Samsung NX30 Image Quality

Sporting a similar 20MP APS-C sensor, the detail captured by the new NX30 and its predecessor is very similar. Both the bottle and mosaic crops display a very high amount of detail at base ISO. The big apparent difference is in the fabric swatches; the NX30 does slightly better with the red fabric and the subtle leaf pattern, while the NX20 handles the pink one a little better.

While both cameras here show clean, crisp detail in the bottle crops, the NX30 has the edge in sharpness in areas of fine detail such as the tile mosaic pattern. In the fabric crops, both cameras are very similarly matched, especially with the pink fabric, though the NX30 does ever-so-slightly better with the leaf pattern in the red swatch.

Both cameras here show impressive detail at base ISO. The D5300's 24MP APS-C sensor lacks an anti-aliasing filter, and with that comes a lot of resolving power. However, the NX30, even with a more traditional sensor, isn't hurting in the detail department. Default sharpening is a bit strong in the images from the NX30, though, particularly in the mosaic detail, while the D5300 looks a bit more natural but still crisp.

The larger, higher resolution APS-C sensor of the NX30 compared to the Four Thirds sensor in the GX7 is able to produce slightly cleaner, crisper fine detail for the most part. However, the GX7 is certainly no slouch here at base ISO. The shadows and bottle surface in the first crop are a little cleaner from the NX30, and the mosaic pattern is noticeably sharper. However, both cameras handle the fabric swatches very well, with the GX7 actually producing a slightly cleaner, more distinct leaf pattern in the red fabric.

It's a tough match-up between the Samsung and the Fuji here. Both cameras display impressive fine detail. While the NX30's sharpening is stronger, fine detail from both cameras is excellent. And the X-E2, in fact, does an outstanding job at the leaf pattern in the red fabric, however it struggles with the pink fabric. The Fuji does, however, eliminate some of the colors found in the monk's clothes and mosaic pattern that are a result of the offset printing process used for the bottle label.

While the base ISO comparison was quite similar, the difference now at higher ISOs is more apparent. At ISO 1600, the NX30 does noticeably better than the NX20. The default noise reduction processing is a little strong on the NX30, though it does well to remove luminance and particularly chroma noise, while still leaving a lot of find detail.

It's a pretty close comparison here at ISO 1600. The NR on the NX30 is strong, but it does a great job at removing almost all noise, while the T5i shows a small amount. The fine detail is very good from both cameras, though the edge goes to the NX30 with slightly sharper detail. The NX30 also handles the fabric swatches better than the T5i, with a more realistic attempt at the red leaf pattern.

Quite an interesting comparison here. While the noise reduction processing appears stronger on the NX30, it's effective at cleaning up a significant amount of noise while leaving lots of fine detail. However, the D5300 on the other hand opts for a more "natural," grainy look with lower noise reduction. Both provide excellent detail, but the NX30 looks a bit crisper.

Despite the smaller Four Thirds sensor, the GX7 does quite well up against the APS-C NX30 at ISO 1600. However, the Samsung does take the prize for fine detail, as noise from both cameras is fairly evenly matched and quite low at default NR settings.

At the higher ISOs, the Fuji shows its famous high ISO performance. Other than the difference in resolution, both cameras are pretty evenly matched in terms of low noise and fine detail in the mosaic. The big difference is in the fabrics. The X-E2 does very well at resolving the leaf pattern in the red fabric, whereas the NX30 struggles with that difficult pattern.

Similar to the ISO 1600 comparison, the NX30 shows significant image quality improvements over the NX20 at higher ISOs. The NR processing, while strong and displaying some artifacts, is very good at removing luminance and chroma noise. The NX20 in fact displays quite a bit of cloudy chrome noise. The NX30 still manages a lot of fine detail in the mosaic tile pattern, though it struggles with the red and pink fabrics a little more so than the NX20.

Like we saw with the ISO 1600 comparison of these two cameras, the NX30 takes the prize here with less noise and better fine detail, particularly in the mosaic tile. The fabric swatches are troublesome for both cameras, though the T5i still struggles with the fine, low-contrast pattern more than the NX30.

While both cameras show impressive detail at ISO 3200 -- especially in the mosaic tile -- the D5300 images are noticeably noisier than the NX30's, thanks in part to less aggressive NR processing.

The GX7 is definitely holding its own against the NX30 here at ISO 3200. While noise and NR processing is taking its toll on tricky areas like the fabrics in images from both cameras, fine detail in the mosaic holds up well from both cameras, with just a slight edge going to the NX30 overall.

The X-E2 is impressive at high ISOs -- clean shadows with very low noise and lots of fine detail, even in the notorious fabrics. While the NX30 is low on noise as well, its NR processing is strong with visible artifacts, whereas the the X-E2 less so. The mosaic areas in both cameras' images is very good, however.