Samsung NX20 Performance

Sluggish cycle times and buffer clearing, but fast prefocused shutter lag and burst rates.

Startup and shutdown times are about average for a CSC, but much longer than most SLRs. (Firmware v1.11 did however reduce startup from 3 seconds with v1.01, so be sure to upgrade.) Buffer clearing will depend on image size and quality, as well as card speed. Here the Samsung NX20 was very sluggish when RAW files were included, even with a relatively fast card. (The NX20 does not appear to take advantage of faster UHS-I cards.)

Mode switching was pretty good for its class, except Record to Play which was very sluggish.

The Samsung NX20 exhibited full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) that ranged from 0.350 second in single-area AF mode to 0.650 second in multi-area AF mode when using the 18-55mm OIS kit lens. This is a bit slower than average for a CSC these days. Enabling the flash increased shutter lag to 0.620 second, to account for the preflash metering.

Shutter lag was 0.282 second in continuous mode AF, though the subject may not be in focus in this mode. When manually focused, the Samsung NX20's lag time dropped to 0.060 second, which is quite fast. The NX20's prefocused shutter lag time was very fast, at 0.044 second, much faster than average.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Single-shot cycle times are quite sluggish, ranging from 1.40 seconds for large/superfine JPEGs to 1.32 seconds for RAW files.

Continuous Hi mode at full resolution was well above average for its class, though, at about 7.5 frames-per-second for large/superfine JPEGs, 7.4 fps for RAW, and 7.5 fps for RAW+LSF JPEGs. Buffer depths were somewhat limited though, at 11 large/superfine JPEGs, and only 8 RAW or RAW + LSF JPEGs. Note that our test target for this is designed to be difficult to compress, so JPEG burst lengths may be longer with typical subjects. The NX20 has a Burst mode that can capture at up to 30 frames-per-second at a reduced resolution of 5 megapixels, however we didn't test that mode. As mentioned previously, buffer clearing is quite slow, though, taking up to 31 seconds to clear after a burst of 8 RAW + LSF JPEG frames, and that's with a pretty fast card.

Flash recycle was a bit slow, taking an average of 3.6 seconds after a full power discharge.

Download speeds via USB 2.0 were just okay. You may want to consider a separate card reader, especially if you shoot a lot of RAW files or HD videos. (Note that this test was performed with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 45MB/sec UHS-I SDHC: Slower cards would likely show slower transfer times.)

Bottom line, the Samsung NX20's performance is a mixed bag. Startup is a bit sluggish but fairly typical for a CSC (after upgrading to firmware v1.11). Autofocus speeds are a little slower than average compared to recent competitors, but prefocused shutter lag is quite fast. Single-shot cycle times are slow, but continuous mode speeds are quite good. Buffer depths are a little shallow though, and buffer clearing very slow, especially with RAW files.

Battery Life
Slightly above average battery life for a compact system camera.

The Samsung NX20 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and charger. Samsung rates the NX20's battery life at 360 shots per charge, but doesn't distinguish between using the EVF or OLED monitor.

That's a bit above average for CSCs tested using the CIPA standard, but we still recommend getting a second battery for your NX20 if you plan any extended outings or shoot a lot of video.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))