The Samsung NX1 Review (evolving) - the legend of the un-editable codec and one giant leap for specs-kind!

[Andrew Reid]

 

Samsung NX1 review is evolving, keep checking back.

The NX1 costs $1499 body only or $1699 with the 16-50mm power zoom OIS lens. Expected availability in the US: 28th November 2014.

I've been shooting with the Samsung NX1, an absolutely massive leap for camera technology - even a leap too far?

Take a cup of tea and enjoy my rolling review to find out whether the NX1 is a petulant robot here to make your life difficult, or pushing the bar higher for 4K and DSLRs.

Read the full article here

[Cinegain]

Nice write-up, cheers! Yeah. Def need to see that camera in action: footage / handling reviews! Looking forward to be seeing that.

Very curious to see how it holds up (not footage out of the hands of a whole crew that shoots ads for Samsung, nor Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

 

I actually didn't see this powerzoom lens pop up in a kit yet ( http://geizhals.eu/?fs=Samsung+NX1&in= ). Judging the price though, the 16-50mm S ED OIS must be quite the piece of glass there (much like the Pana 12-35mm f/2.8 and the Oly 12-40mm f/2.8 I guess), must be in quite a different league. Looks like some places around here (in Europe; well, Germany) do already have the NX1 availlable, nice. Would love to have a little playing around with it at a store nearby, hopefully it will be readily availlable in more countries soon. I'm not sure if there's gonna be a that big of run on 'em? Atleast, judging the past, I wasn't really into their NX-range that much (didn't like the NX300's ergonomics AT ALL, NX30 was a little weird for my taste) and they haven't really made name for themselves videowise (what interchangeable lens systems concerned) yet. I feel like a lot of people will probably still stick with the Canon system because of the electronic pairing with the lenses, whereas people like myself are already heavily invested in the m43-system, so the 16-50mm would be one of the first and only ones to use with the system. So probably I won't be changing systems myself just yet, but it's cool to see someone trying something different and it does sound like they got it right with this one. 'In your face, Canon'... 'Pay attention to what these guys just did!' I would almost say.

 

APS-C, ISOCELL, processing power, codec... could be quite something of course. Would love to see more GH4 head-on comparisons, since that's the somewhat obvious one to beat in the range with a similar deal going on. Interesting times these are!

[Promit Roy]

Just a heads up, Metabones have said that it's physically not going to be possible to produce a speed booster for the Samsung NX mount: http://www.metabones.com/article/of/faq

[yohh770]

any test ? like rolling shutter  ... memory cards ,speed etc.......

[Neumann Films]

Hey Andrew,

 

I doubt you've had time to test but what would you compare DR to?  A7s levels?

[aldolega]

I'm also curious about rolling shutter and DR, and any problems with the >30p modes.

[Sutjahjo Ngaserin]

Fantastic review, thanks!

 

Looks like an exceptional camera other than the current lack of software support for H.265.

 

cheers!

[Inazuma]

Thanks, nice writeup :) Looking forward to thoughts on the 16-50 f2-2.8 lens if you get it and also how the colour science compares directly to canikon :) also would be interesting to see some latitude tests of raw stills.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

ISO noise test please! And Rolling shutter test, and DR (though a bit difficult to conduct). Anyway direct comparison to other well known cameras is something we're missing from most reviewers so I hope you can provide that.

Nice write up! Exciting camera if the ISO performance is good.

[sudopera]

Sorenson Squezze 10 supports h265 and exports to ProRes

https://support.sorensonmedia.com/customer/portal/articles/1710860-hevc-h-265-codec-support-in-squeeze-10

 

Edit: Sorry, didn't knew that Pro version that supports h265 costs 750$

[Stab]

Looks like a great, if not perfect camera. It was on my to-get-list but, and this is a big but, it's almost useless for me :D

 

There is no way I am going to transcode h265 files first to be able to VIEW the clips, let alone edit them. This will be a long and slow proces as well as h265 takes up enormous computing power. So what you are ending up with is even more storage space usage than with a camera that shoots native h264...

 

By the time Premiere will be able to handle native h265 files directly, (1-2 years?), I will probably need to spend a lot of money on a new top of the line computer. H265 files are 10x more 'compressed' than h264, so editing the native clips would truly take a monster computer to do it.

 

And you know the funny thing? If this camera had a h264 mode, I would buy it tomorrow.

[andy4nothin]

I'm looking forward to seeing the next 'episode' of this review which will hopefully cover the video performance. Jessops in the UK just told me they expect stock by the end of this week so I would like to be in a postion to make a decission soon, so no pressure Andrew. If you could just test everything and publish by Friday, that will be fine!

 

You've certainly whet my appetite with your comments about the handling.

[Andrew Reid]

Hey Andrew,

 

I doubt you've had time to test but what would you compare DR to?  A7s levels?

 

Haven't had time to test yet but will do soon, image has a nice feel to it so far though.

 

Using Handbrake as a replacement for the Samsung transcoding app. Works great. Giving me 200Mbit/s H.264.

[alexcosy]

H264 or H265 are acquisition or diffusion codecs, never were they intended to be editable natively for that matter.

Offline editing may not be always the fastest solution but it really is the best way. Managing media, transcoding, conforming, knowing the difference between working formats, and acquisition/diffusion format is a lost art, and it's a shame because in many situation it actually is the simpler process in the end (even if it doesn't seem so at first).
 

If H265 not being an editable codec is the only thing preventing you (noone specific in mind, you the average reader i mean ;) ) from buying this camera... Buy it ! and learn how to deal with these situations, it will only make you a better editor, a better image technician, it will teach you professional workflows... It's a win-win really ;)

[Taranis]

I'd agree with you but transcoding will be an extra step, and it will require extra time. Possibly a lot. Some people can't afford that. They will jump in when HEVC is supported by our editing softwares, or maybe even later, when it's supported by hardware.

[Aldrik]

Thanks for this and every your do here Andrew, I'm a big fan. Eagerly await the continued review, this looks like the camera I've been waiting for. :)

There is no way I am going to transcode h265 files first to be able to VIEW the clips

There's no need, plenty of video players have support for HEVC (at lease anything mplayer or VLC based).

[Andrew Reid]

VLC Player does open the HVEC files on my Mac but won't play past 2 seconds without corruption and freezing.

[madara]

Right now I'm torn between upgrading my Canon 60D to a GH4 or the Samsung NX1. Waiting on NX1 reviews before deciding.

[Aldrik]

VLC Player does open the HVEC files on my Mac but won't play past 2 seconds without corruption and freezing.

Make sure to file a bug report.

[jgharding]

Hmm it always takes quite a while for a standard to settle... they probably jumped the gun a bit with H265, I'll bet there's plenty of optimisation work to be done at all ends of the process.

 

The sensor sounds cutting edge though. Is there an uncompressed out?