mercoledì 13 gennaio 2016

Cheap Samsung NX lenses as spareparts


[Thanks to SpacemanUA for this informations: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/57042702 ]

Samsung provides very strange service and repair policy. They actually don't "repair" lenses if, say, something is wrong with motor or aperture unit (as Canon or Nikon does). They just replace the whole lens. For example, I had 45mm 3D lens that had oil on it's aperture blades. But service manual for this lens has only two parts: lens and lens mount. That's it, you can't buy aperture unit. Thanks no engineers, it has simple constriction, so I managed to disassemble it and clean aperture very easy. But, I digress...
You can buy "spare parts" in Samsung service or any website or shop, that sells it. And there is very interesting "part" called "ASSY BARREL TOTAL". It means complete lens. With caps. No hood. It will come in grey carton box with a limited warranty for a few months. And the price... Get ready to be surpirsed.
Here is a short list of models and corresponding part numbers. I won't post links, where you can buy it - just Google it. You can find another part numbers there and find the lens you need. I also post prices that are in list for today.

http://www.SamsungParts.com
in brazil comclick 
Following this thread, I found that this Australian site seems to have all the parts numbers:
http://www.sparepartsmarket.com.au/Samsung/camera-lens-c-14_6297_6955.html?osCsid=bg0ghtev5778mnh6qi70djqhi2

10mm f/3.5 - AD97-23814A - $138.20
16mm f/2.4 - AD97-21701A - $161.70
30mm f/2 - AD97-18379A - $124.26
45mm f/1.8 2D - AD97-23093B - $183.82
AD97-23093A - $139.27 - XL1201
AD97-23093B - $183.82 - XL1202,BLK,45MM
AD97-23093C - $185.14 - XL1202_45MM_3D,WHITE
AD97-23093D - $193.01 - XL1202,WHITE
60mm f/2 - AD97-21044A - $383.17
85mm f/1.4- AD97-21694A - $514.34
12-24mm f/4-5.6 - AD97-23085A - $184.47
16-50mm f/2-2.8 - AD97-23876A - $621.67
50-150mm f/2.8 - AD97-24501A - $757.74
18-200mm Part #: AD97-22579A - $559.54
50-200mm black AD97-18493B
50-200mm white AD97-18493C
And you can get spare batteries in the same way as well. For example, NX30 battery:
BP1410 - AD43-00225A
lens hood for the 16-50mm S lens: AD97-24158A - $14.88
tripod mount AD97-24486A

Head and Shoulders portrait with Samsung Flash GN42 or SEF42

I found myself very comfortable with this flash. I discovered that when you are in for a portrait with a focal around 50mm (i was on with my 18-55), the best use of the light that i found was frame for an head and shoulders portrait with the flash angled at 45 degree.

This way you got the right illumination for the face (not too "lucid") and also save yourself for some heavy panda eyes!

If you get closer (like with the nice 30mm prime) you may need to use a wider angle (60 or more). I did not experiment on that, maybe i'll do next time.

lunedì 4 gennaio 2016

You should enjoy your RAW process part 1

One thing that change when i switched to NX system was shooting in RAW.

My Sony workflow was "in camera": the target was to shot in right exposure, white balance, color, etc etc.

The revolution started because NX sysyem was pretty good up to 800 iso (while with the a200 anything over 400 iso was awful...) but with computer noise reduction i could have gone uo to 3200.

So I started shooting RAW, initially only over iso 800, but then all the picture.

Because i evolved.

I discovered that RAW editing can be fun, just as you where extending your shooting time.

But the most important thing i discovered is that every decent picture deserve is own developement. Deserve you finding the best style fitting every single frame. Some picture need saturation, some other need soft colors. Some should be slight underexposed, some needed more light.

I know someone will tell you you should have your own style, but i think that exploring every single shot is just more fun!