There's a piece today at 1001 Noisy Cameras - http://www.1001noisycameras.com/2011/12/samsung-nx20-name-leaked-by-samsung-support-page.html about the leak of the name NX20. There are some interesting comments at the end of the piece.
"Samsung had an early start in the mirrorless world, but they have not
managed to get a lot of traction outside Korea. The announcement of the
Nikon and Pentax systems made the field even more crowded and Samsung
has not found a way (yet) to differentiate itself, despite having the
advantage of an APS-C sensor."
I must say that this is a very succinct summing up of what might be peceived as the "Samsung problem" I obviously can't speak for all countries, but certainly in the UK Samsung cameras are somewhat of a marginal product. For what its worth there are very few flickr groups for the cameras, the Samsung forum at Dpreview gets much less traffic than Sony or m4/3 and certainly my posts about their cameras get far less hits than any other camera system.
1001NoisyCameras is probably right with the "Samsung
has not found a way (yet) to differentiate itself" comment and fits in with my comments about the NX200 being somewhat of a "missed opportunity". From using it over the last few days, its apparent to me that the 20MP sensor in the NX200 is pretty special. The images it produces are gorgeous to look at. The jpgs. are pretty ordinary, but hiding away in the camera there are these raw files that are quite remarkable, in terms of sharpness and colour depth. Samsung's software seems unable to get this out, but in something like Capture One (and I presume Photoshop and Lightroom when they support the camera) these beautiful images are revealed.
All of this is housed in a pretty unremarkable point and shoot styled camera. Hopefully this rumoured NX20 will come up with a body that does this sensor justice. A decent EVF and some decent controls would be nice. Plus they could loose the somewhat plain "bridge camera" design of the NX10 and NX11 and come up with something that addresses the current "retro chic" sensibility. Whether they do this is open to question, since Samsung do seem to be somewhat conservative in their approach to what they release.
In the meantime, I will work with the NX200, because it produces such great images. I've ordered a Voigtlander 15-35mm zoom viewfinder, which while not ideal will give me some opportunity to compose shots without holding the camera out in front of me. I've also ordered an adapter so I can use my Sony a-mount lenses on it. (Mainly for the 8-16mm Sigma I have) Neither of these "solutions" is satisfactory, but I can't get these images with any other camera, so needs must. Hopefully, some of these comments will get through to Samsung HQ, they will realise what they have and produce something that houses this terrific sensor in a body that "stirs the blood"
I can but hope.
