Samsung NX1000 Digital Camera Review

Speed and Timing

The Samsung NX-series of cameras all come in at around 8 frames per second burst shooting, giving the NX1000 a leg up on most of its competition in the sub-$1000 market. The NX camera comes with two continuous shooting mode settings, a single shot setting, as well as self-timer option.s

The burst mode on the NX1000 can be accessed directly by pressing the left side of the rear control dial/four-way pad, or by going through the camera's "function" menu. From here you can rotate through the various options, letting you quickly change drive mode when necessary. The self-timer is pretty basic, without much customization, using the green AF lamp and an audible countdown to signal that the camera is about to fire.

The NX1000 easily rattled off frames at just a hair under eight frames per second (calculated as an average over a five-shot burst) in our testing. We did have to bump the shutter speed up above 1/250th of a second to get that speed, but even when shooting with the camera entirely on automatic and at minimum ISO we got six frames per second out of the camera.

Focus Speed

The Samsung NX1000 focuses fairly quickly in bright lighting condition, but we did notice that it struggled to find focus when contrast was low or light was limited. The NX1000 makes use of contrast detection autofocus, with the ability to hone in on a large area or a smaller point. Like most contrast detection systems, it was quite accurate when it was able to find focus.

In terms of speed the NX1000 compares well to most mirrorless cameras. It's certainly not on the same level as the Olympus E-M5, but it's serviceable quick in most situations. Even shooting with the 85mm f/1.4 lens, we found it was able to lock onto the focus point that we wanted more times than not with reasonable speed.