Lens review

Samsung NX 30 mm f/2.0

11. Summary

• very compact barrel and sensibly fast at the same time,
• excellent image quality in the frame centre,
• good image quality at the frame edge,
• chromatic aberration very well corrected,
• well-corrected astigmatism,
• good work against bright light,
• relatively silent and quick autofocus.

Cons:

• frame edges could have been a bit sharper at the maximum aperture,
• noticeable vignetting.

There’s no denying that after several days of playing with the Samsung NX10 and the 2/30 pancake set I took a liking to it. Most of this sympathy was gained exactly by the lens. I can hardly wait for next Samsung launches in the same style. A small lens with the angle of view at the level of 70 degrees and f/2.8 aperture and a nice telephoto portrait lens with the maximum relative aperture near f/1.8 would definitely come in handy too. I know I will have to wait for them a bit longer so I greatly enjoyed the play with the Samsung 2/30.

This lens is not without faults – such a construction forces some simplifications. You can’t manufacture a small, physically light, fast and reasonably priced device which would be perfectly sharp and correct all the off-axis aberrations at the same time. You must come to a compromise of a kind. We must say Samsung succeeded in reaching it. Our recognition is even greater as it was just Samsung’s debut on the market of changeable lenses – we consider it to be really very successful.

Sample shots:

Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.0, exp. 1/160 sec., ISO 400 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.28 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.0, exp. 1/320 sec., ISO 400 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 4.88 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.0, exp. 1/1250 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.47 MB
Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.8, exp. 1/640 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.51 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/4.0, exp. 1/320 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.6 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/3.2, exp. 1/500 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.37 MB
Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.0, exp. 1/1250 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.33 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/40 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.76 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/80 sec., ISO 200 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.42 MB
Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.8, exp. 1/45 sec., ISO 200 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.82 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.8, exp. 1/200 sec., ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.27 MB	Camera: Samsung NX10 Parameters: 30 mm, f/2.8, exp. 1/45 sec., ISO 200 File: JPEG, 4592 x 3056 pix, 3.08 MB