Small wonder The NX500 has the same sensor and AF system as the NX1. Angela Nicholson finds out if she’s got a bargain on her hands
he Samsung NX1 really impressed me when I tested it in issue 160, so the fact that the NX500 has the same backside-illuminated (BSI) APS-C format CMOS sensor with 28.2 million effective pixels, hybrid autofocus (AF) system and 4K video recording capability for a fraction of the price is pretty exciting. Add to this the fact that the slightly pared back version of the Drime V processing engine enables a maximum continuous shooting rate of 9fps for 40 JPEGs or five raw files (when a UHS-1 SD card is installed) and a native sensitivity range of ISO10025,600, with an expansion setting of ISO 51,200 for stills, and you start to see what I’m talking about.
There’s also Samsung Auto Shot (SAS) mode with its Baseball and Jump Shot mode, along with a new Trap Shot mode. Baseball mode is
Tdesigned to take a shot at the moment a ball hits a bat, and Jump Shot mode is for capturing people at the peak of a jump. In Trap Shot mode, the camera takes a photo when it detects that the subject is moving in the direction of the on-screen arrow and it reaches a set point.
One key difference between the NX1 and the NX500 is that the NX500 doesn’t have a viewfinder. However, there’s the same threeinch, 1,036,000-dot Super AMOLED touch-sensitive screen.
Build and handling
Rather than the SLR-like design of the NX1, the NX500 has the rectangular shape of the NX300. It’s also not weatherproof, and although its metal body feels pretty solid, a faint clicking or creaking sound when you hold the grip tightly suggests there’s a little bit of flex somewhere.
According to Samsung, the dial and button placement on the NX500 was determined by monitoring the brain responses of a collection of volunteers, and for most part the NX500’s button arrangement is good. However, I found the exposure compensation button awkward to use in the default set-up. Thankfully, it’s possible to customise the use of this button as well as the auto exposure lock button and the two command