Today, Samsung got a jump on CES (a week early) and announced a slew of new products right, likely the first of many companies to do so this week (so get ready for a ton of gear announcements). The new products include a new addition to the NX and Galaxy camera lines, as well as a couple new NX lenses.
Samsung has been gaining a lot of ground in the US over the last year in the mirrorless ILC market and today they announced the new NX30, a camera they hope will improve that position even further. Samsung also saw great returns on their GALAXY Camera and announced a second – retro version – of that as well.
NX30
The NX30 boasts speed and connectivity that are likely to be huge hits with consumers who are looking to be able to share the images on their cameras quickly and easily, without having to download them to a computer first.
As of this announcement, no pricing or availability has been released, so stay tuned for that.
NX30 Specs
- 20.3-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
- DRIMeIV Image Processor
- 3-inch AMOLED 1.037M-dot swivel touchscreen
- Tiltable 2.359M-dot EVF w/Eye Contact Sensor
- OIS Duo technology
- ISO range of 100-25,600
- 3D capture
- Full HD 1080/60p video
- Wifi Connectivity
As you can see, this is quite a nice little camera. An interesting blurb from the specs sheet was this tidbit talking about the Wifi Connectivity:
-HomeSync
-Home Monitoring
-Baby Monitoring
That last one should really tell you who this camera is going to be marketed towards – people with families that have a need for a quick camera and apparently doubles as the coolest baby monitor I have ever seen.
GALAXY Camera 2
In addition to the NX30, Samsung also announced the second version of their GALAXY camera – aptly named, the GALAXY Camera 2. The camera looks to build on the success(?) of the first GALAXY camera and improve the experience and features for the consumer. Taking cues from other manufacturers’ success, this time around, Samsung opted to go with a very lightweight and retro style with the GALAXY Camera 2.
As of this announcement, there has been no pricing or availability information released. Stay tuned for that.
GALAXY Camera 2 Specs
- 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor
- 21x Optical Zoom
- 1.6 GHzQuad Core processor
- 2 GB of RAM
- Dropbox integration W/ Free 50GB Storage for 2 Years
- Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
- 120fps video
- Full HD 1080p Video
- ‘Selfie Alarm’ mode
A pretty nice, little compact camera if you ask me. Not something that would be used for professional use of course, but it looks to be a great consumer compact camera in a market that is quickly disappearing. It will be interesting to see how this does in comparison to the original GALAXY Camera.
New NX Lenses
In addition to the above camera additions, Samsung also announced two new lenses to their ever growing NX mount arsenal.
16-50mm F/2-2.8 S OIS
This is the first in what Samsung is calling their new pro “S” line of lenses for the NX mount. (Taking their cues from Canon’s “L” Series, I would guess) The lens has a nice F/2-2.8 aperture and has a decent 16-50 zoom range, making this a great mid range zoom on a NX camera.
16-50mm F/3.5-5.6 Power Zoom ED OIS
This is the most compact wide-angle zoom in the NX system, and if that was not enough it also “power zooms”. When mounted on a camera you can use zoom in and out with a powered motor, rather than manually like most interchangeable system lenses. So, essentially you can stick this bad boy on your camera and use it like you would a compact camera with a power zoom lens. An interesting feature, to say the least.
At the time of this announcement, there has been no pricing or availability released for either lens. Stay tuned.
What are your thoughts on these new additions from Samsung? Do any of these newly announced products catch your attention? Share your thoughts in a comment below!
Get Connected!