The Samsung dilemma

Samsung NX200 18-55mm kit zoom lens

Today I'll be posting off my Samsung NX200 as I've sold it on ebay. This is a shame because it takes fine pictures. I gave it one last try to see if I could work with it, and because of no viewfinder, it was a complete pain to use. Being short sighted, I have to take off my glasses to see the screen clearly, as they are adjusted for distance. I then have to put them back on for everything else. Since in bright sunlight I wear polarised sunglasses, this is a problem. 

Perversely, I think it would work very well as a tripod mounted landscape camera, the controls are well laid out and it has an excellent viewfinder, however for hand holding it doesn't work for me at all. However as I continually write the sensor is excellent and the 18-55mm is a (very) decent lens.

I was also somewhat disconcerted by an interview Amateur Photographer, the UK magazine, conducted with the new head of the camera division at Samsung. He comes from the companies mobile phone division, which is not encouraging, and some of his comments reported in the article were "odd" to say the least.

(He) "stressed that the firm must first 'democratise CSC's' by establishing a wider range of CSC models aimed at both consumers and enthusiasts and making them 'more affordable".

So more cheap and cheerful then.

"Once we have a full range, the volume and scale will allow us to communicate (the brand) to the consumer." He also indicated that the firm needs to build brand awareness for its csc cameras before releasing a high-end model.

???

What Samsung need surely is an attention grabbing, headline generating camera that moves them into Fuji territory, who from nowhere have become one of the most talked about camera companies, by combining style, quality and an awareness of the popularity of retro. It seems to me that Samsung just keep releasing copies of other manufacturers designs. What they need is something that attracts us as photographers. I will bet anything that this post gets far less hits than my posts on Sony NEX, m4/3 and anything about Fuji. Samsung need to get some buzz going, which they significantly fail to do, with their generally excellent but flawed, in terms of design and styling, cameras and lenses.

Apparently they are bringing out cameras with Wi-Fi. So more gadgetry, more mobile phone styling and feature sets. Giving the photographers with the cash what they want, seems to be low down on their list of priorities. Its a simple thing, surely, to look at what are the "headline grabbers" and the success stories of the past year. The Fuji X100, the Sony NEX-7 and the soon to be announced Olympus OM-D. These companies seem to read what people write, listen to what photographers want. Unlike Samsung they seem to have realised that point and shooters, snapshooters and facebook teenagers aren't particularly interested in what advantages CSC's have to offer, and they are going to carry on buying compact cameras on criteria such as price, colour and whether they have the name Canon or Nikon on them, or just buy the latest mobile phone with a camera.

Some of Panasonic's pronouncements follow the same line, whereas Fuji, Sony and Olympus seem to be targeting people who would describe themselves as photographers in some way shape or form. With I would suggest, significantly more success than Samsung.

The crazy thing is that Samsung have got the important stuff right. Great sensor and an excellent range of lenses. Use a Samsung CSC and you won't be struggling to get top notch image quality. They also have a no nonsense approach to menus and layout. As far as I'm concerned the NX200 is (with the exception of the "missing" viewfinder) a much better laid out and easier to navigate camera than the Fuji X100. But whereas that Fuji sold 70,000 units last year, Samsung apparently only sold just over 100,000 of its entire CSC range. 

The new imaging "supremo" says he wants Samsung to be "No.1 in every camera segment" but it doesn't sound that convincing to me. Personally I think that Samsung should close down their CSC camera division and somebody should head hunt their R & D and technical team, who obviously know what they are doing. 

This is a shame, since the more companies we have in this sector, the more choice we have and the more they will push each other to come up with something better. Its a shame that Samsung, after a really promising start, can't come up with something more exciting than they have. They may surprise me and next week will announce a really exciting camera that is just what we all want. Unfortunately I think we will just get a succession of boring minor upgrades that while providing top class image quality, will ultimately offer nothing special to make people think about switching brands. Because thats what Samsung now have to do, get people to switch to them. m4/3 and NEX are so well established, and are pushing out new models on a regular basis, that they have swallowed up a good portion of the market. 

There is this myth that all the compact camera buyers can somehow be convinced to buy a CSC. My feeling is that what most of that market really wants is a better camera phone. Serious photographers spend serious money on cameras and lenses, and many change them on a regular basis. Not quite as much as myself or Kirk Tuck, but much more often than your average family snapshooter. I believe that Fuji and Sony in particular have got it right in that they have now targetted this market for their CSC's and will continue to produce point and shoot compact cameras for the rest. Where Samsung fit in to this long term, who knows, but it would be a real shame if that NX200 sensor (which to my eyes produces results almost indistinguishable from the NEX-7) is used by very few photographers. I believe that in order to avoid that, Samsung have to produce at least one "photographers camera" with it in. I seriously doubt whether they will do that, and I fear they are destined to become just another photographic "also ran", which is, as I indicated at the top of this piece, a shame.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 14 - Comparison between NX200 and G3

The last test I'm doing before finishing this very long review is between the NX200 fitted with the 18-55mm kit zoom lens and a Panasonic G3 fitted with the Leica branded 25mm f/1.4 m4/3 lens.

Firstly I thought it would be useful to see the difference in size between the images that these cameras produce. 

Please note:- This is not sensor size, but the actual image size. As you can see much of the 4MP difference between the two is taken up by the 3:2 as opposed to 4:3 ratio of the Samsung.

For the test I used what I consider to be just about the best m4/3 lens available currently, the 25mm f/1.4. As before the tests were carried out with the cameras mounted on a tripod, and all files were processed identically in Capture One software from raw files, using that softwares default settings. I picked 4 ISO values. The first one is at the lowest possible setting for each camera, which is ISO 100 for the Samsung and ISO 160 for the Panasonic. I do think its important to test at the best possible quality setting for each cameras sensor, which is the reason I didn't adjust the NX200 to match the G3.

These are full-size files and as usual are available at their highest resolution by clicking on them > flickr > Actions > View all sizes > Original.

ISO 100 / 160

ISO 400

ISO 1600

ISO 6400

The Samsung APS-C sized sensor advantage is visible at the two higher ISO settings. Both sensors are pretty bad at ISO 6400, but the G3 breaks up slightly more. In terms of colour balance, as is usually the case with AWB in mixed lighting, neither are correct. 

What I wasn't expecting was that the Samsung 18-55mm kit lens is slightly sharper throughout all the images. I can't really imagine that it is a better lens, so maybe this gives further credence to my theory that the NX200 has a pretty weak anti-aliasing filter. That would also explain the fact that the NX200 has slightly more luminance noise on the lower ISO pictures. This does tend to get "smoothed out" with stronger AA filters.

Again, its a real "you pays your money, you makes your choice" scenario here. If you want slightly better high ISO performance, then the Samsung has better results, but I'd never use either of these cameras anyway if I was doing a lot of low light work. The Sony NEX-5n is a much better camera for that.

Both camera / sensor / lens combinations turn in excellent performances at the lower ISO settings and both produce files capable of very large high quality reproduction. In my line of work every pixel I can get my hands on helps the commercial potential of my pictures, but if thats not a concern for you then either system is capable of top quality results. It is of course worth noting that you have a greatly expanded lens choice with m4/3, though I must say that to my eyes, neither Panasonic or Olympus have come up with a kit lens / sensor combination that produces such good results as the 18-55mm does with the NX200.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 13 - Comparison between a77, NEX-5n and NX200

Some interesting results here.

I firstly compared the Sony a77, Sony NEX-5n and the Samsung NX200 using the same lens. My Sony a-mount 30mm f/2.8 macro lens, which via adapters I can use on all three cameras. I used an aperture of f/8, and three different ISO settings 100, 800 and 3200. All were processed identically in Capture One from raw. In the first version of each test the files are kept at their relative sizes, in the second version I downsized both the a77 and NX200 files to the same size as the NEX-5n files.

As usual for a large high-res version, click on the image > flickr > Actions > View all sizes > Original.

ISO 100

ISO 800

ISO 3200

Since the tests were carried out using the translucent mirror technology in the a77 and the 5n adapter, the Samsung has faster shutter speeds for all images. 

The second test was carried out using the kit lenses for each system. I used ISO 100. f/8 and a 35mm focal length.

Again the first is with the files at their relative sizes and the second with the a77 and NX200 files being downsized to the same size as the NEX-5n.

I will let you you decide for yourselves what the results indicate, but one thing struck me straightaway. That is just how much impact the Samsung kit lens is having on the impressive files I'm seeing from the NX200. I noticed yesterday when I was looking at the results from the Sony lenses I was using that they didn't have the same crispness that I was getting off the Samsung 18-55mm kit lens. That seems to be case here also.

In terms of any kind of conclusions, it does seem that the NEX-5n sensor lives up to its reputation as being very impressive indeed. It was interesting that the NX200 files seem to be better at higher ISO's than the a77 files. Indeed the a77 files seem to be pretty much the worst overall. What this means for the NEX-7 which uses the same unit is open to question. Obviously no SLT means that all shutter speeds will be "shifted down" about 1/2 stop, which will improve the low light performance and it remains to be seen as to whether the 24MP sensor will be exactly the same as the one in the a77, or whether it has been "tweaked" in the cameras software. 

To be honest at low ISO's all of these results from the three cameras are spectacularly good, and all are capable of huge reproductions. However since this is a Samsung NX200 review, it does show once again just how good this sensor is. It also indicates that Samsung know how how to design and build a kit lens as well.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 9 High res. samples

I've put some high-res. full size jpg samples on flickr. These are created from raw files processed in Capture One and edited in Photoshop.

Please note:- Though these are far from masterpieces, they are copyright images and I expect them to be treated as such.

As usual click on the image > flickr > Actions > View all sizes > Original

Samsung NX200 review - Part 8 Customisation

The NX200 complete with Voigtlander 15-35mm zoom viewfinder and a modified Leica M9 case. As per usual I'm keen to make to make any modification to a camera, if I can, in order to make it handle better. The Voigtlander viewfinder is a partial solution only, since it only works for the 28mm > 35mm equivalent focal lengths on the NX200. i.e. 18-24mm. To that end it actually works pretty well. I found that I can use it while still keeping half an eye on the screen to check that its focusing on the right thing. Anything other than a wide-angle shot has to be live viewed obviously. Not ideal, but it at least gives me some opportunity to use the camera in the way that I like.

 
 Once again I was very impressed with the results from the camera, which is why I go through all this (expensive!) nonsense in trying to make it something that its not. Why bother? you might ask. Well, to me using a viewfinder concentrates the mind. When I take a picture I like to eliminate everything else from my vision. Take out all the distractions and just see the image. I also check all the corners to see that I'm not getting anything in shot that detracts from the overall impact. A viewfinder allows me to do that, whereas live view doesn't. In addition to this, a viewfinder eliminates the problem of sunlight shining on the live view screen and also helps stabilise the camera when its braced against my face.

Some manufacturers try to make out that live view screens are preferred by younger (therefore more modern) photographers and that viewfinders are preferred by "traditional" or "older" (and therefore old-fashioned) photographers. This is of course a con. No viewfinder means the camera is cheaper and easier to produce. It comes from point and shoot compacts. Its nothing to do with age or style or fashion, its just cost cutting. When live view first appeared, I thought this is great, now there are ways to deal with all shooting situations, since using a viewfinder is very difficult for low angle shots and tricky angles. However I imagined that on serious cameras both alternatives would be present. It seems I was wrong!

The Samsung NX200 is most definitely a serious picture taking machine. The images it produces are stunning. At this current moment in time you can only buy one APS-C sensor camera that has a higher pixel count, the Sony a77. Its only 1MP short of what the top of the range Canon full-frame cameras produce, and at lower ISO's it surpasses the quality of those cameras as far as I'm concerned. Personally I'd much rather have the output from the NX200 than the 5D MkII I used to own. The Samsung produces sharper images with better colour for the majority of images that I take, and though cameras like the 5D MKII are terrific at high ISO shooting, I do that so rarely that the NX200 suits me much better.

So yet again I'm moaning about the lack of a viewfinder on this camera, and I make no apologies for it. For me its fundamental for a serious, high quality camera to offer alternatives to photographers. I am really at a loss to understand why Samsung have chosen to handicap their best camera in terms of options for picture taking. Why on earth they didn't allow the option of an add-on viewfinder is something I have difficulty in understanding. And yes I've said this before several times, and I'll be saying it again and again!!

So why do I bang on about this? Well this is why.

The NX200 has a great sensor, and yes its the best I've ever used. I prefer it to a Leica M9, Sony NEX-5n, Sony a77 and all m4/3 cameras I've used.  Its the best because it produces sharp, clean images with beautiful colour that are capable of large scale reproduction. The images show very few, if any,  problems of CA, fringing, moire, luminance noise or dust spots at the ISO's and apertures I mostly use. No, its not the worlds new "wonder sensor" and for many it won't be any use at all, but for me in terms of image quality and results its almost perfect.

The camera is another matter. While I appreciate the simplicity of its layout and the ease of operation, for me what defines it is more about what it doesn't have than what it does. Apart from the viewfinder issue, there is no exposure lock. How difficult and expensive is it to add one of those? This camera is like a Nissan Micra with a Formula One engine in it. In that case the lack of a suitable body to handle the power inhibits performance, and thats exactly how I see the NX200. As I said before. I'll put up with it and use whatever I can to make it work better for me, but I'm constantly frustrated by what I see as Samsungs lack of ambition and imagination, and inability to see this camera as a wonderful opportunity to establish themselves as a serious contender in the CSC market.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 7 Video - Take 2

I've added aother clip to the video I shot with the NX200 and uploaded it to Vimeo rather than YouTube, as I think it runs and looks slightly better.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 6 Landscape / Location camera

All pictures - Samsung NX200 18-55mm zoom

For me the Samsung NX200 will be almost exclusively a landscape / location / travel camera.  Because of its excellent sensor and overall small size and light weight, it works very well for the long walks I undertake in search of my stock photographs. Having struggled a few weeks ago carrying Nikon DSLR's around, this will be a godsend. To have this kind of quality in such a convenient form is something I could only have dreamed about a year or two ago.

I should mention at this point that if you are considering having a look at this camera, then try to find a kit that has the 18-55mm zoom lens. Not only does it have stabilisation built in, which is very handy for a camera you have to hold out in front of you, but from my experiences with the 20-50mm zoom (which doesn't have IS) this is a better quality lens. The 20-50mm I had with my NX100, was somewhat soft, and I couldn't get the files it produced much sharper in post production either.

I like the 18-55mm very much however, and it confirms my feelings when I had one with a NX10, that its a very good "kit" lens indeed. I'm not planning to get other lenses for the camera at the moment. Firstly this zoom will cover the majority of what I need, and secondly (anybody from Samsung who's reading this please note!!) without a viewfinder there's actually no point. The 50-200mm zoom is a good lens, but its big and heavy, and there is no way that I'm going to have it waving around on the end of the NX200, without a viewfinder to help me get steady pictures. The 20mm and 30mm focal lengths are covered by the zoom, and I don't need large apertures for what I'm going to use it for. I also didn't see any quality advantage over the zoom when I had a 30mm f/2 before. 

This is somewhat dealing with issues that are important to me, but several things have always struck me as a relevant issue when manufacturers make these small cameras without viewfinders. Surely these companies want to sell lenses? Since Sony, Samsung and m4/3 all make some pretty "chunky" optics, do they really think that we all going to stick these on the end of these small cameras without a viewfinder? They are unwieldy, ugly and cause all sorts of problems. So are we supposed to just stick with the (somewhat limited) selection of "pancake" lenses that these companies produce? 

The Sony NEX-5, with its added EVF, handles lenses like the 18-200mm and the a-mount 16-50mm perfectly well, with a viewfinder. Without one I wouldn't even consider using either of those lenses on that camera. I also don't think I'm alone in this. Very early on Olympus came up with the VF-2, still a good EVF. You can use it on all Olympus cameras, including the compact XZ-1. Why on earth has this been beyond the abilities of Panasonic, Sony and Samsung. Sony have finally remedied the situation (if you can find one!) with their great OLED EVF, Panasonic have eventuully got round to improving the LVF1E and Samsung are ???. Certainly the one they released for the NX100 was pretty ordinary. Olympus aren't perfect in all respects, but they got this right.

The NX200 fortunately handles reasonably well without an EVF, though yesterday when I took these pictures, it was very cold, just above freezing and I was struggling with it because I was wearing thick gloves. Small cameras and cold fingers don't go together that well either and I was constantly pressing things I shouldn't.

Having got my customary "no viewfinder moan" out of the way, I must say that again, the NX200 produced some beautiful images. Despite all my reservations about the cameras design, it does produce great pictures. I would go so far as to say that this is probably the best sensor I've ever used for landscape photography. The combination of image size, sharpness, saturated colour and "clean" images is a revelation, and I will admit, an almost total surprise. 

I was thinking yesterday that the advances in sensor performance are coming from Sony, Panasonic, and now Samsung. All multi-product electronics companies. Many other manufacturers use sensors made by these three, and Canon are the only other one still doing everything in house, though they have been standing still for a while. Fuji have one great camera / sensor with the X100 but we need to see if they can produce something above their current 12MP limit. Before the NX200, I wouldn't have put Samsung up there in terms of sensor performance, but this is certainly an incredibly impressive piece of work.

So another day with some gorgeous files to view at the end of it. I've already been uploading many of these images to picture library websites, and they have been received very well. Virtually 100% acceptance. 

So despite my misgivings about the cameras functionality, I have no complaints about its ability to produce high quality commercial images.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 5 Using a Samsung system

There's a piece today at 1001 Noisy Cameras - http://www.1001noisycameras.com/2011/12/samsung-nx20-name-leaked-by-samsung-support-page.html about the leak of the name NX20. There are some interesting comments at the end of the piece. 

"Samsung had an early start in the mirrorless world, but they have not managed to get a lot of traction outside Korea. The announcement of the Nikon and Pentax systems made the field even more crowded and Samsung has not found a way (yet) to differentiate itself, despite having the advantage of an APS-C sensor."

I must say that this is a very succinct summing up of what might be peceived as the "Samsung problem" I obviously can't speak for all countries, but certainly in the UK Samsung cameras are somewhat of a marginal product. For what its worth there are very few flickr groups for the cameras, the Samsung forum at Dpreview gets much less traffic than Sony or m4/3 and certainly my posts about their cameras get far less hits than any other camera system.

1001NoisyCameras is probably right with the "Samsung has not found a way (yet) to differentiate itself" comment and fits in with my comments about the NX200 being somewhat of a "missed opportunity". From using it over the last few days, its apparent to me that the 20MP sensor in the NX200 is pretty special. The images it produces are gorgeous to look at. The jpgs. are pretty ordinary, but hiding away in the camera there are these raw files that are quite remarkable, in terms of sharpness and colour depth.  Samsung's software seems unable to get this out, but in something like Capture One (and I presume Photoshop and Lightroom when they support the camera) these beautiful images are revealed.

All of this is housed in a pretty unremarkable point and shoot styled camera. Hopefully this rumoured NX20 will come up with a body that does this sensor justice. A decent EVF and some decent controls would be nice. Plus they could loose the somewhat plain "bridge camera" design of the NX10 and NX11 and come up with something that addresses the current "retro chic" sensibility. Whether they do this is open to question, since Samsung do seem to be somewhat conservative in their approach to what they release.

In the meantime, I will work with the NX200, because it produces such great images. I've ordered a Voigtlander 15-35mm zoom viewfinder, which while not ideal will give me some opportunity to compose shots without holding the camera out in front of me. I've also ordered an adapter so I can use my Sony a-mount lenses on it. (Mainly for the 8-16mm Sigma I have) Neither of these "solutions" is satisfactory, but I can't get these images with any other camera, so needs must. Hopefully, some of these comments will get through to Samsung HQ, they will realise what they have and produce something that houses this terrific sensor in a body that "stirs the blood" 

I can but hope.

Samsung NX200 review - Part 4 ISO tests

Here are my ISO tests. Camera tripod mounted, focal length set at 25mm, aperture at f/10.

Here are the out of camera jpgs. Exactly as they came out of the camera. High ISO Noise Reduction turned off.

Here are the raw files processed in Capture One using the default settings.

Below is one of the above raw files, taken at ISO 3200, and with my own noise reduction added in Photoshop.

As usual you can see high resolution versions of these files by clicking on them > flickr > Actions > View all sizes > Original.

Hopefully you can see why I described the Samsung approach to jpgs as "criminal". The raw conversions are really good. ISO 6400 and 12800 are pretty terrible, but then those settings are emergency only as far as I'm concerned. If that was my usual ISO setting then I would be using a completely different camera.

Up to ISO 3200 from raw, is pretty good as far as I'm concerned, and the raw file processed myself in Photoshop is perfectly acceptable.

I should mention that in terms of colour balance, the blues are off. The wall in the picture is a light cyan blue, and not the magenta tint that both the raw and jpg. fles have produced. This does seem to be a bias Samsung sensors have. Easily fixable in raw, but it is there.

So why do Samsung choose to destroy the detail in jpgs? To be honest they aren't really much different to other manufacturers, who seem paranoid about letting their jpgs reflect what their sensors are capable of.

In terms of the lower ISO's 100-800, I think the results are excellent. Actually I think they are better than that and are pretty damn good. I really didn't think from my experience with previous Samsung cameras that they would be this good. For my Landscape / Location uses at low ISO's, the files this camera produces are going to be really useful. 20MP and 57MB files capable of A3 reproduction is perfect for my picture library work. 

If only they had built a more useful camera around this great sensor!!!

Samsung NX200 review - Part 3 "Real World" Use

Before going on with my own review - some quotes from other reviews.

From Pocket Lint:- "The kind of resolution and detail we got from the camera’s low ISO shots was nothing short of amazing. ISO 100-400 are stunning in terms of detail and low noise,"

From Photography Blog:- "The Samsung NX200 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The 20.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS megapixel sensor used in the NX200 produces noise-free JPEG images at ISO 100-800,"

From Dpreview:- "The NX200 also features a lighter optical low-pass (anti-aliasing) filter and advanced moiré-suppression processing."

All reviews are well worth a read in full.

Certainly the Dpreview statement confirms my belief that the NX200 has a very light AA filter. The pictures it produces definitely have that non-AA look. Quality at low ISO's is very good indeed, with detailed sharp files. Things start to struggle from ISO 1600 upwards and Samsung sling ridiculous amounts of pretty unpleasant noise reduction at the jpgs. Actually the images aren't that bad, but are someway noisier than a Sony NEX-5n for example. Here's a comparison between a raw file (with high ISO noise reduction turned off) and a jpg. at ISO 3200. Its a 100% blow up.

 I'm going to be doing a full ISO test later today at all ISO settings from 100 to 12800. (The latter is not for the squeamish!!)

In good light the NX200 produces quite stunning pictures. These are taken with the 18-55mm kit lens, which is actually a very decent lens. I tested it back last year and found it to be a excellent performer. This new i-function version seems just as good.

Incidentally I used the settings I have come up with in Capture One to process these images and applied to them to a few A77 and NEX-5n files. I think I assumed that the Sony files would look great, since the ones from the NX200 were so impressive. However the a77 files were noticeably softer and the NEX-5n files were about the same. Showing I think that this Samsung sensor is actually very good indeed, and the weak AA filter is really letting the detail from it come through.

I also shot a bit of hand-held video to see what the OIS in the lens was like. As you can see its pretty effective. You'll notice at the end of the video a rather nasty exposure change. Since there is no AE lock button on the camera, there's no easy way to stop this. I will investigate the possibility of manual control on this. As before I had to colour correct the footage as it was far too blue / magenta.

So, I like the camera more and more in terms of the results at low ISO's, but am consequently getting more frustrated at some of the things that have been left out, like an EVF in particular. I'm currently considering getting an optical viewfinder for some focal lengths, but I can't help thinking more and more that my comments about a missed opportunity indicate my main feelings about the NX200. 

I do realise that its half the price of a camera like the NEX-7 and there will be some things missing because of that, but why didn't they include the facility for an add-on viewfinder? This is a top class sensor capable of creating really beautiful images and it seems to be stuck in a point and shoot body which gives rise to a point and shoot attitude. To my mind the sensor deserves more than this, both in terms of what the camera can offer and what Samsung do to the jpgs. which in some cases is little short of criminal. 

Is this really a camera for "teenage facebook girl" or could it have been the camera that meant photographers across the world suddenly take Samsung seriously. I just can't help thinking that this could have been Samsungs X100, and the one that turned them into a serious player in the CSC market. From what I've seen so far, the sensor is terrific, the rest of the camera less so. I will continue to use it because the images it produces for me are just what I want, but using it I can't help but have this continual "what might have been" feeling.

ISO tests soon.