 50-200. Somehow the 30 worked best on my NX500 even though on my NX300/0 I especially loved the 20.

The Galaxy NX, the 30 and the 18-200 are in Germany at my parents' house (I bought these on German Ebay) and I haven't tried them yet. Here in Seattle I have the 16-50 and 50-200 and I use them on my NX Mini with the elusive Samsung adapter.

The 50-200 is an amazing zoom on the Mini, but the wide end is too tight. Hoping the 18-200 will be sharp on it since only the center is used. If it is I'll sell the 50-200. But that's food for another post.

In closing I wonder if the NX500 sensor performs best with higher resolving/ sharper lenses like the e.g. 30, 45 and S series. I have not had a chance to try any of the S lenses, but at this point I won't invest in them. Maybe the 28MP sensor out-resolves lenses like the 20 or the 16-50 and thus we get the perceived flatness in jpegs. I just know that for me as an amateur photographer the NX300/0 is plenty sharp with the cheaper lenses and jpeg output is superb. Another NX500 with let's say the 16-50S or the 12-24 would be a too expensive buy for me especially considering that if anything goes wrong with our Samsungs we're now on our own.

Thanks Siralgovia for the share, wow that was quite some buying and selling !!

Having used almost all the NX cameras over the years, I can agree that each model has a slightly different image look and feel. It is only obvious when you have used each for certain amount of time.

Here are my thoughts on this:

The original NX10 quality image was amazing. It was truly a well-designed, well-engineered product. I have the photo book that came with the camera box set and Samsung even got Top Korean academic photographers for inputs, consultation and to ambassador the camera from get go. The only clear weakness was sensor in low light. Still, the grain was extremely usable, and when paired with vintage manual focus lens, produced exceptional film-esque photographs.

The follow-up NX20 was no slouch either, a new 20mp sensor with next-level ISO performance. That for me was the key difference: more pixels and better ISO. Other than that, some shots looked "creamier" (less contrasty?) but that could have been just default color mode. Personally I captured some unforgettable photos for a lifetime and know I can depend on this camera for the most important moments.

Next, the NX30. Functionally a much more better camera with more buttons to help frame that "decisive moment". Disclosure: I joined Samsung 's key influencer program and was able to observe closer indirectly how the product was designed and marketed. Image quality-wise, it looked more "powdery" at high ISO (perhaps due to more aggressive noise reduction) Do note the amount of reduction could only be controlled at high ISO (1600 and above I think) Still, a very capable camera at lower ISO, but as others have pointed out, just looks different from NX20 somehow

Then, my next camera was the NX500. It was my last hurrah for I did not purchase a NX1 as it was just too expensive for my liking. I did not acquire this camera until 2 years after getting the NX30. The 28mp sensor was yet another "next-level" upgrade in terms of resolution and ISO performance. It makes a key difference in modern, high quality image shooting (e.g. Night Skyline shots, modern wedding photography) But no, if I travelled back in time, it wouldn't have made a difference for me photographically if I swapped this with a NX10/20/30

The Best feature of NX500 for me has got to be the Video. Whether full HD, 2.7 or 4k, this camera knocks it out of the park. The 25/50fps settings is very useful for some moderate slo-mo filming at full-res. You could even regularly use stills from the video for photos.

So, back to the topic, if you compared NX500 to NX300, the key differences would be VIDEO and High ISO performance. Any other difference photography-wise is minimal in my humble opinion!