Samsung NX300 - Manual Mode

Manual Mode for beginners might seem a little daunting, but once you have a basic understanding of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed, Manual Mode might end up being your favourite of shooting modes.

I used to love using AV (aperture value) but I didn't always get the correct exposure.  After playing around with the Manual Mode it was easier to keep control of the exposure and adjust the shutter speed and aperture the way I wanted and what worked best for me.

I still use AF to focus as my eyes are not reliable for manual focus but the Focus Ring (also used when the iFN button is pressed to select settings) makes life so much easier in MF.  It allows you to zoom in for a closer look and for fine tuning the focus before taking the photo.  Much like using the + and - zoom buttons on DLSR's.  I can tell you that having this available on the lens and not having to reach to the back of the camera is a huge time saver.

To use the Focus Ring for zooming in while focusing manually you need to have MF Assist activated by going to Menu, selecting MF Assist under the Camera Icon then selecting either Enlarge x5 or Enlarge x8.

You may also want to activate Focus Peaking (depending on what suits you best as some might find this distracting) where the camera detects the sensitivity of the focus area which displays as either white, red, green.  The points that are in focus are highlighted in the colour you selected. You can increase the sensitivity but low is considered best for day to day photography where high is probably better for low light photos.

Keep an eye on the Aperture and Shutter Speed while manually focusing.

I haven't been able to find out if you can move around the screen when using MF Assist and while this is a great feature it will only zoom in on the center of the screen. To see the entire screen while manually focusing you need to deactivate MF Assist. You can't use MF Assist if your lens is set to Auto Focus, it can only be used in Manual Focus.

The following website and videos will give you a better idea of how Focus Peaking works (even though the Samsung NX300 isn't featured the idea is general).  http://petapixel.com/2012/08/30/focus-peaking-making-its-way-onto-more-digital-cameras/

I may add a video later on demonstrating how this works.

Right: number of shots available, battery, Dynamic Range, photo size (20M), Drive, Flash, Metering, AF mode, Focus Area, OIS, RAW format, Fn menu

Left: Manual Mode, Autoshare, AF options, Menu, Histogram (the graph)

In Manual Mode the Shutter Speed is highlighted in blue, meaning this is currently selected and when you move the dial mode (wheel on top of the camera) you will be changing the shutter speed only. While doing this keep an eye on the Exposure Compensation/Value (those sets of lines seen at the bottom of the screen).  The red line will move as you change either the shutter or aperture.

If the line moves to the right of the 0, the photo becomes overexposed.  If it moves to the left of the 0 the photo becomes underexposed.  If in the middle under 0, the photo is considered correctly exposed. This red line does not move in the other advanced modes unless you press the EV (Exposure Value, shown as a block with + and -) and manually change it.

Changing the EV in modes P, A, and S is telling the camera to make the photo a bit lighter or darker after the camera has chosen what it believes is the correct exposure for the combination of settings. Since the camera controls one of the features in P, A and S modes, you can use the EV button here but in Manual Mode you are controlling both aperture and shutter so the EV button doesn't work in the same way and exposure is adjusted according to what you decide on the settings.

Sometimes the camera isn't correct with its choice of exposure according to your settings in P, A and S so the EV button allows you to adjust for correct exposure.

For more info on EV: http://digital-photography-school.com/ev-compensation-explained

To change the aperture you need to press the EV button (the aperture will change to blue) and hold down while turning the mode dial and select the aperture that you want.  Again keep an eye on the red line as it moves.

If you still struggle with getting correct exposure try adjusting your ISO, starting from 200 (if it was originally on 100) and slowly increasing until you get the desired settings.  Keep in mind that the more you increase the ISO the more noise will appear but as I said before, the Samsung NX300 is excellent with handling noise.

Framing Mode is mentioned with Manual Mode in the user's manual but can be used with the other advanced modes.  At first I found it confusing because when the feature is turned ON it seems to be the opposite of my Canon 650D's Exposure Compensation.  But considering that the Samsung NX300 does not have an EVF, the Framing Mode seems to compensate for this.  Read more about this here: http://photographyasiam.blogspot.com/2013/08/samsung-nx300-few-quick-things.html - scroll down to Framing Mode.

The following photos show the original shot and the edited shot to the right.

ISO: 100, Aperture: f/10, Shutter: 1/13 - edited with PSE 10 and Topaz Clarity

ISO: 1600, Aperture: f/9, Shutter: 1/400.  I was indoors with low light so increased my ISO.  

I could have decreased my aperture to increase the shutter speed but the DOF would have been limited.  Here I released the ball and quickly snapped away and a fast shutter speed was needed.

ISO: 100, Aperture: f/3.5, Shutter: 1/30.  No Flash, no photoshop correction.  This is straight out of the camera.  Posted this for fun :-D.

There is quite a bit of noise in the second photo above but not enough to entirely degrade the photo.  I could still use Topaz Labs Denoise and it would look pretty good.  Shows how well the Samsung NX300 handles noise when the ISO is that high.

I did find that after extended use, about 2 hours or so straight, the camera did become hot on the battery's side but this seems normal for many SLR's.  As my Canon 650D is much bigger I don't notice when the battery becomes hot.  The memory card is right next to the battery on the Samsung NX300 so this can pose a slight problem as the heat may damage the card or cause it to not work correctly.  If you feel the camera is getting too hot, switch it off for a few minutes and let it cool down.

In the last photo of the Merry Go Round, the bottom photo shows the Chromatic Aberration (fringing) that appears when using the 18-55mm kit lens for the Samsung NX300.  In comparison to my Canon 18-55mm kit lens, the Samsung kit lens handles the fringing far better as it is less pronounced.  You can reduce and mostly remove the fringing with one mouse click in Lightroom 4 under Lens Correction.

I played around with the colour presets in LR4 but the Samsung NX300 captured the colours of the Merry Go Round fairly nicely considering this was in the shade where colours tend to be muted.

Since playing with the Samsung NX300 I've started to enjoy the benefits of Manual Mode over Aperture Priority.  The Samsung NX300 more than shows its ease of use, no matter what shooting mode you use.

Next: Lens Priority Mode

Edit update: regarding using manual focus while autofocus is on - this can only be done if you have a lens with the Full-Time Manual Focus (FTMF) feature like the 85mm 1.4 or 60mm 2.8 (which allows you to fine tune the autofocus manually with the focus ring without having to change to manual focus).  Without this option you can/will cause damage to your lens while manually focusing with the AF on as this will fight with the camera's ability to focus.

Here's a guide for definitions of the NX lens range: Lenses explained

Samsung NX300 - a few quick things

Program mode is next but I wanted to quickly add in some info on a few other things on the Samsung NX300.

Sensor Cleaning - the Samsung NX300 has a built in dust removal system where the sensor vibrates 60 000 times per second to "shake" off unwanted dust that may collect on the sensor.  You may have to enable this feature depending on the factory settings.  When the camera is switched on or comes out of standby, it sounds like a little printing machine.  You can perform this feature manually as this takes a few seconds and can cause you to miss a shot when you need the camera to be ready immediately.

If you do notice spots or marks on the photos taken, use a Lenspen to clean the lens in attempt to remove any dust or spots.  If this still doesn't work there may be dust on the sensor, those black, smudgy or blurred spots (if the dot is a solid black, white or a colour you may have a dead or stuck pixel, further info here http://photographylife.com/dead-vs-stuck-vs-hot-pixels).

Unless you know what you are doing rather take the camera to an authorised center for cleaning if the spots are big and plenty.  If you have one or two small spots then you can clone it out in Photoshop or Lightroom 4.

For South Africa you can try the Samsung Smart Care Centers.  You can also contact them on tellus@samsung.com or call 0860 726 7864.

It will happen at some point when changing the lens that dust spots will appear.  Avoid changing a lens in windy, dusty areas and don't hold the camera with the sensor facing up when changing or removing lenses.  Hold the camera with the sensor (opening for lens) facing down as this decreases the chances of dust falling onto the sensor while lens changing.

Level Gauge - interesting feature that tells you whether or not your camera is level by turning the gauge green.  Great for landscapes and horizons. You can activate this by pressing DISP three times (if you are starting from the default screen).  Level Gauge doesn't work in Smart Auto Mode or Wi-Fi but does work in the other shooting modes including Smart Mode.

Histogram - shows whether or not your photo is over or underexposed.  It contains a white point (right), black point (left) and a grey point (middle).  If the peak of the graph is more to the right side, then the photo is too bright and you may lose details where some areas will be solid white.  If the peak of the graph is more to the left side, it will be underexposed and details in shadows may be lost.  You are aiming for a peak in the middle to get a good exposure, leading down to the right and the left of the graph.  You can find out further info here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-cameras-histogram-perfectly-balanced-images/.
Activate Histogram by pressing DISP twice.

Help menu - each time you select an option in Menu or Fn, a quick window appears with a short description of what that option does.  The Help Guide Display has two options, both of which can be set to On or Off. Mode Help Guide - Set to display help for the selected mode when changing shooting mode.  Function Help Guide - Set to display help for menu functions.  You won't have to reach for the booklet every time to understand each function you select.

Custom White Balance - on the Samsung NX300, in order to customize the White Balance you would need to select Menu and under the camera icon settings select White Balance.  Here you will find the options for different White Balance settings.  Scroll to the left until you get to the Custom Set, select the setting but don't press Set or touch the setting again (to activate it) as you will need to adjust the White Balance first. Select Adjust (lower right) or press DISP to bring up a grey box in the middle of the screen.
Position your grey card or white paper in front of the NX300, making certain it fills the grey square box in the centre of the screen.  The Samsung NX300 uses Spot Metering to measure the White Balance so you don't have to worry about anything outside the box. You can either select the Measure Option on the lower right (which can be difficult if you are using the camera handheld) or just press the shutter button.
The NX300 will then take a photo and use this as the Custom White Balance until you change it.

Selecting a setting - when you select a setting by using the touch screen only, the first tap on a setting will select it, the second tap will activate it (shown by a blue tick).  If you don't tap the setting a second time the setting will not be selected and you will carry on using the previous setting.  If using the buttons, navigation is via the left and right buttons and activating the setting is done by pressing the set button (OK in the centre of the navigation buttons on the right of the camera).
I will be updating this posting gradually as I go along.

Framing Mode - according to the manual, this is an adjustment that when ON keeps the screen at a constant brightness when adjusting your shutter speed and/or aperture.  As either or both are adjusted the screen will darken or lighten.  I can't seem to find further info on this but I think when this feature is OFF it's the same as Exposure Simulation on my Canon 650D (where the screen will show how the exposure will appear as close as possible).  When ON it acts in a similar way to an EVF.
I'm in two minds about this feature.  It can be misleading if ON as you may forget that the screen is set to a specific brightness and does not reflect the correct exposure. The screen's brightness wasn't the same when moved into different areas of lighting so it's more that the screen adjusts to the lighting to make it easier for you to take a photo, especially in a darkened area.
For example, if you walk into a darkened room and the Framing Mode setting is OFF, your camera will "simulate the exposure" and you will most likely see nothing on the screen depending on your settings and lighting.
If you turn the Framing Mode setting to ON, then the screen will act a bit like an Electronic View Finder and you will be able to see something on the screen depending on the light in the room (but remember you are not seeing the camera's exposure so you can't rely on the screen for exposure settings).  The setting will make everything appear lighter than a traditional EVF on other DSLR's but Framing Mode on the Samsung NX300 kind of compensates for the camera not having an EVF.