Samsung EX1 at a glance:

  • Maximum aperture range of f/1.8-2.4
  • 3x 24-72mm Schneider Kreuznach zoom
  • 10-million-pixel, 1/1.7in, backlit image sensor
  • Raw and JPEG capture
  • Hotshoe
  • Flip-out 3in AMOLED screen

Samsung EX1 review – Introduction

The best-selling cameras in this country, and in much of the world, are models the names of which most AP readers will not have come across. They sell in their thousands through electrical chain stores, mail-order catalogues, online retailers and TV shopping channels, and cost between £50 and £100. They often come in different colours, sport impressive-sounding features and are bought by people who point them and press the button.

It is an attractive market if your business plan lets you sell pallets of goods at low margins, allows you to update your line-up every few months and if you are not bothered about prestige in your market area.

Samsung has done extremely well in this area for some time, and is constantly either at number one in the UK or in the top three, for volume of cameras sold. Now, though, the company has its eye on making a name for itself at the serious end of photography, and it needs a range of products that can build a new brand idea for enthusiasts to latch on to.

The company has been moving in this direction for a few years, but with limited success. The NV range of compacts that accompanied the GX series of DSLRs were nicely made and well designed, but ultimately fell down on image quality.

We’ve seen a change over the past year, though, with Samsung compact cameras taking a big step forward regarding noise control and colour rendition. The ST550 was the first in the line of dramatically improved models, and the shift has been creeping through the entire range. With the replacement of GX with the NX micro system camera range, Samsung still needs to earn itself a good name for image quality and to embed itself on the consciousness of more serious photographers.

Although the GX-10 and GX-20 cameras were really very good, the series ultimately failed to convince enthusiasts that Samsung is a brand that can supply them with what they need. The effective withdrawal of the GX series did little to counter this conviction.

This new compact camera has a lot riding on its shoulders, because with its super-fast aperture lens, extensive manual controls and hotshoe it hopes to make enough of an impression to lift the perception of the entire brand.

The Samsung EX1 is a prestige camera, well made and with impressive specification. Armed with these qualities, it is aimed directly at the heady sector of the market occupied so comfortably for so long by Canon’s PowerShot G-series cameras. The PowerShot G11 has had little competition, but perhaps now Samsung
will be able to upset the status quo.

Features

Samsung EX1There really is more to the Samsung EX1 than a maximum aperture of f/1.8, but inevitably this is the highlight feature. The lens is a Schneider Kreuznach Varioplan 5.2-15.6mm, which delivers the same angle of view as a 24-72mm lens on a 35mm camera. Although most of the High Street would turn its nose up at a 3x zoom lens, this one is unusually wide and fast.

Samsung has adopted backlit-sensor technology for its ability to reduce noise levels, a factor made even easier by a relatively low pixel population of just ten million.

We’ve already seen the success of the fewer pixels strategy in Canon’s PowerShot G11, and with a bright lens, a less hindered path to the sensor and larger pixels, the EX1 appears, on paper at least, to be firmly following in the same direction. The larger-than-usual 1/1.7in sensor produces images that measure a maximum of 3648×2736 pixels.

On the subject of control, the EX1 offers scene modes and semi-automatic exposure as well as full manual access to shutter and aperture settings. While many manual modes restrict us to two or three choices of f-numbers, this model has 13 positions between f/1.8 and f/6.7 at the wide end, and between f/2.4 and f/7.2 at the longer focal lengths. Couple this with shutter speeds that run from 16secs to 1/1500sec and an ISO range of 80-3200, and you will be able to see that real control is there for the taking.

The camera records both JPEGs and Samsung’s own ‘.swf’ raw files for still images (both at the same time if you wish) and uses MPEG4 for its VGA, 30fps movie mode. As we have seen on a few previous compacts and the new NX10, Samsung’s AMOLED screens allow impressive viewing from almost 180° angles, and to add to that utility Samsung has mounted the 3in screen on a swivelling hinge. It may not rotate continuously about 360°, but it can be positioned for viewing from any angle.

Making monochrome, darkening, adding vignetting, increasing contrast and then adding a custom tone in-camera gave me control, but also six files on the memory card.

The camera’s menu is packed with features, but those that stand out include the ability to select shooting styles and to create your own characteristics using contrast, saturation, colour and sharpening controls. Styles can be applied post-capture, too, along with additional effects and adjustments so some editing can be done in-camera

In addition to the built-in flash unit that pops up when called on, the camera can illuminate your scene using one of the flash units announced to marry with the NX10. There are two: the ED-SEF42A is the more powerful, with a guide number of 42m @ ISO 100, but the GN 20m @ ISO 100 ED-SEF20A is much more compact and is better suited to this particular camera.

If the focal range doesn’t suit all your photographic needs, a 0.75x adapter is available (which is due to go on sale next month) to extend the reach at the wide end to about 18mm.

Samsung EX1: Features in Use – Selective Focus

Depth of field control is not something we associate with compact cameras. Usually the combination of a tiny sensor, tiny maximum apertures and ultra-wideangle measured focal lengths mean that even in macro mode compact digital cameras deliver front-to-back sharpness.

When used at f/1.8, though, the EX1 does provide selective focus and can render backgrounds soft to help us to concentrate the attention of the viewer where we want it. The great thing is that portrait subjects can be separated from the scene, but equally we have to exercise more care when choosing a point to focus on.

I had expected the price of such a wide aperture to be chromatic fringing, but the lens is well corrected or firmware removes offending colours, as the vast majority of images I shot are fringe-free, even at the edges of the frame.

Build and Handling

There are plenty of well-made Samsung compacts – it was the thing the company got right before image quality – so it’s no real surprise that this flagship model is solid and well put together. Screw-fitted, textured metal panels make up the exterior of the body shell, while a cross-hatch-finish rubber coating adds a secure hold for the main grip.

The screen has a metal cover and the hinge feels anything but a weakness. To finish, the control dials are also in metal and feature ribbed edges for grip and an engineered appearance. In short, the camera is the product of high manufacturing standards.

Samsung EX1 build and handlingTwo top-plate dials share exposure and shooting modes, while a collection of just seven rear-mounted buttons add further access points. There isn’t much that cannot be accessed quickly, and in the time I have been using the camera the only mode I wished had a dedicated access point is white balance – everything else is found without delay.

Once found, though, the method of setting up a custom white balance is typically straightforward for a Samsung camera.

A front-mounted scroll wheel lends a DSLR feel when whizzing through aperture and shutter speed settings in priority exposure modes, and with a light press we land directly into the exposure compensation zone. I used A and S modes extensively during this test, and made plenty of use of spot metering combined with exposure compensation, and found that with familiarity a very SLR-like experience can be enjoyed.

The built-in flash is very small and sits close to the camera body, but the hotshoe allows this to be forgotten about. Mounting an external flash is as simple as it should be, and enhances creative opportunities no end. I used the ED-SEF20A a lot during this test and found that, when camera and flash communicate, excellent results are the norm both inside and out.

The bulk of the section above the foot of the flash is slightly too wide for the layout of the EX1’s top plate, so the drive dial and the camera’s power button are less easy to get to. Although this is less than ideal, in use it isn’t much of an issue.

In review mode the EX1 offers post-capture manipulations, such as applying one of the preset shooting styles, or a collection of more manually controllable micro-adjustments. A colour image can be switched to monochrome, or tinted, or softened, and so on. New features include a useful vignetting mode that darkens corners to concentrate attention on the centre of the frame, while miniature mode emulates the effect that can be achieved with a tilt-and-shift lens.

Unlike the same mode used in Olympus Pen cameras, though, the position of the sharp area of the defocused image cannot be controlled. The controls are interesting and provide an excellent reference for post-capture work in software for high-end users, or a finished product for those less inclined to sit in front of the computer. It is a shame that only one manipulation can be applied to any one file without the camera saving.

I suppose it would take more processing power to remember multiple changes, but if you want to convert to black & white, apply a vignette and then tone it, you will end up with a total of four files of the same image on your memory card. It is a shame too that, unlike in cameras such as the NX10 and GX-20, manipulated files are downsized to 2292×1944 pixels from the 3648×2736 originals – a dramatic fall from ten to 4.5 million pixels.

The most frustrating handling issue for me, though, is that the camera will not switch on while the lens cap is still covering the front element. A warning flashes and the camera switches off again, so you have to remove the lens cap and start again, which just takes time and makes me swear. A warning is fine, but there is no need to switch off. Seeing a very dark screen is sufficient to make me realise the lens cap is on. In fact, there is nothing wrong with switching a camera on while the lens cap is in place – I do it all the time with all sorts of cameras. It is only when you point the camera at the assembled families of the bride and groom while the lens cap is on that it really matters.

White Balance and Colour

Limited dynamic range is often the cause of false and artificial-looking colours in images from compact cameras. In the EX1, colours are well serviced in shadow and highlight areas, so these problems do not occur.

There is such a choice of colour style that the camera can be easily tailored to suit your needs, but as a starting point the default mode provides natural-looking shades and tones. Red, which usually suffers most, is not oversaturated as is the popular style, but I found yellows aren’t always as accurately portrayed as they could be.

White balance is generally good, with the auto mode being able to deal well with most situations. Mixing daylight and artificial light shows up the minor faults with yellow rendition, but the best way out in all cases when an accurate balance is needed is the simple, quick custom white balance mode.

Image: I used a custom white balance, read from the man’s cuff, which has successfully rendered most colours well. Yellows in the dark tones are not perfect, though.

Metering

The multi-point and centreweighted exposure meter configurations in this camera are set for print-ready photographers and produce results that are perhaps 1/3EV too light for my own tastes. The easily accessible exposure-compensation button soon fixes that, though.

I also sometimes adopted the process of using spot metering from the brightest important area in the scene combined with +1.7EV compensation, which worked very well.

My concern really was to avoid overexposed highlights, so the most could be made of the camera’s dynamic range. Once I came to understand the need for compensation I was very pleased with the results the camera turned out from a wide range of different and difficult conditions. It seems able to identify when there are larger than usual bright and dark areas in a scene and ignore them.

Flash exposures are also good in the main. The built-in unit is not amazingly powerful, but the camera makes great use of external units in the hotshoe and produces well-lit and natural-looking pictures.

Making the most of spot metering and a wider than usual choice of apertures and shutter speeds in manual exposure mode, I tried some really high-key street images and found that even light tones are well controlled, full and capable of manipulation in software.


Image: Combining spot metering with the ‘Classic’ shooting preset and +1.7EV exposure compensation allowed me complete control over the way the scene was represented.

Autofocus

Any problems I had with focusing the EX1 came about through my use of wide apertures and reframing. With such a narrow depth of field, when the lens is used wide open it is easy to create a soft subject purely by changing the subject-to-camera distance as you rock backwards and forwards before pressing the shutter all the way down.

This is a problem we already know about when using DSLRs, but do not associate with compacts. I found keeping still helped, or switching to the excellent face-detection mode instead of trying my hand at spot AF.

In most cases, though, I found the focusing system works very well, whether in the multi-point mode, spot or face detection. The system operates quickly and decisively, and is able to cope with the type of low-light conditions in which a wide maximum aperture comes in useful.

The only shortcoming I found was in macro mode, where the camera repeatedly seemed reluctant to recognise what I wanted to photograph.

Resolution, Noise and Sensitivity

These images show 72ppi sections of images of a resolution chart, captured at the long end of the zoom (66mm). We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution is at the specified sensitivity setting.

As we have seen in the images from the NX10, Samsung has done a lot of work on its noise-reduction algorithms. Chroma noise, even at the highest ISO settings, plays no part in the images from the EX1, but light luminance noise is evident even at ISO 80 when images are viewed at 100%.

Samsung has found a good compromise between noise reduction and resolution, as line-pair separation in our tests proved good. At the lowest ISO settings resolution is impressive, and it only declines slightly as sensitivity increases.

The EX1 reaches some very respectable figures, especially from raw files. The top resolution recording at ISO 80 is actually on a par with some DSLR cameras, and even when noise reduction becomes an issue in JPEGs, raw images retain plenty of extractable detail and resolution hardly suffers.

Noise levels at high ISOs are very low, but spike at ISO 3200, although obviously, with such a wide maximum aperture, those high ISO settings are not needed so often.

In all, I am very impressed with the image quality produced by the EX1. While the pixel count of ten million may seem restrictive now we are used to DSLRs and compacts with so many more, the benefits of better noise performance certainly take the edge off any disappointment.

Dynamic range and gamut

Being a compact camera the dynamic range of the EX1 will be slightly restricted, but the camera performs much better in the lab than most compact cameras.

A measured range of 12.3EV compares well to many DSLR cameras, but the slight overexposure built into the metering system makes prints of everyday scenes suggest the dynamic range is somewhat less impressive, as highlight areas seem to burn out too soon.

Adjusting the exposure with compensation or the use of the differently tuned spot meter makes a big difference in use, and gets the best from the sensor.

Image: A wider than usual dynamic range has preserved details very well in this contrasty scene

LCD, Viewfinder, Live View and Video

Samsung EX1

The Samsung EX1 does not feature an optical viewfinder, so we are left to rely entirely on the camera’s rear, 3in, AMOLED hinged display. Although I prefer a viewfinder in an SLR-style camera, not having one here didn’t really bother me.

The screen provided is good and is not difficult to see even in bright conditions.

The main point, however, is that with an aperture of f/1.8 it is somewhat more important than usual to be able to see exactly where the camera intends to focus – and no optical viewfinder in a compact camera can display such information.

The histogram display is too useful to ignore, as is information regarding apertures, compensation and shutter speed, and as optical viewfinders can’t show these I would have hardly used one had it been provided.

I can’t quite remember whether it was Samsung that was first to bring HD video to the compact camera world, but it is certainly difficult now to buy a Samsung camera that does not feature it. So it’s a little odd, then, that the EX1 has a relatively primitive video mode, offering a resolution of only 640×480 pixels. If you are not especially interested in video it hardly matters, and neither is it a feature to distinguish the EX1 from the G11 as they both run the same resolution.

Our verdict

If Samsung’s aim in producing this less-than-mass-market model is to boost the value of its brand within the ‘serious’ photographic sector, I’d say the company has taken a massive step in the direction of success.

The camera is really very good, and the features and controls it offers make it an ideal machine for the DSLR user on a day off, or the compact user who wants to move up a notch or two. The flip-out screen, low noise, real choice of exposure controls, excellent build, hotshoe and, of course, that extra-wide aperture make for a potent mix.

This is only a step towards success, though, because probably a more difficult job will be convincing the ‘serious’ photographic market that Samsung can make decent cameras. Whether this model is better than the Canon PowerShot G11 or not (and we have yet to compare the two), enthusiasts will head for the more established brand. It’s a narrow-minded view, but often in the camera market brand loyalty, like love, is blind.

I used a custom white balance, read from the man’s cuff, which has successfully rendered most colours well. Yellows in the dark tones are not perfect, though

The competition

Canon G11

Amazingly, there is still very little competition for a well-specified, high-quality compact camera that offers SLR-like controls.

You might think it was exactly what SLR users would be looking for, but few manufacturers have taken up the challenge.

The most obvious camera to compete against the Samsung EX1 is the Canon PowerShot G11.

The cameras are very close in shape, style, functionality and intention, to the point where you might suspect that the makers of the second camera to be launched had the first one in mind during the design process.

Panasonic Lumix GF1Other than the G11 we have high-end compacts, but nothing that is similar.

To get the same sort of features you’d need to start looking at micro-system cameras – and really, then, beyond the more compact dimensions of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, you are drifting into the realms of cameras that are no longer small.