Saturday 27 April 2013

Friday 26 April 2013

Guess I should do a bit of a review on the Samsung NX300...

Nothing overly technical, just a write up on my experiences using the camera with the different lenses.

Or would it be like writing a review for an audience of 1? Namely myself.

Watch this space I guess.

In the mean time, I will keep posting pics :)

I have now posted my review here

Samsung NX300 + 60mm Macro

Two toed Sloth by chris_rabe
Two toed Sloth, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Two toed Sloth

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Vulture by chris_rabe
Vulture, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Vulture taken in Costa Rica using Samsung NX300

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Capuchin by chris_rabe
Capuchin, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Capuchin

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Green Iguana Baby by chris_rabe
Green Iguana Baby, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Green Iguana Baby

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Anole by chris_rabe
Anole, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Anole

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm zoom

Three Toed Sloth by chris_rabe
Three Toed Sloth, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Three Toed Sloth

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Squirrel Monkey by chris_rabe
Squirrel Monkey, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Squirrel Monkey

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Panorama, Areans Del Mar, Punatarenas

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Scarlet mackaw by chris_rabe
Scarlet mackaw, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Scarlet mackaw

Samsung NX300 + 60mm

Crab by chris_rabe
Crab, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Crab

Thursday 25 April 2013

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Fer De Lance by chris_rabe
Fer De Lance, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Fer De Lance

Samsung NX300 + 30mm

Hermit Crab by chris_rabe
Hermit Crab, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Hermit Crab

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm zoom @ 200mm

Caracara by chris_rabe
Caracara, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Caracara. Cropped a bit and processed from RAW

Samsung NX300 + 60mm

Orange Kneed Tarantula by chris_rabe
Orange Kneed Tarantula, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.

Orange Kneed Tarantula

Samsung NX300 + 18-200mm

Emeral Toucanette by chris_rabe
Emeral Toucanette, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Emeral Toucanette. This has been cropped a bit, processed from Raw in lightroom.

NX300 firmware V1.1 now available

Well, just back from holidays to Costa Rica, the nicest place on earth.

Of course, it would happen that on the very last day I get notification of the release of V1.1 of NX300 firmware, which addressed the a number of things I found incredibly frustrating on holidays... Oh well...

It can be found quite easily on the product pages for the various international sites.

I have not much chance to play with it yet, but it seems the focus definitely has been worked on, and they indeed have fixed the problem of the OIS not engaging at times (especially on 60mm macro), but I will go into more detail once I have had a chance to use it more.

Soon I will also stick up some pics from holidays.

Saturday 6 April 2013

Samsung NX300 + 60mm Macro

NX300 + 60mm Macro by chris_rabe
NX300 + 60mm Macro, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Thought should post some sample shots.

Processed form raw, with just punch preset applied

Samsung NX300 + 60mm Macro - ISO 3200

NX300 + 60mm Macro by chris_rabe
NX300 + 60mm Macro, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Thought should post some sample shots.

Processed form raw, with only punch preset applied.

Samsung NX300 + 60mm Macro

NX300 + 60mm Macro by chris_rabe
NX300 + 60mm Macro, a photo by chris_rabe on Flickr.
Thought should post some sample shots.

Processed form raw, with some cropping, vignetting and lifting shadows

Friday 5 April 2013

OK, Samsung, your NX300 starting to annoy me...

Ok, it's bad enough you have messed up video a bit, but did your quality testing standards must be shoddy.

First one bad camera where the sensor goes wonky and displays garbage on screen, and the replacement has a very unresponsive screen in comparison to the first, sometimes having to tap several times to get a response.

And now I discover that OIS will not engage on the 60mm macro, making it far less useful on my upcoming holiday.

Honestly, I am beginning to wish I had simply got a 2nd NX1000 as a backup, and not waited for this camera.

I though I'd start this blog singing you NX system's praises, but you are giving me a ton of reasons not to.

Seriously, give someone like me a job testing so that we can find all these stupid little things that should not have gotten through to retail sector!

Edit:

Have now taken the second camera with me on holiday, and for the most part it didn't let me down, and was usually fast reliable enough to get some nice shots.

Since firmware 1.1, OIS seems to be less of a problem, and responsiveness of camera in general seems much improved.

I think I was mostly frustrated as I was worried this camera wasn't going to perform well on my holidays.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

NX300 manual video options - Why Samsung? Why?

While still waiting for my new (hopefully problem free) NX300, was using the faulty one to get used to the camera...

This is when I noticed some major shortcomings in the NX300 videos department.

The previous cameras had their own video mode dial option, while the NX300 has no dial but inherits your settings from your current manual/PASM mode settings, which isn't a terrible thing in itself, BUT:

1) There is no longer any manual ISO mode setting for video! You get auto and that's that, with no way to lock it! This should be easily rectified in firmware, so hope you do that.
2) You don't get a proper 16:9 preview until you hit the record button! This one could be rectified by placing a video preview icon on left side of screen.

I steered away form panasonic MFT/m43 cameras because they took away manual video control (unless you paid silly prices for GH3), and now Samsung appears to want to do the same.

Please do not go down that road! Be better than the other manufacturers!

Edit:

Since firmware V1.1, manual ISO is now available in full manual mode for video, but still not for aperture/shutter priority, nor program AE. Heading in the right direction now.

But we still need a way to get a 16:9 preview of what will be recorded.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Samsung NX300 - Arrived a day earlier than expected!


NX300 problem a video by chris_rabe on Flickr.
But of course, as is my luck with electronics, there is a major problem with it, as shown in this video.

Hopefully Amazon will have the new one out tonight, as I am not running out of time before my holidays.

Apart from that, my general impressions are that the NX300 will be an awesome camera.

It's incredibly fast, and great to handle, though it's far from perfect - as it seems the focus still has a tendency to "pump" during video recording, and focus in low light isn't wonderful.

Also the 20-50mm kit lens that came with it feels a bit wonky compared to the one that came with the NX1000.