Samsung’s new NX series of cameras could be awesome or awful. The cameras are something of a hybrid between the SLR and the compact — similar, in fact, to the Micro Four Thirds System.
The most important thing to know is that these cameras will have big sensors with which to mop up photons. Not full frame, 35mm-sized sensors but healthy APS-sized sensors, the kind found in all but the highest end DSLR. The NX camera manages to be a lot smaller than an SLR though by doing away with the mirror, and therefore the space-hogging mirror box.
The sacrifice is, of course, the optical, TTL viewfinder. Samsung could plunk a compact-style viewfinder on top, but this will never see the exact same angle as the lens. Instead, the NX cameras will have an electronic viewfinder, a truly horrible compromise. Anyone who has used a camera with an electronic ‘finder will know just how crappy they can be — you get the dizzying sense that you are looking into a 1980s camcorder eyepiece.
There is at least a big screen on the back of the prototype which should help, and future models could indeed have proper optical viewfinders. The first NX will hit stores in the second half of the year, for an unannounced price. We hope it’s cheap — a good DSLR can be had for a few hundred bucks these days.
Company page [Samsung Camera. Thanks, Kyle!]
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