The Samsung NX 30 with its 18-55m.m kit lens took me to................................

Hi there, I went down to the seaside last week, to Barry Island, in fact. While there, I found an eager assistant who helped me to tempt, (not that much "tempting," is needed lol), some seagulls to pose for me. This shot includes two gulls that eagerly took off to try to beat each other to the bread. Can you see the bread, the two birds walking on water can.

Look at the two gulls in flight, below. Both sets of eyes are locked on the target of the bread, as they vie with each other to get to it first.

But that is enough of the birds for now, although, I do have a lot more of images of the seagulls at The Knapp. Maybe I'll show you more later in the week.

Wow, this Samsung NX30 camera keeps on impressing me, as does the support from Samsung themselves. I complained, as soon as I got the camera, about the AF point being off centre, five weeks later it, and other points of contention are fixed with a Samsung formware update. My hat's off to you Samsung, both for this great little camera, and the speed at which you addressed some of its problems, AF is quicker, more accurate, wandering AF point fixed. I love this camera. I like the control buttons that are on the camera, and in a convenient place to operate them, like the drive switch. It is simple to change from a single shot. to a high speed multiple shot choice.

At the same time, I am also very pleased with the cameras ability to have such a close focus with what has to be THE best kit lenses made by ANY manufacturer out there. Don't forget I am coming to the NX range of cameras from the DSLR community. I have shot with cameras made by Olympus, Canon, Pentax, and Fuji, so I have used some great cameras. But, and I mean this with all sincerity. I would NOT change the NX range of cameras, to go back to any other maker. Take a look at the images below and see for yourselves. Some of these flowers were tiny, not even 5m.m in diameter.

The yellow flowers above are the tiny ones that I was referring to, but the purple ones below are a little larger than that. One also has to take into account, that a plain yellow, and purple are two colours that digital cameras have, traditionally had difficulty in focussing on. The NX30 does it with aplomb.

After seeing the image above, I think you'll have to agree that the camera and its 18-55m.m lit lens are a great team, and do a marvellous job together.

In the above image one can see flowers in various stages of deveopment, from buds to partially open, to seed heads, all in good order of sharpness. Yes, my friends, I love the Samsung NX30 and its 18-55m.m. kit lens. Personally though, I still prefer the size and shape, of the Samsung NX300, as I love the rangefinder style that Samsung has developed.

All for now guys, take care out there, and have a great time, until we meet here again.

Kindest regards, Twm.

Well whatever you say, I'm Impressed.

Hi,
   "With what,"  I hear you ask. "What is he taking about now?" Well, since the firmware update from Samsung, the NX 30 and its 18-55m.m kit lens has been exemplary, in its performance. We went to the Knapp at Barry at the beginning of the week to gat some "action," pics of birds in flight, (BIF). We weren't disappointed. I set the camera for 1/1250 shutter speed, with AUTO ISO. I chose MULTI metering, and MULTI AF, with an f stop of 4.0. I have to say, the NX 30 did very well indeed. I don't think that with a single AF point, I could have had as many birds in focus. The metering system also did extremely well, especially when one takes into account the brilliant white of the gulls feathers, and the very bright sunshine on them. All this with an f4.0 aperture. Yes, I must say, I for one, am a very pleased person. Now that Samsung have fixed the "wandering," AF point, I think this camera IS their best to date. Below is the image that I am talking about. Note the bread in the air that one of the birds is heading for. These gulls are like surface to air missiles when it comes to food, or air to ground missiles if you happen to be eating a sandwich on the beach, lol.

The bread is up, and so are some of the birds. with one, in particular, whose radar is locked onto the target.
For a better perspective, I have put a 100% crop below, where you can clearly see the bread crusts that the gull is after. Remember the camera settings that I used to achieve this shot, I think it would take a costly, DSLR with a far higher f stop to achieve this. This was not, a shot taken out of a machine gun camera setting, but a drive setting of a single shot. This image is a jpg from the camera, and NOT developed from RAW.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my pics, and having a read at how the Samsung NX 30 and its 18-55m.m kit lens is performing.
                                            Take care in all the heat that we are having at the moment, and be especially careful around water, during this heat wave. All for now. Regards, Twm.

On behalf of NX 30 users everywhere, Thank you, Samsung.

Hi there,
             As you will know, if you've been reading about my activities with the Samsung NX 30. I am impressed with the camera on the whole, but one little thing was spoiling my interaction with the device. Every time that I switched the camera on, the AF point would be off centre. Now, you may not have noticed this in your camera, but here is the way to spot it immediately. Go into the camera menu, and select the show grid option. Set this to 3 x 3, (meaning the screen / VF, shows the "rule of thirds," style grid). Now, when you switch the camera on, you can clearly see that the AF point is not in a central position. As I have stated before, this problem was not a, "deal breaker," more than just an irritation. To move the AF point to the central position one only had to press the OK button, which activates the AF point, movement option. Then press the right hand part of the ring around the OK button, then press the OK button again. The AF point is now central, but, be aware, if the camera is switched off, and later back on again, the AF point will need to be "re-centralised," ( if there is such a word, if not remember, you heard it here first).   ;-)    But I digress, since last Saturday, 12th July there has been a firm ware update available for the NX 30, which has, among other fixes, sorted out the problem of the, "wandering," AF point. On our camera, the AF point has remained in the central position since performing the update. Yay, now I can get on with enjoying this camera, and maybe seeing if there are any other little things that I dislike, although I must say, the image quality, ( IQ ), is NOT a problem with this camera. It is every bit as good as the NX 300, which was a lovely camera. There is a rumour doing the rounds, that Samsung will introduce a new camera early 2015 which will be called the NX 400. Now, as this is only a rumour at the moment, we cannot really say anything about it, except, looking at Samsung's camera numbering method it will be a direct replacement for the NX 300. The NX 300 was, of course a "RANGEFINDER," style camera, having no VF at all. If the 300, had been given the fully articulated screen of the NX 30, it would have been perfect for my use. But the sensor used in the NX 300, and now, ( with techno tweaks ), is now getting a little long in the tooth. So, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Samsung were to bring the NX 400 into existence, that it contains a new sensor. But this is just supposition on my part at the moment.
We are off back to thw Museum pf Welsh Life, ay St. Ffagan's today, as there are more thimgs that I want to test with the NX 30, which, to date, with the new FW update, is performing well.
                                                     Take care now, and have a great day.
                                                        Regards, Twm.

Well, I have been out and about, with the Samsung NX 30 camera, and its 18-55mm kit lens. I have to say.........

Hiya,
       I have been using the NX 30 for around four weeks now. Is it perfect, no, of course not. There is no such thing as THE perfect camera. Because, as the old adage says, "One mans meat, is another mans poison." We all want different things from our cameras, so there is no "one size fits all," in this market. I bemoan the fact that there is no "CENTRE POINT," selection in the AF point menu, so one cannot fix the AF to be at the centre. The nearest it has is, "SELECTION," AF point. but this means that the AF point can, and frequently is, inadvertently moved. Don't get me wrong, this is NOT a deal breaker to anyone thinking of getting this camera. No, but it is a minor irritation, that can be fixed with a firmware update. Please Samsung give us back the "CENTRE" AF point choice, so that when I turn my camera on, I don't even have to think about it, the AF point is fixed at centre, unless "I" choose to place it somewhere else, through going into the Fn menu. Other than that, I think this camera is great, it builds on the Samsung NX range of cameras. Although I do think that Samsung have gone just about as far as they can with this sensor now, and I am hoping for a new sensor, in the rumoured NX 400, supposed to be coming out early 2015.Now this is just rumour at the moment, but does make sense, as the camera that the NX 400 will replace is the wonderful, IMO, NX 300. I love the 300. But that is another story.

I took the Samsung NX 30 and kit lens to St. Ffagan's near Cardiff this week. Now for those of you not in the know. St. Ffagan's is the Museum of Welsh Life. It is a large expanse of open ground where there are a pllethora of buildings from all parts of Wales, and from different eras. But it is, essentially, like stepping back in time to a village from the past. Every building there had its bricks/stones, numbered. Then the building was carefully dismantled and transported to St. Ffagans. Once there, the masonry is cleaned, and rebuilt to the exact dimensions and reference, that it originally was in. At the moment they are rebuilding a pub that once stood in Cardiff called, "The Vulcan." The museum, because of its continual building process is in a constant state of flux and is continually evolving. To any holidaymaker, sightseer, who happens to be in the Cardiff area, I heartily recommend paying a visit to this museum. The only caveat I would add here is to be careful of the notorious Welsh weather, as St. Ffagans is an open air museum. If it is raining, you will spend a lot of time dashing between the buildings to keep dry. Oh while I remember, if you do pay a visit, it is well worthwhile to be at the bakery for the daily crop of bread. They do not bake a huge amount of it due to the size of their stone oven, but if you do manage to grab a loaf, it will, if you are old enough, take you back to when bread really tasted of bread, and not this mass produced lumps of dough that is now sold under the label of bread, lol. I don't even eat white bread, as I prefer wholemeal, but I cannot resist a loaf from here when i visit. You will have to join the queue when you get there, so make sure you are early, to get a place at the front, as they don't bake a large quantity.

Right now that I've told you that, let's get back to my purpose of being here, the Samsung NX 30 and its 18-55mm kit lens. Well I know that regular readers of my thoughts here, will by now know that I rate the Samsung 18-55mm lens as one of, if not "THE," best kit lenses available today. I mean that this is, arguably, the best kit lens from ANY manufacturer. When paired with Samsungs excellent 20.3 MP sensor, the result is great images. The Samsung NX range of cameras is the first, that I have been comfortable with, to use as a purely jpg shooting camera. Now I have used cameras from Canon, Pentax, Fujifilm and Olympus, but in each case I have always had to capture the images in RAW format, and then "develop," them via Silkypix, or another software programme. Which makes for a lot of work, and time to do. When one considers the fact that I was in Germany last year for 4 days, and came home with 550 images, you can see the time I would have had to dedicate to post processing my images, if they were RAW. But I shot them all in jpg and most of them, needed no post p'ing work done at all. No I feel that for the small amount of image quality, that one would gain out of a RAW shot, as opposed to a carefully planned jpg shot, the average user will be better served by using an NX camera in "Super Fine," jpg quality. Below is a pic of the sign outside the museum entrance.

After taking a few shots outside the museum, which are intended for other web sites, I proceeded through the entrance, up the stairs, and out into the glorious sunshine, of the open air museum itself. Now, as I stated earlier, this is like taking a step back in time, and although the buildings are all from different eras, and stepping into an Olde Worlde village. There are shops, bakery, chapels and Workmens Institute. They have farm buildings, a pig sty that resembles a large bee hive. There are living animals such as cattle and sheep that have a great life there. There is a castle, (that is on my list to see, on my next visit). The thing is, that the old shops, like the ironmongers shop, actually contain the items that would have been sold there, when the shop was in business, like the old, "tin baths," and "tin buckets." Although not made of tin, they are actually galvanized steel. The "tin," bath is how they were refered to, in the vernacular of the day. There are clothes mangles, cobbler's lasts, and all the tools that you would have need for.

It was to this environment, in bright sunshine, a thing that would have caused some problems with the NX 300 without an anti glare screen fitted to its rear screen, that I introduced the NX 30. Et voila, no problems with seeing the NX 30's rear screen in bright sunlight. Samsung clearly listened to users of the NX 300, and solved the sunlight problem with the NX 30. But as an added bonus, there is the NX 30's EVF, which can be pulled out and tilted upwards, for great visibilty when doing any Macro work. This little camera really is very close to what, "I," would deem to fit all of, "MY," needs. Now back to St. Ffagan's. We walked along the path for a while looking at various things, then we came to what I can only describe as a village square. It is here, that you will find the bakery, the Ironmongers, and one or two other shops, all situated around a lovely "village green."

The image above is actually the shop, where the bakery sells its produce.

Now then, this, the brick building is the bakery itself with the shop next door.

Turn your back on the bakery, and, there in front of you is the "village green/square." across the green you can just see the red paintwork of the Gwalia General Store, and the Ironmongers shop.

                                                  That's all for now guys, I'll show you a little more of the openair museum of Welsh life, next time we chat. Until then, take care and have a great day.
                                                               Regards Twm.

The Samsung NX 30 and the 18-55mm kit lens is..................................

a superb pairing.

Hiya. I hope you are well, and enjoying the great weather.

I am still amazed by the Samsung cameras, (the NX 300, the Galaxy NX, and now, the NX 30), ability for close focus. This must be one of the best, (if not THE best), kit lenses out there. I mean this, it is the best of any manufacturer that I have ever used. When paired with the NX range, sensor. It is a pairing from heaven, IMHO of course, but YMMV, and you are entitled to your own opinion.
The picture below is of a flower, that I do not know the name of, that I spotted while out for a walk with the NX 30. Look at the resolution, colours and sharpness of the image. Remember, this is a handheld SOOC jpg, taken by a none to steady old chap in his 60's. I don't think there is anything to complain about here.

After being out for a walk a few days back, I got home to find a dying bee on the footpath. It had obviously stung someone, or something.

Below is a 100% crop of the image above.

Again, I can't see anything to grumble about in these images, especially when you know they are from a kit lens. and are handheld SOOC jpgs.