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As a professional photographer, I get to test new cameras when they are released. That’s how I got my hands on a Samsung NX200 for a couple of months now. This review is going to from a professional viewpoint, if you want a less technical review check out my PitsLamp blog.

The nx200 is a mirror less camera system, with some pretty decent lenses. I’ll list the pro and cons of the camera and will explain some a bit lower.

Pro

• Pretty high fps in RAW (4) even higher in JPEG (7)
• Nice intuitive interface
• Hot shoe
• Very accessible buttons on the right locations
• Good quality AMOLED display
• 20 MP
• Good form factor

Con

• Lot’s of noise above ISO 800
• Slow startup time
• No viewfinder
• No swiveling display

That’s the very short version of my likes and dislikes of the Samsung NX200. So now let me get into that in more detail.

Screen

The quality of the screen is great, even in harsh sunlight. However, because of no viewfinder and no swiveling screen, it’s not always very easy to compose a shot. You are limited to how you can look at the screen. This means no shots low by the ground, or high above your head, because composing is not possible if you don’t see the screen.

Ease of use

Samsung always had a pretty good idea how to make a camera easy to use. The menu is clear, easy, logical. All the buttons are located very conveniently, at least for me they are. It’s a joy to use this camera.

However how hard Samsung keeps on trying to have me use the i-Function button on the lens, I don’t really care for it. It’s is one of their selling points since the nx100, it was made after the older rangefinder cameras where you could set almost everything on the lens. But where Samsung got it wrong for me, is that the button is never in the same place on the lenses. Also the first you use the button it doesn’t really react directly. Also the ring on the lens you can use to change the settings, is stepless, but the interface on the screen has steps, that’s confusing. So I prefer to use the buttons on top and on the back.

Quality and speed

A slow startup speed, makes that you better don’t use the battery saving feature, if you want to photograph your kids, make sure you keep it on all the time. However once started, the speed is very good, a very decent fps even in RAW. On the other hand, once you want to look at the photos, it can take quite some time before the RAW’s are processed. So speed overall is not good enough for me.

With 20MP on the camera, the photos are of good quality, large, nice to look at in 100%. The camera is excellent for studio work in tight spaces, I did love it for product shots, especially with the 60mm macro lens. The hot shoe makes it possible to use radio triggers which again is awesome for studio shoots.

But there is a very big drawback, as with the first DSLR’s the camera, absolutely doesn’t perform well in low light conditions. For me in color the photos until 800 iso are acceptable, in b/w you can go up till 1600 but after that you’re out of luck. Too much noise, especially color noise.

Conclusion

I have mixed feelings about this camera. I do like the interface, but I don’t like the quality of the photos. So if you are looking for a small, interchangeable camera with most use being during the day or in studio settings, definitely go for it. If you are looking for an allround camera, don’t go for this one, there are better alternatives out there.

After more than 2 months using the Navibot, I want to give you a review. Let me say, we’re pretty pleased with the Robot vacuum cleaner.

Although it’s not a total solution for cleaning, it does a very good job keeping the house clean, when you set it on a daily routine. It takes a structured path, which takes it through the most part of the room. During it’s path, it tries to cover the whole area, but misses some spots. Luckily it doesn’t take the same path everyday and does the missed spots the next day.

Once a week we empty the container containing the dust and hairs,. So it doesn’t require a lot of maintanance but whenever you forget about putting away all toys for the cat or the floorcloths, we use as doormats, something is bound to get stuck in the rotating brushes. Then the robot stops and starts beeping, until you fix the problem, that’s annoying and drives our cat crazy when we aren’t at home. But apart from that, it doesn’t get trapped under furniture, it doesn’t wrecks anything around the home. It only bumps into the furniture that has legs that are smaller than 5cm because it is in the blind spot of the sensors. Even when it does bump into your furniture, it doesn’t really damages it, because of the rubber bumpers.

The only very annoying thing about the robot is whenever you use the guards, it gets confused because the beam of the guard spreads wider then you intend and that leaves areas around the guard without cleaning. Our robot also had a little defect, which broke the system that makes the back brush rotate and we had to send it in for repair. Since then it drives around and cleans the whole area very good.

If you are looking for a decent robot vacuum cleaner, then this is definitely what you need. It does a really good job keeping the house clean, without you lifting a finger, it’s definitely not perfect but it’s a great aid. For us it is a great tool and definitely cheaper than paying a cleaning lady. So yes, it’s an expensive buy, but it will pay off after a while, because maintenance is not expensive at all. Even after 2 months we didn’t have to change any of the brushes.