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The Samsung NX3300 is a suitable candidate for starting photographers who might find a Samsung mini to be perhaps a bit too small already. And for those for whom a Samsung NX500 is just a bit outside of the budget. As far as lenses are concerned, you can choose from among the compact and light (lots of pancakes!) lenses that we have described in “The best lens for a Samsung NX500”. The Samsung NX3300 is a camera that was brought to market with little fanfare and yet that is a fun camera for those who want to expand their photo hobby to a camera with interchangeable lenses. |
Samsung NX versus Samsung NX500 |
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In terms of appearance, the two cameras have many similarities. The Samsung NX500 has more to offer, but it is also about 250 euros more expensive:
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Samsung NX3300: Thin (22.5 mm) & Light (158 g) |
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This is a simply constructed camera that you operate via the bright, large touchscreen. The operation of the menu is easy, and because the camera is nicely thin and light, you can easily take it along with you everywhere. Due to the interchangeable lenses, the NX3300 is larger than a smartphone. Thanks to the compact pancake and zoom lenses, you can still easily take along the camera in a jacket pocket. As far as ease of use and options are concerned, if we don’t consider 4K video, this camera is strongly reminiscent of the NX500. The lack of a built-in viewfinder will be less attractive for much more experienced photographers, but I see in practice that starters quite often do not use the built-in viewfinder and prefer the screen on the back of the camera. The camera has few buttons; the iFn button on the side of the lens you can assign to a function that you use often, which significantly increases the user-friendliness of the camera, if you want to do more than take snapshots. |
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| Ideal for Selfies: The Samsung NX3300 has a screen that rotates up 180 degrees, which is ideal for taking a selfie. If you want to take a shot low to the ground (mushrooms), then you have to hold the camera upside down to benefit from the tilting screen. | |
Image quality |
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The most logical comparison of a starter camera is, as far as image quality is concerned, a regular compact camera or a smartphone. Relative to such cameras, the Samsung NX3300 has a larger, 20-megapixel sensor, which actually translates into a higher signal-to-noise ratio, better dynamic range (the blackest black and the whitest white that the camera is still able to show) and beautiful colors. The image quality is comparable with the Samsung NX30: a more expensive, but also a bit older camera that we reviewed previously. The same applies for a starter’s SLR camera vs NX3300: as far as image quality is concerned, they are evenly matched. During the test, we could not open the RAW files in Lightroom or Photoshop. For this, we used the DNG converter from Samsung. |
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High Dynamic Range: With a smartphone, you cannot successfully take a picture directly towards the sun, where much detail in the foreground remains visible. With a camera that has a larger sensor, like the NX3300, that is quite possible. |
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Beautiful colors: On sunny days, the colors are sparkling. On cloudy days, the shots are a bit too cool (too blue) |
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Image styles and filters |
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| Just like on your smartphone, you can now also apply various filters and image editing to your shots in cameras, before you share them with others. With the special Beauty Effects, you make the photo look as though it belongs in a glossy magazine. You can thus remove spots, make eyes lighter and let the skin glow without having to get into Photoshop. | |
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Video and more… |
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| The Samsung NX3300 shoots Full-HD video (2 megapixels: video in living-room quality) at 25 images per second. More or less equivalent to other cameras in the same price class, but clearly less than the Samsung NX500 (4K video). With 4K video you namely shoot 30 images of 8 megapixels (video in theater quality) per second. You can use each individual 4K video image to make a print at A4 format. You can crop a 4K video to Full HD, and in doing so, you bring a subject closer to you. For me, this would be an important argument to choose the slightly more expensive Samsung NX500 (which also has a 28-megapixel sensor). But not everyone needs that, and for many starters, the price might weigh more heavily than the video options. With the Home Monitor+ app, you have a luxury baby monitor: if your son or daughter wakes up and starts to cry, the Samsung NX3000 sends an automatic notification to your smartphone. |
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Samsung NX3300 kit with 50-200 mm zoom lens
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The shot above is made with the Samsung 50-200 mm lens, which is also offered for sale as a trio, along with the Samsung NX3300 and the Samsung 16-50 zoom lens. With the longer focal length of this telephoto zoom lens, you bring your subject closer to you, and you isolate the subject better from the environment, thanks to the smaller focal depth relative to the standard kit lens. Should you be planning to bring subjects closer to you, then it is certainly a consideration to purchase the Samsung NX3300 kit with two lenses immediately. You do not buy a camera with interchangeable lenses for no reason; the camera becomes more broadly usable with this feature, and you get off cheaper than if you purchase the Samsung 50-200 mm in a later stage. |
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Conclusion Samsung NX 3300 review |
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Use the camera comparison or the list of reviewed cameras if you want to compare the Samsung NX3300 with other cameras. |
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Pros
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Cons
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Compare the Samsung NX3300 with another camera here or check our list of all reviewed cameras. |
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In the wealth of all the possibilities that the Samsung NX1 and the Samsung NX500 have to offer, you could forget that there are also photographers who are looking for a good camera with interchangeable lenses, without any fuss. The Samsung NX3300 is such a camera: lighter and more compact than an SLR camera, and more or less the same image quality. The extensive lens selection from Samsung includes different ultra-compact pancake lenses with high image quality, which fits perfectly with the Samsung NX3300. |
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