Samsung NX30 review

Every CES brings something exciting at the upper end of Samsung’s camera range. Last year, it was the almost pocket-sized NX300; this year it’s the more traditional DSLR-wannabe NX30, with a reinvented sensor and super-bright fold-out 3in AMOLED touchscreen.

Compare and contrast

Samsung has stuck with 20.3 megapixels on an APS-C chip – common to all NX cameras – and added the same phase/contrast AF system that debuted on the NX300, combining 105 phase detect with 247 contrast-detect points. Focusing is down to less than 0.08 sec, whether you’re half-pressing the shutter release or tapping the touchscreen. Opt for the latter in any of the semi-manual modes and you can drag out a second point from your focus point, which is used to set the exposure.

There’s a digital viewfinder above the screen with a proximity sensor that detects your eye and switches between the two. Again, it’s bright and sharp and has an extending, articulated arm that lets you tip it up so you’re looking down, rather than forwards, as you would on an old-style analogue camera. Working this way is extremely comfortable – particularly if you’re shooting still life or seated portraits.

Samsung has also slimmed down the filter in front of the sensor so it blocks less light, and set maximum sensitivity at ISO 25600. You can safely take the NX30 as far as ISO 1600 with only minor grain, even when shooting in raw, and while the noise does become increasingly obvious from that point on we’d have few reservations taking it to the max on shots we were happy to desaturate, as there’s plenty of detail. If you need to push things further, exposure compensation gives you an additional three stops in either direction, broken down into 1/3EV steps.

Aside from when we forced it towards the top of the range, we performed most of our tests with the NX30 set to aperture priority with automatic sensitivity, and it consistently kept to the lower end of the scale. Of 286 test shots, almost half were exposed at ISO 100, even when shooting inside a museum, without the camera forcing so long an exposure that we needed a tripod. Overall, close to 90% came in at ISO 800 or below, for a clean set of results all round. Colours were realistic, there was plenty of contrast and images were bursting with texture and detail in everything from cut stone to natural wood and foliage.

If you prefer to rely on mechanics rather than electronic amplification to counter low light, shutter options run from 1/8000 to 30 seconds in manual mode, and you can crack it open for up to four minutes in bulb. Maximum aperture on the 18-55mm kit lens (27.72-84.7mm, 35mm equivalent) is f/3.5-f/5.6 at each end of the zoom. It’s a safe choice, with broadly the same dynamics as its closest competitors, only minor softening towards the corners and no evidence of colour fringing in our tests. It falls into Samsung’s i-Function range on lenses, which allow you to twist a ring at the end of the barrel to change common settings such as aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity. The upshot of working this way is that you spend more time with your eye on your subject, and less hunting through menus.

Features and design

Compare the body to its predecessor, the NX20 and you’ll see it has been subtly redesigned, with a finger notch and more pronounced thumb rest making it both stable and comfortable to hold for extended shoots. Elsewhere, additional controls bring key features to the surface. Drive mode has been lifted out of the menus and onto a selector beside the mode dial, giving you immediate access to bracketing, timed and continuous shooting, which in our tests averaged 7.5fps over four seconds when using a Class 10 SDXC card. This is slightly down on Samsung’s claims of 9fps.

Movies top out at 1080p, 60fps, with a 50fps mode available for PAL output, and results are excellent. Detail is crisp and it compensates smoothly for extreme changes in illumination, with no evidence of stepping. The soundtrack is acutely observed in sheltered surroundings, but suffers in stiff wind, even with wind cut active, so if you’re serious about video you might consider making use of the external mic input to connect a suitably baffled microphone.

The NX30 is Wi-Fi-equipped, so you can email and back up your photos over a regular network, or set it up as a mobile base station for remote control from an Android or iOS phone. You can remotely access regular shooting controls such as sensitivity and find where your shots are stored, and Samsung is now shipping a 16-50mm powered lens – sadly not available in place of the kit lens – that allows for remote zooming. If you have an NFC-enabled device you only need tap it to the side of the NX30 to pair, and it’s possible to go on to pair up to three other devices and share your shots between all four simultaneously.

Verdict

The Samsung NX30 represents a seriously tempting package, offering the best features of a DSLR without the potential bulk. With a rapidly growing lens line-up, it’s almost as flexible, too, which makes the £899 asking price – roughly equivalent to a Canon EOS 70D or Nikon D600 – far easier to swallow.

Samsung NX30 sample pictures:

Shot at f/5.6, 1/40s, ISO 3200. Click this link for the full resolution version

Shot at f/5, 1/60s, ISO 1600. Click this link for the full resolution version

Shot at f/7.1, 1/320s, ISO 100. Click this link for the full resolution version

Details
Image quality	5
Basic specifications
Camera megapixel rating	20.3mp
Camera screen size	3.0in
Camera maximum resolution	5472 x 3648
Weight and dimensions
Weight	375.000kg
Dimensions	126 x 62 x 95mm (WDH)
Battery
Battery type included	none
Other specifications
Built-in flash?	yes
Aperture range	f3.5 - f5.6
Minimum (fastest) shutter speed	1/8,000
Maximum (slowest) shutter speed	30s
Progam auto mode?	yes
Shutter priority mode?	yes
Aperture priority mode?	yes
Fully auto mode?	yes
Burst frame rate	7.5fps
Memory-card type	SD
Viewfinder coverage	100%
Video/TV output?	yes
Data connector type	USB