Samsung NX10

Noise Reduction (7.01)

Our first test looks at how the noise level rises as the ISO is increased, with noise reduction both on and off (unlike many other cameras, the NX10 offers only a single level of high ISO noise reduction). Also unusual is the fact that noise reduction is only available at the ISO 3200 level, despite the spike in image noise after ISO 800.

We also found that the different color channels have a very similar pattern of noise; there is not one color that is contributing more significantly to the noise in the images than the other. More on how we test noise.

One of the major issues with the Four Thirds sensor format, used in both Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras, is noise. These sensors are roughly 50% smaller than the APS-C format sensor used in most DSLRs, but with about the same megapixel count. And squeezing lots of megapixels into a smaller area means these cameras are prone to image noise problems. Samsung claims this difference as a key advantage for the NX format, which maintains the APS-C-size sensor in a relatively compact camera. In our lab testing, we found that the NX10 did produce less noisy images than the Micro Four Thirds cameras, but there’s a catch: other SLRs we’ve tested with APS-C sized sensors had lower noise than the Samsung.

If we compare noise levels between cameras with noise reduction turned off (or set to its lowest setting), we see that the NX10 does very well; the amount of noise in the images is consistently equal to or lower than all of the other cameras, and clearly superior to the Micro Four Thirds cameras: the GF1 and E-P1 have very high noise levels here. This means that if you like to shoot with noise reduction off, to maximize image detail, the NX10 will serve you well.

If we compare the cameras with noise reduction set to maximum, the situation is a little different. In this case, the very aggressive noise reduction used by the GF1 and E-P1 brings the noise level down significantly, so the differences are much less pronounced. The NX10 still has lower noise, but the margin is reduced, and the Nikon D5000 has a lower noise at all ISO levels above 400.

Our overall conclusion is that the NX10 produces images with less noise than the Micro Four Thirds cameras, but that there is still a fair amount of image noise at high ISOs.

ISO Options

The NX10 has an ISO range of 100 up to 3200, all at the full resolution of the camera. There is also an Auto ISO setting, which unfortunately doesn’t provide a user setting for maximum acceptable ISO level, a feature found on many other cameras.

There are only two settings for high ISO noise reduction: on and off. Some other cameras offer multiple levels of noise reduction, but Samsung decided not to bother with that sort of fancy stuff here. Below are 100 per cent crops of our still life taken at all of the ISO levels that the camera supports, along with samples taken under the same conditions using our comparison cameras.

ISO Comparisons
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO Low
ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 200
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 200
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 400
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 800
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 1600
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 3200
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 6400
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x
ISO 12800
Samsung NX10	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Nikon D5000	Pentax K-x

NOTE: The images above are not used in our testing or scoring, but are included here to show real-world examples of the differences between cameras at the various ISO settings.