Photography News 14

Camera review

SamsungNX1 The NX1 is a top-end CSC bristling with the latest technology, and one that could signal a new era in the inexorable rise of the mirrorless camera. PN gets its hands on one for a detailed first look FIRST LOOK

Words by Will Cheung

SPECS

PRICE £1300 body only CONTACT samsung.com SENSOR 28-megapixel APS-C BSI CMOS, 23.5x15.7mm, 6480x4320 pixels ISORANGE 100-25,600, expands to 51,200, auto SHUTTER 30secs-1/8000sec, flash sync 1/250sec DRIVEMODES Single, continuous at 15fps METERING SYSTEM Multi-zone, centre- weighted, spot EXPOSUREMODES PASM, auto, custom COMPENSATION ± 5EV in 0.3EV steps MONITOR 3in articulating, touchscreen, Super AMOLED, 1036k dots EVF 100% coverage, 2360k dot resolution FOCUSING Contrast detect (sensor), phase detect, multi-area, single point, tracking, live view, detection FOCUSING POINTS 205 phase-detect, 153 cross-type, 209 contrast-detect (sensor) CONNECTIVITY USB 3.0, HDMI, wireless, Bluetooth STORAGEMEDIA SD, SDHC, SDXC (UHS I/II) DIMENSIONS (WXHXD) 139x102x66mm WEIGHT 550g

The enthusiast photographer market is a challenging one to break into with well- established names, notably Canon and Nikon, having dominated it for so many years. Despite that, Korean electronics giant Samsung is giving it a determined go in the form of its NX1, a pro-specced CSC packed with innovation and features never seen before on a top-end camera. At the camera’s heart is a 28-megapixel BSI sensor, the first of this type to be used in a camera with an APS-C sized sensor – more on this later. It autofocuses using a remarkable AF system that uses 205 phase-detection points, 153 of which are cross-type sensors, covering 90% of the image area, and it can race through frames at an incredible 15fps. I got 23 full-size Raws at this speed before the buffer was full and in super-fine JPEG mode I got over 70 shots at this shooting speed using the latest Samsung memory card, which is surely enough even for the most ardent action shooter. The sensor is Samsung’s own and is the highest resolution APS-C sensor yet seen, as well as the first sensor of this size employing BSI technology. BSI stands for back-illuminated sensor (also known as backside illumination) and is a way of configuring a sensor to maximise light gathering capabilities. In front-illuminated sensors, the light gathering cells are directly above the silicon substrate

BELOW The NX1’s articulating monitor is very useful for low-level shots like this study of a fly agaric mushroom. A low position with the camera cupped in the hands plus the lens’s OIS shake-free system and low shutter vibration ensured a sharp exposure even at 1/6sec at f/8, ISO 100.

the electronics and therefore it receives the most light possible. The NX1’s AF system is another technological marvel – not just in the number of sensors, but that they offer 90% coverage of the image area. The theory being that the subject could be just about anywhere in the frame and the camera can still autofocus on it. In this first look AF was very swift, responsive and accurate and being able to focus anywhere on the screen was a boon.

used to make the chip’s base but underneath all the chip’s circuitry. As a consequence, less light reaches the light-sensitive cells. Simply, a BSI sensor is built like a front-illuminated sensor but is turned upside down and the silicon substrate (which is about 1mm thick) on which the chip is made is then machined to be less than one per cent of its original thickness. This allows light to pass through and be captured by the light receiving surface which is now sitting above all

The sensor is Samsung’s own and is the highest resolutionAPS-C sensor yet seen...

Photography News | Issue 14