The ever-nearing of this year's PMA (Photo Marketing Association) show in Las Vegas brings to life a whole bunch of rumours.
Lucky then that ThinkCamera can dust off some of these tales and bring a little more light to the situation. Recently Samsung invited us to a secret pre-PMA meeting in the heart of London - where we got a hands-on play with a prototype Samsung GX20 DSLR - the follow up to the popular GX10 DSLR.
Samsung have certainly been busy beavering away in the lab - the GX20 will have an own-brand 14.6megapixel CMOS sensor (compared the GX10's CCD) running the new nippy in-house developed DRIM (pronounced "Dream") Engine.
The Dual Dust Reduction System, Optical Image Stabilisation, 11 autofocus points, one touch RAW and weather-sealed body of the GX10 all remain intact.
Building from this, the Samsung GX20 improves in a number of areas. The LCD screen has been upped to a sizeable 2.7", plus there's now an x-sync terminal for external light sources (up to 180/sec sync). Current 'DSLR must have' Live View has been added, with HDR (high dynamic range) capability, er, 'dramatically' improved.
To add to the existing stable of Samsung GX lenses, a nifty 18-250mm f3.5-f6.3 (27-375mm equiv.) lens was also announced (RRP £450).
Initial hands-on impression suggests that this is certainly not a complete version - Live View wasn't fully installed or practical, so we await to see how the final release version shapes up (in a future review - watch this space!).
HDR was certainly effective in-camera as far as can be told on a 2.7" screen. In camera "after effects" allowed for the HDR adjustment.
Whilst some new lenses have also been added to the expansive GX range, it's a little bit of a downer to not see the kit lens improved - it's among the ropier of DSLR kit lenses available. Given that the lens range only really covers mid-weight at best, it seems about time that Samsung pushed forward and introduced some sustainable large aperture zoom lenses.
Chances are, as with the GX10, you'll be looking toward the Samsung GX20 if you have a stack of older back-compatible Pentax lenses to work with the system (the GX10 and GX20 are almost identical to the Pentax K10D and recently announced K20D - all lenses are cross compatible).
Available March 2008.
Kit includes 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.
RRP: £700
Price Comparison:
Samsung GX20 DSLR
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