Samsung NX100 review

The NX100 took some beautiful photos when there was plenty of light. Skies were captured as smoothly gradated tones without any hint of noise, and colours were rich yet natural. The lens produced sharp results into the corners of frames, there was barely any sign of chromatic aberrations and much less barrel and pincushion distortion than from the NX10’s 18-55mm lens. The Auto ISO mode sensibly picked speeds from 200 to 800 in overcast weather to keep the shutter speed at around 1/80th seconds, but this resulted in slightly grainy skin tones and blotchiness on block colours. These problems were only visible under close inspection, though, and weren’t significant at normal viewing and printing sizes.

Indoor photography was a different matter. With no flash or image stabilisation and a not particularly bright f/3.5-5.6 lens, this camera must rely on high ISO speeds in low light to avoid blurry shots. Shooting at ISO 3200, aggressive noise reduction obliterated all the subtlety from photos and drained the colour from less saturated parts of the image, leaving an odd patchwork of colour and monochrome. This problem wasn’t as bad at lower ISO speeds but it was still detectable at ISO 800. Whereas the NEX-5 produced usable results at ISO 6400, the NX100 is only good to ISO 1600. Factor in the NEX-5’s stabilisation and flash and the NX100 can’t hope to compete.

The video mode was disappointing, too. Picture quality was generally high but focus was fixed for the duration of clips and the soundtrack was spoiled by a loud buzz that resembled mains hum. Panning shots suffered badly from rolling shutter, whereby the top of each frame was captured earlier than the bottom, skewing the picture. It’s a problem that afflicts all CMOS sensors, but here it was particularly pronounced. Exposure control for videos is better than usual with access to the aperture, exposure compensation and lock, but there’s no control over the shutter speed.

One of the key benefits of a big sensor is low noise at high ISO speeds, but the NX100 is eclipsed by the Sony NEX-5 in this respect. In fact, conventional premium compact cameras such as the Panasonic LX5 and Canon S95 produce better photos in low light, thanks to their f/2 lenses and optical stabilisation, plus a flash to help out if all else fails. The NX100’s controls are superb but that’s not enough in the face of smaller, cheaper, better quality rivals.