Samsung EX1 review

The EX1’s biggest strength is undoubtedly the Schneider Kreuznach 24-72mm f/1.8-2.4 optical zoom lens, but with a 3x optical zoom, it doesn’t have the reach of the longer lenses that we see on a lot of today’s compact cameras. That might sound like a bad thing, but its large f/1.8-2.4 maximum aperture combined with the relatively large sensor means it lets much more light in than virtually every other compact on the market – of course making an exception for cameras with even larger sensors, like Sigma’s DP2s.

The zoom covers a useful range – 24-70mm is seen as the most flexible and useful range for a carry around lens on a DSLR – and it’s also sharp throughout its range bar some minor corner softness at wider angles when shooting relatively flat frame-filling subjects. It controls chromatic aberrations and flare quite well, but distortion at the wide end of its focal length is quite severe if you’re shooting RAW; Samsung does correct a lot of the distortion if you’re using the in-camera JPEGs, though. At the telephoto end of its range, the EX1’s distortion is minimal.

While the distortion in wide-angle RAW images is quite disconcerting, we found that the JPEGs were slightly over-sharpened, producing a slight halo along high-contrast edges. Despite these minor quibbles image quality was very impressive in both RAW and JPEG modes, with vibrant and accurate colours as well as good contrast. Unfortunately, image quality in JPEGs shot at higher ISOs suffered from Samsung’s heavy-handed approach noise reduction, so we’d definitely recommend shooting RAW at higher sensitivities.

The EX1 has a tendency to over-expose shots and the metering system does seem a little hit-and-miss. We quite often found ourselves re-shooting with some exposure compensation dialled in after reviewing a shot. The focusing system was also slightly unpredictable if you’re using multi-point AF, as it often chose to disregard obvious subjects in favour of something less conspicuous. Thankfully the manual AF point selection function is well-implemented and solved most of the problems.