First thoughts onSamsung NX20

[sailor]

I have just bought the Samsung NX20 with the 18-55mm kit lens. To be honest it's a touch of GAS rather than anything I particularly need but hey ho what has common sense got to do with decisions.

I've had it for a few days now and here are my first thoughts. It's smaller than I thought it would be and very lightweight, though not flimsy feeling. It has not taken me long to feel at home using it and, unlike other CSC cameras I've tried, I 'm not finding that I end up pressing buttons by mistake. (The Fuji X-E1 drove me nuts because of this). The focusing (particularly in poor light) is not the fastest but this is not a problem for the kind of pictures I take. The EVF is fine and the rear screen movements are very useful. The screen itself is bright and clear. I have not made use of the i -function button on the lens and I am not interested in the wi-fi capabilities. Like most cameras nowadays there are loads of functions I will never use - I take almost all of my pictures on Aperture Priority. The kit lens is better than I thought it would be although the jpegs appear to have been sharpened more than normal.

The perfect camera has not been made and the NX20 is no exception. The most annoying thing is that the jpegs when downloaded to the computer bear very little relation the the way they look on the EVF and rear screen. They are much flatter and lacking in contrast. I now find myself shooting with the camera set to vivid but the images still seem to take quite a bit of work to get them looking the way I like. I am forced to shoot jpegs because for some reason my computer does not recognise the RAW files, either using the card slot on the computer or a separate card reader. It tells me that there are no files to download. I'm not sure what to do about this but it is a major issue.

It's early days to come to any definite conclusions but here are a couple of samples for your perusal.

Uig Harbour in Evening Light by Elmer Duck, on Flickr

View Towards Bornesketaig, Kilmuir and the Trotternish Ridge by Elmer Duck, on Flickr

 

[Robin P]

I just sold my NX20 after two reasonably happy years!
You definitely need to get the raw files sorted out but be prepared for some work to get nice pics from them unless you always shoot in "easy" nice sunny weather.

Yes the NX20 is a very nice camera to use, good to hold and neither too heavy nor too light.

If you can sort out your raw file problem (firmware update??) then it's worth investing in some of the Samsung pancake lenses which are excellent and very small.

Here's the very last photo I took with my NX20, a grab shot using the rear screen to compose - 20mm pancake f3.2 1/15 ISO2000

 

[sailor]

Thanks for responding. I'll give updating the firmware a go. I thought it might be easier to work with the RAW files to get good images but from what you say it looks like there are issues with them too. One of the reasons I bought the camera was the availability of good prime lenses. If I can get the workflow sorted out I would be tempted to invest.

 

[Robin P]

Thanks for responding. I'll give updating the firmware a go. I thought it might be easier to work with the RAW files to get good images but from what you say it looks like there are issues with them too. One of the reasons I bought the camera was the availability of good prime lenses. If I can get the workflow sorted out I would be tempted to invest.

Which program will you be using to work on the raw files? - that might give us a clue what the problem is.

 

[sailor]

Which program will you be using to work on the raw files? - that might give us a clue what the problem is.

I usually use Camera Raw in Photoshop Elements 9 but I also tried opening the files in Capture One Express (6). No success with either as the computer did not recognize that there were files to download.

 

[Robin P]

Try copying the entire contents of the card to a folder on the computer and then use the free Adobe DNG Converter to convert all the .SRW files to .DNGs which your Elements 9 should open. You may need to update the RAW converter in Elements -
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5264
The .DNGs are half the size of the Samsung raw files (!) so I used to just delete them and keep the DNGs.
If your versions of Elements or Capture One prove too old to support the NX20 files then you can always try the free download of the Samsung Raw Converter which is just a rename of the dreaded Silkypix.

 

[sailor]

Try copying the entire contents of the card to a folder on the computer and then use the free Adobe DNG Converter to convert all the .SRW files to .DNGs which your Elements 9 should open. You may need to update the RAW converter in Elements -
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5264
The .DNGs are half the size of the Samsung raw files (!) so I used to just delete them and keep the DNGs.
If your versions of Elements or Capture One prove too old to support the NX20 files then you can always try the free download of the Samsung Raw Converter which is just a rename of the dreaded Silkypix.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been at this for approx 4 hours today and have finally found a way to open raw files in Camera Raw. To cut a VERY long story short the only way I've found that works is to open the files in Silkypix, then move them to a folder in My Pictures. It's then a case of opening the files in Adobe DNG Converter and converting the Samsung Raw Files to DNGs which can then be saved and opened in the Adobe Camera Raw linked to Photoshop Elements 9. Every other method I tried was a non starter. Without your input Robin I would never have been able to work this out (I had never heard of Adobe DNG Converter for instance) so I am very grateful. I'm now looking forward to seeing what results I can get using this method. Many thanks once again.

 

[sailor]

I am in the process of converting my Robot screw lenses for use on my NX20.
It requires using Robot 26mm screw to Leica screw adapter on the lens plus a Leica 39mm to Samsung NX Fotodiox adapter on the camera.
I am using two matched adapters on each of my lenses so that I can quickly change the lenses as one unit using the NX bayonet fitting of the Fotodiox adapter.
I am very happy with the results so far into my preliminary trials with the Robot lenses, especially the 40mm f1.9 Xenon, which focuses down to 18 inches on the NX20.
Will post some images when I have finished my trials for which I have set the camera for using jpegs on the Super Fine quality setting, aperture priority and manual focus.I have not tried using or processing Raw files as yet.
I love the challenge of using the manual "legacy" lenses with adapters on digital.On the NX20 using the manual focus assist and pressing the OK button the focus area is magnified up to 5 or 7 times depending on what magnification you have set in the manual focus assist function which makes manual focussing much easier.
I have owned and used NX10 and NX11 models but much prefer the NX20 but the camera does include numerous facilities e.g Wi Fi that I will not make use of, I just like the basic facilities that it provides.

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond but Robin was helping me find a way of processing RAW files and I was tied up with that. Your project sounds really interesting. I have played around with manual focusing on the NX20 and have found it to be easy to use and very accurate so if the Robot lenses are any good at all you should get some excellent results. I'll keep an eye out for further posts with examples.

Like you I find that there are loads of features on modern cameras that I never use. If the image quality is good enough I might invest in some of the Samsung prime lenses or play around with some of my Canon fd ones. I believe that although the NX 20 can work with Leica screw lenses it's not possible to use M mount ones. Shame, I would like to have tried. Thanks again for taking the time to comment.

 

[sailor]

I'm afraid the Samsung NX20 has had to go back to the dealer. I found that the dioptre adjuster was too easy to move by mistake, resulting in the viewfinder being out of focus and requiring adjustment. Eventually the adjuster stopped working correctly. It felt like something came loose inside the viewfinder, resulting in the view being out of focus and out of square. I expected that the dealer would get the fault repaired, which I would have been happy with, but instead they offered me a full refund which I accepted.

I was sorry to see the NX20 go. I was just getting the hang of processing the images and I found it an easy camera to get to know. The user interface and ergonomics suited me better than most CSC cameras I've tried. I expected the kit lens to be rubbish but it was a good deal better than that. So all in all I'm glad I had the chance to try it out. I have looked at the NX30 which everybody seems to agree is a decent improvement over the NX20 but I'm not willing to pay the price currently being asked. When the projected NX1 makes an appearance it should be an interesting proposition and I suspect at that time the price of the NX30 will drop considerably.

In the meantime, not able to resist a bargain, I've bought the Samsung NX2000 with 20-50mm and 16mm lenses for £279. As the cheapest you can get the 16mm lens on its own in the UK is £249, I've basically got the camera and zoom lens for £30 and there is also a copy of Lightroom 4 included in the deal. Can't be bad. It will be a complete change from the NX20 as it does not have a viewfinder but at that price it's worth a go. Watch this space.

 

[Robin P]

Sorry to hear your NX20 had problems, let's hope you have better luck with the NX2000. At least you now have a way of working with the raw files. That 20-50 is much better than one would expect and so delightfully small.