Samsung 20.3 Megapixels NX200 Mirrorless Camera Review by TR With Rating 8/10

On September 1 2011, Samsung announced the launch of the NX200 compact system camera. The NX200 features a 20.3 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, 7fps high-speed continuous shooting with 100ms Advanced Auto Focus (or 30fps at 5 Megapixels resolution), ISO 100-12,800, Full HD 1080p (H.264) movie recording, and a 3.0-inch AMOLED display with VGA resolution. 

The NX200 supports the Samsung's nine different i-Function 2.0 lenses, which enable toggling between shutter speed, aperture, exposure value (EV), white balance (WB), and ISO through the button and ring on the lens. With the upgraded i-Function 2.0 on the NX200, users can also control six different Smart Filters and the intelli-Zoom function from the lens while in Lens Priority Mode. New lenses for the i-Function system include 18-200mm, 16mm, 60mm and 85mm focal lengths. Both the 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 ED OIS zoom and 60mm F2.8 Macro ED OIS SSA prime are optically stabilized. The NX200 is currently selling at around $699. Here's the summary of review by TrustedReviews, giving the camera a rating of 8 out of 10:

"Overall image quality is some of the best we've yet seen in a CSC and certainly on a par with what the APS-C equipped Sony models can achieve. The NEX200's 20.1MP APS-C sensor is capable of delivering impressive amounts of fine detail - especially at lower ISO settings - as well as giving you plenty of license to crop your images post-capture. Our review sample came fitted with the standard 20-50mm, f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom that comes bundled with the camera. While it does feel a bit plasticky, it's more than capable of producing detailed images, with the edges and corners remaining as sharp as the centre - especially when the aperture is set to its sweet spot of around f/7. Chromatic aberrations are notably well controlled too, with few unsightly purple fringing on high contrast borders. As with most digital cameras these days the NX200 features the ability to shape the look of your JPEG images with a series of Picture Wizard presets and custom slots. We tended to stick with the Standard setting for the majority of our test shots although there are no fewer than 11 other settings to choose from: Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, and three Custom slots. Within each of these settings it's possible to tweak the colour, saturation, sharpness and contrast settings as you wish. While images shot on the Standard setting do sometimes come out of the camera looking a little tonally flat, it does provide a very good starting point, especially if you're shooting in Raw and prefer to bump things up yourself in editing software. If, on the other hand, you want richly saturated or deliberately flat images then the Picture Wizard controls will go a long way towards helping you achieve your desired look.

As well as Picture Wizard controls the NX200 offers a number of additional image tweaking controls including a Smart Range function that can be used to increase dynamic range by increasing highlight retention. Examining images the difference between having the feature switched on and off is actually quite subtle and you need to go looking for it, however as an APS-C camera the NX200's dynamic range is pretty good anyway - noticeably better than that of small-sensor cameras in any case. Of course, another advantage of the NX200's APS-C sensor is the camera's ability to attain a shallower depth of field than might otherwise be the case. This is particularly useful for portraits where you want to pull your subject out of the background. Sensitivity is yet another area where image quality excels. We don't mind admitting that prior to picking the camera up we did had some doubts over pixel density, however these largely proved to be unfounded. At lower sensitivity settings of between ISO 160 and ISO 400 noise isn't visible at all in images, while at ISO 800 it's only really noticeable when the image is viewed at 100% or more. At ISO 1600 some softening does occur and this is more pronounced at ISO 3200, although images still remain perfectly useable at smaller sizes. Beyond this the softening effects of the camera's noise-reduction algorithms become noticeable even at smaller sizes, with ISO 12,800 also displaying an abundance of red chroma noise, making it practically unusable. 

Samsung continues to impress us with its digital camera output. The NX200 builds quite significantly on the strengths of its predecessor to deliver punchy images bursting with detail. While the NX200's higher than average resolution is likely to remain the headline-grabbing spec, the real selling point is overall image quality, which is undoubtedly a match for many DSLRs costing more money. Ergonomics, while sharp, clean and modern, could be a little more hand-friendly though. That said, if you're looking for an APS-C equipped compact system camera then the NX200 delivers enough to warrant a place on your shortlist."

NX200 review, Sotirios KARPOUZIS - Feb 17 2013
This camera delivers excellent quality photos overall. At a price below USD 400 it is a value for money item....

In terms of HD Video, this rocks!, J. Kim "music enthusiast" - Jul 17 2012
I went to a conference, blown away by the White Balance. OMG! Who has a menu wheel to flip through the color lamps to get the perfect white balance temperature for the lighting in doors, in a theatre, and get so many minutes of compressed HD 720p and 1080p 30fps files on a SD card?!! Who has that?!!! It's great for video, compatible with all softwares at Mp4 for editing, which is...

Love it, Linda Howell - Jul 14 2012
I love this camera. The size is great. Not to big, but for a compact camera it takes great photos. Can't wait to get out and take photos after photos.The options are so easy to acess....

Great Camera!, Carlos Isaac - Jun 22 2012
Amazing product. Clear pictures with the kit lens, very low noise till ISO 3200 and THE BEST user interface I've ever used on this size of camera. For $600 it's hard to find anything better.I shoot RAW and really don't have any problems with the camera writing speed....