The images were a little soft straight out of the NX3000 at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting for JPEG files. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and bulb mode of 4 minutes allowing you to capture plenty of light. With its new selfie-friendly flip-up display and clever wink mode, the Samsung NX3000 continues to take the entry-level NX-series in a more smartphone-like direction, although we're disappointed that the touchscreen interface has been dropped for a less intuitive external control system. Still, with its large APS-C sensor and advanced wi-fi functions, the NX3000 is a very capable device, with performance and quality that outperforms its modest price-tag. All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20.3 megapixel SuperFine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 8Mb. But add a lens and things begin to look different. The NX3000 is supplied as a kit with the Samsung 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 Power Zoom ED OIS lens. This is a new lens which is more compact than earlier Samsung NX kit zooms, but nonethless is bulkier than the 14-42mm powered kit zoom on the Olympus E-PL7 – and lest we forget, the Olympus body also sports built-in stabilisation that works with any lens you attach. Compare the overall size and weight of the NX3000 with its kit lens attached – 117x66x70 and 380g – to the Lumix GF7 with its kit lens 107x65x57 and 366g and you can see a more substantial difference. Of course the Samsung has a slightly larger sensor than the Panasonic or Olympus cameras, and you can see what difference that makes in my results, but size and weight at this end of the market is also a critical factor. The flash settings on the Samsung NX3000 are Smart Flash, Auto, Auto+Red-eye reduction, Fill-in, Fill-in+Red-eye reduction, 1st Curtain, 2nd Curtain and Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

The main menu system on the NX3000 is very straight-forward to use. There are four main menus - Camera, Movie, Custom, Settings - presented as a row of horizontal icons, and due to the large LCD screen and restricting the number of on-screen choices to five, the various options and icons are clear and legible. If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're upgrading from a more basic model, reading the easy-to-follow manual before you start is a good idea. Unfortunately Samsung have chosen not to supply it in printed format, so you can't carry it with you for easy reference. There are buttons on the camera for drive mode, autofocus area and focus mode, plus an Fn button that reveals 12 controls as a grid across the screen. The Fn menu is navigated with the four-way pad and settings adjusted with the wheel, but the camera is a little slow to respond here. It’s more responsive if you press OK to show only the selected control before adjusting it. One of the Samsung NX3000’s key draws for the photography novice is its design. While not made of the aluminium and leather used in the old-school cameras that have inspired the look – it’s made of various kinds of textured plastic – it’s more keenly stylised than rivals like the Sony Alpha A5000. The NX3000 is compact compared with DSLRs that share the same sized sensor and its plastic body ensures that weight is kept to a minimum, but it is more of a handful than the smaller Micro Four Thirds compact system cameras. Compare its 117x66x39mm dimensions with those of the relatively chunky PEN E-PL7 at 115x67x38mm and you might think there’s not a great deal in it, particularly as the Olympus body is significantly heavier.Smart Auto is Samsung's equivalent of the intelligent auto modes now found on most competitors models. You simply point the NX3000 at a scene or subject and the camera hopefully recognizes it from commonly used presets and automatically adjusts its settings to deliver optimum results. This means that it's not necessary for the user to manually delve into scene modes to call up the likes of 'landscape' or 'flower', essentially making the NX3000's operation merely a case of point and shoot. Wi-Fi features have long been another key strength of Samsung NX cameras. These are commonplace now, but Samsung still sets the standard with comprehensive control over settings in its remote viewfinder mode, plus lots of options to transfer photos during or after capture.

Turning to the rear of the NX3000, we find a 3-inch, 460k dot LCD screen, one of the main differences between the NX3000 and the NX2000, which had a much larger, higher-res screen with a touchscreen interface. One plus point in the NX3000's favour is that the screen can be flipped-forwards through 180 degrees to make the ubiquitous selfie even easier to take, especially as you only have to wink at the camera to trip the shutter! You can also cleverly turn the camera on by simply flipping the screen up. References to the old days of photography are just that though – references. In just about all other respects, the Samsung NX3000 is a thoroughly modern camera. It uses microSD memory cards rather than the full-size ones we’re used to, and is charged over microUSB rather than needing a separate charger.There are 9 ISO settings available on the Samsung NX3000. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and RAW on the right. JPEG With a lower price-tag, better lens and selfie-friendly design, for us the Samsung NX3000 is a bigger but better camera than the similarly priced NX Mini, and is also very well-appointed when compared with its main rivals. The inclusion of a touchscreen interface would have been the icing on the cake, but nevertheless the new Samsung NX3000 is a logical and affordable choice if you've outgrown your Galaxy smartphone... I tested the NX3000’s stabilisation by zooming the lens all the way in and taking a series of shots in at progressively slower shutter speeds with the stabilisation enabled and turned off. As you can see from the crops above with stabilisation the NX3000 can be safely hand held at 1/8th when zoomed all the way in. That’s a pretty respectable three stops slower than you’d expect to manage without stabilisation so useful to have. It’s the same result I got with the Lumix GF7 (albeit at a 64mm equivalent compared with 75mm here), although I managed to squeeze one quarter of a second from the PEN E-PL7. Samsung NX3000 movie modes Samsung’s NX3000 is an entry-level mirrorless system camera that combines ease of use and consumer-friendly features with an advanced specification. Its 21.6 Megapixel APSC sized sensor promises big images with decent low light performance and the NX mount accommodates a growing choice of lenses.

On the other hand, both the PEN E-PL7 and Lumix GF7 feature touch screens,. In my view, a touch screen is a plus on pretty much any camera, but on cameras that put a big emphasis on selfie shooting and ease of use, it’s a massive advantage. I’ll talk about the Samsung NX3000’s self-shooting features and how they compare with those of the Olympus PEN E-PL7 and Panasonic Lumix GF7 a little later in the Shooting experience section of my review. Finally, here’s a short sample of the NX3000’s Miniature effect on video. Though the NX3000 lets you use the Miniature Smart filter for video you’re resticted to VGA 640 x 480 which is pretty disappointing. Not only that but the focus zone is fixed and can’t be adjusted.

Distortion Correct

Wifi has been a feature of all kinds of cameras for a while now and although it was a bit hit and miss in the early days manuafacturers, like Olympus and Panasonic, now offer apps with lots of features and mature, well desiged user interfaces.