Samsung NX1 Review – Performance

Samsung NX1 side view

For all of the impressive elements of the NX1’s specification arguably the headline of these is the camera’s continuous shooting speeds. With the claimed capability of shooting up to 15fps at full resolution the NX1 sits comfortably amongst a collection of professional level DSLRs.

The good news is that, on the whole, the NX1 meets these headline shooting speed claims. The NX1 also delivers substantial burst depth, especially considering the large resolution – the model is capable of rattling off images at 15fps for around five seconds when shooting both Raw and JPEG files with continuous AF enabled.

Although the NX1 doesn’t feature in-camera image stabilisation, a large amount of the camera’s lenses feature built-in ‘Power OIS’ functionality. In real world conditions that means that it’s possible to shoot in low light conditions right down to about 1/25 sec with little to worry about in terms of loss of sharpness.

The NX1 also performs well when it come to image processing, avoiding any kind of oversharpening which can some time be in evidence in CSCs.

Samsung NX1

AF performance

The Samsung NX1 is also incredibly well specified when it comes to the camera’s AF set-up, with the aforementioned 153 cross-type AF points offering around 90% coverage of the frame.

The AF set-up itself is Samsung’s hybrid AF III system, a configuration which the manufacturer claims is capable of acquiring focus in lighting conditions right down to -4EV exposure stops.

In practice, this AF set-up delivers some really impressive results in low light conditions, and there is rarely an instance at which it doesn’t manage to acquire focus in the desired time. Even in near total darkness the model manages to gain focus easily enough thanks to a pattern AF assist beam with a range of up to 15m.

The NX1 is certainly no slouch in good lighting conditions either. Samsung claims a focusing speed of as little as 0.055 seconds, and although it’s very difficult to judge such a fast speed in real world shooting conditions it’s certainly noticeable that the NX1 is blisteringly fast.

Samsung NX1

Not only is the NX1 capable of delivering these super-fast focusing speeds with a central AF point selected, but the camera is equally adept at addressing the correct focus point with the multi-area AF mode enabled.

Finally, thanks to the large and high-spec touchscreen on the rear of the camera it’s also a viable option to select the focus point required on the screen before shooting.

It’s also worth noting that Samsung has introduced some of the touch shooting functionality seen in its smartphones, including the effective way of selecting the focus point and exposure reading separately through touching different areas of the frame.

While the LCD screen impresses, the model’s EVF is also worthy of note. The 2.36-million-dot OLED display is arguably more beneficial than a conventional OVF in some instances, thanks to functionality such as up to 5x magnification, the display of a host of shooting information, and manual focus peaking.