The Samsung NX3000 is the latest entry-level NX series of compact system cameras. Featuring state-of-the-art technical specifications and a retro design, the premium NX3000 is the perfect choice for photography enthusiasts who want a stylish camera to capture life’s most important moments in stunning detail. On the other hand, both the PEN E-PL7 and Lumix GF7 feature touch screens,. In my view, a touch screen is a plus on pretty much any camera, but on cameras that put a big emphasis on selfie shooting and ease of use, it’s a massive advantage. I’ll talk about the Samsung NX3000’s self-shooting features and how they compare with those of the Olympus PEN E-PL7 and Panasonic Lumix GF7 a little later in the Shooting experience section of my review.

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20.3 megapixel SuperFine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 8Mb. But add a lens and things begin to look different. The NX3000 is supplied as a kit with the Samsung 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 Power Zoom ED OIS lens. This is a new lens which is more compact than earlier Samsung NX kit zooms, but nonethless is bulkier than the 14-42mm powered kit zoom on the Olympus E-PL7 – and lest we forget, the Olympus body also sports built-in stabilisation that works with any lens you attach. Compare the overall size and weight of the NX3000 with its kit lens attached – 117x66x70 and 380g – to the Lumix GF7 with its kit lens 107x65x57 and 366g and you can see a more substantial difference. Of course the Samsung has a slightly larger sensor than the Panasonic or Olympus cameras, and you can see what difference that makes in my results, but size and weight at this end of the market is also a critical factor. One of the Samsung NX3000’s key draws for the photography novice is its design. While not made of the aluminium and leather used in the old-school cameras that have inspired the look – it’s made of various kinds of textured plastic – it’s more keenly stylised than rivals like the Sony Alpha A5000. So the NX3000’s Wifi features are a bit of a mixed bag. Making a connection and using the clunky interface can be frustrating, but on the plus side the remote shooting features are excellent. The only other thing to say is that I think Samsung could have made a little more of the remote shooting for selfies. Though you can use your phone to trigger the shutter when the screen is facing forward, (providing you can cope with setting up a connection) there’s nothing like the Lumix GF7’s Jump snap feature.Samsung isn’t quite there yet though. I tested the NX3000’s Wifi features with my iPhone 4S. At first, the NX3000 wasn’t happy with connection, telling me that the iPhone’s NFC was for Apple Pay only and couldn’t be used with the camera, (even though my iPhone 4S doesn’t have NFC), then dropping the connection immediately it was made. I got around that by making sure I connected over Wifi before launching the app (which is what the app instructions tell you to do, but hey), but even then, connecting with the NX3000 proved to be a very hit and miss affair, with the connection failing more than half of the time. I expect owners of Android handsets will enjoy greater success given Samsung’s experience with this platform. I tested the NX3000’s stabilisation by zooming the lens all the way in and taking a series of shots in at progressively slower shutter speeds with the stabilisation enabled and turned off. As you can see from the crops above with stabilisation the NX3000 can be safely hand held at 1/8th when zoomed all the way in. That’s a pretty respectable three stops slower than you’d expect to manage without stabilisation so useful to have. It’s the same result I got with the Lumix GF7 (albeit at a 64mm equivalent compared with 75mm here), although I managed to squeeze one quarter of a second from the PEN E-PL7. Samsung NX3000 movie modes Once you’re done browsing and copying photos to your phone there’s no way to switch modes, so if you want to remote control the camera you’ve got to start all over again. To do that you must reconnect then select the Remote viewfinder mode on the camera. It’s all a bit of an effort, but it turns out to be one worth making, the remote viewfinder app is actually very good and provides a high degree of control. You can select the shooting mode regardless of the position of the mode dial, have full control of exposure, adjust the zoom, tap to focus and access a multitude of other settings including sensitivity, white balance, metering mode, image size and quality settings. You can even record video to the card in the camera. While it’s quite useful to be able to capture nearly three seconds of action at 5fps, I was a little disappointed that the NX3000 doesn’t provide any other burst shooting options. The Lumix GF7 can shoot at 5fps with continuous AF and its electronic shutter allows it to shoot at a nifty 40fps. And the PEN E-PL7 can shoot indefinitely at 8fps. So if you like to shoot action sequences the NX3000 isn’t really your best bet.

The other thing it has going for it is you can charge it in the camera from a USB power source with the cable provided, so you can plug it into your notebook, a car power adaptor, or whatever source is available. It also comes with a mains adaptor which charges the battery in the camera via the USB cable. Both the PEN E-PL7 and Lumix GF7 charge their batteries externally in a mains charger. That has the advantage that you can still use the camera while charging a spare, but I don’t think that’s something many people in this market will take advantage of and it’s a lot less convenient in other respects. Smile shot is a little more reliable, though in poor light, like Wink shot it struggles. As I’ve mentioned, there’s no countdown with smile shot, the shutter fires the instant the NX3000 detects a grin, but in both the examples below it’s done a pretty good job of capturing the moment.The front focussing ring can be used to manually focus and in PASM exposure modes the iFn button on the left side of the lens barrel can be assigned to one of a number of exposure controls including aperture, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, White Balance and exposure compensation. Samsung calls this i-function and it’s activated by pressing the iFn button on any suitably equipped lenses. The NX3000 has a dedicated video button, and pressing this starts recording immediately. The exposure mode is set by the mode dial in the same way as for stills shooting. You can set the exposure in any of the PASM modes for movie shooting but you can’t adjust it once recording has started.

Even looking at the camera’s rear, there’s literal room for improvement given the amount of bezel on show. If it wasn’t for cost-saving, fitting in a larger screen would have certainly been possible.

The Samsung NX3000 is the entry-level mirrorless camera from Samsung, and updates the NX2000. The NX3000 features a 20.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, 1/4000 shutter speed and 5fps continuous shooting, the NX3000 has a retro design along with built in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity.The camera has a 3-inch flip up display with Wink Shot, allowing you to take selfiephotos by winking to activate the shutter. Samsung NX3000 Features While the new Samsung NX3000 loses some of the more impressive features of the NX2000 model that it replaces, most notably the massive touchscreen display and faster burst shooting mode, it offers more than enough beginner-friendly features at a very competitive price to once again earn our Highly Recommended award. The Samsung NX3000 features a convenient 3.0-inch Flip-up Display with Wink Shot. By simply opening the screen and turning the device towards your face and winking, you can capture the perfect selfie in one hassle-free motion. The Panorama mode captures a Live Panorama, which allows you to also capture subject movement at several points during a sweeping panorama.

The Samsung NX3000 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The 20.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS megapixel sensor used in the NX3000 produces noise-free JPEG images at ISO 100-800, with ISO 1600 also looking very good. ISO 3200 only shows a little noise, while the fastest settings of ISO 6400 and 12800 are quite a lot noisier and suffer from softening of fine detail and a loss of saturation, but the images are still perfectly usable for small prints and resizing for web use. The NX3000 does apply quite a lot of noise reduction to the JPEGs, as demonstrated by the RAW files which have more noise at the comparable high ISO settings. Samsung’s NX3000 is an entry-level mirrorless system camera that combines ease of use and consumer-friendly features with an advanced specification. Its 21.6 Megapixel APSC sized sensor promises big images with decent low light performance and the NX mount accommodates a growing choice of lenses.Completing the top of the NX3000 is a traditional shooting mode dial The usual selection of Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual are available for the more experienced photographers in the Expert mode, and the more beginner-friendly Smart Auto and Smart Scene modes, plus the Wi-fi menu (more on this later). You'll also need to buy a memory card and a case or bag to keep your camera safe and protected - have a look at our complete guide to camera bags. Samsung NX3000 Verdict