Samsung GX-20

Samsung’s a relative newcomer to the digital SLR market, so does the GX20 measure up?

The GX20 is Samsung’s top digital SLR. It has a 14.6 megapixel sensor, 11-point autofocus system, Live view and a maximum ISO of 6400. With its rugged construction and dust- and moisture-resistant seals, it looks like a real semi-professional SLR.

It also shares the same specifications and design as the Pentax K20D and it doesn’t take much detective work to figure out that the Samsung and the Pentax are, apart from some cosmetic differences, basically the same camera. Having said that, there are a couple of differences on the inside too, which could prove more significant.

Sturdy it may be, but the GX20 also feels a little clunky in places, and it’s mostly down to the standard kit lens and some of the controls. The first thing that strikes you is that although the autofocus is reasonably rapid, it’s also quite noisy and rough-feeling. In fact, the 18-55mm kit lens doesn’t have its own autofocus lenses; instead, it’s powered by a motor within the body. This isn’t uncommon in SLRs even now, though Nikon and Canon have long since switched to lenses that incorporate their own AF motors. This explains why the Canon EOS 450D and Nikon D60, for example, feature such quiet and speedy autofocus.

The Samsung lens does have a couple of good points, though. One is the fact that it has a metal lens mount (many cheaper lenses now use plastic) and the other is the good-sized manual focusing ring at the front, which also has a distance scale. In fact, the front element of this lens doesn’t rotate during focusing (another rarity in a kit lens), which makes it much easier to use graduated filters, for example, or polarisers, both of which require precise rotation to work properly.

It’s not all good, though. Optically, the Samsung lens is pretty indifferent. It’s fairly sharp in the centre of the frame, but becomes visibly softer towards the edges. It also displays a fair amount of colour fringing at the edge of the frame, too. Not surprisingly, these are exactly the problems that afflict the Pentax 18-55mm kit lens. Anyone tempted by the GX20 might want to consider investing in a better standard lens. At the moment, however, the range of configurations on sale seems limited, though there is a twin-lens kit that includes a 50-200mm telephoto zoom.

There are a number of other lenses in the Samsung catalogue, some of which might make better ‘standard’ zooms than the 18-55mm. Interestingly (and perhaps not surprisingly), these mirror the optics in the Pentax lens range. Indeed, you can use Pentax lenses on this camera.

So why all this fuss about lenses? Because this camera has the joint highest resolution of any digital SLR except for the Canon EOS-1Ds Mk III. It’s surely going to be one of the main reasons why buyers will choose this camera, and they’re inevitably going to expect to see the difference in the pictures. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen with the standard 18-55mm Samsung lens.

The lens is not the only area where the Samsung feels a little rough around the edges. Most of the buttons and dials are pretty good, but the navigational controller has a rather loose and vague feel. The other, rather annoying thing is that in order to adjust the white balance, ISO, drive mode or flash mode, you have to press the ‘Fn’ button on the back and use an on-screen display and the navigational buttons. Most other SLRs make these options much more accessible, usually via buttons on the body, so it’s a bit disappointing that it takes so much button-clicking on this camera, which is, after all, aimed at pretty serious users.

And while the Samsung’s Live View is certainly worth having, it’s a long way from the sophistication of the Live View mode on the Canon EOS 450D, for example, or the speed and simplicity of the Sony Alpha 350’s. One of the main advantages of Live View is that you should be able to use the image histogram to get the exposure exactly right, but the Samsung doesn’t display a histogram. In fact, it doesn’t even let you change the exposure settings – these are disabled while the Live View is active. You can focus, either manually or by holding down the ‘AF’ button, but that’s about it. On this camera, the Live View’s main use is for composing shots where the camera’s in an awkward position and it’s difficult to get your eye to the viewfinder. These Live View limitations aren’t specific to the Samsung, mind – they’re exactly the same with the Pentax K20D.

There’s lots to like on the Samsung too, though. Although the lens and some of the controls might be a little patchy, this camera has some very intelligent and useful functions. The Live View mode, for example, is only one of three possible ‘preview’ modes. You can adjust the settings so that the preview switch activates a traditional depth of field preview in the viewfinder. What happens here is that the lens steps down to the currently selected aperture to help you visualise the depth of field. Normally, all viewing and metering takes place at maximum aperture so that you get the brightest, clearest viewfinder image, and the lens only stops down when you take the picture. Optical depth-of-field preview is found on most digital SLRs, and it can give you a rough idea of the near-to-far sharpness at the aperture you’ve chosen, but it also darkens the screen, making it harder to see the fine detail clearly. Some people find depth-of-field previews useful, some don’t.

The GX20 also offers a ‘digital’ preview. Here, it takes a picture of the scene in front of the camera and displays it on the screen for your inspection. You can then decide whether or not to save it. This is a bit of an odd one. What’s the difference between this and taking the picture normally? After all, if you decide you don’t like the picture you’ve just taken, it’s as easy to delete it as it is to save an image taken in the digital preview mode.

But if the value of the digital preview mode is dubious, that of the small green button next to the left of the shutter release is immediately obvious. Let’s face it, one of the main things that puts us off using our cameras in manual mode is that we’re going to have to spend a few moments dialling in the correct lens aperture and shutter speed, which is probably way off from the last time we used the camera in manual. The Samsung’s ‘green’ button does this in an instant. In effect, it momentarily reverts the camera to program AE mode, setting the shutter speed and aperture automatically for the lighting conditions. You’re then free to make whatever manual adjustments you want. It does in a fraction of a second what it would usually take you several seconds to do manually.

The mode dial at the opposite end of the camera’s top plate has some interesting additions, too. As well as the standard PASM exposure modes you’d expect to find on any digital SLR, it has an ‘Sv’ and a ‘TAv’ mode too. On a traditional film camera, the lens aperture and shutter speed were the only exposure adjustments you could make because the ISO was set by the film in use. But on a digital camera you can set the ISO differently for each shot, and these two additional exposure modes use this to incorporate ISO into the camera’s range of exposure modes.

The ‘Sv’ setting is basically an ‘ISO-priority’ mode. Here, you use the control dial to set the ISO and the camera automatically sets the appropriate shutter speed and aperture for the lighting conditions. Actually, this is no different to changing the ISO in program AE mode. The Samsung isn’t doing anything you can’t do perfectly easily on any other camera. What it is doing, though, is turning ISO adjustment into full-time exposure tool alongside shutter speed and aperture. It’s a change in emphasis rather than a brand new feature.

The ‘TAv’ setting activates the camera’s ‘aperture/shutter-priority’ mode. This is both more sophisticated and perhaps more interesting. Here, you set both the shutter speed and the aperture you want to use and the camera picks the ISO needed to get the exposure right. Now, this is actually quite clever. Some creative effects rely on specific shutter speeds, and some need specific lens apertures, and now and again you’re surely going to come across situations where you want to choose both. The ISO range of the GX20 is wide enough to allow you to do this across a range of lighting conditions and although higher ISOs will inevitably bring a drop in image quality, this is generally not too serious with SLRs except at the highest ISOs, and it is possible to become too fixated on ISO and image quality at the expense of other pictorial qualities.

These two modes may not appear immediately useful, but that may be because they’re new ideas that haven’t yet entered the mainstream. They do show at least that this camera’s designers have thought properly about how cameras can be used.

The Samsung’s clearly designed for more experienced photographers, and this is reflected in the absence of any beginner-friendly scene modes and the arrangement of the controls. The metering mode, for example, can be swapped between multi-segment, centre-weighted and spot metering using a switch around the base of the mode dial, while you can auto-bracket your exposures by pressing a button to the left of the viewfinder. It’s nice to have both features so readily accessible rather than being buried somewhere in the menus where they’ll never get used.

It’s good to have two control dials, too – another feature found on high-end SLRs. These dials have a range of different functions that depend on the mode or menu you’re in. The main point is, though, that the front dial always adjusts the shutter speed and the rear dial always adjusts the aperture. It’s easy enough to remember and saves a lot of confusion. The twin control dials are especially useful when you’re shooting in manual mode.

On the back of the camera is a button which activates the camera’s ‘Picture Wizard’ settings. These include ‘Standard’, ‘Vivid’, ‘Portrait’, ‘Landscape’ and two user-defined ‘Custom’ modes. They’re simply different combinations of colour tone, saturation, contrast and sharpness you can use according to the subject matter or your own preferences, though most users are likely to pick one they like and stick with it.

It’s disappointing, though, that there are no mono modes here. Again, comparisons with the Pentax K20D are inevitable because the Pentax not only has a mono mode but a range of different black and white filter effects you can use to adjust the tones in your pictures. Why are they missing here? Does Samsung think they’re just a bit too technical for its potential buyers? Has the same argument been applied to the expanded dynamic range mode on the Pentax, because that’s missing from the GX20 too.

This does undermine the GX20’s appeal quite considerably. It’s like buying a Pentax K20D but without the brand name and some of the features missing. Depending on where you shop, you may find the GX20 selling for around £50 less than the K20D, but that’s not a big enough difference to make the GX20 a sound bet.

You also have to consider the competition. If you’re keen to get the highest available pixel count, there’s always the Sony A350. It’s a little more plastic-looking and ‘amateur’ than the GX20, but it has the same resolution. It too incorporates an anti-shake feature, and it has a faster, better Live View. Not only that, it’s cheaper – and not by just a few pounds, but by £200-300 in the shops.

Or you could forget about megapixels and concentrate on camera quality and features instead. The GX20’s kit lens hardly makes the best of its sensor resolution after all, and it’s doubtful whether you’d see much difference between this and a good 10-megapixel SLR in your prints. With this in mind, the Canon EOS 450D and 40D are well worth considering. The 12-megapixel 450D is admittedly aimed more at the amateur market, but the Live View (if that’s what you’re looking for) is very good. The 10-megapixel 40D, meanwhile, is a really slick, semi-pro camera that combines great build quality with efficient, streamlined controls and that amazing 6.5fps continuous shooting speed.

Now if the Samsung GX20 was simply a mirror image of the Pentax K20D in every respect, it would stack up pretty well against cameras like these because of its range of interesting and unique features. But the fact that some of these have been taken out in the Samsung version makes a big difference. Now it just comes across as a rather weighty and expensive camera that just doesn’t have enough that’s special to make you want to buy it.

Final Verdict It's hard to get excited by the GX-20 for two reasons. First, the definitio is average despite those 14 million pixels. Second, the Pentax K20D is better and much the same price OVERALL

Debbi’s passionate about all things photographic: from the latest digital kit to the greatest techniques to capture a scene. She’s been at the helm of the photography portfolio of magazines, websites and more for three years.