Samsung NX30 – Hands On Review

Introduction

After the announcement of the NX30 I decided to skip this camera and wait for the next generation, but I read several very good reviews on the web and there was a good offer to buy it quite cheap. Therefore I decided to give it a try as the new camera had some very tempting features for me. The most relevant features for me are:

  • Better dynamic range (according to an AP review) and better high ISO performance
  • Focus peaking for manual focussing
  • Touch AF
  • Better implementation of WiFi features
  • Improved ergonomics
  • iFn Plus (enhanced customisation of button functions)
  • Responsiveness of the camera (no lock up when processing photos)

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How to photograph the stars

Introduction

I often get asked how to shoot a night sky / starry sky. I am not a specialist in this fields and there are better camera systems than the NX system to do astrophotography, but it’s definitely not impossible to do some kind of astrophotography. You can mainly do either star trails (capture the motion of the stars due to the rotation of the Earth) or you can simply shoot what you are seeing like in the photo below. With this article I will set the focus on the second alternative as star trails are a problem for newer NX cameras, but at the end of the article is a short round up about star trails, too.

Starry sky in Australia

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Samsung NX Camera Settings Guide

In this guide I will give you a short overview over the most important settings you can find in the Menu of your camera. I will give practical hints how to use these settings best. You should have read the Introduction to the basic concepts of photography first as the mentioned names and concepts are required to understand this guide. You should’ve read your camera’s manual, too, as I won’t repeat what Samsung has already described for you. In brackets after the name of the setting I am providing my recommendation / my used setting.

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Introduction to the basic concepts of photography

There are several basic concepts of photography that are essential to know before you start shooting your own photos. Without knowing the terms and definitions you can’t get the best out of your camera. You won’t need to know them to shoot photos in a full automatic  mode (Samsung: “SMART”), but it is useful to understand them in case you want to use the more flexible modes like Aperture priority (A), Shutter priority (S), manual mode (M).

This introduction will introduce the terms focal length, exposure, aperture, depth of field, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity and exposure value (compensation).

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