I amended an earlier post to say that you CAN get the magnification screen for manually focused lenses with an adapter. Its the OK button, which I discovered by hitting it by accident. I really should read the manual!!
I therefore decided that I would go out and try my Sigma Sony a-mount 8-16mm lens on the NX200, using it hand held.
Well thats the first and last time!! Its a real fiddly process with an ultra-wide angle lens. They are difficult to manually focus anyway, but having to open up the aperture, focus holding the camera in front of me, and then stop the lens down was difficult to say the least. As you can see below I did succeed, but mainly as the result of determination and cursing Samsung constantly. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH EASIER WITH A VIEWFINDER!!!!!
This is without doubt the most frustrating camera I have ever owned. Such wonderful images but such a pain to work with. This dumbed down point and shoot body just doesn't do the sensor justice and perhaps one day Samsung may realise just why they are in the position they are in the photographic market.
I got so fed up with this fiddling about, (and of course I should mention Samsung haven't even made an NX wide-angle lens, so if thats what I want to use I have to do things like this) that when I went out later this afternoon I left the NX200 and used a NEX-5n + 18-200mm zoom instead.
All images - Samsung NX200 Sigma 8-12mm Novoflex Sony a-mount Samsung NX adapter
And yes, the images were really sharp and the usual great colour. However I must admit that my patience is wearing thin with the NX200. I'll say it again, serious photographers use viewfinders! They are VERY useful. They are not some anachronism from the 1950's. Just ask Sony.
To be honest it is all this camera is really lacking. But its a huge lack (???) I am personally bewildered as to who Samsung think this is for. Point and shoot upgraders? Teenage Facebook girl? If so whats the point of the superb 20MP sensor? Since you need decent software, (so not Samsungs appalling effort then), to get the full majesty of what this thing can do, are all these self photographing teens, and happy family snappers going to bother with that? And if its for downsizing DSLR owners who want quality in a small light package, then aren't they going to experience the same frustrations that I do?
I described it in a previous post as a Nissan Micra with a Formula One engine, and I feel that more and more. Personally I'm beginning to think that its destined for ebay as soon as my NEX-7 arrives. That has absolutely nothing to with the pictures it produces, since they are superb. I'm going to test it against the a77 and NEX-5n in the next couple of days, and my expectation, from what I've seen so far, is that it will probably be better in terms of image quality. Indeed, I'm beginning to think this might be the best APS-C sensor so far. But why has getting these images got to be such hard work?
I HATE holding cameras out in front of me. Its not stable enough, its prone to stray sunlight, its distracting and its just not enjoyable. To claim that people like it, when they aren't given a choice is downright dishonest. Message to Samsung - If you can't be bothered to give me the means that let me photograph in the way that I want, then despite all the advantages of your obvious talent for designing and making sensors, I may not be bothered about buying any more of your cameras in the future.
You can probably tell just how frustrating and difficult I found my wide-angle excursion today! So having let off my steam, there might be a solution. Plan B involves getting a 16mm pancake, setting my Voigtlander viewfinder for that and using the NX200 as a moderate wide-angle lens with a camera attached. That way I still have the benefit of this amazing image quality without the constant frustration of trying to use this thing as an all round camera, which its pretty obviously not designed for.