This month Samsung will be releasing the NX500, the successor to the NX300M and NX300, and what caught our attention is its ability to shoot 4K in such a tight form factor. If you’re familiar with the specs of the Samsung NX1, the company basically took all of that awesome technology and shrank it into a camera that can fit into your pocket. If you’ve read our story on the Blackmagic’s Pocket Cinema Camera, you know how much we like small pieces of gear doing big things.
The NX500 is a mirrorless camera boasting a 28.2-mexapixel, APS-C backside-illuminated CMOS sensor and DRIMEe V image processor. The ISO sensitivity range is 100-25600 (1EV or 1/3EV step), which can be expanded to 51200. This may sound similar to Sony’s A7 mirrorless camera, which begs the question – anyone up for a side-by-side ISO comparison? The camera’s video recording capabilities will include options for 640 x 480 (60, 30, 24, 50, 25fps), 1280 x 720 (60, 30fps), 1920 x 1080 (60, 30, 24fps), Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 (30fps), and Cinema 4K 4096 x 2160 (24fps).
In order to record the larger 4K files to the internal SD card slot (SD, SDHC, and SDXC media formats supported), the NX500 saves space by using the H.265 HEVC codec. The codec is effective because it only takes up about half the memory card space, but when it comes time for post, you may need to convert the file into a working H.264 format depending on your NLE. Samsung does offer a Movie Converter through iLauncher, but there are also third-party converters out there as well.
There isn’t an external microphone input or a headphone jack on the NX500, but it does have a built-in stereo mic; you can use it for a scratch track and sync up your dual-system audio later via PluralEyes or what have you. You also won’t find a traditional viewfinder (EVF), but rather a three-inch display that you can tilt 90 degrees and rotate 180 degrees. It’s actually really cool: it’s a full VGA Amoled touch screen and its range of motion allows you to put yourself in a better viewing position at lower and higher angles – ‘cause we’ve all been there. Also on the left side of the unit is a micro HDMI output that can send a 1920 x 1080 signal to any monitor for reference and a USB 2.0 data connection port.
The lens kit that ships with the unit is a 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS power zoom. It’s part of the NX mount line, so you’ll need to purchase a mount adapter if you want to use third-party lenses. If you’re familiar with the NX1 auto focusing performance, the NX500 shares the same NX AF System III that combines 205 on-sensor phase detect pixels and 209 contrast-detect AF areas. This covers nearly 90 percent of the imaging sensor to provide very attractive shooting and focus speeds. But Samsung kept the video community in mind and added options for focus shift speeds. Since the camera is so swift to focus, you can adjust the focus speeds in video mode to be slow, normal, or fast. This is especially great for rack focusing subjects using the tap focus feature on the camera.
The company didn’t forget to make this camera smart either, providing seamless wireless setup with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. There’s a free Samsung Camera Manager app that has some pretty capable features, one of them being Remote Viewfinder, which allows you to snap a photo or hit record on the camera remotely. Sounds stellar for drone work. We’re looking forward to getting our hands on the NX500 soon – how about you?