It's fantastic to see Android in a system camera but is the Galaxy NX it?
Samsung has gone and done what an increasing number of fellow journalists have been hoping a camera manufacturer would do sooner or later - make Android the operating system and user interface for a 'serious' camera. The result is the Samsung Galaxy NX, or Android NX, system camera, running Android 2.0 (JellyBean). Think of an updated and modified Samsung NX system camera with a larger 4.8 inch (fixed) touch screen, minus lots of physical external controls, but retaining an electronic viewfinder. There have been several Android-powered cameras that are a step beyond smartphones, including Nikon's S800c, Samsung's own Galaxy Camera and the new Galaxy Zoom, the latter of which was only launched the other day. But the Galaxy NX is the first system camera with interchangeable lenses to get Android.
The Galaxy NX design is dominated, like the Galaxy Camera, by its massive 4.8 inch touch screen. The arrival of this screen has been at the expense of many of the usual buttons and other controls you'd see on a conventional NX camera. Although we have had a brief hands-on with the Galaxy NX the jury is still out as to whether the combination of a primarily touch-screen interface and an eye-level electronic viewfinder will work. The Galaxy NX has a maximum 1/6000th shutter speed, which is faster than other models at 1/4000th and the NX20, which has a 1/8000th top shutter speed, although using an electronic/mechanical shutter curtain combination rather than a dual mechanical shutter curtains. You can record full HD video, and for stills RAW format is also supported. Samsung's hybrid phase and contrast detect AF is supported and the sensor is a 20.3 megapixel CMOS unit, with ISO sensitivity up to ISO 25,600.
You get all the expected smartphone functionality including WiFi/NFC, GPS (including compatibility with the Russian GLONASS constellation), Bluetooth, digital compass, accelerometers, mobile data connectivity - including 4G, 16GB of internal flash memory storage, a microSD card slot for up to 64GB of additional storage, 1.6GHz Quad-Core Processor, 2GB RAM, etc. Samsung bundles several photo-related apps alongside a plethora of creatiev effects functions and of course you have access to hundreds of thousands of other photo and non-photo related Google Play store apps.
Samsung is riding on a wave at the moment; the massive success of its Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets is inspiring the camera division and we now have the third Galaxy/digital camera hybrid. Samsung is forging ahead where other camera manufacturers are either simply not headed or have only taken a few hesitant steps. Samsung should definitely applauded for its unbridled strategy but I wasn't the only one last night at Samsung's lavish launch party in London last night who expressed concerns that the Samsung Galaxy NX looks a little like a dog's breakfast in terms of design practicality. I won't make any final judgment until I get to use a Galaxy NX properly, but I'm certainly left wondering how the electronic viewfinder will work alongside the big rear LCD touch screen. The camera itself is rather big and unwieldy - maybe an Android version of the new and more compact NX300 would have been more sensible?
But at least what we do have is a genuine confirmation that the Google Android operating system has a nice home - in a serious camera. The evolution of Android will now be dictated to a degree by this new application and for all us photographers, that can only be a good thing!
Pictures
Below is a picture gallery of both official Samsung Galaxy NX product pictures and some shots we grabbed at the launch event.
To see a larger view of the the thumbnail, just click on the thumbnail image you are interested in to open a new page with the full-size view.
To return to the thumbnail gallery, click the home arrow at the bottom of the page, or navigate forwards or backwards through the gallery using the backwards/forwards arrow buttons.
Reader feedback:
Discuss this story:
