Samsung NX10

The first question to ask when evaluating the Samsung NX10 isn’t how well does it work, but why does it exist? The engineers at Samsung took the mirrorless concept pioneered by Micro Four Thirds camera designers, combined it with the larger, APS-C-sized sensor used in most digital SLRs, and created this photographic hybrid. But what’s the key advantage of a mirrorless design? A smaller camera body. And compared to the recent compact Micro Four Thirds designs from Olympus and Panasonic, the NX10 is substantially larger — certainly too big to fit in most jacket pockets, a trick you can pull off with a Panasonic GF1 or the Olympus E-PL1 (particularly with the collapsible zoom lens).

The major fly in the ointment for Micro Four Thirds cameras is the small sensor that allows their compact design. Every Micro Four Thirds camera we’ve tested to date has suffered from high image noise problems. In contrast, the NX10, with its APS-C sensor, performed well in our image noise tests, both in bright and low light. Mission accomplished. But it did so in a larger camera body, and one with a new proprietary lens format with even fewer interchangeable lens options than the Micro Four Thirds cameras. The fact that you get an electronic viewfinder as part of the $700 package might have been a major edge versus the compact Micro Four Thirds competition, except the EVF on the NX10 stutters badly enough to make your stomach churn.

So the NX10 is offering more portability than a true SLR, but not in a radical enough way to change the pocketability equation. And while it’s immune to the image noise problems that pester Micro Four Thirds shooters, it offers less fine photographic control and interchangeable lens flexibility than true SLRs that aren’t that much chunkier and autofocus much faster. Where’s the compelling selling proposition?

At this writing the NX10 is still selling at the full manufacturer’s suggested price, which is $699.99. The Nikon D5000 and Canon T1i video SLRs, which have been out for several months now, have seen substantial price drops since their $899 and $850 introductions, and now play in roughly that same $700 range. If the Samsung NX10 follows the usual pattern, it will become a cheaper alternative to these SLRs with roughly equivalent photographic quality overall. (The NX10 has the edge in resolution, the Nikon and Canon in burst rate shooting.). A key reason many users go the SLR route, though, is speedy performance, and Samsung’s contrast-detect autofocus is no match for any decent SLR when you’re trying to shoot a kid racing down a soccer field. Plus, the electronic viewfinder on the NX10 is nowhere near as comfortable as a straightforward optical SLR viewfinder for eye-level shooting, which is still the best way to hold a camera steady short of a tripod.

Bottom line: the Samsung is an interesting experiment, and a decent, fairly simple camera in most respects. It is certainly a user-friendly choice for those moving up from an SLR, with its effective full auto mode and straightforward control scheme. Other than an admittedly significant drop in image noise, though, we’re not seeing a major advantage over the more portable compact Micro Four Thirds models. And the NX10 isn’t small enough to trade off an SLR’s speedy autofocus, optical viewfinder and wide selection of interchangeable lenses.

Performance

The NX10 didn’t knock our socks off in any of the lab tests, but it didn’t tank badly anywhere either. Image noise was impressively low in both full and low light, and the camera produced nice, sharp images. Color accuracy was a problem, but if you’re finicky about this you can get into the ‘picture wizard’ color mode and tweak it to suit your preferences, saving the result as a custom setting you can keep using. Burst rate shooting is mediocre, and dynamic range quite limited, but overall, image quality is fine for a camera in this price range, without being exceptional. As for autofocus speed, the NX10 doesn’t feel quite as quick as the Panasonic GF1, but works better than the Olympus Micro Four Thirds models we’ve tested to date. Still, it’s no match for an SLR

Video

The Samsung NX10 did well in some of our video testing—particularly with color accuracy and noise—but its limited set of video features left us underwhelmed. We also weren’t impressed with the camera’s choppy results in our motion test and the murky, pixelated image it produced in low light. You can set aperture manually in video mode, but the fact that the camera has no option for adjusting shutter speed and ISO makes it an unappealing choice for control enthusiasts. As is the case for most low-end, video-capable DSLRs, the video mode on the NX10 should be seen as a side-show attraction rather than a strong selling point.

Hardware

The beautiful 3-inch OLED screen is a big win for the NX10, the laggy electronic viewfinder a disturbing loss; when shooting with the EVF, the blur while moving can actually give you a queasy feeling. In terms of construction, the body feels solid and well built, with rubberized surfaces for the front grip and thumb rest, controls that have the right tactile response when you turn or push them. One cost-cutting move that did annoy us, though, was the lack of an AV out cable in the box. It’s a proprietary connection, the cable is hard to find, and this is a $700 camera, not a $99 point-and-shoot. The depth of field preview button is a welcome feature, rarely found on a relatively inexpensive camera.

Controls

The NX10 is geared toward the point-and-shoot upgrader more than the current SLR owner: who might get a slightly smaller body with the NX10, but loses autofocus speed and lens compatibility. With this market in mind,t he Smart Auto system works well, successfully matching the subject to preset shooting modes more often than not, and with a wider range of available presets than most similar systems. The ability to customize color modes (called picture wizards here) and save the results is an important plus, particularly since we weren’t impressed with the default mode settings. Customization beyond this feature are limited, but the flip side of that limitation is operating simplicity.

Sample Photos

In the following sample images, clicking on the larger image will download the full resolution original. Each photo is accompanied by four actual-size crops.

City Square Sample
				Focal length: 18mm Aperture: f/6.7 Shutter: 1/125 ISO: 100 Taken in Davis Square in Somerville, MA on a sunny lunch hour, using vivid mode. There is very good image detail from edge to edge, though the lens distortion is clearly visible on the flagpole, and there is some chromatic aberration in the corner branches.

Close-Up Sample
				Focal length: 55mm Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter: 1/8 ISO: 200 Shot on a tripod, using automatic white balance in neutral mode. Sharpness is generally impressive, with only a bit of softening in the corners.

Low-Light Sample
				Focal length: 37mm Aperture: f/11 Shutter: 0.8 ISO: 3200 Shot in aperture priority mode under low 20 lux illumination, at the camera’s maximum ISO, using multi metering and 1 EV of exposure compensation. The large image at left was taken with noise reduction turned off. There’s quite a lot of fine detail, and while there is plenty of image noise as well, the photo looks OK at small sizes. In the small samples below, we’ve paired same-size crops taken from this photo beside crops from another version, taken with high ISO noise reduction turned on. There is significant smoothing of the noisy textures, with an acceptable effect on image detail.

Floral Sample
				Focal length: 40mm Aperture: f/11 Shutter: 1/90 ISO: 100 We decided to let the camera’s Smart Auto mode do the thinking for us on this shot, with good results (it chose the outdoor landscape setting). We like the sharp detail, the blurred background and the subtle color gradation. However, these real flowers have an artificial look to them, thanks to the overly saturated colors.

Wildlife Sample
				Focal length: 55mm Aperture: f/11 Shutter: 1/259 ISO: 400 Shot in program mode with evaluative metering in the landscape picture mode (which slightly boosts saturation, sharpness and contrast), this shot came out well for the most part. Edge to edge sharpness is very good, the white ducks are appropriately white using auto WB, and we can’t find a sign of chromatic aberration. The most notable flaw is the blown-out duck backs, which lose any feather detail.

Signage Sample
				Focal length: 55mm Aperture: f/10 Shutter: 1/160 ISO: 200 This program mode shot was taken using the vivid picture wizard setting, to bring up the intense red, green and gold colors we saw (the setting had the greatest effect on the red bricks). There’s a little softness at the outer edges, and some loss of detail in the white window frame, but the NX10 produced a nicely balanced image here.

Samsung NX10 Specs
Type	Compact SLR / System
Focal Length Minimum	18.0 mm
Focal Length Maximum	55.0 mm
Still Pixel Count (gross)	15.1 megapixels
Still Pixel Count (effective)	14.6 megapixels
Sensor Size	APS-C
Sensor Type - New	CMOS
Aspect Ratios	3:2, 16:9
Frame Rate(s)	30p
Original Price	699.99 $
Height	87.0 mm
Width	123.0 mm
Depth	39.8 mm
Weight	353.0 g
Model Colors	black
Display Type	OLED
Display Size	3.0 in.
Display Resolution	614000 pixels
Viewfinder Type	electronic
Viewfinder Resolution	921000 pixels
Viewfinder Magnification	0.86 x
Viewfinder Coverage	100.0 % coverage
Diopter Adjustment - New	-4.0 to +2.0m^-1
Media New	SD/SDHC
Connectivity Options	USB, A/V, miniHDMI, hot accessory shoe
Battery Type	removable lithium-ion
Battery Model Number	BP1310
Mirror Technology (Interchangeable Lens)	Mirrorless
Waterproof	No
Manual Controls	manual focus, aperture priority mode, shutter priority mode, custom white balance, ISO control
ISO Options	100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Minimum ISO	100
Maximum ISO	3200