Samsung NX500 Hands on Review

On this video Mike Wilhelm from videomaker.com takes a look at the (relatively) new Samsung NX500 and it’s capabilities, focusing on the camera’s 4K features.

The NX500 which was announced earlier in 2015 is a interesting little camera. It includes many of the hardware of it’s bigger brother – the Samsung flagship NX1, however, it is sold at a much lower price (almost half that of the NX1). There are obviustly some drawbacks here (Wilhelm talks about one of them which has to do with the camera’s inability to use the entire sensor for capturing 4k video). Externally you will not get the high-res viewfinder of the NX1 or 4K output via HDMI (1080p should work), there is no headphone or mic jacks, burst performance is lower, and there is no 802.11ac wireless (802.11n is onboard however).

On his testing Wilhelm talks about some of the problems of working with the new codec (H.265) which is still pretty new to the market and requires some work in terms of converting to a workable format (H.264). The extra crop factor you get when shooting in 4K (around 2.8x) can be a problem – especially if you want to shoot wide or ultra wide scenes).

Here is a reminder of some of the main features of the NX500 (most of them very similar to the NX1 which we have looked at quite a few times here before):

  • Sensor: 28.2MP BSI APS-C CMOS.
  • Sensitivity: 100-25,600 ISO with expansion up to 51,200 ISO.
  • Focus system: hybrid 205 phase detection AF points (153 cross type points with 90% coverage).
  • Video: 4K video recording.
  • LCD: Super AMOLED 3.0″ 1036k dots tilt touchscreen.
  • Shutter: 30-1/6000 sec.
  • Continuous shooting speed: 9 fps Burst with AF.
  • Connectivity: WIFI-802.11n+nfc.
  • Weight: 287 grams.
  • Price: $800 body only (on Amazon).

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Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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