Samsung NX300: Smart Mode Silhouette

Silhouette is a fairly nice Smart Mode feature and even though it was intended for photos of people, I won't be using human subjects due to the sensitivity of privacy and so on.

But who said you can't break the rules?

The reason I like Silhouette is because it gives a type of glow depending on where the light source is coming from.  More detail is kept in Silhouette than in Sunset but Sunset brings out the warmer colours.

The photo examples below were taken around sunset and haven't been edited in anyway other than to make them smaller for the blog.

To use the Silhouette Mode, as with the other modes under Smart Mode (represented as a small S surrounded by a black camera shape on the shooting mode dial):

Turn on the NX300, turn the mode dial to the small S and you will be given a selection of modes to choose from.  Use the Navigation buttons to scroll through the modes and press OK (the mode will have a blue box around it) to select the Silhouette mode, which will show with a tick as the selected mode.  You can also just touch the screen to select the mode.

The rest is easy as the camera does everything else for you, unless you want to change some of the limited settings.  But to get started, just point, half press the shutter button to focus and fully to shoot. The camera will take one photo and even in low light I didn't have a problem with blurring as the photos were sharp and clear.

Settings wise this is what I used:

Autoshare - Off (Your choice whether this is on or not)

Smart Mode set to Silhouette

Photo size - 20M 5472 x 3648 (for best results I go for the highest resolution)

Quality - Super Fine (RAW is not available in Smart Mode features)

AF Mode - Single Auto Focus (if you have a switch for Manual Focus MF and Auto Focus AF on the lens, then when AF is selected on the lens, MF will be greyed out and visa versa.  This is different for lenses like the 30mm that don't have a switch and must be manually changed in the menu)

AF Area - Multi AF

Touch AF - Touch AF - you can touch the screen to place the focus.  Tracking is not available

MF Assist - I leave this at Enlarge x5, i.e. when you want to fine tune focus using manual focus ring (small front ring) the screen will enlarge the area x5

Focus Peaking - I have this set to High Level and Colour White.  Some people don't like this as they find it distracting.  What happens is that areas considered over exposed will flash the colour selected, in this case White.  It does in no way affect the photo.

OIS - Set to Mode 1 but this is only available on lenses that support OIS e.g. 18-55mm kit lens

Drive - set to Single.  Timer is also available but Continuous is not.

Ok, so that's the extra settings that you use to fine tune the Silhouette mode. The 18-55mm lens was used with the following examples.  You may see some banding (rainbow like lines) in the sky but that is due to the quality that the photo was saved at for the web.  In the original photos you don't see any banding.

Smart Mode Silhouette - camera chose ISO 100, Shutter 1/500, Aperture f9

You can also achieve the same results in Manual but the point of Smart Mode is to make it easier for those not used to DSLRs to take photos without the hassle of settings.  ISO was kept at 100, which is perfect as noise is kept at its lowest and I didn't even need a tripod.  The ISO will go up the more the lights drops and may get to a point that a tripod is needed but at just before Sunset I didn't have an issue.

Not a great idea, but the Sun was directly behind the trees so I quickly snapped a photo.  In comparison to the Sunset mode below, the Silhouette has more impact with more detail.  But, the sky was one of our bland pale blue and white sunsets so the Sunset mode literally didn't get a chance to shine here.  Silhouette also darkened the trees, street, street sign and wall whereas in the Sunset photo you can still details in the bottom elements.

 A little less detail and impact in the sky, but would have worked better with a sky that had more red in it.  You can see feintly some red captured.  Photos were taken within a 1 minute of each other so the light source was the same.

Playing around with a more defined outline.  A wire and beaded Christmas Tree with lights.  You can see some colour has been kept for the Christmas lights but a majority has been darkened out (the star on top is made of blue beads).  No lol, that's not a UFO on the right but part of a street lamp.

Another Silhouette photo but facing the direction of the sun whereas the photo below, also taken in Silhouette, looks like any normal photo.  It was taken with the sun at my back so for successful results make sure the source of light is facing you.

Taken with my back to the source of light, in this case the Sun.  Avoid pointing your camera directly at the Sun as you can damage your eyes as well as your camera.

Just for some fun and maybe artistic value.  Different shapes; a bare Winter tree with old peach pips hanging from the branches.  Taken facing the light source (sun) and shows the stark impact of Winter.

So while Silhouette is a people thing, you can take a photo of anything that peaks your interest and get great results.

I'm a Manual Shooting Mode Fan but for those times when you don't want to fiddle with the aperture and shutter speed, Silhouette does a very nice job of capturing that drama quickly and effortlessly.

Samsung NX300: Example photos compared

While I figure out what scenes to use the other Smart Mode features for, here are some examples and comparisons of Manual Mode, Smart Mode: Landscape, Action Freeze, Creative Shot, Rich Tones.

All photos are unedited (i.e. colours are straight from camera).

Rich Tones under Smart Mode - colours look good and natural considering that the python was lying under a heating lamp.  F/2.2 so shallow depth of field, shutter 1/125, ISO 100.

Creative Shot - umm....here you can see how the heating lamp affected the photo and how over enthusiastic the feature was.  The heating lamp was not that bright red or that hot.  The Manual Mode and Rich Tones Mode are closer to what I saw.  Settings were the same as above except for the shutter speed which was 1/160.

In Manual Mode you control everything and here I used f5.6, 1/125, ISO 400.  I increased the ISO because this was in a shaded area, as evident by the shadow to the left.  I also wanted a larger depth of field which is why my ISO had to be increased.  I could have gotten away with 1/60 and decreased my ISO for less noise, but the photo was taken hand held so I didn't want to take a chance.

From the photos above you can see that different situations and lighting can give a different result each time.  Manual will most likely be more consistent but Rich Tones lightens the shadows more while increasing the yellow and reducing definition.

Creative Shot was too hot for the photo and didn't represent the correct lighting conditions.  Then again, it isn't called Creative Shot for nothing.  I'd avoid this anywhere near red lighting as it might give a negative result.  Some photographers may like this type of shot, so it's personal opinion.  The shot may have changed if I had moved a little to my left or right.  Creative Shot is not an exact science, more guesswork but more fun related.

I didn't use the other features here e.g. Action Freeze (no action) and Landscape (which is more for photos with green and blue).  The other features are obvious so they wouldn't have worked here (macro could have but with a shallow depth of field would have been similar to Rich Tones), however that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.  Features not meant for certain situations can produce some unusual photos by breaking the rules.  And rules are meant to be broken (something I should experiment with using the NX300).

Consistent and reliable, f/5.6, shutter 1/80, ISO 200.

As this was a moving body of water I tried Action Freeze.  If you look closer where the water is flowing over you can see a little more definition than in Manual Mode.  F/2, 1/250, ISO 100.  It's a little too light for my liking but that can easily be adjusted in Lightroom 4 with the shadows and highlights sliders.

As there was green and some feint blue, Landscape mode was an obvious choice.  Higher saturation than Action Freeze, but lower definition than in Manual Mode.  Again, this can easily be fixed in LR4.  f2.5, 1/160, ISO 100.  But f2.5 means shallow DOF?  It would appear the further you are away or the bigger the landscape, the larger your DOF with this feature.  I was fairly close to the scene above (so shallow DOF) and my focus area was centered over the water.  You can see feintly how the ducks on the left are starting to blur as well as the corners.

Rich Tones blew out the highlights and lost shadows, making it appear washed out.  LR4 will fix this but another instance of not really knowing how a feature will work in different situations. f2.5, 1/160 ISO 100.  IMO, Rich Tones is meant to boost colours, so it might be best used on a situation where the colours of a scene are not so bright in order for the feature to work better.  Take a look at the Python photo above, and you can see that the muted tones of the scene worked better as the feature didn't over saturate the colours.  

Creative Shot did a nice job of creating more drama with this photo in comparison to the Python.  A vignette was applied by the Samsung NX300's feature and looks pretty nice.  I would boost the tones in LR4 as the colours look a little bland.

From the second lot of photos, you can see how Rich Tones changed from one situation to the next. The feature didn't work so well with the Pond and Ducks, over exposing the photo whereas in the Python photo is exposed well and worked perfectly.

Same goes for Creative Shot.  The Python photo just didn't work and was too hot, too saturated but in the Pond and Ducks photo, it created a little drama and looked good.

I didn't use the Waterfall feature here (which would have looked fantastic) because I didn't have my tripod or something stable.  I tried leaning on the bridge for stability but the bouncing up and down of people walking behind made it impossible to get a clear, clean shot.  

This shots and those that follow have green and blue predominantly so lets see how some of the settings work with this.  Rich Tones didn't do too badly, lighting the building and lamp while darkening the sky just a little.  My issue with Rich Tones is that it sometimes removes quite a bit of definition with the intention of creating a lighter photo. f/4, 1/400, ISO 100.

Not much difference in the blue and green compared to Manual Mode, but that purple hue in the clouds was decreased. f3.5, 1/400, ISO 100.

Manual Mode and Landscape Mode gave similar results even though the settings were different.  Manual Mode also gave that purple hue in the clouds whereas Landscape Mode was decreased.  Manual Mode was a little more clearer/sharper.  f5.6, 1/500, ISO 200.

Creative Shot was a little lighter in the shadow areas and similar to Landscape Mode, so I would guess that it chose Landscape for this shot.  f3.5, 1/400, ISO 100.  But, the purple hue is increased so I could be wrong.  I would think the camera would use Landscape but as I wasn't paying attention to what it selected at the time I won't know.  EXIF data will only show Creative Mode afterwards.

From the settings from the building shot, you can see that the Smart Mode features use similar settings in comparison to Manual Mode.  Personal settings can change the result quite a bit, so while these features are fun I still recommend giving Manual Mode a try.

The last set of photos.

Manual Mode, this time more blue sky in contrast with the building. Again, that purple hue is there (my format settings were set to JPG and not RAW, where as RAW might have given a different result).  Colours are good but I would want to add a little more hue to the building. f5.6, 1/500, ISO 200. 

Deeper blue, richer tones in the building, that annoying purple hue. f4, 1/500, ISO 100.

The blue sky is less saturated than Creative Shot, the foreground (building) is lightened. Definition is less and the shadow at the bottom from the building to the right is lighter.  Very similar to Manual Mode but shadows in the trees are lighter. f4, 1/500, ISO 100. 

For these shots above, even with Manual Mode the settings were fairly close.  Like I said, it's not an exact science when using automatic features on the NX300, or any other camera.  The advanced modes, especially Manual, give you somewhat more consistent results.

But these creative features are meant for creative use when you want slightly quicker results than using photo manipulation software.

Samsung NX300: Waterfall Feature

Waterfall Feature - Smart Mode

Finally had a chance to get to the Walter Sisulu Gardens and use the Waterfall feature on the Witpoortjie Waterfall.

First off, the smooth, misty look of water can be achieved by slowing down the shutter speed to about 2-4 seconds or more.  But the problem you have when leaving your shutter open for long exposure is that is draws in more light causing an over exposed photo.  Photographers tend to go in the very early morning or just before sunset to minimize the amount of light that enters the camera.

For those who can only use this technique during the day, they need to use a ND filter to decrease the amount of light and allow for longer shutter speeds.

Take a look at this tutorial by Scott Kelby.  http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-take-long-exposure-shots-in-daylight/

With the Samsung NX300, you don't need to do anything other than set up your tripod, your NX300, change the creative mode to the Waterfall Feature (shows a waterfall) and press the button.  For extra stability so that any vibrations from touching the camera can settle down I would suggest using the self-timer for about 5 seconds.

But read further down about a mistake I made that changed my results.

To use the timer you press the the left button (of the four circling the OK button on the camera). These are the navigation buttons and the left one selects the Drive where only Single Shot and the Timer is available.

Onced press, navigate to the self-timer and before clicking ok press the top navigation button that says DISP to select the time.  Change the time to the amount of seconds you want and press ok.

Position your camera, half press the shutter to focus and check if focus is where you want it to be, then press the shutter button all the way, let go and quickly stand back.  It's crucial that you don't touch the camera or tripod until it had finished taking the photo.

With long exposure (which is what this feature uses) the slightest movement of the camera or tripod can cause blurring where you don't want it.

Even a stable surface will work but hand held you will struggle to get a clear shot.

Manual Focus is not an option, only Single Focus and the AF Area is kept to Selection AF and Multi AF.  Selection AF means that the camera owner selects where they want the focus to be.  The focus point will stay on that area chosen until the owner changes it again, meaning that no matter how many times you half press the shutter button to focus, it will remain where you placed it.

With Multi AF you can change where you want the focus to be if the camera doesn't place it where you want it, but you need to be quick about it.  Once you have touched the screen to place the focus you need to quickly half press the shutter to lock focus and then press the rest of the way down to take a photo.  As long as you see the green square on your selected focus area then focus is kept there but when it disappears you will need to select your focus area again.

Touch AF is available giving you the option of OFF, Touch AF, AF Point and One Touch Shot but Tracking AF is not an option.

I don't actually see a difference per say between Touch AF and AF Point.  From what I can tell Touch AF selects an area of focus points where as AF Point only selects one point.  But when I use AF Point and let the camera choose, an area is selected as if I were using Touch AF.

The manual doesn't provide a difference between the two so personally I just keep my setting on Touch AF.

For my examples below I used the 18-55mm because it allowed me to zoom in where I couldn't with the 30mm.  With the 18-55mm OIS is available under the Menu and the setting was Mode 1, which I completely forgot to turn off.  OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer) is meant to reduce blur caused by camera movement and works best for times when your hands are not steady or you don't have a tripod.

But when using with a tripod, it does the opposite because OIS (known as IS on Canon) is looking for camera movement and doesn't find any. This results in blurred photos and manufacturers always recommend that this option be turned off when using a tripod (as is mentioned in the Samsung NX300 manual).  Dumb me, so used to using the 30mm (which doesn't have OIS) that I made the mess up :-P.  So learn from my mistakes.

Anywho, the Samsung NX300 still did a damn good job.  Considering I didn't have a ND Filter and was taking photos midday the results with the Waterfall Feature were better (thanks to my forgetting the OIS) than my Manual Shots.

Even the ripples at the bottom of the waterfall were smoothed out.

A close up of the action.  Notice how lovely and smooth the water is.

The point of this is to show what happens if using another advanced mode like Manual, midday sun, similar settings without a ND Filter.  The Manual Mode photo with the 2 second shutter speed (while the Waterfall Feature was 4 seconds) is over exposed.  The water is smooth but I've lost detail.  I can still recover some detail in Lightroom 4 but it will take more time that it would using the Waterfall Feature.

The Waterfall Feature on the Samsung NX300 is pretty impressive, eliminating the need for extra setups.  As with the other Smart Modes, this feature only allows JPEG but no problem there.

JUST REMEMBER TO SWITCH OIS TO OFF!!!!

A little experiment.  As I mention in my post about comparing examples of features, even though Waterfall is aimed at moving water, try using it with something like a plane.  Best to try with a plane where only the propellers are moving.  Break the rules a bit and use the feature for unintended situations.

Samsung NX300 Smart Mode: Panorama and Creative Shot

I'm going to be doing a bit of a mix in this article.  I haven't had a chance to play with the other settings between Panorama and Creative shot but will get to them soon.  Some settings work for specific situations that we don't encounter on a day to day basis so I will have to get creative for the other modes :-D.  However, the following modes are two of my favourites in the Smart Mode.

Panorama

A Panorama is a set of stitched photos that create a wide angle view.  Works great for Landscape but also for times when you can't fit everything in and don't have the luxury of a wide angle lens.  Photo manipulation software has a set feature for this or you could line up the photos manually but that can be time consuming.

I will agree that in camera Panorama features are not perfect and would be considered a quick fix but I've been pretty happy with the results from the Samsung NX300.

When you select the Panorama function you will see blue arrows on the screen pointing to the top, bottom, left and right with the words "Press the shutter button once and move camera to one side slowly".

Now if you were like me, you did exactly what the camera told you to do and pressed the shutter button once and let go.  The camera then told you that it didn't detect movement so the feature was stopped.  The "Help" description is not very helpful and unless you take a quick look at the manual you won't know what you are doing wrong.

So, press the shutter button and hold it down while moving either left, right, up or down.  You will see a rectangle on the bottom of the screen which will fill up with the stitched photos as you move the camera.  Try and keep the camera steady but the NX300 isn't too fussy if you are slightly shaky however if you move the camera in the opposite direction the feature will stop but the camera will save what it has taken.  If you don't move the camera a photo will still be taken.

Give the camera a chance to catch up to you as it stitches the photos together before releasing the shutter button else it will stop short of where you want it to.  You can do this by watching the rectangle as the photos are recorded.

There is an option under Menu, Panorama for 3D Panorama (besides Live Panorama) but this will only work with the 45mm 3D lens.

No editing done on this photo, straight from camera.

The photo above is a perfect example of a wide angle view that would be impossible with a normal lens like the 30mm.  The 18-55mm is a wide angle but I wouldn't have been able to get the photo above without the Panorama feature. Taken at the SAAF Museum.

As you can see, the stitching is seamless and even when checking at 200% I couldn't find any fault. The disadvantage, well for me anyway, is the JPG only file but it's a very small disadvantage.  I wasn't one for Panoramas because it was too time consuming even if PSE10 did a fair job of aligning the photos.  But now I'm thinking otherwise and happily use the Samsung Nx300's Panorama feature.

The NX300 chooses all settings as with all the Smart Modes but I don't mind giving up my personal choices with this feature.  Does a nice job of exposing although the photo above could use a bit of tweaking with levels and colour.  Maybe a little more definition with Topaz Labs Clarity.

Planes on the runway.

Photo 1 With editing

Photo 1 shows how the Panorama feature becomes extremely useful.  My only option of a wide angle lens is the kit lens 18-55mm (which I didn't have with me that day).  Using the Panorama feature enabled me to get the entire plane in a single photo without having to stand a far distance away. 

Continuous focus (Under Menu, AF Mode) is not available, only Single AF and Manual AF.  This is to prevent the camera continuously focusing while you are moving.

AF Area and Touch AF are also unavailable meaning that you can't select the focus point or touch to select focus on the screen.  So make sure that your starting point is clear and has enough contrast for the camera to pick it up in order to focus on it.

If you struggle to get focus on the area you want, you may need more light or need to center the subject/object in the middle of the screen. 

When using the Panorama Feature you may have an issue where, as you move, some areas might not be in focus.  This depends on where the focus was placed and what aperture the camera has selected.  For example, in a small room you may encounter a problem if the aperture is set to f2 as there will be a shallow depth of field.

The camera will judge the lighting conditions and how close the subject/object that it focuses on is.  If lighting is low, then it will use a wide aperture (e.g. f2) which will cause a shallow DOF. As said above, you will have a problem with a small room and if your starting point is closer to you than the rest of the room. Anything the same distance as your starting point will be clear but everything else outside that focus area will be blurred.

That is where manual Panoramas take the advantage.  Just keep in mind that the feature works best for wide areas that are not close-up.  The feature doesn't have AE/AF lock (Auto Exposure/Auto Focus) so you can't lock in either to keep exposure and focus consistent.

It doesn't mean you can't make a panorama of a small room.  For that I would suggest taking a set of photos and using software like Photoshop Elements to stitch the photos together.  It will take some work but some people love creating panoramas. The following link should give you an idea and even though it's for PSE 9 the same principles apply for any later versions.

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/how-to-create-photoshop-panoramas-in-elements-9-919448

I started with the videos which were right next to me and started moving to my right.  As you can see, the focus was lost as soon as the distance between me and the camera increased.  The NX300 had selected f2 as I was in a low light condition.

In this photo you will see another problem you may encounter with being too close, bulging.  I was standing in the middle of the yard and started panning from my left to my right.  The left and right sides were further away from me, so the middle appeared to bulge.  Also, not everything was in focus for example, the Marigold at the column are slightly out of focus.

Standing further back decreased the bulge a bit and shooting a different angle looked better. 

 The camera chose f4 which kept most of the photo in focus but as I panned from left to right, the further the rest of the garden was from me the less was in focus.

Since JPG format is used for the Panorama feature the Samsung NX300 will process the photo in camera and remove fringing and artifacts that may sometimes be caused.  Basically hassle free photos.

Oh, I nearly forgot to add this in.  Here is an example of using the Panorama feature on a waterfall where instead of moving the camera to the left or right (as with the photos above), the camera is moved up or down.  In the photo of the waterfall below the camera is moving up. I didn't turn the camera on its side, just held it the same way as for the other panorama photos above. When you move the camera up or down the rectangular box appears on the right hand side.

You will have noticed that when you go into playback mode the photo resembles a movie with a play button.  When you press OK the photo runs from one side to the other "panning", allowing you to take a closer look at your shot.  You still zoom in to look but not while this panning action is happening. 

You pause the panning action by pressing OK.  If you press OK again the panning will start again.  Once paused you can manually move around using the navigation left and right buttons.

The Panorama Feature does have its limitations as shown above but still effective when those limitations are taken into account while composing a photo.

Creative Shot

With this feature the camera chooses the settings and applies a filter/effect it feels is appropriate. Sounds like a recipe that can go wrong very quickly and yet has given me some really beautiful shots. I did have one or two photos that made me cringe a bit when the camera was over zealous with the vignette filter.

So how do you know what setting it will choose?  On the top left where you normally see the shooting mode you will see the icon change.  If the icon is blue, has a camera with a paintbrush you can expect to see a vignette on the photo even those this seems to be the icon for Creative Shot.  

Take a look at your manual, pages 54-55 and those yellow icons are what will be used during Creative Shot.  So far I have seen the following icons: Landscapes, Landscapes at night, Landscapes with backlighting, Close up photos of objects and Close up photos of text (even though I was taking a photo of a flower).  

You won't be able to see what icon was chosen after the photo was taken but you can see what settings were used by going to playback mode, selecting the photo and pressing DISP.

The following examples are taken straight from camera i.e. no levels, no colour, no enhancements. I wanted to show the feature without any manipulation by software.

A case of where the vignette works beautifully.  The camera didn't select a yellow icon but stayed with the Creative Camera icon (blue with camera and paintbrush).

I can't remember what the Samsung NX300 chose for these two but a shallow DOF and vignette was applied.

I cropped this photo.  Landscape was selected here, which boosted the blues and greens.

In the first photo the NX300 placed the focus on points closest to me.  In the second photo I touched the screen and placed my focus area where I wanted.  Camera also stuck to its camera and paintbrush icon which applied a vignette.

Close Up Objects was selected by the NX300 for this shot but you also see that a vignette was applied.

I wanted to post a photo showing how sometimes the feature may not work as hoped but the Samsung NX300 refused to misbehave and kept giving me great shots lol.  

Drive is either Single or Timer with no Continuous as an option. It means that you won't be able to take more than one photo at a time but time between shots is quick (about 2 seconds).

Only JPG format is available but there is a large amount of praise about the NX300's ability to process JPG format with great success.

Manual Focus (found under AF Mode) is not available, you won't even find AF Mode under Menu with Creative Shot. Shallow DOF for close up objects is favoured so I'm guessing that as part of the creativity, the camera literally calls the shots with one focus option.  But you can select the area of focus by touching the camera screen. 

Aperture and Shutter Speed are adjusted accordingly. When the camera detects a landscape scene everything is kept in focus so you won't be stuck with shallow DOF. There isn't anything really you can do to change what effect the camera chooses in Creative Shot unless you change to another shooting mode.

Settings are pretty limited in Creative Shot, probably one of the more limited of the modes under Smart Mode.  Still, a feature for the creative mind.  Well, ok, the camera does most of the work but don't forget that the composition is all you.

Samsung NX300 Smart Mode: Macro, Action Freeze and Rich Tones

Macro

Macro is my area of interest with photography and after working with a macro lens for years, I was expecting results from this mode.

I'm sorry to say it's not what I would call wow.  I used the Macro Mode and then duplicated the settings in Manual and came up with the same result.  Macro gives a shallow depth of field meaning only a small area is in focus.

Taken with 30mm lens.

The Macro Mode doesn't do you much good if your lens will only let you get so close (unless the lens has macro capabilities).  The 30mm wouldn't let me get closer than around 15cm (if you are measuring from the end of the lens to the object).  But, the 18-55mm has the advantage here because you can get as close as the lens will allow you (in this case around 9cm) and then zoom in.  Below is an example, no editing was done and is straight from the camera in low light.

The Macro feature keeps the aperture at its widest for example, the 30mm's widest aperture is f2.  This allows for more light but also decreases your depth of field, keeping a small area in focus and blurring out the rest.  This area of focus also depends on where you place it.  Take note how the second photo is darker because as you zoom out and your aperture gets smaller you also lose light (your aperture is closing a bit more so less light is allowed in).

For the 18-55mm, the feature keeps the aperture consistent according to the zoom i.e. this lens has an aperture of f3.5-f5.6 so when you are zoomed in at 18mm the feature will select f3.5 and keep it that.  If you zoom out the aperture will change e.g. at 55mm it will be f5.6.  On the 30mm, you will only have f2 available in Macro Mode.

The point is, you cannot change the shutter speed or aperture at any point in the Macro Mode.  ISO is chosen by the camera and in the example above of the rose, the NX300 chose ISO 1600 for low light.  Hardly any noise is visible (me and noise again lol).

Macro mode might be best suited to the Samsung 60mm macro lens.  Even then, why would you need a macro feature if you are using a macro lens?

This might be a draw card for those who have moved from point and shoot cameras that have a Macro feature.  A point and shoot certainly allows you to get closer and I had a chance to play with a Pentax WG-3 camera in Macro Mode.  Now that is impressive if you don't have a macro lens.  I was able to get as close as 1cm and even though there was a bit of softening in the photo, I'd still grab it first for any small details if my 100mm and Canon are not available.

I personally don't see any benefit of this mode, but for those used to the point and shoot method, this is a quick way to get that shallow depth of field without having to fiddle with settings.  But it won't get you closer.  Macro Lenses are not at all cheap and another method is a macro filter or extension tubes.  I think before I would use the Macro Mode I would instead use an extension tube (but I don't know if one exists for the Samsung NX300).

I still would love the 60mm Macro but it's a little out of my budget at present.

As with the other Smart Modes, only JPEG is available and remember that if you change any of the options under the JPEG menu, this also changes the quality option for all the other modes.  Drive is only Single or Timer and I really do miss the continuous option here as I rely on it while working with such fine detail, especially if that detail moves like an insect.

For someone like me who prefers macro lenses, this Macro feature doesn't appeal much to me. But the blurring action does lend some nice artistic ability.  Examples below are taken straight from camera.

Possible egg nest of sorts belonging to a spider.

I have included a short tutorial using Lens Priority with the standard 18-55mm kit lens that I think works better for macro than this feature.  See at the end of the article here: Lens Priority

Action Freeze

Action Freeze would be the equivalent of the Sports Mode on various other cameras.  It speeds up the shutter to freeze whatever is happening but it also pushes up the ISO. Aperture is adjusted and not fixed as with the Macro Mode.

Here the Drive mode includes Single, Continuous High, Continuous Normal, Burst and Timer.  So unlike Macro Mode you have more leverage here and can take multiple shots at once.

The more light you have the better because even though the Samsung NX300 handles noise exceptionally well, you still want to avoid having too much noise.  You don't control the ISO, so keep an eye on what is selected when taking photos.

ISO: 800, Shutter: 1/250, f/5.  It was a slightly overcast day but the camera pushed the ISO up to 800.  While the ducks are slow moving subjects I also used the water fountain for a fast moving object.  If the shutter was slower the water would have been blurred or "smoother".

ISO: 1600, Shutter: 1/250, f5.6.  Water, again.  I cropped in a little closer to give you an idea of how well action freeze works.  You can see the detail in water as it is flowing over the rocks.

Annnnnd...one more water shot.  Sorry but I haven't had time to look for actions shots as yet and water is the next best thing.  This photo was edited but as you can see, the detail captured in the waterfall is amazing.

As Action Freeze is meant for high speed photos, the camera will decide for you.  This also means you have no control and as a well known aviation photographer mentioned to me once, when a plane is in the air, you want to see some movement in the propellers.  The feature will stop the propellers dead. 

This feature will be great for sports shows like car and bike racing.  Hoping to get to a show for a few test shots.

If you were to pair Action Freeze with a macro lens you would be able to capture some fantastic photos of insects in flight, especially if you want to freeze the wings.  The only thing you would have to be careful of is the ISO as high ISO and macro don't gel.  If the camera chose an ISO of 800 or up while you are using the macro lens, you will definitely have noise in the background.  Reduced noise because of the Samsung NX300's performance, but still noise.

All in all a fun feature that will always come in handy for quick action shots.

Rich Tones

Rich Tones, I think, is more orientated towards the HDR (High Dynamic Range) of photos.  Three photos are taken one after another, each with a different exposure.  The first one is underexposed (dark), the second one with correct exposure and the third one overexposed (bright).  These three are then merged in camera to create a photo with a higher range of luminosity than normal photos.  Creates an almost painting like effect with brighter tones.

When you switch to Rich Tones, you will be instructed to hold the camera steady while the three photos are taken so that merging is effortless.  Pay attention to the shutter speed here as a slower shutter speed e.g. 1/50 and under can cause blurring although the camera will increase the ISO to increase speed.  If you do notice that the shutter speed is slow, use a tripod.

While using the mode in different situations I haven't had to use a tripod yet.

Camera again decides on the aperture but it's not set and will change depending on what the camera "sees".  Below I've added a quick example of changing the focus area so that if the camera selects a shallow depth of field you can still change where the selected focus is.

The photos were taken using the Rich Tones feature. The first one I touched the screen to select focus on the tree, which caused the lamp to be blurred out.  The second photo was focused on the lamp, which caused the tree to be blurred out.

As you can see from the photos, the feature tends to wash out the colours somewhat and bring in some unnatural luminosity to the blue sky seen through the parts of the tree.

With a little tweaking of levels, colours and saturation, it looks a little better.

In the photo above the luminosity is enhanced but maybe just a little too much.  Some of the shadow detail is lost and saturation could be brought down a notch.  Again, this is more of a quick photo feature than something you can adjust yourself in camera.  In Lightroom 4, supplied with the Samsung NX300, you can adjust accordingly.

The advantage to having this quick feature is that you don't have to run through the motions in the software to achieve a similar effect.  Just a bit of tweaking here and there and you're done.

Drive is either Single or Timer as the camera needs a few seconds to merge the three photos to produce this effect.  So attempts to take a burst of photos is not possible and this is understandable. Flash is not available for the same reason because the camera's flash would need to activate for each photo and the flash would not be able to keep up plus it would slow the entire process down.

I didn't include the settings above because both are different.  The reason I included the photo is to show the difference in detail.  In the Rich Tones photo, detail in the sky is kept and so is the blue.  But some detail and definition is lost on the body of the propeller making it appear a bit flat.

In the Manual photo you have more definition but all detail is lost in the sky and the colour is bleached to a white.

Taking into editing, I played with both the Rich Tones and Manual photo to see which would produce quicker results that are pleasing.

Similar editing adjustments were used in both photos as well as Topaz Clarity.  The Rich Tones photo has more colour and the clouds have a large amount of detail.  I prefer the colouring in Manual but Rich Tones has more of a HDR effect.

The problem with Manual is that attempting to bring any detail back into the clouds is almost impossible.  My best bet would be to replace the sky in Manual with the sky in Rich Tones, which would have taken time.

The Rich Tones photo was much quicker to adjust with a slightly more pleasing and dramatic result.  Note, this was just a few minutes editing, results would have been better if more time was spent on the photos.

Topaz Clarity enhanced the photo and allowed me to adjust as I chose.  Topaz Clarity is one of my favourite plugins and also works with Lightroom 4.  There are trials available for you to test out at http://www.topazlabs.com/store.

Unedited, Rich Tones.  Just to show that sometimes everything works out nicely.  With a little bit of editing this would work out great.

No feature is ever perfect and each photo is a different situation.  Sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't but there is usually some editing done on every single photo taken to sort out any imperfections.  

Also, the photos of the planes taken above was on an overcast day and I think the Rich Tones feature did well here.  The photos didn't turn out too dark or over exposed so if you are new to SLR, then Rich Tones might end up being one of your favourites for dull days.

HDR can achieve some beautiful results but some pretty terrible ones too.  Rich Tones is a nice feature that can be used to create what I would call a canvas or starting point for something unique.

For some beautiful HDR work and info: http://farbspiel-photo.com/