Introduction

Design

Front

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Back

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Sides

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Top

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Bottom

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In the Box

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As well as the camera and the kit zoom lens, the box contains:

• USB cable
  
• BP1310 1300 mAh rechargeable battery
  
• Battery charger
  
• Software CD-ROM
  
• User manual
  
• neck strap
  

Although it is not included with the camera by default, many dealers are including a separate flashgun with the camera.

Lens & Sensor

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The examples taken below were shot with the 20-50mm zoom kit lens. Other lenses are available, ranging from a 10-17mm wide angle zoom to a 50-200mm telephoto zoom.

The NX100 is built around a 23.4 by 15.6mm CMOS image sensor, which has 15.1 total megapixels, which takes 14.6 megapixel images. This sensor is a little bigger than the rival micro four thirds cameras, which have image sensors that measure 17.3 by 13mm, but a similar size to cameras like the Canon T2i. The theory is that the larger sensor picks up less noise than the smaller micro four thirds camera sensors. To see if this is true, see the noise section of this review. The image sensor uses a super sonic dust removal system, which uses high frequency vibrations to shake off dust.

The image sensor is controlled by a Venus HD image processor chip, which Samsung claims will enable it to shoot 3 frames a second.

Viewfinder

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There is no viewfinder built into the NX100: images are previewed and shown on the 3-inch OLED screen. An optional electronic viewfinder is available: the imaginatively named EVF-10, which costs $199, and attaches to the flash hot shoe (Samsung calls this the Smart Shoe), and the electrical connection below it on the back of the camera.

Display(s)

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The NX100 has an impressive screen on the back of the camera body: a 3-inch AMOLED screen with a 461k resolution. We found this to be very clear and bright, with good color and sharp detail. We did find that it is less visible in daylight, though, which could be a problem if you are heading to the beach or the ski slopes: you will really need the optional viewfinder then, which makes the camera larger, more awkward and more expensive.

Secondary Display

There is no secondary screen on this camera: you do not get an LCD screen on the top of the camera body that shows shooting settings as you do with many larger SLRs.

Flash

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Unusually, the NX100 does not include a flash. As with the viewfinder, this is available as an option: the SEF15A flashgun costs an extra $149.99 (although some of the camera dealers are bundling this flash gun with the NX100). This increases the bulk of the camera significantly, making it much larger than a comparable point and shoot camera. Some dealers are also bundling the flash with the camera, which makes sense.

Connectivity

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The NX100 connects to the outside world through a number of ports under a cover on the left side of the camera body (looking from the back). These ports are (from the top) a USB/analog A/V output, a wired remote control, DC power input and a micro HDMI port. The HDMI port uses a standard connector, but the USB and analog A/V output port uses a proprietary connector.

Battery

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The NX100 gets its juice from the BP1310 battery that fits into the bottom of the camera body. This can hold about 1300mAh of charge, and Samsung claims this will offer a battery life of 420 shots or 210 minutes of video. We found that this is probably about right: we got a couple of days of serious shooting out of it before it needed recharging.

Memory

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The NX100 captures images and video onto SD/SDHC memory cards. The newer SDXC type of cards are not currently supported. Samsung estimates that a 1GB SD card could hold about 423 JPEG images at the highest quality and image size.

Photo Gallery

{{photo_gallery "Front Photo", "Back Photo", "Sides Photo", "Top Photo", "Bottom Photo", "Viewfinder Photo 1", "Viewfinder Photo 2", "Display Photo 1", "Display Photo 2", "Secondary Display Photo", "Flash Photo", "Lens Mount Photo", "Lens Photo 1", "Lens Photo 2", "Battery Photo", "Memory Photo", "Ports Photo 1", "Ports Photo 2", "Ports Photo 3", "Ports Photo 4", "Ports Photo 5", "Ports Photo 6", "Modes Photo", "Handling Photo 1", "Handling Photo 2", "Handling Photo 3", "Buttons Photo 1", "Buttons Photo 2", "Mic Photo", "Box Photo"}}

Image Quality

Sharpness

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This chromatic aberration was also accompanied by a significant fall in the sharpness of images at the smallest aperture. Although images were nice and sharp at the widest and mid aperture (even at the edges of the frame), the sharpness across the frame was much lower at the smallest aperture, particularly at the widest zoom setting. Our bottom line recommendation is that with the kit lens, you should avoid using the widest zoom and smallest aperture if possible. More on how we test sharpness.

Image Stabilization

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The NX100 does offer image stabilization, with an optical image stabilization system that moves an element of the lens to compensate for camera shake. However, this is not included on the kit lens that is supplied with the camera, so we did not run this test, and the NX100 gets a zero score here. For reference, we found that the NX10 (which includes a lens that does offer image stabilization) performed well in this test.

Color

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We found that the NX100 did a decent, but not spectacular job at capturing the 24 colors of our test chart. These colors (shown below) represent the range of colors found in the real world, and we test to see how accurately a camera can capture this range of colors. The NX100 had acceptable accuracy with most colors, but struggled with some, particularly the purples and yellows. More on how we test color.

The NX100 offers a number of different color modes (described below), but we found the most accurate was the standard mode.

NOTE: Because of the way computer monitors reproduce colors, the images above do not exactly match the originals found on the chart or in the captured images. The chart should be used to judge the relative color shift, not the absolute captured colors.

Below are the same color patches photographed in five of the color modes (Samsung calls them picture wizards) that the camera offers: standard, portrait, landscape, forest and vivid.

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Color Modes

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The NX100 offers nine color modes, called picture wizards: Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm and Classic. You can see examples of six of these modes below, and the complete range in the Picture Effects section. The names are pretty self explanatory, with Retro producing an old film look, and Classic producing black and white images. Each picture wizard can be adjusted for color, saturation, sharpness and contrast, but the examples below and in the Picture Effects section of this review were shot at the default settings.

White Balance

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The color of objects in photos depends on the characteristics of the light that is illuminating it: called the white balance. Your eye automatically adapts to different lighting, and your camera has to do the same, which is what we test here. We illuminate a color chart with three light sources: simulated daylight, a flourescent tube and a tungsten light similar to the incandescent bulbs in your house. We take photos using both the auto white balance feature of a camera and the custom white balance, where the camera gets to sample and judge the light before the photo is captured.

Automatic White Balance ({{product.raw_scores['Auto White Balance Score']}})

We found that the NX100 did a very good job of judging the white balance of the light in our tests using the auto white balance feature. The NX100 did pretty well in our simulated daylight: the error is very small and most people are unlikely to notice it. Incandescent light posed more of an issue for the NX100: the color error in this test was larger and is visible in our test images. However, most cameras seem to struggle with this light source, so the NX100 is certainly not alone in having problems here. Fluorescent light can confuse some cameras, but the NX100 had no problem getting the white balance almost spot on here.

Custom White Balance ({{product.raw_scores['Custom White Balance Score']}})

For the custom white balance, we use the process outlined in the manual to set a custom white balance. For the NX100, this involved selecting the Custom Set option from the main menu, then pressing the Fn button. At the cameras prompt, we put a white object into the frame (we use a white balance card), lined it up so the measuring area (about an eighth of the screen) is over this object and pressed the shutter. This process only produced middling results, though, with the camera again failing to get a grasp on the incandescent light. For this test, we expect the camera to produce more accurate results than the auto test.

White Balance Options

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The NX100 offers a good selection of white balance controls, including the usual full auto mode and seven presets, plus a custom mode and a direct entry mode where you enter the color temp in degrees Kelvin. The list of presets includes three different types of fluorescent tubes.

Long Exposure

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If you are shooting in really low light, you need to crank up the exposure time. This really tests a camera, as long exposures give more time for noise to gather on the sensor. So, we test all interchangeable lens cameras by shooting a series of long exposure images, from 1 second to 30 seconds exposure time. We found that the NX100 did well in this test: although image noise was fairly high in the test images at 1 second, it fell as the shutter speed increased. More on how we test long exposure.

We found that the color error of the images stayed remarkably consistent across the range of shutter speeds: there was no major shift in the colors on our test chart.

We also found that the long exposure noise reduction made a considerable difference: the noise was much lower with it enabled. The noise was fairly high with a shutter speed of 1 second, but it fell significantly at the longer shutter speeds: presumably some other form of noise reduction is being enabled between 1 and 5 seconds.

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Noise Reduction

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The NX100 offers only two settings for high ISO noise reduction: on and off. We tested the NX100 in both settings, and found that, as the name suggests, turning this setting on reduced the noise at higher ISO levels, although the difference between on and off was not huge. Noise was passable up to ISO 1600, but above that, it became significant and adversely affected the image quality. We did find a slightly odd result at ISO 3200: the noise there was slightly lower than at ISO 1600, presumably because the camera is doing some other form of processing that reduces the noise slightly. More on how we test noise.

ISO Options

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The NX100 offers an ISO range of 100 to 3200, with an option to expand this to 6400 by enabling the ISO expansion. That’s a decent range, but it lags behind the higher ISOs that some other cameras offer, such as the 25600 ISO maximum of the Sony SLT-A55. But, given the noise in images that we saw in the tests above, perhaps this is for the best. The examples shown below are taken with the high ISO NR on.

Dynamic Range

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The dynamic range of a digital camera indicates how wide a range of shades a camera can capture. The wider the dynamic range is, the better it will be at capturing both shadow and highlight details in images that give a more natural feel to a picture. In our tests, we found that the NX100 had a decent dynamic range, but it was not as wide as some cameras: the Canon T2i captured an additional two stops, which is a significant difference that will make images look more realistic. The dynamic range also fell off quickly as the ISO increased.

As the ISO increases, the dynamic range decreases, partly because the increasing noise in the images leads to some lost shadow detail. The NX100 doesn’t have a particularly wide dynamic range at low ISO levels, and this does not change at higher levels, falling to a rather small 2.66 stops at the maximum ISO level of 6400. More on how we test dynamic range.

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Noise Reduction

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The NX100 offers only two settings for high ISO noise reduction: on and off. We tested the NX100 in both settings, and found that, as the name suggests, turning this setting on reduced the noise at higher ISO levels, although the difference between on and off was not huge. Noise was passable up to ISO 1600, but above that, it became significant and adversely affected the image quality. We did find a slightly odd result at ISO 3200: the noise there was slightly lower than at ISO 1600, presumably because the camera is doing some other form of processing that reduces the noise slightly. More on how we test noise.

ISO Options

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The NX100 offers an ISO range of 100 to 3200, with an option to expand this to 6400 by enabling the ISO expansion. That’s a decent range, but it lags behind the higher ISOs that some other cameras offer, such as the 25600 ISO maximum of the Sony SLT-A55. But, given the noise in images that we saw in the tests above, perhaps this is for the best. The examples shown below are taken with the high ISO NR on.

Focus Performance

Long Exposure

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If you are shooting in really low light, you need to crank up the exposure time. This really tests a camera, as long exposures give more time for noise to gather on the sensor. So, we test all interchangeable lens cameras by shooting a series of long exposure images, from 1 second to 30 seconds exposure time. We found that the NX100 did well in this test: although image noise was fairly high in the test images at 1 second, it fell as the shutter speed increased. More on how we test long exposure.

We found that the color error of the images stayed remarkably consistent across the range of shutter speeds: there was no major shift in the colors on our test chart.

We also found that the long exposure noise reduction made a considerable difference: the noise was much lower with it enabled. The noise was fairly high with a shutter speed of 1 second, but it fell significantly at the longer shutter speeds: presumably some other form of noise reduction is being enabled between 1 and 5 seconds.

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Video: Low Light Sensitivity

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The Samsung NX100’s results in our sensitivity weren’t great, but they were the best of the video-capable DSLRs we compared it to. The NX100 needed 17 lux of light (that’s 2 less lux than the NX10 needed) to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor. This is slightly more light than the average high-end consumer camcorder requires to reach the same light levels in this test and it’s roughly on par with what the average mid-range camcorder needs.

Chromatic Aberration

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We did find that the 20-50mm zoom lens introduced some chromatic aberration into the image, particularly at the smallest aperture setting for the lens (f/22). Chromatic aberration shows as a slight colored fringe on sharp edges, and it was particularly evident at the edges of the frame, as you can see from the sample crops.

Shooting at the widest 20mm zoom setting, we found that the NX100 took pretty sharp shots at the wide and medium aperture settings. However, things we much less sharp at the smallest setting: here, the entire image was somewhat soft.

Distortion

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Our first test looks at the distortion that the lens introduces into the image. Because cameras like the NX100 offer interchangeable lenses, this test doesn’t count towards the final score. We found that the 20-50mm kit lens of the NX100 had very low distortion, only distorting the image by about 0.5 percent at the longest zoom setting, which is barely noticeable. Below are examples from our test shots that show this distortion.

Motion

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If we had to pick one word to describe the NX100’s motion performance we’d use “choppy”. The camera did not capture smooth motion in our test, while it did do reasonably well in terms of limiting artifacting and motion blur. Still, the choppiness was so bad that we can’t give the NX100 a pass in this test. More on how CamcorderInfo tests motion.

The Samsung NX100 records all video with a 30p frame rate, which may explain why its video looks so choppy. A 60i or 60p mode would probably help smooth things out, but you won't find either of these options on the NX100 (that's a shame). We also would've liked to see a 24p record option as well. We should also note that the NX100 had one of the worst rolling shutter effects we've seen on a video-capable DSLR. This means there was lots of wobble during any shots that involved quick panning or horizontal movement of the camera.

Overall, the Samsung NX10 didn't fare much better than the Samsung NX100 in our motion test. Both cameras showed similar amounts of artifacting, while the NX10 was only had a marginally smoother image. We also noticed plenty of trailing and blur on the NX10's motion video, which was something the NX100 didn't have a major issue with.

Of the compact video-capable DSLRs we've reviewed, the Olympus E-P1 managed to have some of the best motion results. The camera did show some significant artifacting in its video image, but the video was decently smooth and only had a bit of blur. The E-P1 records HD video using a 30p frame rate and a 1280 x 720 resolution.

The Panasonic G2 was a very strange camera in terms of motion. There are multiple frame rate options on the camera, but we had difficulty playing back the clips recorded using the 60p frame rate on the G2 that uses AVCHD Lite compression. When viewed on our computer, these clips played back at double speed, although they looked fine on a television. This issue has more to do with the relative incompatibility with AVCHD Lite compression than anything else, but it was still a notable problem nonetheless.

Video Sharpness

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The NX100 strongly disappointed us in our video sharpness test. The camera mustered a horizontal sharpness of 550 lw/ph and a vertical sharpness of 500 lw/ph, both of which are significantly lower numbers than the Samsung NX10 managed in this test. These are not good numbers, even for a camera that records 1280 × 720 HD video (all of the cameras we compared the NX100 to record video at a 1280 × 720 resolution).

The biggest problem with the camera’s performance was the fact that it produced so much discoloration and moire patterns during our test. We’ve seen this issue before with video-capable DSLRs (the Nikon D90 comes to mind), but it is rarely this big of a problem with camcorders. More on how CamcorderInfo tests video sharpness.

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Low Light Sensitivity

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The Samsung NX100’s results in our sensitivity weren’t great, but they were the best of the video-capable DSLRs we compared it to. The NX100 needed 17 lux of light (that’s 2 less lux than the NX10 needed) to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor. This is slightly more light than the average high-end consumer camcorder requires to reach the same light levels in this test and it’s roughly on par with what the average mid-range camcorder needs.

Usability

Buttons & Dials

Menu

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Pressing the Fn button brings up the quick menu system, which focuses on shooting settings such as photo size and quality, auto focus area, flash control, metering, smart range (i.e., dynamic range adjustment), ISO and the picture wizard setting. For lenses without an optical image stabilization switch on the barrel but with the feature, OIS is also controlled from here.

Pressing the menu button accesses the main menu, which is a more conventional tabbed structure, with three tabs for shooting settings, one for control settings and five for other settings. All of the settings from the quick menu (such as ISO) are available here, as well as other settings, such as noise reduction, color space, etc.

On both types of menu, you can scroll through the options using the jog dial on the top of the camera or the scroll wheel around the directional pad. To select a feature or option, you press the OK button in the middle of the directional pad. Overall the system works well, with the quick menu providing access to the more frequently used settings, and the main menu holding everything else. The iFn feature discussed above also provides an interesting new way to access settings which is even quicker.

Instruction Manual

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The NX100 is accompanied by a well written and illustrated user manual, which discusses the features of the camera in detail. Good use is made of illustrations and photos within this to explain the more complicated features, such as the focus modes and Smart Range processing.

Handling

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The NX100 is a slightly odd camera, looking rather like a point & shoot that grew too much. It is a little chunky as well: at just under 17 ounces, it is heavier than it looks, with the weight of the lens making it slightly unbalanced. It is bigger than a point and shoot, but smaller than most SLRs.

It fits well into the hand, though, with the shutter falling naturally under the index finger, while still leaving the control wheel within reach. The mode dial is a little far away for the thumb to reach if shooting one-handed, but it is easy to reach if you hold the camera with two hands. One handed shooting is possible, but the camera is better used with two hands: one on the shutter holding the body, and the other on the lens.

This two-handed design brings us to another new aspect of this camera: the iFn button. This button on the lens barrel allows you to control many settings by pressing the button and turning the focus ring. In the lens priority mode, you can use this to select a scene mode, control shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance and exposure comp in the PASM modes (you cycle through the controls with further presses of the iFn button). This means you can control a lot of the cameras functions without taking your hands off the lens, which makes it easier to control. It’s a definite plus for this camera (and it can also be enabled on the older NX10 with a firmware update).

One thing we were not keen on was the matte covering of the case quickly picks up and shows greasy fingerprints. While it might look good in the showroom, it looks like a mess when it has been in the hand for a bit, picking up greasy fingerprints and other dust and dirt.

The NX100 has a very small raised area on the top front of the right side of the camera, which offers a limited area to grip with the right hand. Combine this with the weight of the camera and the smooth surface and the camera could easily slip out of the hand. So, using the included neck strap is important.

Display(s)

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The NX100 has an impressive screen on the back of the camera body: a 3-inch AMOLED screen with a 461k resolution. We found this to be very clear and bright, with good color and sharp detail. We did find that it is less visible in daylight, though, which could be a problem if you are heading to the beach or the ski slopes: you will really need the optional viewfinder then, which makes the camera larger, more awkward and more expensive.

Secondary Display

There is no secondary screen on this camera: you do not get an LCD screen on the top of the camera body that shows shooting settings as you do with many larger SLRs.

Viewfinder

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There is no viewfinder built into the NX100: images are previewed and shown on the 3-inch OLED screen. An optional electronic viewfinder is available: the imaginatively named EVF-10, which costs $199, and attaches to the flash hot shoe (Samsung calls this the Smart Shoe), and the electrical connection below it on the back of the camera.

Image Stabilization

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The NX100 does offer image stabilization, with an optical image stabilization system that moves an element of the lens to compensate for camera shake. However, this is not included on the kit lens that is supplied with the camera, so we did not run this test, and the NX100 gets a zero score here. For reference, we found that the NX10 (which includes a lens that does offer image stabilization) performed well in this test.

Shooting Modes

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The NX100 offers a range of shooting modes, including the full selection of program, aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual. In addition, there is a Smart Auto mode, a scene recognition system that attempts to identify the subject you’re shooting and adjust camera settings accordingly. The Samsung version has more potential modes to work with than most similar systems, and was impressively accurate in matching modes to subjects.

A newcomer from the NX10 is the lens priority mode. The lenses are marked with the scene modes that are appropriate for the focal length, and you can change the mode by pressing the iFn button on the lens body and rotating the lens focus ring. The idea is that you can shoot and change modes without shifting your hands. The icons on the lens are merely for guidance, though: you can set the camera to any mode you want. This same approach can be used in the PASM modes to set shutter speed, aperture, exposure comp, white balance and ISO: press the iFn button and use the focus ring to select the setting and value.

Focus

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Like other mirrorless cameras, the NX10 relies on contrast detect autofocus, using data directly from the image sensor, rather than the faster SLR-style phase-detect autofocus, which uses a mirror to bounce light to a separate autofocus sensor. On the plus side, the NX10 autofocus feels about as fast as the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras, which are significantly faster than the Olympus models. At the same time, if you’re doing a lot of sports or nature photography, the hesitation between pressing the shutter halfway and acquiring focus is still irritating, especially if you’re used to shooting with a conventional SLR. For less action-packed scenes, like photographing guests at a party, it won’t be a problem.

The camera supports four focus modes:

Recording Options

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The NX100 offers a wide range of image size and quality settings, with 14 image sizes (see below) and three JPEG quality levels: Super Fine, Fine and Normal. RAW image capture is also supported, with images saved in Samsungs own SRW format at 14 megapixel resolution.

Speed and Timing

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The NX100 captures about 3 frames a second, but also offers a burst mode that captures more at the cost of reduced resolution.

The NX100 offers the continuous shooting mode described above, plus a reduced-resolution burst mode which delivered very nearly the blazing-fast 30 shots per second promised on the spec sheet. This mode shoots at a lower resolution of 1472 × 976 pixels, and it is also a fixed length: one press of the shutter takes 30 shots, even if you only want a couple.

Running in the continuous drive mode, we found that the NX100 could just about manage the claimed 3 frames a second, shooting at the full resolution of the camera. However, we did find it to be somewhat erratic: when we tested it with a Sandisk Extreme II SDHC memory card, it slowed down after 5 images and shot much slower, so we wouldn’t rely on it for precisely timed sequences. If you need quicker shooting, there is a burst mode on offer as well.

The NX100 offers the a self timer that can be set to any period between 2 and 30 seconds, in 1 second increments.

Focus Speed

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Like other mirrorless cameras, the NX10 relies on contrast detect autofocus, using data directly from the image sensor, rather than the faster SLR-style phase-detect autofocus, which uses a mirror to bounce light to a separate autofocus sensor. On the plus side, the NX10 autofocus feels about as fast as the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras, which are significantly faster than the Olympus models. At the same time, if you’re doing a lot of sports or nature photography, the hesitation between pressing the shutter halfway and acquiring focus is still irritating, especially if you’re used to shooting with a conventional SLR. For less action-packed scenes, like photographing guests at a party, it won’t be a problem.

The camera supports four focus modes:

Features

Other Features

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GPS

The NX100 does not include GPS as standard, but a GPS receiver can be added (the GPS10, which costs $199.99). This allows images to be tagged with a location, which can be used to sort or locate images on hosting services such as Flickr.

Recording Options

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The Samsung NX100 uses MPEG-4 compression, which is the same compression system used by Samsung on its HD camcorders. The difference with the NX100, though, is that it tops out with a 1280 × 720 resolution rather than Full HD (1920 × 1080, what most consumer HD camcorders record at). It is fairly common for compact DSLRs like the NX100 to lack a Full HD record mode, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t bother us.

Not having a Full HD mode is a big deal, and it essentially limits how much detail and sharpness the NX100—and the other models we used as comparisons in this review—can capture in video mode. On the other hand, the NX100 does have two standard definition record modes, so you should be set if you want to record low-quality videos that are small and easy to share on the internet. There are also two quality settings to choose from when you record video: Normal and High Quality. Find out how the product:model/product:model performed in our video image quality test.

Video Controls

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The NX100 does not have manual ISO or shutter speed control in video mode, but the camera is loaded with an aperture-priority video mode (that’s better than nothing). This allows you to play around with depth of field with the camera, which is one of the primary benefits of using a camera to record video instead of a traditional camcorder.

Auto Controls

Auto exposure on the NX100 is choppy, and by that we mean the transitions aren't very smooth. Moving from light to dark scenes, we noticed a step-like transition taking place. It was subtle, but it was definitely there when you looked closely. A smooth, seamless transition is better, and that's something we look for in determining the quality of the auto exposure system.

We also noticed something funny with the camera set in aperture-priority mode. Even in this mode, we saw some slight exposure adjustments taking place, which we chalk up to the camera changing the shutter speed automatically. Usually, though, if you're in a manual mode like aperture-priority, the the exposure should not change unless you're changing the settings.

Zoom

Zoom is controlled by rotating the zoom ring on the lens attached to the NX100. The amount of zoom you get is entirely dependent on what kind of lens you have attached to the camera. The kit lens is a 20 - 50mm lens, which doesn't get you much zoom (2.5x zoom).

Focus

The NX100 has auto focus, and this auto focus system even includes a continual auto focus option. The thing is, the continual autof ocus only works during video recording—and you have to activate it by pressing a hidden button on the left side of the camera. To top it all off, nowhere on the camera does a display pop up to let you know that you've turned on the live auto focus system. So, if you bump the left-side button accidentally you just have to guess as to whether or not that "bump" was hard enough to turn on the auto focus. That's not even poor design... it's just plain silly.

You can also perform a single auto focus with the camera by pressing the shutter button down half way (just like you would when taking a photograph). This is the preferred method if you have no reason to use the continual auto focus system. Speaking of the continual auto focus, the system also has the same faults we see on nearly all DSLR cameras: it is slow, noisy, and not always accurate.

Oh, we almost forgot. You can also go old-school with the NX100 and just focus manually using the lens ring. In fact, this may be the best option overall because it is quiet and it's the most precise. It just requires you to use your hands to rotate a ring and your eyes to make sure you've focused properly. If that's not too much work for ya, then you may want to try it sometime.

Exposure Controls

Exposure can be set manually on the NX100, but only prior to recording (you can’t adjust once recording has begun). The camera has the standard exposure adjustment range (-3 to +3 in 1/3 EV steps) and it is fairly simple to adjust. We do want the freedom to adjust while recording is taking place, though.

Aperture can be set manually on the camera, but you have to put the NX100 into a special Aperture-priority mode within video mode (the other option is Program mode, which sets the aperture automatically). Unlike exposure, aperture can be set during recording, although the NX100’s instruction manual makes it sound like this is not possible (the manual is wrong).

Other Controls

ISO is set to automatic control in video mode, but you can set white balance manually for videos (or choose from the variety of white balance presets). You also have access to the camera's extensive color adjustment controls in video mode and a built-in fader feature that adds a fade to the beginning or end of your clips.

Audio Features

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The Samsung NX100 has the exact same set of audio features as the Samsung NX10, which is to say it doesn’t offer much. There’s no external mic jack or headphone port on the camera and there is no manual audio control (other than the ability to turn audio recording off). The built-in mono mic is also located on the top of the camera, which isn’t the best locale for a mic to be. The NX100 does have a wind cut option, though, so if you’re recording on a windy day you can turn this feature on to limit wind-related interference.

In the Box

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As well as the camera and the kit zoom lens, the box contains:

• USB cable
  
• BP1310 1300 mAh rechargeable battery
  
• Battery charger
  
• Software CD-ROM
  
• User manual
  
• neck strap
  

Although it is not included with the camera by default, many dealers are including a separate flashgun with the camera.