Jonathan Wong reviewed both cameras, the Samsung NX10 and the Olympus E-PL1. You can read his review on SteveHuffPhoto.com.
In short what he didn’t like about the Samsung NX:
– the AF gets confused easily in low light
– the Auto-ISO programming is AWFUL (Some daft genius at Samsung, however, has decided in their infinite wisdom that a minimum shutter speed of 1/15 is ok!!!)
– the EVF is pretty horrid (pixels galore!)
– the Samsung has a tendency to blow colors out with all the elegance of a rhino in ballet shoes.
And here the conclusion:
“For all intents and purposes, this review could end here: the Olympus E-PL1
That hurts!
24 Responses
Ohhh… a very curious article…
So much for the Samsung “bigger sensor makes us better” propaganda! 😀
Hate to say I told you so :). Samsung is not a serious competitor to m4/3 nor it will be to Sony – yet. Their first generation camera is being compared to a second generation of a year-old system, that was made the two proven and experienced camera companies, so it’s kind of unfair. I have tried some of their p&s, liked some things, but never saw them in the same league as the companies that used to produce film cameras a decade ago ( Canon, Fuji, Nikon etc. ). They are a big company that if devotes enough resources can be successful in many fields, but this being their first mirrorless camera, is not yet up to cempetitors’ standards. If they persist, they can make a product that stands out, they are just not there yet in ILCs.
Who said size was everything :p
Heh heh, already tried the NX, I have a good impression with it too….
– EVF is not that crap…they just looks good only when reviewing images 🙁
– I prefer the overall feel of Nikon 18-55vr kit to this NX zoom kit…..
“Their first generation camera is being compared to a second generation of a year-old system”
Except comparing the NX to a 1st-generation G1 or E-P1 would result in the same complaints… and conclusion.
Id’ not buy Samsung crappy camera ..nor Sony
The strong point of NX is the larger sensor that allows better control of depth of field and is much more usable with legacy SLR lenses, no matter which origin.
Im not a fanboy, Im enjoying the options I have. As long as there is no full frame mirrorless camera the NX wins for me just because of that: sensor size.
I can tweak colors to my liking. And I dont care about “auto iso” or other gimmicks.
It will be interesting to see how they compare to the new Sony’s when they come out. If the EXMOR sensor used in the NEX cameras is as good as the Sony sensor used in the Pentax KX (theoretically it should be better) then m4/3’s will have a distinct IQ disadvantage. Well, at least in term’s of ISO speed. I’ve still yet to see any camera match Olympus’ color, and their JPEG engine is also excellent (not that I care, I shoot RAW).
So assuming the higher ISO IQ will be better it will be interesting to see if m4/3’s steps up their game a bit. I personally prefer the Sony GUI over either Panasonic’s or Olympus’ (I especially hate the Olympus GUI), do for me that will be two advantages for Sony. So it will come down to lens selection, build quality, and EVF quality for me. Unlike that reviewer I’m not nearly as hung up on in-body stabilization. That feature is actually pretty far down my list.
Re: Some daft genius at Samsung, however, has decided in their infinite wisdom that a minimum shutter speed of 1/15 is ok!!!
Luckily, the NX has no IS feature, otherwise, it would be another thing to fix. They can easily fixed this with a firmware update, though, I hope. 😉
This is why photographers’ inputs are essentials for the design of their tools. Kind of telling from the approach of the digital camera design, Samsung origin is an electronic company. Olympus origin is a camera and optics company.
In the conclusion, this article is not that harsh on the Samsung.
Some readers has stop too quickly it seems…
@Jules
I noticed that too. His wife seems to prefer the Samsung in-fact. He also only makes one mention of the lower res LCD on the E-P1L. The LCD on the E-P1L is so bad that totally keeps it off of my radar for that reason alone, despite it’s other advantages. Olympus really needs to step up to the year 2009 and use 920k dot LCD’s or AMOLED displays. A 2.7″ 230k display doesn’t cut it on a camera without a viewfinder. $250 P&S cameras have better LCD’s now.
why does it hurt?
it shows: you can`t copy a product, change it a little bit and think, it is as good as the original, witch has a years long evolution!
this is the reality, again and again and again….
It hurts for Samsung 🙂
Firmware update to fix the too-low shutter speed and raise the high end of the ISO is easy enough.
Would have liked to have seen the RAW images of those photos of the LEDs to see if it is really that the Samsung JPG engine is crap, or if it goes beyond that. Same with the close-up of the carpet fibers.
@ Sammy Sung Said: “The strong point of NX is the larger sensor that allows better control of depth of field and is much more usable with legacy SLR lenses, no matter which origin.”
Too bad Sammy that the NX is not compatible with Legacy lenses. I searched ebay and there are no adapters to mount other brand lenses on the NX system. The Olympus and Panasonic cameras have plenty of adapters from China on ebay and even official adapters made by Novoflex. Novoflex even makes an adapter that allows the use of Sony Alpha mount lenses on M43rds with aperture control via a blue ring on the adapter. Not even the NEX and NEX5, Sony’s mirrorless system, are compatible with alpha mount lenses which is hilarious because the NEX3 &NEX5 have the Alpha logo on the camera
Will: unfortunately I wasn’t shooting raw; I knew from the outset that I would be taking thousands of pictures (and video) so I needed to manage my 3x 8GB SD cards carefully. By the end of the holiday I had filled up 2 cards completely and 1 card to 3/4 full 🙂
However I tested the colour highlights again just then on both RAW and JPG – the “ink blotch” effect is prevalent on both.
Ken…
9 Novoflex adapters to NX camera in BHphotovideo.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Samsung+nx&N=4291310581
And will come 4 more soon.
Jonathan I shot in JPEG, I don´t like RAW, but I can´t use the camera with the factory adjust.
Noise reduction, color space and exposure are a few features you should to adjust before use the camera.
@Will:
Firmware update to fix the too-low shutter speed and raise the high end of the ISO is easy enough.
I know it is easy to do, but the question is, will Samsung do it, and can the buyer get it for free? 😉
Some companies release new version of the firmware embedded in the new hardware only. They expect you to buy the new hardware, just like when the new iPod or the latest cool gadget is introduced.
For example: There is a huge outcry from the Sony DSLR users in dpreview for an addition of Mirror Lock Up to their DSLR’s, but Sony never addresses it. This should be a simple firmware update. This is the kind of attitude that is common among electronics companies, which expect people to keep buying new electronics with the new features. Camera systems maker approach is a long term relationship because the lens systems is expensive. When they had to do it, they make an effort to apologize, just like when the E-P1 did not have an expansion port for the EVF and the E-P2 did.
I stand corrected. Thanks for the Links Din 🙂
When I read the article I found what was wrong with my Samsung NX10. I went back to the store and exchange it for a Olympus E-P1.
I used to be so happy to use the NX10 and enjoying the nice image output before , after i saw the wong’s article, i was not happy now, i will change it to a EPL1 when i got the salary.
Johnathan
24GB is conservative.
6 weeks equals 100GB of photos alone for me