Amateur Photographer Magazine

 Samsung NX10 hands on preview -

Samsung NX10 first look

Tuesday 26th January 2010

Damien Demolder

Please do not look too closely at these images as the camera I was using was very pre-production.




As you can see here the Samsung NX10 represents quite a space saving over the Samsung GX20 DSLR. The new camera is considerably smaller and lighter. With the standard zoom fitted, as shown here, the kit fits in a decent sized overcoat pocket.

There are plenty of people that like to look down their nose at Samsung's GX series, preferring the obvious and established brands such as Canon and Nikon. Even the Pentax cameras, the K10D and K20D - which were effectively the same as the Samsung GX10 and GX20, were picked over the Korean branded alternatives that were often as much as £150 cheaper. We have to remember that maybe cameras are not just tools to many of us, and that there are emotional attachment and lifestyle aspirations involved. Brand loyalty will often see individuals stick to a single badge for life. There is snobbery in the camera shop and camera club, and if I were not a journalist bound to try every model and to see it for its merits and weaknesses I don't know that I wouldn't be affected by it too. Even Samsung's own Korean executives are amazed when I take a GX20 out of my bag to photograph them. I'm not just being polite, though that would be a good enough reason in itself – I genuinely like using it and enjoy the images it produces.


Post capture in-camera manipulation is available as it was in the GX series.

The fact is the Samsung GX 20 is an excellent camera. Its weak spot is AF speed, but its colour reproduction, detail resolution, noise characteristics, functionality and handling more than make up for that soft spot.

That this NX10 is shrunken GX20 gives the new camera great potential. If it can produce the same quality as the two year old DSLR I'll be very pleased, and it will offer a truly unique photographic proposition. I have to say though that, in my experience, when creating mass market products manufacturers often take a great sensor and degrade it with noise processing and colour saturation to create a more immediately print-ready image.

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