Mirrorless Camera News

Samsung has just launched a smaller and lighter version of its flagship NX1 mirrorless camera: the highly portable NX500. This little camera, which comes in black, brown, and white versions, uses the same 28MP BSI APS-C sensor that’s in the NX1 and boasts several other similar features including 4K and UHD video shooting, the DRIMeV image processor, NX AF system III, and Samsung Auto Shot.

There’s also revamped Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and NFC in the Samsung NX500, which is designed for better wireless connectivity for sharing images and video. While the new 4K-shooting function will produce high resolution video clips from the NX500 with more detail, a built-in HEVC Codec is designed to offer better compression for storage at half the size with the same bit rate of H.264 clips without losing video quality.

Still images captured in the NX500’s Interval Capture mode are designed to be easily transformed into a UHD Time-lapse video directly on the camera, without you having to transfer images to a computer.

The new DRIMeV image processor and Hybrid Autofocus (AF) system lets you fire off 9 frames per second continuous bursts, while Samsung Auto Shot (SAS) feature uses motion detection to predict when to capture the a sharp shot of fast moving targets, such as when someone is hitting a fastball or making contact on a golf swing.

While the NX1 features a large and serious minded design, the NX500 is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It’s 3-inch display on back of the camera has a tilt and flip up function, which lets you take a quick, composed self portrait (“selfie”) shot.

The Samsung NX500 will go on sale in March 2015 for $799 as a kit with the 16-50mm PZW lens.