Samsung NX Mini Performance

Camera Reviews / Samsung Cameras i Now Shooting!

Navigate Review Jump to review page...

Samsung NX Mini Performance

Timing and Performance

Slow to average performance.

Startup/Play to Record
Power on to first shot	~2.0 seconds	Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.
Play to Record, first shot	~1.0 second	Time until first shot is captured.

The Samsung NX Mini took about 2 seconds to power on and take a shot in our tests. That's on the slow side, especially for a camera with a prime lens that doesn't need to be extended. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot took about a second, which is fair.

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Full Autofocus, Center AF	0.347 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting. All timing taken with Samsung 9mm f/3.5mm kit lens.
Full Autofocus, Wide-area AF	0.347 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting.
Full AF with Flash Center AF	0.480 second	Using the flash slows the shutter release because the metering pre-flash has to occur before the shutter opens.
Manual Focus	0.168 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	0.164 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

Slower than average autofocus by today's standard with the 9mm kit lens, and much slower than average lag when prefocused.

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/Fine JPEG	0.96 second	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots with no signs of slowing, 2 seconds to clear.*
Single Shot mode RAW	1.76 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 6 seconds to clear.*
Single Shot mode RAW + L/F JPEG	1.70 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 6 shots, 12 seconds to clear.*
Early shutter penalty?	Yes	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 mode Large/Fine JPEG	0.17 second (5.99 frames per second); 11 frames total; 12 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 11 frames, then slows to an average of 1.93 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous mode RAW	0.17 second (5.97 frames per second); 5 frames total; 12 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 5 frames, then slows to an average of 0.49 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous mode RAW + L/F JPEG	0.18 second (5.63 frames per second); 5 frames total; 19 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 5 frames, then slows an average of 0.33 fps when buffer is full.
Burst mode ~5MP JPEG	0.03 second (29.9 frames per second); 30 frames total; 12 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over fixed buffer length of 30 shots.
Flash Recycling	4.3 seconds	Flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a Sandisk Mobile Ultra UHS-I MicroSDHC 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.

Sluggish single shots times, ranging from about one second for best quality JPEGs, to almost 1.8 seconds for RAW.

In full-resolution continuous mode, the NX Mini captured 11 Large/Fine JPEG frames at about 6 frames-per-second, 5 RAW frames at 6 fps, and 5 RAW+JPEG frames at 5.6 fps. That's about average continuous mode speed these days for a mirrorless camera, but buffers aren't very generous. (Note that our test target was designed to be difficult to compress, so you may be able to capture higher numbers of frames in a burst than we did when shooting typical scenes.)

In "Burst" mode which captures ~5MP JPEGs, the NX Mini captured up to 30 frames at about 30 frames per second (a one second burst).

Buffer clearing was on the slow side considering the shallow buffers, taking 12 seconds to clear after a burst of JPEGs or RAW files, and up to 19 seconds to clear after shooting RAW+JPEG frames. A faster card may help. (We tested with a Sandisk Mobile Ultra UHS-I MicroSDHC card with Class 10 and UHS Speed Class 1 ratings, but there are faster cards out there.)

The Samsung NX Mini's flash recycled in about 4.3 seconds after a full-power discharge on average, which is a little slow.

Bottom line, the Samsung NX Mini's performance was mixed with sluggish startup time and single-shot cycle times, slower than average autofocus and prefocused shutter lag, and average continuous mode speeds. Buffer depths when shooting RAW files were however quite limited, at only 5 frames.

Battery

Battery Life
Outstanding battery life for its class.

Operating Mode	Battery Life
Still Capture, (CIPA standard, 9mm prime)	650 shots
Still Capture, (CIPA standard, 9-27mm zoom)	530 shots

The Samsung NX Mini uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with a single battery and a USB power adapter for in-camera charging. Battery life is CIPA-rated for 650 shots per charge when using the 9mm kit, which is outstanding. When using the 9-27mm kit lens, the number of shots per charge decreases to 530 shots, still excellent.

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))