I'm a fan of the Samsung NX camera line. I even bought one for my wife a couple years ago, and found it to have the best connectivity features of any camera I'd ever tested.
But it looks like the connected camera wasn't enough to entice buyers. According to Korean newspaper Asiae, as reported by MirrorlessRumors, Samsung is reportedly ready to pull the plug on interchangeable lens cameras.
A Samsung representative was quoted as saying (translated), “[The smaller interchangeable lens camera market] has a clear market limit between smartphone cameras, as well as high-end digital cameras. [We] have a lot of worries about the market.” This is somewhat puzzling, given the fact that mirrorless camera markets have at least plateaued over the last 2 years while sales of DSLR cameras have fallen approximately 10% each year for the last two years. While mirrorless is actually not seeing rapid growth, it is at least remaining constant.
For passionate photographers who spend a lot of time on the photography blogs, that last statement may seem surprising because the web is full of famous photographers switching to mirrorless and making a lot of news as they do it. But the passionate amateur and professional market is far smaller than the “pick up a camera at Best Buy before Little Timmy's soccer game” market.
Samsung has provided a unique selling proposition to photographers. Unlike the 40% of the camera market that buys sensors from Sony, Samsung has created their own sensors, which provided good competition to Sony. In Fact, DxO ranked one of their APS-C sensors at the top of the heap.
I personally was really excited about the Samsung NX1 camera when it was announced, but held back on purchasing because the lens lineup was just too small to compete. Seeing this rumor makes me glad that I did.
Not being privy to Samsung’s corporate plans it is difficult to make sense of all the things they are doing photographically. Yes, the point and shoot market is the largest total volume and Samsung has made some attempts enter this market with a small level of success. They are also trying to produce a line to compete with Fuji and other high end mirrorless cameras. I am presently using one of these (NX500) and it is a pretty good camera. This level of research and development and the production of a fairly good range of quality lenses to support these bodies does not look like they are ready to quit.
I shoot full time weddings and fashion editorials and tests for agencies and clients in LA, and this is very sad news.
Samsung’s NX1 and NX500 have been perfect for me!! I switched from my canon 5d3 and Sony A7 and A6000, due to the colors, dynamic range and 4K video. I just didn’t enjoy the raw color science from sony, and I am 100% ALL IN for mirrorless.
Samsung’s len’s line up is PERFECT, so many people complain that its too small, but its WAY more than Sony’s. And screw that lens adapter garbage, I wasted money and time using metabones, etc. for my L lenses, but maybe for manual vintage lenses and other sony lenses its ok….
I can shoot anything with their AWESOME equivalents to 24-70, 70-200 at F2 – 2.8 !! (which Sony doesn’t have at this time)
And their 30mm f2, 45 1.8, and 85 1.4 make it complete for me and so many of my colleagues. But I’m sure landscape and nature photogs want wider and longer, but for everyone else, lenses are perfect!
If this is true, I’ll still keep shooting my samsung for years and years to come, and I’ll even stock up on spare bodies– I’m hoping they keep at it and release a full frame beast– that’s the dream!!
If you like Samsung NX products and want Samsung to keep them alive sign the petition below and have your voice heard!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/samsung-keep-nx-alive