Samsung NX20 Pro Reviews

The NX20 provides DSLR-like image quality, creative flexibility, and lens interchangeability without giving up any of the popular point and shoot features and ease of use of smaller cameras. The NX20 was designed for entry level ILC users, but novices and experts alike can achieve exceptional results with this camera. Image quality is first rate and the Samsung 18-55 kit zoom is noticeably better than most similar kit zooms from other manufacturers. Colors are dependably accurate and saturation is more neutral than most of the NX20's competition, so while this camera offers many popular P&S camera features, images generated by the NX20 are very good and can achieve a professional look. One downside to this camera system is not even the camera itself. The NX20 enters a genre that is packed with some amazing contenders. Olympus dominates the mirrorless market with the OM-D E-M5. Sony recently released the popular NEX-6. And Panasonic has the impressive GH3. All of these cameras lead the market. The Samsung NX20 offers great image quality and an impressive feature set, but is a bit pricey for its entry-level position. Overall, we are afraid this well-rounded camera it's going to get lost in the crowd. The NX20 will do a great job for advanced amateur shooters, photography enthusiasts, and semi-pro users. Beginners or those looking for a less expensive option in the Samsung lineup will probably find the smaller, cheaper, less complex, and similarly featured NX210 or NX1000 models more appealing.

Overall, the Samsung NX20 is an excellent camera. Still quality is superb and movies are very good. It’s a good choice for both aim-and-forgetters and those who tweak every image to the nth degrees. However, avoid the high-speed burst mode or you may have to do a reboot. So forget the speeding bullets, stick to more leisurely action and you’ll be in fine shape.

The NX20 is Samsung's top-end mirrorless camera, but it doesn't perform as well as its less-expensive sibling, the NX1000—or other models in its price range.

Samsung's NX20 interchangeable lens camera is smaller than a digital SLR, but it offers a similar level of functionality. It has built-in features such as an EVF and a flash, so that you don't have to go hunting for accessories, but most importantly, it has the ability to capture very clear and vibrant images with its 20-megapixel sensor.

When I first took the NX20 out of its box, I was prepared to dislike it — the look and feel just don't measure up to some of its classier competition. But I was wrong. I really like the NX20: it's smartly designed, offers good manual control once you figure out how to use it, is fast enough to not cause problems, and most importantly takes excellent photos and video. The biggest problem facing the NX20 is its price tag. The $1,099.99 camera is far more expensive than the Sony NEX-F3 or a handful of Micro Four Thirds cameras like the Panasonic GF3, and doesn't bring enough of a performance improvement to merit the extra outlay. It's also hard to pitch the NX20 over an entry-level DSLR like the Canon T3i or the Nikon D5100, both of which come with far larger lens ecosystems, even more control, and image quality that at least rivals the NX20. Plus, when you consider that Samsung's kit lens really isn't very good, you're going to quickly increase your outlay as you buy more optics for the camera. The NX20's one truly differentiating feature is its Wi-Fi capability, and though it's a great idea it's not nearly developed enough to be a selling point on its own. All in all, much though I like the NX20, I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to.

The NX20 has come a long way from the NX10 and NX11. When the NX11 was announced there wasn't a huge amount to get excited about when comparing it to the NX10. The NX20 offers more innovative features to make it an attractive proposition. Slightly dubious as to how the Wi-Fi connectivity would perform, we experienced no troubles at all during our testing and shared images on social media websites without a hitch. It's a feature that we predict will catch on with other manufacturers and if we were to speculate it may become a feature within entry-level D-SLR's sooner than you might think. It's not only the Wi-Fi functionality that makes the NX20 stand out in the CSC market. i-Fn lens compatibility is unique to Samsung and as mentioned earlier it may not appeal to all users, but it does make for an intuitive way of changing the cameras most commonly used settings. As the old saying goes, you'll either love it or hate it.

Superb controls, incredibly sharp photos and innovative Wi-Fi functions – a big leap forward for the NX system

The Samsung NX20 is a great photographic tool that offers a wealth of features, intuitive handling and excellent image quality, with built-in wi-fi connectivity the icing on the cake. The launch price has risen significantly in comparison with the previous NX11 model, so it's not quite the bargain that it once was, while the slow processing times make it less well-suited to action photography. The NX20's stylish DSLR-like design remain intact, with a logical user interface and good build quality despite the all-plastic construction. The new articulated AMOLED display is a very welcome addition, as is the higher-resolution electronic viewfinder that should satisfy even die-hard optical viewfinder fans. The jury's still out on the i-Function button, though, with opinions divided about whether it's a genuinely useful innovation or just another way to differentiate the NX system from its competitors.

We've all seen WiFi cameras come and go over the years, but this time may be different, for several reasons. First, WiFi itself is more ubiquitous than ever, with WiFi antennas even found recently on ski lift towers: WiFi is becoming the near-universal connectivity fabric of modern society. What's different this time around is that these latest cameras have a whole lot more smarts to deal with WiFi interfacing, and there's also a new "WiFi Direct" protocol that makes it easy for devices to communicate with each other without the fiddling with network names, encryption types, etc, that was needed in the past. If there's an open WiFi network available, these new NX models will use that; but if not, they'll publish their own network to let a phone or computer connect to it. Suddenly, rather than being islands unto themselves, cameras become true photo sharing hubs, able to email photos or upload to Facebook and YouTube or to a Samsung-provided cloud directly, automatically backup photos to your computer, let you use your smartphone or tablet as a remote viewfinder and shutter release, and connect to your cell phone for photo sharing even when there's no WiFi network around.

The Samsung NX20 is an improvement over the NX11 and features a great tilting screen, high speed continuous shooting (although not as quick as others), good image quality and excellent Wi-Fi connectivity. The camera also feels more like a mini Digital SLR rather than a compact mirrorless camera and this makes it larger than some competitors. There are some areas of disappointment, such as the plastic eye cup, 7fps rather than the expected 8fps continuous shooting, higher price, as well as the slow write times when writing photos to memory as this stops you from altering settings for the next shot. However, if you're looking for a high quality mirrorless compact system camera with good image quality and excellent connectivity then the NX20 delivers and has an abundance of features to experiment with as well.

The NX20 might be pricey, but then it has plenty on offer to keep it in fair competition against the likes of the Sony NEX-7 or Olympus OM-D. This is a decent camera, and it’s the high-resolution, low ISO shots that it can produce that make it a real winner. Just like the NX200, it’s image quality that’s the biggest lure. But, also like the NX200, there are problems: processing is too slow, autofocus in low light isn’t quite there and continuous autofocus is slow to update. If you shoot fast action then look elsewhere. But landscape and portrait shooters will find there's plenty of goodness to be had. The addition of Wi-Fi is fun at best, but, at least for now, it feels more like the first building blocks of something that’ll be a more functional feature in the future. If the Samsung NX-series hasn’t crossed your mind until now then it’s certainly worth a look in. All compact system cameras, if not all cameras, have their relative shortcomings. Ignore the NX20’s issues and the built-in EVF, vari-angle AMOLED screen and image quality make this one cracker of a camera.

Although the sensor in the NX20 isn't new, we have already seen it in the NX200, we know that it is very capable. Combining it with SLR style handling and W-iFI capability could make the NX20 a very attractive camera that gives Samsung a bit more pulling power for enthusiast photographers.