[JoshC]

Anyone following this camera?

It looks to have such huge potential but it looks like Samsung glass leaves a lot to be desired. There's almost no 3rd party support for Samsung except Rok. Such an interesting camera though.

[VisualDarkness]

Well, the Samsung primes are some of the best out there optically and quite cheap. Who cares about third party in the Samsung segment? Give me their 12-24mm, 20mm, 30mm. 45mm, 60mm, 85mm, 16-50/2-2.8, and I'm pretty much set for everything except long teles, but they are coming.

[Winder]

Anyone following this camera?

It looks to have such huge potential but it looks like Samsung glass leaves a lot to be desired. There's almost no 3rd party support for Samsung except Rok. Such an interesting camera though.

I don't know about durability, but optically their lenses are very good, or at least the few I have had the opportunity to play with. The 85mm F/1.4 is really good lens.

[VisualDarkness]

The 85mm is one of the best ever from any maker, simply stunning. My brother had one for his NX1000 but as he ran two systems (NX and Pentax) it just didn't fit the portability part he wanted NX for. It's an optical wonder and pin sharp right from the widest aperture with great bokeh.

[Winder]

The 85mm is one of the best ever from any maker, simply stunning. My brother had one for his NX1000 but as he ran two systems (NX and Pentax) it just didn't fit the portability part he wanted NX for. It's an optical wonder and pin sharp right from the widest aperture with great bokeh.

I don't know about best ever, but its the best value and yes, its performance at F/1.4 is excellent. IF I were to buy into the Samsung system it would be the first lens I would buy.

[JoshC]

Interesting, DXO scores their lenses pretty low, then again I've never put much faith into DXO. With a price at $1500 though I'm not so sure I would bite. I could buy a 6D for that or 610. I guess it will depend on how well it compares to the ISO performance of FF but from the test shots I have seen it's not on par, but better than other crops.

Back to the topic of glass, I don't see much for telephoto but I hear there may be a 300mm 2.8 in the works. They really need a timeline if they want people to buy in. I'm all for more competition so I do hope they do well, the camera has all the features I am looking for from what I have seen so far.

[VisualDarkness]

I don't know about best ever, but its the best value and yes, its performance at F/1.4 is excellent. IF I were to buy into the Samsung system it would be the first lens I would buy.

I ment one of the best ever 85mm from any maker if it wasn't clear. I can't think of many 85mm lenses that tops it, that's for sure.

---------- Post added 10-23-14 at 04:25 AM ----------

Interesting, DXO scores their lenses pretty low, then again I've never put much faith into DXO. With a price at $1500 though I'm not so sure I would bite. I could buy a 6D for that or 610. I guess it will depend on how well it compares to the ISO performance of FF but from the test shots I have seen it's not on par, but better than other crops.

Back to the topic of glass, I don't see much for telephoto but I hear there may be a 300mm 2.8 in the works. They really need a timeline if they want people to buy in. I'm all for more competition so I do hope they do well, the camera has all the features I am looking for from what I have seen so far.

DXO is good for sensors but I don't understand their lens stuff at all. They use some kind of weird "maximum possible average sharpness setting" thing to compare stuff and rely heavily on the sensors. Any lens from a system without a fullframe camera gets killed in their rankings, just check it, and Pentax is one of the brands.

[Winder]

Interesting, DXO scores their lenses pretty low, then again I've never put much faith into DXO. With a price at $1500 though I'm not so sure I would bite. I could buy a 6D for that or 610. I guess it will depend on how well it compares to the ISO performance of FF but from the test shots I have seen it's not on par, but better than other crops.

Back to the topic of glass, I don't see much for telephoto but I hear there may be a 300mm 2.8 in the works. They really need a timeline if they want people to buy in. I'm all for more competition so I do hope they do well, the camera has all the features I am looking for from what I have seen so far.

So far all we have seen is JPEGs and I have never been impressed with the Samsung JPEG processing. The RAW files have always been decent, but the NX-1 is all new, so I don't know what to expect.

I think DxO's perceptual mega-pixel system is still based on MTF charts which are based on line pairs per millimeter of height, This means that lenses on cameras with larger sensors will score better than the same lens on a smaller sensor. I don't know how DxO scores the 85mm Samsung lens, but as stated above I think it is one of the best 85mm lenses you can buy.

[Doundounba]

It does look like a top-notch APS-C choice, with 4K video too. I just wish the Samsung 1:1 macro was longer than 60mm, or that a longer third party 1:1 macro was available...

[Pentaxor]

Interesting, DXO scores their lenses pretty low, then again I've never put much faith into DXO. With a price at $1500 though I'm not so sure I would bite. I could buy a 6D for that or 610. I guess it will depend on how well it compares to the ISO performance of FF but from the test shots I have seen it's not on par, but better than other crops.

Back to the topic of glass, I don't see much for telephoto but I hear there may be a 300mm 2.8 in the works. They really need a timeline if they want people to buy in. I'm all for more competition so I do hope they do well, the camera has all the features I am looking for from what I have seen so far.

I would take the DXO ranking with a grain of salt as it is also confusing. the funny thing about their lens scoring is how the same lens seems to be different on a different camera. they rank high on some and low on some.

if I were you, I would not base the lens' performance capacity on such technical websites which do not show or see what you are actually getting on the image. judge the lens on the actual pictures that it produces rather than numbers that does not explain what it meant or see what it really is. I think you can see a lot of pictures on the web taken with the Samsung 85. if those pictures don't impress you at all, I don't know what kind of good you are after.

on the otherhand, the Samsung 85mm could be the same blueprint of the Pentax A* 85mm by virtue of collaboration between Samsung and Pentax in the past. and I think most of the lenses are influenced by Pentax.

[VisualDarkness]

It does look like a top-notch APS-C choice, with 4K video too. I just wish the Samsung 1:1 macro was longer than 60mm, or that a longer third party 1:1 macro was available...

Well, for macro adapters and manual settings aren't that much of a big deal. I seldom shoot macro with AF.

[Doundounba]

Well, for macro adapters and manual settings aren't that much of a big deal. I seldom shoot macro with AF.

I don't need AF either, but I really prefer to focus with the lens wide-open and have the aperture stop-down only when I hit the shutter. If there existed a smart adapter that did this and also "translated" the lens' aperture capabilities from Pentax to NX (or whatever other system), so that, essentially, you'd get the equivalent of shooting with a A-series lens (provided the lens itself was A-series or more recent), then adapting Pentax macro lenses to other systems would make more sense to me...

[VisualDarkness]

That's true and a huge point. With the tiny margins that macro brings, changing the aperture on the ring can easily lead to a missed shot.

[panoguy]

I don't need AF either, but I really prefer to focus with the lens wide-open and have the aperture stop-down only when I hit the shutter.

I thought the Samsung PK-NX mount adapter (MA9NXK) had aperture control. At least it has a lever inside it to open the aperture up on PKA lenses.

Many of the old Samsung "Schneider-Kreuznach" K-mount lenses (rebranded from Pentax) lacked aperture rings entirely... and that's what the adapter was made for!

Anyhow, with what looks like a decent EVF with focus peaking and assist, I think the NX1 might replace my SD1 Merrill for macro duty...

[Doundounba]

I thought the Samsung PK-NX mount adapter (MA9NXK) had aperture control. At least it has a lever inside it to open the aperture up on PKA lenses.
Many of the old Samsung "Schneider-Kreuznach" K-mount lenses (rebranded from Pentax) lacked aperture rings entirely... and that's what the adapter was made for!

I believe that the Samsung adapter has a mechanism to control aperture on DA lenses that don't have an aperture ring, but there is no automation whatsoever. Unless I am mistaken, the lens stays permanently at whatever you set it with the adapter (or the aperture ring if you're using a lens with such a thing) and is completely decoupled from the camera body. This is unlike on a Pentax body, where the lens will (usually) remain fully opened and will only be closed down briefly (and automatically) to your chosen aperture once you hit the shutter. The behavior of (dumb) adapters isn't so much of a problem when you're shooting portraits wide-open or close to it - in fact, I think some people prefer it, since it gives you a kind of permanent DoF preview (and possibly automated metering) - but for macro it's less than ideal as it makes it harder to put the center of the zone of focus exactly where you want it and will also cause a very dark viewfinder at very small apertures like F/16 or greater.

That being said, longer native lenses with diopters also produce good macro results, so maybe that would be the way to go. And if the NX1 is popular, perhaps some third party macro lenses will come eventually... Right now, for me, it looks like possibly K-3 first (probably between now and xmas). Then, depending on where Ricoh is by then and how the NX1 gets reviewed, in about one year I'll be looking very hard at Samsung (with either the NX1 or the rumored smaller "mini-NX1")...