Compact Digital Cameras With Viewfinder – Samsung NX Mini 20.5MP CMOS Smart WiFi & NFC Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 9-27mm Lens and 3″ Flip Up LCD Touch Screen (White)

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1. Michael Catacutan "@michaelbenito"

   January 14, 2015 at 8:37 pm

   105 of 111 people found the following review helpful

   
   A novelty? Yes. A tool for photography? Absolutely., April 26, 2014

   By 

   Michael Catacutan “@michaelbenito” (San Diego) –

   Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Samsung NX Mini 20.5MP CMOS Smart WiFi & NFC Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 9mm Lens and 3″ Flip Up LCD Touch Screen (White) (Electronics)

   My current camera collection consists of a Canon 5d3 and L glass, a pair of Sony A7’s with FE lenses, a GoPro and an iPhone 5s. I’ve also owned micro four thirds cameras and was an early adopter for the Fujifilm X system. I say this not because I’m trying to convince you that I’m a real photographer… I just want you to know that I have a lot of experience with digital photography technology. To say the least, I’m an enthusiast that loves to document life.

   Off bat, what interested me was the small minimal form with a 1 inch sensor, the tiny 24mm equivalent pancake lens and the rotating “selfie” screen.

   The small form factor: It’s very fashionable. I called it a novelty because it’s unusual and kinda cute. Great for parties and events. The camera feels premium. I’m quite astounded how they managed to fit a huge battery (rated 600+ shots) in such a small body.

   The sensor and lens. I haven’t done a ton of pixel peeping but the sensor seems to be pretty darn good at lower ISOs. I don’t plan on using this for any sort of low light photography but I wouldn’t mind turning the flash on and taking some group photos (or group selfies) of friends. Also, the pancake lens is superbly sharp. A bit slow at f/3.5 but again, I don’t plan on shooting in dim lighting with this (without flash).

   The “selfie” screen. I’m not ashamed of the selfie. I don’t mind taking a selfie here and there to document me in front of amazing views or worldly landmarks. I’ve often handed my camera to a stranger to come back to a blurry photo or odd composition. While the 24mm won’t get a whole lot of the background, it gets enough without distorting my face too much.

   Are there things that could be better? Of course. The lens for instances has no cap or cover. It’s almost like mobile phones where the main glass is covered by another glass.

   Wink face detection. When you wink, the photo is taken after a few beeps. It’s a cool feature so that you’re not pressing the shutter button down that may cause camera shake, but the winking is a little buggy. Hoping they can fine tune it with a firmware upgrade, otherwise they should have omitted it all together. I wouldn’t put a feature that was more frustrating than useful on a product.

   I’m not sure how much more the camera would retail for if they added a higher resolution LCD screen, but it would have definitely been welcome, especially at this day in age.

   All in all, it’s just a really fun camera that packs a punch when put in the right hands. I feel it’s also priced rather competitively and you get a good deal for what you’re paying for in my opinion. And while the flip screen may seem like a novelty or a one trick pony to some people, for me, it’s actually a versatile camera with great image quality relative to its sensor size.

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2. Sojourner1 "Nancy J"

   January 14, 2015 at 8:11 pm

   90 of 94 people found the following review helpful

   
   Great Camera, June 29, 2014

   By 

   Sojourner1 “Nancy J” (Idaho) –

   Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Samsung NX Mini 20.5MP CMOS Smart WiFi & NFC Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 9-27mm Lens and 3″ Flip Up LCD Touch Screen (Brown) (Electronics)

   I have waited a few weeks to post a review to use it a bit and see what I think. I tried and tried to get this camera for weeks: always “back ordered.” Everywhere. I don’t know if this was a Samsung issue or if the camera really was popular. But I LOVE it.

   I give it only 4 stars because as an “advanced hobbyist” I can see that any professional photographer will dismiss this as a toy and it is a bit gimmicky. But the photo quality is amazing.

   I did order the 9-27 mm lens kit with external flash accessory included. I did not ever need to use the external flash. I found the low light capabilities of this camera exceptional. I’m not sure that an external flash is really needed at all, especially if you use a tripod.

   This kit did come with a lens cover. I see that the 9mm only version does not come with a lens cover. But I have seen other reviews that indicate that you can buy one, perhaps at an excessive cost, from Samsung. I did appreciate the lens cover, The 9-27 mm lens does make the tiny camera a bit “front heavy” and the cover kept the lens protected.

   This camera is so small, even with the 9-27 mm lens, that it fit in a jacket pocket easily. (It probably won’t fit well in a pants pocket.) I had a couple of jackets with me, one denim jacket with an inside pocket and this slipped in perfectly. I also had a linen “safari” jacket with front patch pockets and again, this fit fine.

   My camera arrived literally the day before a planned vacation to Paris. I didn’t have much time to fiddle around with it before getting into it which made me somewhat nervous to even take it. But it is SO small, there really is no deterrent to packing it. What I learned very quickly is that this camera is VERY intuitive. Although there are no dials or even very many buttons, everything is there.

   The battery life is unbelievable. I was in Paris for about 10 days and took anywhere from 100 to 300 pictures per day, with a lot of “practicing” and manipulating the settings and the battery never once got even close to empty. I have never had this benefit in any camera before. It was most welcome.

   The camera does not come with a micro SD card (although I have seen some packages that include one). But for the price, I don’t find this a deal breaker by any means.

   The “Mode” button brings up Auto, Smart (beauty, best face, continuous shooting, kids, landscape, macro, food, etc.), Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, manual, and the Wifi setting (email, group share, remote viewfinder, etc.).

   The touchscreen is wonderful, although small and perhaps a bit low in resolution. But for the tiny size of this camera, you have to sacrifice something.

   I use a Samsung smartphone (Note 3) and found the linkup to be easy and without issue. I did not get the chance to use the remote viewfinder on my trip or since. But given how easy it was to set up the link between my phone and camera, I can believe it is probably easy to set up and use.

   One issue I did have in the linkup process was for my first camera to phone transfers, I had not set up the transfer size and the photos were of very small resolution. Fortunately, the default setting was to only copy the photos, not cut and paste. So the originals were still on my camera. At about day 3, I figured this out and changed the transfer size to “original.”

   The full 180 flip-up screen for selfies was nice. My expertise in selfies, however, is terrible so other than the convenience, I cannot comment.

   I very much liked the “pop up” tips in the camera. (You can turn this off in the settings.) It does have a bit of a lag so give it a few seconds, but for every selection you make, if you wait 2-3 seconds, a pop-up will appear and tell you what it the setting will do.

   This camera does shoot RAW. In fact, there are many options for the photo quality from normal to fine to superfine to RAW + fine, superfine, normal. The ISO ranges up to 25,600 with the extension on. You can also change the ISO step from 1/3 to full.

   There is a Picture Wizard setting that has several pre-sets (filters) for landscape, vivid, portrait, forest, retro, etc. There is also the Smart Filter mode which has beauty face, best face, kids, landscape, macro, food, etc.

   I have not used any video settings yet so I cannot comment.

   There is a “drive” setting so you can select for single, continuous, burst, timer, AF bracket, White Balance bracket (which I have never seen before on any camera), Picture Wizard bracket, depth bracket, etc.

   There are a few Dynamic Range settings as well.

   I was hoping to post some photo samples but I don’t see an option for that with this post. I did add some to the product page so take a look…

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