i♥Samsung

The beauty of Samsung EX1 body

2010-08-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

The first introduction of Samsung EX1 is obviously about how does it look! It might not appeals to the general public in the post-modern, ipod, ipad & iphone generation but the shining black is a classic colour that shout out 'i am a pro'.. The camera might go unnoticeable until you flip the ultra sharp & wide angle 3inch screen and took some photos with f1.8-f2.4 max aperture lens. This is the least unexpected camera that will produce a very professional look photos for common people-those who only point and shot and only associate Samsung with mobile phone or computer screen. The surprise look on people's face with this high end EX1 will definitely give you the sense of satisfaction! As you know people often think Canon & Nikon camera with higher mega-pixel camera is often the best. No doubt some of them they are! When you hold the EX1 camera in your hands, it's kind of hard to describe, it's feel like an improve version of Canon G11 and Canon S90.

The question remains that how fashionable is the EX1, i would say it's a great accessories for high street fashion! It's got the retro look! Mostly metal construction speaks of quality, not quantity in term of the volume in size! One of the best keep sercet of Samsung EX1 is the external controls which i think can compete with a Nikon D300 SLR (in fact it's not a secret since you can see all the dials) The joy is just too hard to describe since it even exceeded the handling of S90 and G11 which i owned for a few months..Here is some artistic shots of the Samsung body!

High dynamic range using EX1

2010-07-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

There is a function called the smart range in the Samsung EX1, please do not mistaken this with the smart mode.. The smart range is basically combination of more than one photo with different exposure to extend the dynamic range of the brightest highlight and dimmest shadow beyond the capability of the camera sensor.. It is somewhat troublesome to enable the setting since it is buried deep in the menu..

Samsung Ex1 in a bright garden

2010-06-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

It's bright sunny day in the afternoon, so how do we use a Samsung Ex1 to take picture in a garden... Set it to smart-auto setting (normally it's the green auto mode on any camera) and just go and take your pictures.. The following pictures were edited from the jpeg pictures which were taken with the EX1.. Some adjustments were made to recover the highlight detail, the sensor is indeed have a very good dynamic range! The original colour is a little bit over saturated using smart range mode.. In Aperture priority mode, things are better since everything is in the control of the photographer..

Smart Face recognition in EX1

2010-06-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

There are total five mode of face detection in Ex1, i haven't seen so many features of face detection before.. May be i hardly check out the compact camera.. the normal,self portrait, and smile detection is common. What is uncommon is the blink detection that will automatic take the consecutive picture if someone blink their eye.. The surprise discovery is of course the Smart face recognition feature in Ex1

the screen when the smart face recognition is set

The smart face recognition

To enable the function, firstly one needs to access the menu to register a face. Up to 5 faces can be register and when the camera operate in the smart face mode.. It suppose to recognize five of the register faces and focus each of them according to priority that you set. So in theory it will only recognize five of your friends and won't focus on strangers.. Isn't that cool!!It will register five faces and here is the end results sadly it only recognize human face! The Tweety was still in focus but not with the face detection

Iso performance of Samsung Ex1 in RAW

2010-06-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

I used the RAW mode of Ex1 to take Raw food! The idea is to make it as raw as it can get.. I like to eat rice, i have to eat it everyday.. I feel like something is missing in life if i don't eat it for a day. Sometimes, i wake up early in the morning to cook rice.. Just similar to many people who only use raw mode in their digital camera, without the Raw mode, the picture is not complete. As for me, i only take my photo in Jpeg because i prefer to see the instant result on my computer and my time is never enough in the fast moving world..

The RAW i♥Samsung

So i create a RAW version of i♥Samsung artwork which consists of a raw heart! Made out of rice and green bean! Many people only live in world with a basic necessity to survive without the need of a digital camera, the raw materials are the key of their survival.. When we think of our obsession for a better equipment and the need to seize the moment of our life with the latest and greatest photographic equipments; we perhaps should ask ourself a question? Does it really matter which camera is better or worst? (When the 'we' is used, it is not intended to generalize everyone as a 'camera addicts')

The only time i ask myself whether a camera is good or bad is when: is it worth paying for what it can offer? A camera is to help us to capture what we can see through our eyes, it can be a way for us to convey our thought...I'll leave the rest of the artwork for you to interpret--

RAW mode burst mode speed

Generic Play 16Gb card 5 RAW in 25s = 0.2fps

Sandisk ultra II 8GBcard 7 RAW in 25s = 0.28fps

the continuous mode is automatically disable RAW mode

therefore, a single shot mode is used

Ex1 comparison of different ISO setting in RAW

Here is the RAW picture taken with Ex1 at Iso 80 to Iso 3200 at 72mm f4.3

IMPORTANT NOTE:

For the raw pictures in the following example, the noise reduction parameter is set to none in the RAW converter and the sharpening remains at default setting (Unsharp mask 105%, radius 0.6). Therefore at high ISO setting, the noise will be sharpen and it will basically show you the 'sharpen noise texture' which will look worst than what will you see in Samsung Raw converter screen for noisier image.

In normal RAW workflow, it is always important to apply noise reduction first before the image is being sharpen. The reason for keeping the sharpening default is to let you see the original noise level clearer. So don't feel worry if it the RAW look much worst at high ISO..It is supposed to look like that under those setting and circumstances!

ISO80

ISO 80 Jpeg

ISO80RAW

ISO100

ISO100 Jpeg

ISO100RAW

ISO200

ISO200Jpeg

ISO200RAW

ISO400

ISO400Jpeg

ISO400RAW

ISO800

ISO800Jpeg

ISO800RAW

ISO1600

ISO1600Jpeg

ISO1600RAW

ISO3200

ISO3200Jpeg

ISO3200RAW

Ex1 24mm lens performance in RAW

2010-06-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

The lens of Samsung Ex1 at 24mm f2.4 (35mm equivalent) at wide angle is excellent.. the aperture is set to f2.4 because the scene is too bright at f1.8 but who shot a landscape shot at f1.8! (probably at night)

Initially i was quite reserved in making the claims about it's performance at 24mm since i only used it for macro shot where the distortion of the lens is obviously high at 5cm distance from an object.. but now i am totally convinced that the lens of Ex1 has very little barrel distortion because the Raw picture shows that the distortion at 24mm is minimal.. In Ex1 Jpeg processing, the barrel distortion is further corrected.

The corner to corner sharpness is blowing your mind away even it is at wide open aperture! More details in Raw (albeit more sharpening in the Raw converter)!! Why the lens is so good? Check out the chromatic abbreviation in RAW mode at 24mm f2.4! If you are a landscape shooter and need to climb a mountain without heavy equipments, may be you can give the Samsung Ex1 a chance! For a landscape shooter who need a high quality 24mm wide angle, here is your cheap solution!

(As some readers pointed out, may be the Samsung version of Silky-pix RAW converter digitally corrected barrel distortion & chromatic abbreviation in RAW and therefore it might not represents the real characteristic of the lens. More importantly, the end results in Raw processing show the lens is capable of resolving very fine details..)

TEST: Comparison of Ex1 in JPEG & RAW

at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

Landscape taken in jpeg (1600x1200 resolution)

Landscape taken in Raw (1600x1200 converted in Samsung RAW converter 3)

TEST: Corner to corner sharpest comparison

at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

To explore the performance of Corner to corner sharpest, the full resolution pictures in Jpeg and RAW were crop into the following section:

1 : Lower left corner (lots of details at left corner)

2 : Center (Check out the details in RAW)

3 : Lower right corner (lots of details right corner)

4 : upper right corner (little chromatic abbreviation)

1: Lower left corner

Jpeg at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

Raw at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

2: Center

Jpeg at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

Raw at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

3 : Lower right corner

Jpeg at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

Raw at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

4: Upper right corner

Jpeg at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

Raw at ISO80 5.2mm f2.4 1/1000s

Twist-able Viewfinder of EX1

2010-06-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

I showed the Samsung EX1 to my friend and let her play with the camera for a while.. Then, i turned the viewfinder around and asked her to take her own picture and she was so amazed.. The 3 inch of the EX1 is integrated so well into the body that she don't even notice that it can be twisted around.. The EX1 uses the Active-matrix OLED technology (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode or AMOLED), which doesn't require a backlit light source..Its resolution is VGA 640 × 480 and in theory should be 307,200 pixels*3 colours which is equal to 921600 dots but since the display uses pentile RGB design that requires 33% less sub-pixel, the total dot is only 614000 on the samsung screen.

The 3 inches twist-able Viewfinder is one of the greatest feature of EX1..

One slight glitch of the EX1 is the corner of the screen enclosure which is metal. It will scratch the inner metal surface resulting the fall off of paint surface.. Just be very careful before you turn it around.. My solution is to use a tape to avoid the problem!

Anyway, the 3 inch vari-angle AMOLED display is so useful. It is sharp, bright, viewable under a bright day and have a very wide viewing angle!.. Best for couple who is in love and use them to take their self-portrait when they are on vacation on a Caribbean island. To demonstrate this, i'll show you one of the must have feature for a loving couple.. How to take self-portrait using EX1..

*The post was originally named as Twist-able 'LCD' of EX1 but it was very misleading since the AMOLED and LCD are two different display technology.. Therefore the title was changed and correction was in the article.

The Auto EX1 : Smart filter and Photo style

2010-06-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Okie, i am sure you know of many friends who only depends on the built in function of the compact camera to generate fancy colour or effect of the photo and never know how to manipulate photos in Photoshop or Lightroom.

To some people, they think that anything doing with photo editing or photo retouching is not 'original'.. To be honest, as soon as the as the light hits the millions of photo diodes in the camera sensor where each pixel is layered by either Red, Green or Blue colour filter in front of them, the only remaining information we have is the encoded digital data that represent the intensity of light associated with each colour pixels.. The information are then translated into your beautiful picture through raw to jpeg algorithms in the camera which is a most common format any computer can read!..

Before the final jpeg is produced, each camera company have different approach to manipulate the raw data distinctively according to what they think is the best using a powerful image processor. For instant, the white balance is adjust according the surrounding light source and many many other 'final touch' to represent the true colour of the actual scene.. and most of the time, the pictures looks brighter, punchy, vivid and more colourful than it is because it makes us happy!.. In a way, the original photo is actually not so original ..

The Samsung have two built in effect in the Aperture priority mode and other manual mode!

TEST : Ex1 Smart filter
The smart filter with give miniature effect, vignetting, and Fish eyes effects.. For some reason, all the girls like the fisheye and vignetting effect.. I can't really understand why, perhaps its really funny to see someone head is distorted and vignetting make them look like movie star! Personally, i don't add effects to my pictures because your can't extract the original data from jpeg unless you capture raw..

The vignetting heart

The fish-eye heart

The miniature heart : the top and bottom will be blur

TEST : Ex1 Picture style..
The are many picture styles you can chose from in the Samsung EX1

Sketch heart

Defrog

Soft heart

vivid heart

forest heart

retro heart

cool heart

calm heart

classic heart

negative heart

How to turn EX1 into LX3!

2010-06-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

If you turn around the letters of Panasonic LX3, it becomes samsung EX1!! Is the samsung marketing department purposely chose to name 'EX1' to turn the panasonic LX3 upside down??.. So here i will show you how to turn the you new EX1 into the classic LX3 clone.. As you might be wondering, how do i produce those pictures? it remains as a mystery.. (this post is 'just for fun')

Samsung EX1 and LX3 clone

Upside down EX1 and LX3 clone

Face to face EX1 and LX3 clone

EX1 Duo core duo lens limited edition!!

Comparing the size of Ex1

2010-06-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here is some comparison shots for you.. If the size of Samsung Ex1 really matters to you so much .. the following will give you some relative size of it..

Compare Samsung Ex1 with Nikon D300

Compare Samsung Ex1 with Nokia E72

Compare Samsung Ex1 with a Tamron lens cap!!

Compare EX1 with G11 and S90

2010-06-06T11:50:00.001-07:00

To make life easy for many, I made a table so that you would see what specification and features you need to compliment with your shooting style.. The three cameras share the same sensors. I hope these will make it easy for you to choose between the three pocket size high end camera.. I have used the G11 and S90 for more than 3 months by carrying around wherever i go.. So i hope to share some of my personal opinion on the handling of 3 cameras..Please remember that this review is based on user experience as a photographer! In theory, a modern person should only have two cameras (one SLR and one compact) at one point of their life.. Anything more than that will be a waste of resources.. Actually, I don't mind to have more, only have to justify it with a good reason!

Pros and cons of Samsung EX1	Canon G11	Samsung Ex1	Canon S90
Lens -Wide angle at 24mm equv -Low barrel distortion, excellent! (thanks bob for his insight) -The bright and sharp lens -only 3x magnification.	Focal length 6.1~30.5mm (28-135mm equivalent) Aperture f/2.8-4.5 Very sharp lens, image stabilization, barrel distortion is less 1cm marco	Focal length 5.2~15.6mm (24-72mm equivalent) Aperture f/1.8-2.4 sharp lens, image stabilization, barrel distortion is minimum 5cm macro	Focal length 6~22.5mm (28-105mm equivalent) Aperture f/2.0-4.9 sharp lens, image stabilisation, barrel distortion is acceptable 5cm macro
Shutter speed -only up to 1/1500s	15-1/2000 sec	15-1/1500 sec	15-1/1600 sec
Body & Build quality -metal body -sharp display,excellent wide angle viewing capability and bright under sunlight	Half metal, half plastic 2.8 inch screen Tilt and swivel 461,000 pixels excellent wide angle viewing	Mostly metal 3.0 inch screen fixed 614,000 pixels excellent wide angle viewing AMOLED is great!!	Mostly metal 3.0 inch screen fixed 461,000 pixels excellent wide angle viewing
Dedicated buttons - better than the G11 and S90 in my personal opinion	excellent handling	Great control, as good as G11.. etter than s90	Good handling but the control wheel is so loose..
Sensor size -lower noise than usual digital compact	Sensor size= 1/1.7 “ (7.60 x 5.70 mm, 0.43 cm²)	Sensor size= 1/1.7 “ (7.60 x 5.70 mm, 0.43 cm²)	Sensor size= 1/1.7 “ (7.60 x 5.70 mm, 0.43 cm²)
Megapixel -Good sensor, lesser noise reduction algorithm	10MP Below ISO 800, the image is very clean and comparable to SLR.	10MP Below ISO 800, the image is very clean and more details is preserved compared to S90	10MP Below Iso 800, the image is very clean but the image reduction is on the heavy side..
Pixel density -bigger than typical digital camera	Pixel density = Total pixels/ sensor size =23 MP/cm²	Pixel density = Total pixels/ sensor size =23 MP/cm²	Pixel density = Total pixels/ sensor size =23 MP/cm²
ISO -Good ISO value	Auto, 80 ,100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 (upto 12800 with reduce resolution)	Auto, 80 ,100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200	Auto, 80 ,100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 (upto 12800 with reduce resolution)
White balance - accurate colours	Accurate, best image quality!	Accurate but occasionally color temperature too warm (pinkish)	Accurate but tends to over expose image, not as good as G11
Frame per second - fast continuous movement	About 1.1fps	About 1fps -1.5fps depending of picture size (thanks to Esdeebee)	About 0.9fps
Performance - great features on Ex1 - Auto mode is great, offer more than the canon	Fast auto focus Fast processing	Fast auto focus, feel a little bit slower than both Raw writing performance can't compare with DSLR	Fast auto focus
Conclusion What will matters the most to you? All three cameras are really good !	Current price GBP 399 G11- Buy if for BEST picture quality when light is available, it can be a little chunky..So it might not be for you since you might as well get a mirco 4/3 camera!	Current price GBP359 EX1- if you need 24mm and BEST low light performance. The size is in between G11 and S90.. I manage to squeeze it in my jeans back pocket	Current price GBP289 S90- low light perfomace is good but EX1 is better.. The one good reason i'll go for S90 if size is what you concern about the most!! so it is for those who need BEST pocket able size

Some photo samples
I posted 2 photos each for Ex1, G11 and S90.. Only trying point out the benefit of each camera in those situation where they work the best... ISO comparison is only availlable for Ex1 now..Three camera share the same sensor so the only different is probably the noise reduction algorithm and the Signal to noise ratio of the electronics that will effect the image noise..I have got thousand of G11 and S90 photo but 'no apple to apple' comparison.. All there camera, EX1, G11 and S90 are so good so i just go out and take real pictures..
Samsung EX1- for Low light and landscape person ( that's why i show d indoor shot)
Canon G11- for outdoor person and macro person (mostly outdoor)
Canon S90 - for ultra potable person who can compromise (the picture was taken in a castle where security is tight)

Sample of Ex1 indoor shots

EX1: ISO80 6mm f2.0 1/125s

EX1: ISO80 6mm f2.4 1/125s

Sample of G11 outdoor shots

G11: ISO80 25mm f4.5 1/320s at Roath park Wales

G11: ISO80 21.5mm f4.0 1/400s at Roath park Wales

Sample of S90 shots

S90: ISO320 7mm f2.2 1/80mm at Holiday inn Munich

S90: ISO160 6mm f8 1/100s at Neuschwanstein Castle

Iso performance of Samsung Ex1 in Jpeg

2010-06-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots of the 'So Good' soya milk carton at different ISO value... Considering the 1/1.8" sensor size used in the Samsung Ex1.. The results are nothing less than stunning .. Aperture is set at f2.4 and focal length of 72mm

ISO 80

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

Flower shots using Ex1

2010-06-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

Took some picture of flowers in the garden.. these photos were cropped to give a closer composition because the Ex1 can only go as close as 5cm.. The blue flower doesn't represent the actual resolution of the picture..

Lens performance at 72mm equiv

2010-06-06T08:06:00.001-07:00

Corner sharpness

72mm is a useful focal length to take a portrait photo. Setting the aperture at f2.4 is ideal enough to blur the background even on a small sensor camera since the depth of field is only about 3cm. I finish off my 'so good' soya milk and setup the Ex1 on a tripod 50cm away from the soy milk carton .. The carton is then moved to the corner at the similar plane and three shots were taken. After taking the photo, my conclusion is: 'the lens is So Good'!! all pictures were taken at iso 80.

Center sharpness at different aperture setting

The sharpness of the lens is evidence and i am quite surprised by how good is the lens performance at wide open aperture setting. There are a much as 11 step aperture control in EX1 which will lead to a more accurate exposure of the real scene..all pictures were taken at iso 80

f2.4

f3.2

f4.3

f5.4

f6.9

Auto and Scene mode of Ex1

2010-06-06T01:45:00.000-07:00

There are three main automatic mode for quick shots of Samsung Ex1:
First one is the Smart Auto : it's quite intelligence in detecting the macro range, scene and everything
Second one is the scene mode :there are so many of them!!
Third one is dual stabilization: which is optimized for low light photography without flash

The SCENE mode

there following photo are self explainable

Functions of EX1

2010-06-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

The features of Samsung EX1 are a little bit overwhelming. Here,we will explore countless possibility of creativity ideas that can be achieved by using the EX1 camera.

One great thing when you set a particular setting in Ex1 is you can just press up/down a button from your current position in your function menu and you are ready to change another function..

Auto-focus has 4 different modes

Smart filter gives the vignetting, miniature and fish-eye effect

Photo style gives different colours and some fancy sketch effect

Image stabilize on EX1 is good

Photo size : this is the first time i see so many different setting on a digital camera

Quality: It supports RAW+superfine jpeg!

Auto white balance is acceptably good

The sharpness of EX1 at 24mm macro

2010-06-04T04:29:00.000-07:00

One of the interest you might have is how does the Ex1 perform for the macro shots. This is not a systematic method to determine the sharpness of EX1 lens. My approach is to take some picture and show you what kind of results it can produces.. so you should judge it for yourself if the sharpness of the lens in acceptable to you!

This is a macro shot about 5cm about from EX1, that's why the image is distorted.. taken at iso 80 5.2mm f1.8 1/10s

Blur your background with EX1

2010-06-04T01:44:00.000-07:00

It is always a desire to blur the background using a fast lens when you are taking a portrait pictures of beautiful ladies that you are trying to shot!

The easiest way to achieve a blur background in the Samsung Ex1 is to go to the scene mode. The beauty shot will automatically enable face detection and smooth you skin. The portrait will do the same but retain the original details.

Another mode is to use aperture priority and you can control the button directly from the control wheel.. So easy! To see the effect of the changing the f-number, we need to understand the following diagram..

You could probably skip the diagram if you are not interested in the technical bit. A fast lens are referring to those lens with smaller f number. This is give you a very shallow depth of field. A shallower depth of field will give you less range of distance you object will be acceptably focus! On the Samsung Ex1, the maximum aperture for focal length of 24-72mm is f1.8 to f2.4, which is really cool!! So how does the distance, focal length and f number affect depth of field. Let say if we fix f number, keep the constant magnification by focal distance multiply by the f-number, the depth of field will be the same. (Constant magnification means same angle of view where your objects appear to be the same size from you camera view finder).

The depth of field you can achieve using Samsung Ex1 digital camera are:
(the calculation is based on a 1/1.8 sensor but the Ex1 have 1/1.7 and therefore it is just a close estimation)
24mm focal length and aperture of f1.8
Focal distance of 5cm gives 0.2cm D.o.f.

Focal distance of 50cm gives 22.9cm D.o.f.

Focal distance of 100cm gives 100.88cm D.o.f.

50mm focal length and aperture of f2.2

Focal distance of 50cm gives 6.5cm D.o.f.

72mm focal length and aperture of f2.4

Focal distance of 50cm gives you gives 3cm D.o.f.