Hi from Carshalton, UK - Samsung NX11 user

RayL

New Member
Carshalton is on the southern edge of London, where the town meets the country. Unlike many places in the world where 'urban sprawl' has been allowed to happen, England has some strong planning laws and a system of 'Green Belts' which surround cities and stop urban sprawl. Here in Carshalton the London Green Belt is a ten minute walk away (farmer's fields and market gardens), yet Central London is only 35 minutes on the train. The combination gives great possibilities for outdoor photography.


Up to this year all my work has been with video, mostly multi-camera for the entertainments industry using Sony cameras costing many thousands of pounds each. My stills photography was restricted to point-and-shoot using simple fixed lens cameras whose main feature had to be that they fitted in a jacket pocket.

Then this year I had a need for a stills camera that offered more facilities so as usual I made a list of what I wanted and then tried to find a camera that matched.

The list was:

1. DSLR body shape and handling but without the bulk and weight if possible.

2. Removeable lenses so that the camera body at least would fit into a coat pocket.

3. Viewfinder as well as screen (for easy use in bright sunlight or studio lighting).

4. Large sensor for narrow DOF if required.

5. Internal flash plus flash hot shoe for external flashgun.

6. Shutter remote trigger socket.

7. 16x9 picture aspect ratio option (to be compatable with video).

8. HDMI socket.

9. Rechargeable battery rather than cells (a spare Li-ion is smaller and lighter than 4 x AA).

10. SD card storage (because I'm standardised on SD cards for other uses).

11. The best price I could get.


You'll notice that the list is all about facilities. I reckoned that the stills camera market is sufficiently mature and competitive that the quality aspect could be taken for granted. I ignored movie facilities as I have video cameras for that.

The size and weight aspect made Compact System seem a lot more attractive than DSLR and by the time I'd eliminated all the CS cameras that didn't have viewfinders the choice was pretty small.

The Samsung NX11 won the day. It had all the features and I found it at Sale price for £299 (about $470 US). This included a free Sandisk 4Gb SD card. To the 18-55mm kit lens I've added the 50-200mm telephoto, which covers most eventualities.

The other major purchase has been Samsung's SEF-42A flashgun, which can be controlled (TTL and zoom) by the camera and which auto-adjusts to the tilt angle. The only oddity is that a (non-Samsung) flash extension cable doesn't work - you can see my query about this in the Samsung NX forum.

As far as the camera is concerned it's all been good. The panoramic feature with auto-stitching has been surprisingly useful as has the auto-changeover from screen to viewfinder simply by holding it to my eye. The handbook has been helpful in getting to know all the controls and the menus although for anyone buying an NX11, note that the downloadable pdf has more information (and is in colour).

Obviously Samsung isn't one of the 'big names' in this part of the market but the NX11 does all I need.

Ray
 
Ray, welcome aboard and thanks so much for your intro, too.

It sounds as though you live in an area that offers the best of both worlds. That's what I'm looking for over here in the states.

Congrats on finding the Samsung NX11 that has met your needs so well. I hope you'll share some of your photographs on the forum, and look forward to your involvement here. Glad to have you on Serious Compacts!
 
Welcome from Holland, Ray! I love the NX10 / NX11 for their ergonomics, they seem better thought-out in that regard than any other CSC I've handled so far. Also I've seen some amazing photos taken with them. Looking forward to seeing your shots!
 
Thanks for the welcome.

As far as sharing photographs is concerned, what method is used on this forum? In some, direct attachment to a message is possible (with the site having the capacity to store all the images). Others insist that a link to off-site storage is used. If it's the former, what are the restrictions (if any) on dimension in pixels?

Ray
 
Olli

Thanks for the info. Now that I have a camera capable of good quality pictures and with more creative options, I hope it will 'raise my game' when it comes to composing shots.

Ray
 
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