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Samsung NX1, $1300 4K flagman
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  • Some people take more risks than others. Lack of footage this close to release usually doesn't bode well. I'm loving the pre-release stats and the potential of the camera for video, but I'm too poor to place this bet.

  • A french preview: http://www.01net.com/editorial/630892/nx1-lhybride-semi-professionnel-qui-propulse-samsung-au-sommet/ On the 1:1 sample picture, there is a strange "effect" around the "legs" of the chameleon... Ghosting? jpeg compression? h.265 artifacts?

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  • B&H release date moved to November 28th.

  • Since ppl have mentioned preorders, I would just like to mention that preordering is not smart, you are paying more for something that has more bugs.

  • @Eno Interesting is right...

    Got home from work and found notice of signature required for delivery of the NX-S 50-150mm lens! Just got off the phone and my 2 (body only) cameras are slated for UPS delivery drop-ship from Samsung tomorrow.

    @brianl I ordered 9/16 and 9/18

  • @ bubba - Congratulations!

    Looking forward to hearing how you like them. I would love to know how the autofocus tracks subjects at wide-open apertures.

  • This is embarrassing: Just got the following 2 identical emails: ***There has been a change to the release date of the pre-ordered item listed below. The new release date is 11/28/2014. If that is okay with you, and you accept the change, you don't have to do anything. ***

  • I preordered that same lens bubba.

  • This camera appears to be shipping now in Europe.

  • The first NX 1 4K video sample for download:

    https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/641f563f7573c97281f28c3657a471d120141115152219/1280f552e00a1364a91139500e7286b020141115152219/f73b41

    I thank @Usee for sharing this sample.

    It can be played with the last version of VLC player.

  • For video shooters, the NX1 is an even mix of tantalizing promise and incredible frustration. For starters, the good: the NX1 provides you with full manual control over exposure, full phase-detect autofocus while recording video, and both headphone and mic jacks. It also allows you to make use of focus peaking, focus assist zoom, and highlight/zebra warnings while recording. The bones are here for a superb 4K/UHD-shooting interchangeable lens camera, even if there isn't quite the granular level of control provided by the Panasonic GH4.

    Unfortunately, actually working with the UHD footage is where things become very messy. The Samsung NX1, like the Panasonic GH4 and Sony AX100 camcorder, can record UHD/4K footage internally to SD cards. The GH4 and Sony AX100 both use versions of the H.264 codec (in the form of AVC and XAVC S), which supports 4K footage but requires UHS-1 and faster SD cards because of the sheer amount of data. The NX1 can record 4K to regular Class 10 SDHC cards because it uses newer HEVC (H.265) compression. HEVC compression is around 50% more efficient than H.264, but it reportedly requires 3-10x as much computing power to encode/decode.

    The extra required horsepower is a big issue because while every modern graphics card supports H.264 natively, hardware HEVC support isn't widespread. This requires software-based encoding and decoding, which is far slower. For example, even brand-new Maxwell 2 GeForce 900-series cards from Nvidia will only offer a mix of hardware and software support for HEVC. Worse still, in practice we couldn't edit the footage in either Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier Pro. Forget editing—even playing back the footage on a PC was a pain in the neck.

    The only ways we could view what we shot were directly from the camera (which was plagued by artifacting and choppiness) or using Divx 10—VLC, Quicktime, and other common players couldn't play the footage smoothly at all. And even with Divx the only computer we found that could run it was the Razer Blade Pro, a $2,500 high-end gaming laptop. Even our i7-based Macbook Pros struggled. HEVC footage is the future of 4K streaming, but with hardware support at least 18 months away we recommend using a 4K-ready external recorder or converting the footage to H.264 before trying to work with it.

    See http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/11767/4k-playback-#Item_4


    It's a dynamic, powerful camera that promises better video quality than every mirrorless camera except the GH4, while narrowly besting Panasonic's baby with faster still shooting and superior autofocus performance. Looking at the NX1's performance purely in a vacuum, it's the best high-end mirrorless camera we've seen yet.

    http://cameras.reviewed.com/content/samsung-nx1-digital-camera-review

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev totally agree, the funny thing is you can play the h.265 files in VLC but with frames loss. The interesting part is that the processor is actually utilized between 40-60% only.

    I wish Samsung introduce a h.264 150 Mbit codec in NX 1

  • totally agree, the funny thing is you can play the h.265 files in VLC but with frames loss. The interesting part is that the processor is actually utilized between 40-60% only, I have a feeling the problem is not in our computers but in the codec itself.

    VLC is not considered best for 4K video from my talks and observations. Otherwise use topic I linked.

    Another nasty thing is the noise reduction witch smears the fine details even at minimum ISO. Take a still extraction from the sample I posted to see the problem.

    It was always Samsung thing. If you go back in time Panasonic was first to introduce advanced noise reduction in their compacts (and first to add software aberrations correction).

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev the problem is more complex. I found a professional h.264 decoder and the same file now looks extremely good, the NR I was seeing was actually interpolation algorithm from VLC.

    I got two NX files that look good, very hard to edit (I need to trans-code them in prores 4:2:2 for editing them in Premiere) but the end result is very promising.

  • the problem is more complex. I found a professional h.264 decoder and the same file now looks extremely good, the NR I was seeing was actually interpolation algorithm from VLC.

    Best idea is to use proper decoder like LAV (really do not know that "professional" means here) and MadVR renderer if you want to see quality potential. EVR renderer is affected by your video drivers settings (including various nasty things).

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev I used Cinemartin Gold for transcoding the NX1 files.

  • If you read in the comments under the "Camera.Reviewed.com" NX1 Review the author, TJ Donegan, states:

    "We evaluate video quality in three key ways: low light sensitivity, sharpness (low light and bright light), and motion performance. The GH4 aces all three tests. The NX1 slightly outresolves the GH4 in bright and low light, they're essentially a wash in low light sensitivity, but the NX1's motion performance wasn't quite as smooth.

    Beyond that, the GH4 can output gorgeous 10-bit 4:2:2 UHD video via its HDMI port (no YAGH required) while the NX1 is limited to 8-bit 4:2:0. It also offers better control over things like peaking, exposure warnings, audio, and provides color modes that produce a flatter tonal response to aid post-production. If video is your primary interest, the GH4 is the better choice."

  • @Mckinise you may be right, but NX 1 is not a little bit more detained, is much more detailed than GH4, + a lot more cleaner (GH4 has noise even at minimum ISO). I have some original samples and 4K extracted pictures from NX1 that proof this. I'm a GH4 user and personalty don't care about 10 bit and 4:2:2 (on a external recorder) but I do care about resolution, nose and sensor size.

    Samsung NX 1 looks very promising. I've transcoded 2 samples in h.264 100 Mb.sec: http://we.tl/dpPXpwFpq0 .Unfortunately the guy left the AF on and it's changing planes from time to time, even in the wide angle shot, but to my eyes they look very good anyway.

  • Wait, they're saying the NX1 is no better than GH4 in low light situations? Surprising.