Samsung NX30 Review: A $600 Mirrorless Camera that Feels like a DSLR
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22 Responses
“A Mirrorless Camera that Feels like a DSLR”. That’s because it’s as big as DSLR.
Mirrorless started with the promise of small cameras with DSLR image quality and now most full featured ones are as big or bigger than many DSLRs.
Well put, Miroslav. Hard to understand why so many people think that big and heavy (you know, “like a DSLR”) is somehow good.
The Big and Heavy is good because it helps to stabilize the camera against handshakes and mirror flap.
DSLM doesn’t have the mirror (hence M = Mirrorless, instead R = Reflex) so it is only to stabilize against handshake (what is unneeded if having something amazing like Olympus 5-axis IBIS giving the huge 6-8 stop benefit in experienced photographer hands).
Seriously:
The Big and Heavy is good because its like a DSLR! Everyone knows that when you pull a heavy and large camera that you mean Business and you mean Serious Business. That you have Lots of Money and that signals to females that you have long pe…. objective.
When you grab a DSLR looking camera like Samsung NX1 or NX30 (or any Canikony DSLR) you signal to everyone else that You are The Photographer, You make the shots and you deserve everyones attention because you have big and large hands that needs big tools to operate.
And it is funny, that we had Medium Format and Large Format and Ultra Large Format to do serious photography. Even today Medium Format film camera wins handsdown any digital Medium Format in colors, sharpness and noise. If you want high quality, it is film. And it is dirty cheap to buy and process. But if you need the photos on that day and you need to do serious photo manipulation on the field, digital Medium Format is the way to go. Those are big and heavy and offers ultimate megapixels counts.
But that is reason why Small Format (aka 35mm) became such a success because it wasn’t Big and Heavy. It was small, it was light. You could get wide range of lenses to go with it without breaking your back/neck. Instead just carrying 1-3 lenses for Medium Format, the Small Format allowed to carry 4-5 lenses. Oh and business was good, business was very good as people went crazy and they bought lenses, lots of lenses.
Now you had a serious photographer that wanted to go to light and small, carrying lots of lenses and bigger lens you put on your camera was signal to every fema… fellow photographer that you mean Serious Business.
Then Canikons found that you need to make cameras bigger, larger and heavier. The grip couldn’t be a small, perfect. It was need to be big so when you entered to war to do war photography, everyone could see that you were photographer and that camera could even save your life as bullets just bounce off from the body. And as everyone know, larger the protection, less likely bullet hits at you!
But no worry. As Nikon F made Americans aware of the Small Format, and Olympus made even Small Format Half-Frame cameras (PEN and PEN F cameras) that were very famous being ultra small and ultra light, offering double exposures from same Small Format film roll, making it twice cheaper to develop photos. 48 frames instead 24 frames, 72 frames instead 36 frames. The Olympus PEN was the choice for families, fashion and street photography.
But Half-Frame (18×24mm) was not for everyone, so Olympus wanted to make a Small Format camera that was small and light but used the Full-Frame (36x24mm) of the Small Format film.
So Olympus made M-1 (later renamed to OM-1) and oh boy that was small, tiny and light compared to anything Canikon had. Fancy new features from perfect design, exposure metering features, huge viewfinders and best lenses optically that was available, some even beating Zeiss and Leica.
Oh boy that was so small and light that you could carry couple bodies and collection of lenses while Canikon was twice the size and weight, limiting your task. But you didn’t look that you were serious photographer because who would?! So tiny and small body and lenses that you looked liked holding a PEN when being among Canikon shoots with their bazookas!
Today you need to own a DSLR if you want to be called Pro and be seen as Pro and you want to call yourself as Pro. DSLM is for jokers and testers, they say. So “puny camera” that doesn’t make anything like the “Full Frame” does OH YEAH!
DSLM cameras has sensor size from 1″ to Small Format size. The quality is not lacking behind the Canikony top Small Format cameras. Bodies can be very small (sometimes too small) for needs and lenses even smaller while delivering better avarage quality, even beating top Canikony lenses.
But you don’t look Pro, you don’t feel being Pro and you don’t handle camera like a Pro if you don’t have a large and heavy DSLR body and lenses!
You look around you, there are people taking shots that will guarantee them a $200 per shot income. Who would not want to get $1500-3000 per event? Who? Mirrorless users doesn’t! Don’t be a mirrorless fool! Be a DSLR! Be a pro! Show to those femal… fellow photographers that you have big bucks and tools to deliver high quality!
Buy a Samsung NX30, it is size of a DSLR and weight of the DSLR and no one knows that you have DSLM!
All well and good but the only problem is that the NX30 is much smaller and lighter than even entry level DSLRs so where does that leave your theory…? Put one if the pancakes in it and it fit in the same belt pack or jacket pockets as a P&S like Fuji X20.
Very well said. That’s my thought about samsung as well, which brought me so far from their products. Sony and fuji make some of the best looking and smallest rangefinder styled mirrorless cameras. They seem to really have understood the benefits of mirrorless vs mirror. Why samsung did not?
I prefer the look and feel of the NX30 to the a6000 and XE2.
Oh and the benefit of Mirrorless vs Mirror is more technical then just size and believe it or not
some people may actually prefer a larger cameras so where is the logic in making all of your cameras small?? if you want a small NX you get the NX MINI, NX3000, NX300, NX300m or go sightly larger you get a NX30 if you want a DSLR sized you get the NX1
Panasonic release the G6 and GH4 and Olypus release the OMD and i dont hear you saying they dont understand the mirrorless market because they make their top level camera ‘large’
here is a bit of advise please take it because it will save your fingers more hassle. Samsungs top camera in the Mirror-less market will always be larger, SIMPLE, they have very BIG pro grade lenses so their pro-grade camera/s will be larger then their main consumer based bodies. (That is the same with Panasonic and Olympus) so please!! if you want the best performance from a small body with a ‘Rangefinder’ design sell your Samsung stuff and buy a Sony PLEASE!
There are a lot of ppl here saying the same thing as I said, yet you attack me. Are you paid by samsung? It’s really incredible how you only chase my posts.
Anyway, for a couple of ppl who prefer big, bulky and ugly cameras like the nx with evf are, there are 1000 that prefer those rangefinder ones, you are in a minority and the sales prove that, fortunately. If samsung were not that colossus that is, nx line would be dead since 2 years, now.
Tecnoworld, you really love to state your opinions as facts don’t you… I guess that in your world, Fuji’s XT1, Oly’s EM5 and EM1, Sony’s A7, A7ii, A7s and A7r and Pana’s G and GH series are complete failures since only 2 people out of thousands bought them…
It looks like all brands are issuing their top performers in the form of DSLRs look alike… gee, I wonder why? Maybe you should go educate those misguided buyers in the Sony, Fuji, Oly or Pana forums…
1) we were talking about samsung, hence I didn’t mention other players
2) fuji’s top is x-pro 1 which is rangefinder style. I guess that, if a x-pro 2 comes, it will have the same shape
3) sony a9 is rumored to be rangefinder style
4) all of those you mention, including panasonic, at least offer a good enough alternative with evf in the rangefinder style, but samsung
So all other makers offer what you like and yet here you are, stuck with Samsung… Do I detect a hint of masochism in your personality?
I already replied to this very same provocative (aggressive) question by you previously, but I’ll do one more time, let’s see if you can understand, this time.
I bought nx100 with add-on evf, external sef15 flash and 20-50 lens for less than 300€ in august 2011. That was a very rational behaviour, given the performance/price ratio for those times.
I then bought many nx lenses during 2011 and 2012, since they had gorgeous prices and were very good as well. Very rational behaviour again, since the camera satisfied my needs back then and had the optional evf, while in a rangefinder form.
I then had the opportunity to buy a nx200 for less than 300€ during 2012. While the iq was better than nx100, I did not like this camera as its predecessor. No evf, worse jpg colors, huge files. But, hey, it costed not much and I already had many lenses for the system, so again rational behaviour.
In the meantime I had the chance to buy more good lenses at very good prices, so I bought them, hoping that samsung could make a future camera like nx100 (ie with optional evf).
But no, they did not, and rather put on the market the nx300. I was able to grab one at launch (end of april 2013) for less than 600€, since it seemed to address many issues with nx200 (faster operations, tiltable screen, faster af, slightly better high iso). And since I had a lot of nx lrnses, this was rational again.
Unfortunately the nx300 is perhaps the worst nx for its times (compared to contemporary competitors) and has a ridicolous buffer, worse than nx200. The af is not so good as advertised and high iso iq is just average.
But since I have a lot of lenses and since nx can be sold only for few bucks, I’m still hoping that a decent rangefinder camera comes, sooner or later. Again, very rational.
Ok?
Yep, fully rational to keep on buying more equipment for a camera that may or may not come some time or another…
From you own post, you admit to have bought everything for cheap and even buying cameras that you knew wouldn’t fullfil your requirements because they were cheap. Is this rational behaviour according to you? Why would you spend any amount of money on a product you know from the start to be inadequate for you?
You take a decision and then blame Samsung for it? Did Samsung falsely advertise an EVF on the NX200 or 300? Did they misrepresent buffer size?
If you’d like to go FF some day, you should start buying some Pentax gear… I hear they are just about to introduce one… or at least they’ve been rumors of a FF camera since 2002… there are many people who would love to see that materialize, rationally it’s bound to happen don’t you think? Should I buy a few lenses just in case (they are quite cheap at the moment) and then start trolling Pentax forums each time they release something that is not a FF? That would only be logical since I have been a Pentax user for 23 years… imagine the investment… Strangely enough, I chose not to do that and move to a manufacturer that already had what I wanted… crazy me!
When are you going to grow up, stop whinning and act logically? (Actually, you can go on throwing money at Samsung for the next 10 years but at least, don’t act as if they practically stole your money and trapped you in some kind of eternal purgatory… you did all that by yourself).
Completely agree Iznogoud! ANY post that mentions Samsung has technoworld spouting the same flame over and over again. He is the single biggest Samsung troll there is and then thinks people are stalking his posts to attack him. The truth is people get tired of the same nonsense that he posts in every Samsung article. You don’t have to be stalked, you’re already and always there!
He hasn’t had any faith in Samsung’s direction in YEARS but he won’t just switch systems, which although not the happiest option, is still an option even at a deep discount. It would allow him to get into a Fuji or Sony EASILY! The A6000 has a great price right now, or an NEX6. Both rangefinders with EVF: just what he wants! Well then get one and never have anything to do with Samsung again.
The rational behavior is only short term in nature. Long term rational behavior would be to get rid of the Samsung gear and buy Fuji or Sony: which techoworld constantly states are more of what he is looking for and so much better than Samsung.
Samsung doesn’t owe technoworld anything and if a consumer doesn’t like the direction a company is headed, buy the competition’s offering. That is rational behavior to everyone except technoworld. As quickly as technoworld throws out the “are you paid by Samsung” it is more plausible that technoworld is paid by the competition to troll and write bile about every Samsung post he can find, because that is what is consistently occurring, FAR more than anyone trying to pump Samsung up as if they were paid to do so.
I have reached the point where I hope the NX500 doesn’t have an EVF (although in all honesty I would like the option), but if it doesn’t have EVF, at least it might finally push technoworld to give up and move to Sony or Fuji and after a couple of months of complaining by technoworld, he’ll eventually move on to Sony or Fuji posts (and only occasionally pop into Samsung posts to troll some).
Then we won’t have to listen to logic like “rangefinder styles sell more than DSLR style bodies from the same company”. Fuji doesn’t make a DSLR style body so you can’t use them as proof! And even if you consider the XT1 “DSLR” type, it doesn’t sell more than the XE2 or other lower priced options. If you’re looking at Samsung of course the rangefinder styles sell more, they are all cheaper!
Using technoworld logic: Canon Rebels outsell 7d’s because people want Rebel style bodies and find the 7d too big and heavy…price and target user have nothing to do with it right??
Technoworld does not get attacked, he keeps spitting the same negativity about a company he does NOT have to have anything to do with, spouting the same stuff over and over, and other commenters get fed up with it. If you don’t like Samsung, stay away from them.
I hope samsung is giving you as many free cameras as you deserve, for this post 🙂 it’s evident that you did not understand a word of what I wrote. Good.
yet its not the size of a DSLR or the Weight of a DSLR, So where does that leave your point??
“best looking and smallest rangefinder styled mirrorless cameras. They seem to really have understood the benefits of mirrorless vs mirror.”
Ah yes, “it is too big to be a piece of jewelry”.
For those who want jewelry, there are plenty of cute little cameras for hands the size of an 8 year old. For an adult who actually wants to take pictures in anything but dummy mode (full automatic), nothing smaller than a Nikon D300 can be accurately and comfortably operated.
And don’t tell me about the “Pros” who use tiny cameras and like them, pro only means that they got paid and not that they produce high quality results. A relative got married last year and hired a pro for her wedding. Everyone who saw the pictures, said they were wonderful. Yup, they were all wonderfully out of focus, 100% of them.
So let’s stop the whining when a camera company comes out with a product that is designed to be used instead of just impress with being petite and pretty. This is supposed to be a forum about photography, leave jewelry to the Apple forums.
And for those who want dslr sized and shaped cameras, there are…more then plenty 😉
I much prefer a 350-400gr body with a nice evf in a corner, rather than a 600+ gr body with the central hump making it even bigger than it could be.
I don’t have any problem in gripping an a6000 firmly, and I don’t have tiny hands.
” A relative got married last year and hired a pro for her wedding. Everyone who saw the pictures, said they were wonderful. Yup, they were all wonderfully out of focus, 100% of them.”
See… EVERYONE ELSE were happy of the photos, only one was pixel peeper with small dick…..
What’s the nx30 doing here on rumors? Its been oit forever.
I had the chance to own both the NX30 and NX300 for a while, but I must say that it’s hard to justify the NX30 if you also have a proper DSLR. If it’s your only camera and you really need a viewfinder it might make sense, but otherwise it really is too big. It doesn’t look particularly exciting either. Whereas most other NX cameras can be considered a bit of a fashion statement, the NX30 looks plain boring. It is not weather-sealed either.
If the NX30 had in-body stabilization it could possibly replace my Sony A77 or my wife’s OM-D EM5, but since that is missing and most Samsung lenses lack the OIS feature, the NX30 is out of the running for me. That would apply to the NX300 as well, so if I get a Panasonic GX7 (IBIS and better video capabilities) at a good price I think I will switch back to M43 and abandon Samsung altogether. There is not enough of an advantage in image quality in the NX system to merit having 3 different systems in the house.
The voice of reason. Sometimes I wonder if ppl at samsung nx division know anything about customers’ needs.
100% agreed, if Samsung doesn’t provide what you need, buy from any other brand that does.
Very simple and sound advice that some people should follow…