Samsung NX30 Performance

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Samsung NX30 Performance

Timing and Performance

Very good performance with fast autofocus and burst rates, but slow buffer clearing.

Startup/Play to Record/Buffer Clearing
Power on to first shot	~0.8 second	Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.
Play to Record, first shot	~0.9 second	Time until first shot is captured.
Buffer clearing time	16 seconds after 21 Large/Super Fine JPEGs*	Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card.
	21 seconds after 12 RAW files*
	29 seconds after 11 RAW+ LSF JPEG files*
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Startup and shutdown times were faster than average for a CSC, but a bit longer than most DSLRs. Buffer clearing was however quite sluggish, even with a fast UHS-I card which Samsung says is supported.

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Full Autofocus, Single-area AF mode	0.125 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting. (All timing performed with Samsung 18-55mm kit lens at medium focal length.)
Full Autofocus, Multi-area AF mode	0.285 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting.
Full Autofocus, Single-area AF mode Auto flash enabled	0.231 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting. Built-in flash enabled.
Manual Focus	0.087 second	For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".
Prefocused	0.083 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The Samsung NX30 exhibited full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) that ranged from only 0.125 second in Single-area AF mode to 0.285 second in Multi-area AF mode when using the 18-55mm kit lens in our tests. This is very fast, particularly Single-area AF mode. Enabling the flash increased shutter lag to 0.231 second to account for the preflash metering, though that's still quite fast.

When manually focused, the Samsung NX30's lag time dropped to 0.087 second, which is quite fast. The NX30's prefocused shutter lag time was 0.083 second, which is close to average.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large/Super Fine JPEG	0.62 second	Time per shot, averaged over 30 shots, 3 seconds to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW	0.73 second	Time per shot, averaged over 21 shots, 21 seconds to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW + LSF JPEG	0.62 second	Time per shot, averaged over 17 shots, 30 seconds to clear*.
Early shutter penalty?	No	Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
Continuous Hi Mode Large/Super Fine JPEG	0.11 (8.89 fps); 21 frames total; 16 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 21 shots, then slows to an average of 0.27s or 3.67 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous Hi Mode RAW	0.11 (8.85 fps); 12 frames total; 21 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 12 frames, then slows to an average of 1.03s or 0.97 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous Hi Mode RAW + LSF JPEG	0.11 (8.77 fps); 11 frames total; 29 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 11 frames, then slows to an average of 1.23s or 0.81 fps when buffer is full.
30 fps Burst Mode 5MP JPEGs	0.03 (29.9 fps); 30 frames total; 5 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over fixed buffer length of 30 shots.
Flash Recycling	3.6 seconds	Flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Single-shot cycle times are good, ranging from 0.62 second for Large/Super Fine JPEGs and RAW+LSF JPEG, to 0.73 second for RAW files.

Continuous Hi mode at full resolution was well above average for its class, at 8.89 frames-per-second for Large/Super Fine JPEGs. The rate dropped just slightly to 8.85 fps for RAW and 8.77 fps for RAW+LSF JPEGs. That's a hair slower than Samsung's 9 fps spec, but still very fast.

Buffer depths were pretty good with JPEGs at 21 Large/Super Fine JPEGs before the camera slowed, but only fair when RAW files were captured, at 12 RAW or 11 RAW + LSF JPEG frames. Note that our test target for this is designed to be difficult to compress, so burst lengths may be longer with typical subjects. The NX30 also has a "Burst mode" that captured 30 frames at up to about 30 frames-per-second at a reduced resolution of 5 megapixels.

As mentioned previously buffer clearing is on the slow side, taking 21 seconds to clear after a max-length burst of JPEGs, and up to 29 seconds to clear after a burst of 11 RAW + LSF JPEG frames, and that's with a very fast UHS-I card.

Flash recycle was fair, taking an average of 3.6 seconds after a full power discharge.

Bottom line, the Samsung NX30's performance is overall quite good with fast autofocus, fast burst speeds, and good cycle and startup times, however buffer clearing can take a while. The good news is that buffer depth is fairly generous with JPEGs, but only fair with RAW files.

Battery

Battery Life
Good battery life for a compact system camera.

Operating Mode	Battery Life
Still Capture, (CIPA standard)	360 shots

The Samsung NX30 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with a single battery and an AC adapter for in-camera charging via USB. Samsung rates the NX30's battery life at 360 shots per charge using CIPA standards, but doesn't state whether that's with the OLED monitor or EVF. That's decent battery life for a CSC, but we still recommend getting a second battery for your NX30 if you plan any extended outings or shoot a lot of video.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))