The Samsung NX500 takes some of the sharpest images we’ve ever seen for a “fit-in-pocket” shooter, and there’s a reason for it – the camera uses the same technology as Samsung’s powerful NX1. The NX500 is essentially a scaled-down version of the NX1, capitalizing on the same 28.2 megapixel BSI APS-C CMOS sensor and DRIMEe Vs image processor. But Samsung didn’t stop there. They went all out and loaded it with tons of functionality (and it’s not just the accompanying 218-page manual that tipped us off about this). We’ve played with this camera for over a month now, and we can safely say it’s well worth the cost and will easily make both photo enthusiasts and vacationers smile. Let’s break down some of the more important features.
Camera Lens & Body
Out of the box, the NX500 comes with an f/3.5-5.6 16-50mm OIS Power Zoom lens equipped with Samsung’s i-Function. The lens is interchangeable, so you can use other Samsung OIS lenses or even adapt it to other mounts. But keep in mind that if you do adapt, you’ll lose auto-focus functionality. The form factor of the NX500 is great: it fits in-hand very well, and has fantastic weight and a good balance. It’s trimmed with an aluminum chassis and comes in black, brown, or white. If you pick white, the lens is also white, which gives it a sleek look. Gripping the camera, we can reach all the controls with our thumb very quickly, and the buttons and controls are soft to the touch. Samsung also went ahead and added two command wheels; in certain modes the command wheels provide the user with different options. One function the camera doesn’t offer are macro settings.
LCD Display
If you’re wondering, there isn’t an electronic viewfinder (EFV), so if that’s a must for you, you’ll be disappointed. But while we used the camera, we didn’t miss the EFV, because the display is so responsive and fast. We never got frustrated using it. The LCD is a Super AMOLED display that’s pure tech-sexy. It allows you to access menu features, focus, and you can even tap it to shoot a photo instead of using the traditional shutter button. An easy drop-down menu shows display brightness, storage and battery levels, and status for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. When reviewing your photos, you can flip, zoom, and protect photos from deletion as well.
What’s clever about the LCD is that it can tilt up to 180 degrees for high, low, or selfie shots. Ya, selfies. When flipped fully up, the camera automatically turns to Auto Self Shot (which can be turned off). After pushing the shutter, a two-second countdown starts before the photo is taken. While the camera is in Auto Self Shot, there’s a Face Retouch feature with various level from 1 to 5. The Face Retouch feature softens the face and removes blemishes. It would be nice to have a “0” option here, but you can work around this by turning off Auto Self Shot and setting your own timer. Another cool idea would be for i-Function to act like a second shutter option in modes like Auto. The one caveat we have about the display (which seems to happen with every display) is that when a bright light source like the sun is at your back, you’ll have to adjust the display to reduce glare.
Mode Dial
Positioned on top of the camera, there are the standard options we normally see like Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, and Custom, but Samsung also added SAS and Smart modes. SAS (or Samsung Auto Shot Mode) is actually great for action shots like throwing or hitting a baseball or group jumping. We’ve all seen those shots where a wedding party is jumping midair and there’s always one blurry face. Flip to SAS and the camera will automatically detect the jumping with pinpoint accuracy – we’ve already used it plenty of times with our cats. Smart mode allows you to capture shots with preset parameters like Beauty Face, Action Freeze, Panorama, Waterfall, Sunset, and others. If you have a tripod, using Waterfall mode is well worth it.
ISO, Continuous Shooting & Burst
The NX500 offers ISOs from 100-25,600 that’s expandable to 51,200 – great for low-light situations. There are two Continuous modes: Normal and High. Normal captures four photos while High captures nine per second. Burst mode can deliver groups of 10, 15, or 30 shots after you press the shutter button. There’s also your standard timer function and bracketing for Auto Exposure, White Balance, and Picture Wizard. The latter allows you to set three styles to a photo, like Vivid, Calm, or Retro, which processes instantly. You can even use Picture Wizard in selfie mode.
4K Video & More
The NX500 offers a slew of video options from 640×480 up to 4K 4096×2160. Specifically, HD at 1280×720 (30fps, 60fps) 1920×1080 (15fps, 24fps, 30fps, 60fps) UHD 3840×2160 (30p) and the aforementioned Cinema 4K only at 24p. A caveat when shooting 4K: the camera will crop its center area and map 1:1 pixel mapping. The result is a crop ratio 1:1.68 in 4K and 1:1.77 in UHD. We also suggest turning off the image stabilizer because the camera may record the sound of it working.
You can set the ISO up to 6400 in movie mode and files are recorded using the H.265 HEVC codec. What’s great about the codec is that it’s SD card friendly, taking up only half the space, but what’s bad is that non-linear editors don’t fully support H.265. They will be shortly, but for now, you’ll have to first convert the movie file into a usable codec like H.264 before editing. You can download ABSOLUTELY FREE software from Samsung, either for Mac or Windows, called Samsung Movie Converter that works very well. (Links at the bottom of the article.) There are third-party applications out there that are a little faster at converting, but you can’t beat free.
On the side of the camera is a mini-HDMI output, but it only supports 1280×720 and 1920×1080. If you try viewing or displaying 4K, it will automatically down-convert to 1920×1080 (30fps). For a camera this small, the overall video quality is good. We brought it to NAB to shoot product videos at 1920×1080 (30fps) and we purposely didn’t color correct the videos for this review, so that you could see the untouched quality. You can check out a video below and the rest on YouTube. If you’re interested in reading about how to edit Samsung NX500 H.265 videos in Adobe Premiere, click here.
The NX500 doesn’t have a mic input or a headphone jack, but it does have a decent internal microphone with audio levels and wind cut options. But we look at this microphone more as a scratch track. If you do need to use it for audio, make sure you’re only three feet away from your subject.
In video mode you can use the touchscreen to set your focus. Samsung included AF Shift Speed options at fast, normal, and slow. This allows you to create a rack focus effect, but because the processing power is so fast, we wouldn’t mind even seeing an extra-slow option. After you’ve recorded a movie, Samsung also gives you options to adjust the brightness and volume of a clip inside the camera. You can even trim down the videos too.
Samsung NX500 shooting product videos at NAB 2015 (switch to HD if you want)
NFC, Wi-Fi, & Bluetooth
The NX500 can connect to your mobile device via NFC or Wi-Fi. By downloading the Samsung Camera Manager app, users can connect their device to transfer photos or remotely control the camera. The Remote Viewfinder on the app is quite robust. You can control picture size, flash, modes, drive, ISO, zoom, and so much more. After capturing a photo, you can quickly transfer the photo over to your device. To GPS geo-tag your photos, connect via Bluetooth and then activate the GPS feature on the smartphone. After establishing your first connection with the camera, transferring and using the app’s Remote Viewfinder is a cinch.
A feature we wouldn’t mind seeing in the next generation would be the ability to shoot two different photo sizes at once. Similar to a RAW + JPEG, but in the case of the NX500 it would be 28M (6480×4320) + 3M (2112 x1408) or what have you. The reason being, when shooting 28M, the size isn’t as friendly when emailing or trying to upload to social media. There is a resize function in the camera’s photo editing features, but maybe Samsung can provide both options in a future model.
Filters & More
Like we mentioned, the camera comes equipped with photo editing capabilities where you can apply smart filters, rotate, crop or change color settings like brightness, contrast, and saturation. There’s also the aforementioned resize option where you can resize a 28M photo to 13.9M, 7.1M or 3M. One of our favorite smart filters is dubbed Miniature: it gives you the effect of a tilt/shift lens. There’s also Vignetting, Watercolor, and others you can apply. The nice thing is when saving a photo with applied filters or sizes, it automatically creates a brand-new file instead of writing over the original image.
Conclusion
The battery life on the camera could be better, but the same could be said for the Tesla. We got about four hours of battery life with the camera always on, shooting 1920×1080 video with little stops in between. You can probably stretch it out more with a better power-save mode and LED brightness settings, but we wanted to push the camera. As for just shooting photos and casually turning the camera off and on, we got about two days of battery life.
We really like the NX500. With a price tag of $799, it’s loaded with features. It has so many options, it might actually be a hindrance to users at first, as it will take time to learn all the cool things this camera does. But when you do stumble into features like SAS and the Remote Viewfinder, you’ll immediately want to say “that’s awesome.” Our one suggestion would be to crack open the user manual sooner rather than later.
Samsung Movie Converter Program – Windows (direct download from Samsung)
Samsung Movie Converter Program – MAC (direct download from Samsung)
Gallery: Photos have only been resized for web. No retouching/processing otherwise.