Samsung ad shows the real reason some folks pick DSLRs over mirrorless cameras (VIDEO)
posted Monday, July 1, 2013 at 12:18 PM EDT
If you're trying to sell someone on a mirrorless camera, a big chunk of the battle is proving to them that such a small body can give you image quality on par with a larger DSLR — especially when you're talking about a Samsung NX or Sony NEX with an APS-C sized sensor. This ad from Samsung Australia shows just how much people are willing to automatically prefer an SLR, just based on how it looks.
In this on-the-street test, the Samsung team disguised an NX300 mirrorless, compact system camera in a body like a DSLR, and had passers-by say if they preferred the images from a normal NX300, or the one made up to look like an SLR.
The random folks on the streets (or at least the ones that made the final cut in the ad) preferred the image quality of the "SLR," even though it was exactly the same as the NX300, and were all suitably surprised at the reveal.
Of course, there are all sorts of problems with this demonstration, primarily on trying to judge image quality from an LCD screen — though by most estimates, the Samsung NX line is on-par with entry-level DSLRs in image quality. And there are other reasons why people might opt for a larger camera, like more comfortable handling, or more external manual controls. But this ad does demonstrate that a lot of people have the gut reaction that the bigger the camera, the better the photo.