Photography News 12

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SamsungNX1: indetail As the world’s most advanced interchangeable lens camera, the NX1 has a number of groundbreaking features. We round up the best of them and explain what they mean to your picture taking

n Groundbreaking AF system The camera’s NX AF System III covers an impressive 90% of the sensor area making it far superior to those in digital SLRs, which typically have fewer focusing points concentrated in a more central area on the sensor. Effective in light levels as low as -4EV, it uses 205 phase-detection points and 209 contrast-detection points, 153 of which are cross- type, giving the camera the ability to track moving subjects, regardless of where they are within the frame. The AF system is fast, faster than any other current compact system camera, in fact. It takes just 0.055sec (55 milliseconds) to lock on to a subject. Unlike digital SLRs with video capabilities, the NX1’s phase-detection AF also works on movie capture, which makes a big difference, cutting down on unnecessary refocusing and ensuring that focus is maintained on the subject. n 15 frames-per-secondat full resolution Up to 70 full resolution images can be captured by the NX1 at a rate of up to 15 frames-per-second, so there’s no danger of even the fastest moving action getting away from you. This impressive rate is made possible by Samsung’s most powerful image processing engine ever – DRIMeV – which is 2.8x faster than its predecessor. Not only does this mean that data is processed through at impressive rates, DRIMeV also boosts the performance of the electronic

viewfinder. Lag time has been substantially reduced so that it looks and behaves far more like a conventional optical viewfinder. n 28-megapixel APS-C sized sensor The NX1 features a newly-developed 28-megapixel APS-C sized CMOS sensor with a Back-Side Illuminated (BSI) design. This helps to reduce digital noise by placing wiring behind the light-capturing photodiodes rather than in front of them. As a result, more light gets straight to the sensor, which means improved image quality. Often by squeezing more pixels on to a sensor, its light gathering ability is reduced as the pixels are smaller. The NX1’s 28 megapixels, however, still offer the same lighting gathering performance as a 20-megapixel sensor. This is a result of new semiconductor technology, which also improves image sharpness. n Great low-light performance The NX1’s ISO range runs from 100 to 25,600 and can be expanded to 51,200. At the higher ISOs, the camera uses Adaptive Noise Reduction (ANR) to cut down on the side effects of pushing the sensitivity higher. The ANR system works by analysing the image, then selectively applies noise reduction for a more natural-looking result. Raw files are also recorded in 14-bit depth meaning the NX1 can distinguish 16,384 levels of brightness – 4x more than 12-bit Raw images.

THIS PAGE The sensor on the NX1 features 28 megapixels for impressive definition. It also utilises a Back-Side Illuminated (BSI) design, which places essential wiring behind the photodiodes rather than in front of them to deliver a superior performance, particularly in low-light conditions.

The sensor designhelps to reduce digital noise by placingwiring behind the photodiodes rather than in front of them. As a result, more light gets straight to the sensor, whichmeans improved image quality

Photography News | Issue 12