Samsung NX300 review - Hands on

1 of 7

Gallery

Posted on 9 Jan 2013 at 02:10, by David Ludlow

At CES 2013 the Samsung NX300 compact system camera (CSC) was unveiled. As well as generally improving on its previous CSCs in terms of image quality, Samsung has also integrated some of its smart camera features, letting you send photos directly and immediately to your smartphone.

Using the Smart Camera App (Android and iOS), users can transfer images from their camera to the phone directly using Wi-Fi. Two modes of transfer are available: AutoShare automatically sends a smartphone-sized image to your smartphone when a photo is taken; Mobile Link lets you use your smartphone to decide which photos or albums you'd like to transfer. Alternatively, you can share photos directly from the camera to social networking sites, using its built-in Wi-Fi to connect to a network.

Today we got our hands on the camera itself and it's hard not to be impressed by the build quality. It feels rock-solid to hold with a big comfortable grip and some rather appealing retro flourishes.

It's the first NEX-series camera to have a tilting screen, as it's also the first tilting AMOLED screen we've seen. At 3.31in across the screen is nice and big and the OLED quality is obvious with deep blacks and vibrant colours. With a standard array of controls on the back, too, getting at all of the camera's settings should be easy.

Inside the camera is a 20.3-megapixel APS-CMOS sensor, which we're hoping will produce similar high-quality photos to the 20-megapixel Samsung NX20. It's a new sensor, with improved performance, thanks to a hybrid autofocus system using both phase and contrast detection. we couldn't test it seriously on the show floor at CES but it seemed very fast and very reliable.

The Samsung NX300 has a wide ISO range of ISO100 to ISO25600, which should make shooting in low-light easier. However, we'll need to see how noisy low-light shots are before we pass any judgements.

In addition to the sensor, there's also a new, faster image processor, which should increase shot-to-shot performance. It's also quick enough to enable the camera to shoot 3D video with the new 45mm F1.8 2D/3D lens.

This lens can shoot in 3D for both still and video photography, and can also be used as a regular 2D prime lens. WE checked out the 3D effect today and it looked pretty impressive, both in video and stills. The lens works at 60Hz, providing 30fps £d content at Full HD (its not backward compatible with other NX bodies unfortunately). The 45mm fixed focal distance makes it ideal for portrait shots, which in turn look great in 3D with a clear subject front and centre.