Samsung NX1 Firmware 1.3 Tackles Video Recording Quality
It's been a while since we've last heard about the Samsung NX1 and its 4K video capability. And although it has practically been superseded by the NX500 early this year, Samsung hasn't lost love for its first 4K digital camera just yet. It has just announced a new firmware 1.3 upgrade available for owners. While the new software upgrades the camera's capabilities across both stills and video, a lot of the emphasis has been made on improving the quality of the camera's Full HD video recording.
The Samsung NX1 made a bit of a splash last year for two reasons. One, it was Samsung's first jump into the 4K camera scene, to be followed quickly by the NX500 in February. For another, they managed to hire Joseph Gorden-Levitt, whose fame was on the rise around that time, to do some of the marketing for it, advertising the "In a City" movie that was entirely filmed using the camera.
Somewhat ironically, this 1.3 update doesn't touch on that 4K capability. Majority of the focus has been on improving its Full HD talents instead. In particular, the quality of Full HD videos in 60p has been vastly improved. Samsung did this magic without the need for upgrading hardware. It simply doubled the amount of data that the existing sensor could read. This allows the camera to take quality videos whether in high or low light situations or illuminance.
The two photos below demonstrate the NX1 in high illuminance, first with the 1.2 firmware and then with the new 1.3 software.
The side-by-side photos below takes a close up look of the two firmwares again, first in high illuminance and the other in low illuminance.
Samsung also added a new 120p mode for Full HD video recording. In practice, this means that users can directly choose this framerate instead of using the roundabout method of selecting slow-mo just to achieve 120p rates. Manual focus now also has a sensitivity option, so that you can turned it down a notch to achieve a more movie-like quality.
On the stills side, the focus is more on the Auto Focus system. In addition to improved performance, a new Zone AF has been added to help track fast-moving objects in a scene. The Samsung Remote Studio software also bridges camera and computers, allowing you to remotely control the camera using a USB, with the photos sent directly to the PC.
The Samsung NX1 Firmware 1.3 uupgrade can be downloaded directly from Samsung and copied to the camera's SD card for installation or, if the NX1 is connect to the Internet directly, it will be able to upgrade itself automatically.
SOURCE: Samsung