Where does one begin to hide when the enemy is living inside? How do you secure things? What does it take to defend your family and loved ones, animals and livelihoods from the menace within?
An airborne, highly contagious biological weapon developed and spread via a network of shadow operatives and laboratories; scientists, engaged and manipulated by rogue military agents, dangerous research kept secret by Governments, compounding systemic risks, and States petrified of losing control of their citizens, economies, finances, and markets.
A Natural Regressive Approach Against Humanity…
Pathological Deception … A natural regressive approach against humanity… Zooming in on the use of Bio-Weapons after 9/11.
James With has developed an original concept piece that is based upon extensive research that delves deep into the convoluted and interwoven webs of cyber warfare, darkness and evil that interconnect countries, Governments, States secrets, rogue agents, military personnel, scientists and viral pathogens, manipulated to create terrifying weapons of mass destruction that have been unleashed on humanity.
The treatment is designed as a television series, and would work equally as effectively as a feature length motion picture.
Production partners are being sourced to produce the project in association with writer and producer James With and TRI-US Entertainment.
Expressions of interest can be made to Stark Networks, which is handling negotiations, contracting and private client investment for the project.
“Partnering With the World to Create Entertainment”
We’ll meet again, out of sight, out of mindlessness, without spite, and out of range … touching on what matters … and we certainly won’t be looking at each other from a distance, or peering through some Venere of planetary panning …
“COVID Saloon” by James With
Let’s face it… we all know the power games, just some aren’t willing to accept the reality of the abnormal, the abysmal and the labyrinth of life’s pathogens, paving ways of fiction against a backdrop of pathetic reality… the wars, the abuses, poverty and portrayals, whores of money, addicts of power… Abacus, Backgammon, Chess, Go, Monopoly, Mahjong… nuclear, nucleus, pathological, psychological…
“WWIII 2.1” by James With
Mark to market, smash the markets, manipulate, recalculate, emasculate, gesticulate, infiltrate, castrate, castagate … blame, frame, inflame, with all the more unreason, treason, to infuriate, conflagrate, agitate, poison minds over matters, matter of fact without truth…
“Look Behind You” by James With
I see it differently, let’s discuss it privately before going public? Doing what you want to do, doing it well, excelling and following your beliefs, is success in itself, which will determine which obligations, invitations, and people you want to be responsible for and/or share time with, be it mentoring, minding, relaying or relaxing … doing what you want is what makes one truly successful.
It’s important to find balance, keep moving, keep spinning and rotating the mind amidst the cacophony of noise, to grow and nurture, nourish and provide, be it wisdom, wealth and/or worry…
For those who are frustrated, confused and perhaps feeling lost or scared today and who may like to put their present predicament into a brief historical perspective, reflection can be a great health benefit, possibly better than any spurious vaccine, and certainly better than watching the latest drama series peppered with inuendo and conditioning dialogue.
Imagine you if were born in 1900 … At the age of 14, World War I; you’re witnessing the beginning of a brutal and vicious war said to last until you are 18; they say 22 million people died in WWI. At the end of the year, an epidemic known as the Spanish flu hits the planet and lasts until your 20th year in life; they say, 50 million people died from influenza in those two years. In 1929, by which time you’re 29, the Great Depression begins: Unemployment reaches 25%, world GDP falls 27% and the challenges persist until you’re at least 33 years old.
History books say the world almost collapses; the world economy generated multitudes of unemployed and hopelessness (a bit like today). By the time you’re 39 years old, World War II begins (and you’re probably thinking ‘Why is all this happening in my lifetime?’).
By your 41st birthday, the United States enters WWII. Between the ages of 39 and 45 years old, if you were one of the “chosen ones”, you get drafted into the military to fight against people the Government says are your enemies; you are forced to assist the ‘Global War Effort’ (often against one’s personal wishes), and if you are really “lucky”, you actually survive; they say 75 million people died in that war.
Close to your 50th birthday, the Korean War begins; they say, 5 million died. At 55, the American War (aka Vietnam War) begins and does not end for 20 years: they say, 4 million people are declared officially dead in that conflict.
By the time you are 62, you are witnessing the Cuban Missile Crisis and threats of nuclear Armageddon and the Cold War. Russia and the USA, at loggerheads, however ‘miraculously’ the leaders step back from their seemingly intractable positions, and the world doesn’t end.
Life on our planet as we know it might have ended then, but here we are alive and still fighting wars, decades later. If you’re still alive, you’ve attained the age of 75, and US President Richard Nixon declares the Vietnam War to be over and pulled their troops out very quickly.
More Black Ops, covert wars and “hot wars” have erupted since and propagated the planet; African countries, Afghanistan, Columbia, Middle Eastern countries, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and on… Propaganda, lies, Fake News and media manipulation spirals to a level to make you want to shut off and shut out everything coming into your personal space… now, you’re being told a global pandemic virus, which attacks everyone with elderly people more susceptible to dying from disease could wipe you out. You’re being told to stay in-doors and when venturing outside you’re being persecuted if you come into physical contact with others.
You’re thinking, I’ve made it this far, I’m tired and I need a rest… I’m getting old, I am old, I’m 120 years old!
And yet, because you’ve made it all this way, you’re also thinking… “This is nonsense, if I die, it’s because it’s my time to move on. Many haven’t lived as long!” Difficult times create strong men and women, strong people and communities create harmony.
When times are easy, people often become lazy, ignorant and fragile. Those who contribute to creating the difficult times are not to be admired. Those who have fought through difficult times, and those who overcame the difficulties and challenges and survived are the real heroes.
Life is a cycle and we will have to go through our own difficult times, we can choose to fight, we can choose to do this together and we can choose to remain strong in order to create lasting peace and prosperity for all … Look back on the past, learn from it, and work together to keep building a truly nicer, happier, cleaner, more transparent world for future generations.
I have been thinking about writing this post for several months now. But in a world were everything coming from the heart is misconstrued as some form of posturing, I was frankly afraid to do so. Also, writing that kind of stuff is not what bloggers do, much less so those who try to run a halfway credible blog. And yet, every time I got a kind email, a letter or even a gift, I felt that I have to write this. God knows I am opening myself up for even more misrepresentations as usual, but I think it is well worth it. My spiritual father always used to say “one soul is more precious then the entire universe“.
So I dedicate this post to that one soul.
Introduction
My life has been one of ups and downs. Early on, after a pretty nasty childhood, it went up, rather rapidly. Then came the “fall from (pseudo-) grace” and I lost my career. It is still too early to go into all the details, but let’s just say that I used to be associated with a “three letter outfit” whose existence was not well-known by the general public and which has since been disbanded. In my field, I got to the proverbial ‘top’ pretty early on, but soon the war in Bosnia began to open my eyes to many things I had never suspected before. Then I found out about two things which got me blacklisted in my own, putatively democratic, country: I found out that a group of people had uselessly been murdered as a result of the criminal incompetence of their superiors and I found out that one guy had taken a long jail sentence while all this superiors had managed to walk away from a crime they all had committed. And even though I never went public, or even told my closest friends about it (to protect them), I was blacklisted and prevented from ever working again.
In those dark days my wonderful wife was always trying to tell me that it was not my fault, that I had never done anything wrong, that I was paying the price for being a person of integrity and that I had proven many times over how good I was in my field. I always used to bitterly reply to her that I was like a “submarine in a desert”: maybe very good at “something somewhere”, but useless in my current environment (I always used to visualize a Akula-class SSN stranded smack in the middle of the Sahara desert – what a sight that would be! I wish somebody would use a Photoshop-like software to create that pic). What I have found out since, is that our planet is covered with deserts and that there are many, many submarines in them, all yearning for the vastness of an ocean.
Modest beginnings at first
I came to the USA in 2002 with only one desire: to leave my past on the other side of the ocean and to disappear, to become an anonymous ‘nobody’ who would be left alone. More than anything else, I needed time to recover, to lick my wounds and to spend time with the only people who had stood by my without every doubting me: my wife and my kids.
The French have a very good saying:”chassez le naturel et il revient au galop” which can roughly be translated as “try to suppress your nature, and it will come back with a vengeance”. This is what happened to me. While in 2002 I had promised myself to never analyze anything more complicated that a fiction book, by 2007 I suddenly decided to start a blog. This blog. My goal? Very, very primitive: to write whatever the hell I wanted. I had spent so many years writing for “big people” who had very narrow limits of what they were willing to read that I decided to indulge in the joy of writing whatever I wanted with no concern or regard for anybody’s opinion. I had an itch to scratch I decided to scratch it.
You can still parse the archives of 2007 or 2008 and you will see that I really was making no efforts to reach anybody, make a difference or become popular. A short and ill-fated contact with Antiwar.com (which ended up in disaster), gave me a few more readers but my readership was still tiny.
My choice of topics did not help. Years before, I had literally “bumped” into the topic of Hezbollah and, my curiosity picked, I spent a decade studying this movement and its amazing leader. By 2007 I was an unrepentant Hezbollah-groupie and Nasrallah fanboy and most of the blog dealt with the Middle-East. The other topic was Russia, simply because this was the country my family came from and which I had professionally analyzed for years. As for the Ukraine, I don’t think that I ever mentioned it at all. While I was disgusted with the ignorance and hatefulness of Ukrainian nationalists, I did not care about the Ukraine: “let them soak in their own ‘independent’ and yet pathetic and clearly sinking statelet if they want – I have more inspiring things to look at” was my philosophy at the time. Sure, I kept an eye on events there, but to me this reminded me of Russia in 1993 – I was disgusted with all the actors and with the entire situation. Besides, what could happen there which would be worthy of interest?
And sure enough, life proved me wrong (-: again 🙂 The big wars of 2013
First, there was Syria and the Russian role in stopping Uncle Sam. Oh yes, there were the political efforts of the Russian diplomats, and they were ‘bad’ enough. But less noticed what the fact that Russia sent a hastily assembled but capable naval task force to the Syrian coast. Not a task force big enough to fight the US Navy, but a task force capable of providing a full view of the skies over and beyond Syria to the Syrian military. In other words, for the first time the US could not achieve a surprise attack on Syria, not with cruise missiles, not with airpower. Worse, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah embarked on a covert and overt program of material and technical assistance for Syria which ended up defeating the Wahabi insurgency. The AngloZionist were absolutely *livid*. So to teach Putin and those damn Russkies a good lesson, they blew up the Ukraine and, again, Putin did two things they had never expected and which they could never forgive: he did sent forces Crimea but he did not do so in Novorussia: there he helped covertly. There was no doubt possible: Russia had committed the “Crime of Crimes” of openly defying the will of our planetary overlords. The Empire’s response was predictable: a full-spectrum ‘war’ on Russia and Putin, albeit not an overtly military one (yet).
For me and my blog, the consequence of this mega-crisis was immediate: the readership literally exploded and, at the suggestion of other (it was not even my idea!), more Saker blogs suddenly began popping up. From a unknown one man anonymous blog the Saker blog morphed into a global community, and that over less than one year.
[Sidebar: if often fell like a war profiteer. The worse the situation in the Ukraine, the more readers I get, the calmer, the less. On a really quiet day I get as little as 20’000 hits, on a really bad day, up to 69’000. I estimate my more or less regular readership at no more than 30’000]
I am outlining all this to truthfully explain to you that this was never the plan for me. Not only was this completely unplanned, it even took me by surprise. In fact, I was so surprised that I could not honestly make sense of it. Think of it.
Here is a one-man blog, written by some anonymous dude with a silly alias, who repeatedly engages in all sorts of crimethink (like the day when I wrote – to a mainly Arab readership – that I believed that Hamas ought to unconditionally release Gilad Shalit, LOL!) who is neither from the Left, nor from the Right, whose writing is chock full of typos and, frankly, very poorly written sentences and yet this blog suddenly takes off like a rocket. And you can tell by my writing style that I don’t even take myself too seriously. But so what in the world has happened here?
Sure, I am a decent analyst, I know Russian and a few other languages, I have studied Russia for all my life and the Middle-East for, well, a little over a decade. This is not bad, but hardly a reason for such a success.
Then I understood:
It was never about me, but always about you
Along with more daily visitors, I began receiving more and more emails and letters. And presents. Often very touching ones. Just look at the absolutely beautiful drawing of a Saker Falcon I got yesterday (thanks SO MUCH “S.T.”! I will frame and posted it on my wall)
People who had never met me and who really knew nothing about me were literally pouring kindness over me. Most emails and letter centered on political issues, but a big minority were expressing much deeper feelings such as gratitude and a desire to morally support. I was amazed, really. Then my readers began suggesting that I should place a donation button on the blog. Many may not believe me here, but that idea had never even crossed my mind. Eventually, I did (God knows I needed the money) and to my absolute amazement people began donating. Why? Why would anybody in our cynical word filled with crooks donate some hard earned and always scarce money to a guy he/she has never met? Was that just because I was posting materials about Syria or the Ukraine? Or my oh-so-good analyses? Hardly.
And then there was also the rage. Many, many letters were literally oozing with rage. Rage against the government, its media, the Empire, the lies and the dishonesty. Rage at having been lied to. Rage at the humiliation of being treated like a serf or a slave. Rage at our dysfunctional and self-destructive society. Before that, I had no idea that so many people were so mad.
The most gut-wrenching letters were often from US servicemen. They often began with “I consider myself a patriotic American and I love my country which I served for many years in the military but….” and here it inevitably turned into a painful admission that this country was lead by evil crooks, occupied by parasites, owned by a 1% of SOB whom everybody else despises. And you would simply not believe the kind of stuff these correspondents, including former servicemen, would write about Putin. It was amazing – I regularly joke that if given a chance to run, Putin might be elected as President of the US of A.
[Sidebar: By the way, I will not post these letters here. Not even excepts. First, I want to protect the trust of those who wrote to me. Second, some of these letters are so amazing and moving that I will inevitably be accused of making them up. So I will simply forgo presenting any ‘proof’ for my statements. Believe me or not – makes no difference to me. And if you don’t – then I guess that yours is not the soul I dedicate this post to anyway]
So there I was trying to figure out – why such an outpouring of kindness for a total stranger (and an anonymous one at that!) and such an outpouring of rage against the society we live in. And then, I think that I figured it out. The deserts are filled with submarines (but they are breaking free!)
That’s it. I had mistakenly believed that I was the only one feeling like a submarine in a desert, but in reality the deserts of our society were filled with people who felt completely alienated. Several times in the past I posted here the beautiful song by David Rovics “We are everywhere” because with each passing month I began to realize that he was literally right – we are, indeed, everywhere.
What society had done to me – made me completely powerless – it has also done to you. And just the way it had made me feel like a single lonely nutcase, it made you feel like you were the only one. I most sincerely believe that the real reason for the success of this blog, its global community, its vibrant discussions and the amazing outpouring of kindness towards me is in the following simple fact: I inadvertently made it possible for many thousands of people to realize they they were not alone, not crazy, not wrong but that quite literally “we are everywhere”!
The second thing that I did, again quite inadvertently, is to empower those who felt powerless to do something, to make a change, to really have an impact.
Our societies are designed to make us feel like prison inmates, serfs or slaves. We all know that voting is a useless joke, that our rulers don’t give a damn about us, that political dissent is frowned on when it is real, that revolts are crushed in violence, that pluralism is viciously repressed by the prevailing ideology, that our schools brainwash and stupidify our kids and turn them against us, that the home brainwashing appliances like the Idiot-Tube, the radio or the papers are here to do only three things: entertain us, get our money and zombify us. We know that, but we feel powerless to do anything about it.
By asking for help in my work on the blog and, especially, by allowing for what I call “spontaneous self-organization” (something which I had directly taken from how the Debian community functions) I had given those who shared my goals a readily available means to take action. And I have to say that the result exceeded my expectations by many order of magnitude (and made me realize that some “amateurs” are at least as good as, or better, then “pros”). Treat people with respect, give them a chance, and they will do miracles for you!
[Sidebar: if you are interested in how big complex projects can self-organize, please read – online – chapter 2.4 “The Debian Community” pp 46-57 in this book. Of course, I did not deliberately try to copy the Debian model, but I did apply the “just do it” principle and I let each Saker Blog self-organize in a completely independent manner. I also see my own role in the Saker community as one of a “benevolent dictator“, another free software phenomenon, though, so far, I have only had to act in this capacity once].
Thanks to my inadvertently stumbling into the fantastic and yet untapped potential of so many good people our community began to grow almost spontaneously (several Saker Blog Team Leaders have also expressed to me the same amazement I was feeling).
Suddenly many “submarines” had found their oceans to show what they were really capable off!
Do you know about the Asch conformity experiment? [If not, take a quick look here before reading on]. Well, I think that my oppositional-defiant personality inadvertently crashed at least part of the gigantic Asch conformity experiment our society has become. I was calling it as I was seeing it and to hell with the consequences (I had so few readers anyways…). Then, in 2010 I decided to really give a good kick into the sandcastle of our delusions and posted an article entitled “Why am I not hearing the endless rumble of jaws dropping to the floor?”. In this post I basically repeated something which anybody could verify and which was undeniable: NIST had, by direct implication, admitted that WTC7 had been brought down by controlled demolition. Furthermore, and contrary to popular belief, NIST has simply no explanation at all for how the WTC1 and WTC2 had fallen. And yet, this amazing fact was completely obfuscated by the collective Asch experiment being imposed on us. But the reality is that the 911 issue is just a tip of an iceberg. Our entire society is one big, long and neverending Asch experiment and most of us, at least on some level, know about it. We all feel what the Matrix series calls the feeling like a “splinter in our mind”.
I suppose that for types like myself (disrespectful of social dogmas and norms, oppositional and defiant towards authority, rebellious and aggressive by nature, deeply contrarian on an almost knee-jerk level, libertarian in outlook) the outcome of the tension between what I feel and what I am told to feel results in a long battle against the established order and dominant ideology (no wonder another two of my favorite songs of David Rovics are “Burn it down” and “We will shut them down“). But once a bad guy like myself decided to yank the splinter out of my mind – others decided to give it a try too and that is how it all began.
My gratitude to you
And here is what I wanted to say through all of the above: I know that I personally do not deserve such kindness and gratitude. In reality, the very fact that you have shown me so much kindness also shows that you are truly the one deserving gratitude and praise. I am just the very very lucky one – you are the kind and generous one. And, please believe me, this has nothing to do with me engaging in some kind of false modesty – I truly believe it, this is the conclusion I have come to from your letter and your emails.
In conclusion, I want to share a special song with all those of your who have “poured out their souls to me” (Russian expression). It is from the Russian bard Vladimir Vyssotskii and it is called “Song of the Earth”:
Is the earth, as they say, burnt and dried?
Will a seed, as they say, never sprout?
Has the earth, as they say, really died?
No! It’s taken a lengthy time-out!
Mother Earth will forever give birth,
Its maternity isn’t a fiction!
Don’t believe that they burnt down the earth,
No! It’s blackened from grief and affliction.
Trenches, running like scars back and forth...
Bleeding guts black shell-craters expose...
They are open nerves of the earth,
Which unearthly unhappiness knows.
It will stand wars and grief - any thing!
It’s not crippled, though booted and looted...
Don’t believe that the earth doesn’t sing,
That it’s quieted down, diluted!
No, it’s singing as loud as it can
From a trench, from a wound, from a hole!
Since the earth is the soul of Man,
Boots cannot trample down the soul!
This last sentence, “boot cannot trample down the soul!”, speaks, I believe, not only of physical boots, though these are also meant, but also about psychological, ideological, social boots who, no less than the real thing, try hard to trample down on our souls.
Remember the last sentence of Orwell’s 1984? “He loved Big Brother”. I always absolutely hated that sentence. Yes, for the purpose of the book, this was the correct ending being, as it was, a warning. But I always though “hell, no I will always hate Big Brother”, “boots cannot trample down souls”.
What you all, my friends, have proven to me is that there are many of us who will not love Big Brother and that Big Brother has not trampled down our souls. 20 years ago I used to feel like the most lonely man on the planet. Now, thanks to you, I feel like we are everywhere and I have friend, free fellow humans, all over the planet.
And for that you have my eternal and most heartfelt gratitude,
The Saker
PS: note to the Saker-haters: I am fully aware of how easy it is to distort and “rephrase in other words” what I wrote above, and how many ugly and nasty conclusions you can come up with. At the very least, you will call me either a hypocrite or delusional. Fine. You have shown me over and over again that this is a price to pay for honesty. I did not try to make this text slander-proof and if you want to use that to trash me further – fine. I just want you to know that I accept that and that I don’t fear you one bit :-p
December 2015 addendum from the Saker:
I consider that the “Submarine in the desert” text above really says everything relevant about me. I also believe that you can tell a tree by its fruits – so my blog is really what people ought to judge me by. However, since others apparently want to know a little more about my past life, I can add the following:
I was born in Zurich, Switzerland, from a Dutch father and Russian mother. My father left us when I was 5, so my mother and my Russian family raised me and this is why I took my mother’s last name. I lived most of my life in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1984 I did my military service in electronic warfare and I was later transferred to the military intelligence service (UNA) as a language specialist where did some work with the Swiss Air Force. I then traveled to the USA where I got a BA in International Relations from the School of International Service (SIS) at the American University and a MA in Strategic Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. Upon my return to Switzerland, I worked as a civilian consultant for the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service (SND) writing strategic analyses, primarily about the Soviet/Russian military. In the military, I was given the Major-equivalent rank of “Technical Officer”, which is a fancy way of saying that I was an analyst. I also worked as an “enemy operations” (“Red Team” in US parlance) specialist for the operational-level training of the General Staff of Swiss armed forces. I then accepted a position for the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) where I specialized in peacekeeping tactics and operations. This gave me the opportunity to co-author a book on Russian peacekeeping operations with the Major-General I. N. Vorob’ev, of the Russian General Staff Academy. My last work at UNIDIR was about psychological operations and intelligence in peacekeeping which can be downloaded here. At the same time, I also wrote an evaluation of the performance of the Russian military during the first Chechen war for the Journal of Slavic Military Studies which somebody has since uploaded here. The wars in Bosnia and Chechnia really opened my eyes to the real nature of the Empire. Since I thought that I was living in a democracy, I did voice my opinion on these topics and I soon ended up being viewed with suspicion by my former bosses. I quit the UN and took up a position at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which was probably the worst mistake of my life and which I shall never discuss publicly. By the time I got out of that job, I was basically blacklisted as a “dangerous element” (meaning “disloyal”) by my former bosses (my regular contacts with Russian diplomats and my efforts at providing aid to the Bosnian Serbs probably did not help). In total disgust, I abandoned my career as a military specialist and re-trained as a software engineer. When 9/11 crashed the IT sector I was unemployed again and I left Switzerland for the USA where I homeschooled our 3 children while doing odd jobs, mostly as a translator (I am fluent in Russian, French, English, Spanish and German) while my wife worked as a veterinarian (now, that our kids have grown up, my wife and I work together). In 2007 I decided to start an anonymous blog, mainly as a psychotherapy for myself, and I called it “Vineyard Saker” – a simple machine-generated anagram of my full name 🙂
Finally, and just for the record, a few points: I never did any intelligence gathering for anybody, though I was approached by the Americans, the Russians and the Swiss do to exactly that, but I turned them all down (just not my cup of tea at all). While my maternal family are all from the Russian nobility, my Dutch DNA is 100% proletarian, and I am quite happy with that mix. To my great regret, I get no help from Russia at all – not money, not information (I would *love* to be a paid “Putin agent” but VVP has not made any offers yet). All my info is 100% “open source”. My past experience with classified data tells me that it is either highly technical or time-critical but not otherwise better than open source information: 80% of all the good info is out there, in the open, it is just a matter of putting it together correctly. I get a regular trickle of donations from the blog, but nothing major, and only 2 private donors (thanks guys!!) provide most of it anyway. If making money was my big goal, then I assure you that I had plenty of much better opportunities. My main objective in the immediate future is to (finally) write my thesis for the graduate degree in patristic theology I am working on now, and to set some money aside to visit Russia again (which I have not done since 1996!). Oh, and if you still wonder, no, I am not a Muslim nor am I on any Muslim (or other) payroll.
I am a “proud card carrying member” of the FSF, EFF and NRA (yes, I like my freedoms). Political Compass (https://www.politicalcompass.org/) scores me as a “Left Libertarian”:
Personally, I reject the Left-Right reference system and consider myself an Orthodox “People’s Monarchist” (народный монархист) in the tradition of Lev Tikhomirov, Feodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Solonevich and Ivan Ilyin. Just like the Russian philosopher Berdaev, rather than looking left or right, I rather look *up*!
I also recognize myself in the notion of “Left of labor, Right of values” (Gauche du travail, droite des valeurs) of Alain Soral. My economics are: laissez-faire capitalism for the family and small business level, socialism for the corporation level and communism for strategic/national level sectors of the economy.
I have over 40 years of freediving experience (which I began long before the Big Blue movie made that lifestyle popular), but now, at 52, I mostly kayak and hike the Florida wilderness.
—
Now that I wrote all of the above, I still think that it is largely irrelevant. Judge me not by what I say about myself, but by my blog or, better, my book. All of the above is true, but these are my *external life circumstances* and they do not say much about who I really *am*. My writings do. Study them (if so inclined) and you will know who I am.
This article first published on 21st September 2015 on AlCaudullo.com … and the Samsung NX1 is only one of the cameras that the S.A.D Movie Team is using to capture footage for the film we thought Al Caudullo’s article would provide some interesting insights for all who are technically motivated and excited by new technology. We will bring you more insights about the equipment and structure of our project soon… and we hope you enjoy …
The Samsung NX1 Bible
First published on al.caudullo 21st September 2015
When I think of my first SLR, the Pentax Spotmatic F and my second, the Nikon F, these were iconic cameras. They broke new ground set a new standard for their time. As I progressed through this review, holding Samsung’s flagship NX1 mirrorless camera, my gut says it will be joining the list soon. While Samsung sells tons of cameras all around the world, they have never offered a professional camera. The NX1 has been greeted with a great deal of skepticism from many quarters. But all the elements are right there. Breakthrough tech combined with a solid build and a vision for the future. Mirrorless cameras have been declared the future and DSLR’s, the past. This camera reinforces that. And the potential is there for even more. When this camera was in development Samsung actually tested the sensor at 6K RAW @ 240fps. Maybe we’ll see that resolution in the next generation.
Key Features
A list of key features is quite impressive.
28 megapixel APS-C BSI CMOS sensor 23.5 x 15.7 mm
Internal 4K @ 24fps, 4K UHD @ 30fps & 1080p @ up to 60fps (120 fps in 1080)
30.7 MP Actual, 28.2 MP Effective
Advanced Hybrid Autofocus system utilizing 205 phase and 209 contrast-detection autofocus points
ISO range of100-25,600 native with the ability to increase to 51,200
76.6mm (3.0″) Super AMOLED w/Touch Screen with a resolution of 1036k dots
Dynamic Range of 10-12 stops
Video Format – H.265 recording system (first of it’s kind)
Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 – 4K output via HDMI
Still formats-SRW RAW, JPEG, MPO (yes, it can shoot 3D)
Fast continuous still shooting up to 15fps @ 28MP
Built In Intervalometer to create 6.5K time-lapse videos
Android OS with both Android and iOS app controllability
WiFi and Bluetooth sharing
Incredibly fast DRIMe V image processing engine
Ultra high 1/8000-second shutter speed
Professional Bit-rate of 80Mbit/s in 4K and 40Mbit/s in Full HD
Intelligent Auto Shooting Modes, Baseball, Jump Shot, Trap Shot
USB 2.0 or 3.0 connection or charging
Measures 139x102x66mm (5.47×4.02×2.6″)
Pros and Cons
Pros:
H.265 codec
USB Battery charge
Good solid grip and excellent balance
NFC, WiFi & Bluetooth
WiFi can send pictures but only one at a time
Good app integration, especially like remote viewfinder and Android Bluetooth shutter
Price
Nice button layout
Separate Video and stills buttons next to each other
Super AMOLED screen with essentially no lag
excellent ISO range
At fast shutter speeds, high speed action@30fps can be cleaner than some cameras at 60fps
Scene modes work very well
Gamma DR
The NX1 can output 4K 4:2:2 8-bit video over HDMI for capture on an external recorder.
Can do rack focus shots using touch screen
28.2 MP backside illuminated sensor
Hybrid AF system with phase-detect points covering 90% of frame
153 cross-type AF points with industry-leading frame coverage
Mostly effective subject tracking
High quality 4K video performance
4K 4:2:2 8-bit video out
Outstanding dynamic range and low light image quality
15 fps burst shooting
Cons:
H.265 Codec
Screen size
Few problems with autofocus with any kind of bright lights behind subject
Needs custom settings that hold frame rate as well as other settings
Needs 60fps recording in 4K UHD
Desperately needs 10-bit or even 12-bit color sampling
HDMI output limit too many features. You have to unplug to get to them
Flash “shadows” 16-50mm lens, must zoom to eliminate it.
no cover for the EVF screen
Mini HDMI is still glitchy when connected to external Atomos Shogun
Movie Converter software is poorly built with no advanced features and many basic features missing. Definitely a stop-gap software. no batch settings If you have 50 files to convert, you must go through them one at a time to select the conversion settings (unless you want the default settings). Finally, the conversion process is slow enough to have a significant impact on workflow unless you have a really fast computer.
Let’s discuss the build of the camera.
Samsung chose to make The NX1 using die-cast magnesium alloy for the body. The result is a light but an extremely sturdy frame. The overall size of the camera body equates to a medium-sized DSLR.
The hand grip gets away from the trend of smaller and instead delivers a true grip that feels extremely comfortable in my hand. It’s snug to the base of my thumb and doesn’t tire out my hand like many other smaller grip cameras. This is important when you shoot all day long.
The ergonomics get an A+.
The body is splash resistant and combined with the “S” Series lenses you a fully sealed water resistant system in case you are exposing the camera to the harsher elements.
At 610grams, the weight is less than a Canon 5D Mark III(950grams) or the Sony A7RII (625grams) but slightly more than the Panasonic GH4 (569grams).
Physical Layout of Controls
The layout of the controls is both familiar and unique. As I hold it my fingers deftly fall and find controls right where I expect them to be. A beautiful, natural, intuitive design. The top dials are right where you expect them to be. The mode control dial features a useful locking button to avoid mistakenly changing settings. The left-hand dial offers ISO, AutoFocus, metering and white balance. The lower part of the dial handles drive operation, single shot, normal continuous, self-timer and bracketing. Harkening back to classic cameras, the top-mounted LCD supplies you with almost every setting in one view. One feature that I love is the placement of a separate stills and video record buttons. They are situated right next to each other, allowing you to just slide your thumb over to activate either function. One caveat is that The video record button is recessed a little too much for me. I’d prefer a slight bump to make it easier to feel as I slide my thumb over. The main reason behind this request is the closeness of the exposure compensation button which I have on more than one occasion pressed thinking I was activating record. No harm done as the exposure compensation control is a combination of pressing that button and turning one of the thumbwheel controls. However, several video recording opportunities were delayed due to the inadvertent push of the wrong control.
Stills and Video Formats
Since the NX1 captures 6480×4320 stills at a 3:2 aspect ratio and 3840×2160 for 4K UHD which is a 16:9 ratio. For framing video, the customizable backside menu dial has a default set to change the image to display the proper aspect ratio when you press the right arrow on the dial.
However when you utilize the autofocus by executing a half press of the still shutter, the display snaps back to the 6480×4320 – 3:2 aspect ratio.
When you press the video record, the screen snaps to the 16:9 ratio video format from the 3:2 stills formatting. It doesn’t hurt anything but for framing purposes it can drive you a little buggy.
On the positive side switching back and forth between stills and video is super simple.
Super AMOLED w/Touch Screen
The Super AMOLED w/Touch Screen is really just that, super. I have never seen a better looking, brighter or cleaner image on a screen. I am not a fan of the sliding tilt, however. I’d like to see swing out and twist.
This is one of the few things that I don’t love about the camera. It is something that you can get used to. That said, the touch screen is marvelous and even the play feature with the ability to pinch to zoom, swipe, and tap. Something that we are all used from our smartphones and tablets.
Even without the limited movement of the screen, you can, however, still do selfies by using the Smartphone App connection.
One immensely useful tool is the tap to focus in live view mode. I have been able to do a smooth rack focus just by tapping the screen.
The companion 1024×768 OLED viewfinder is outstanding and can be set in the menu for color or black and white for more critical focus situations.
I found the focus system to fast and accurate about 85-90% of the times. But I have only tested it with the two best high-end lenses that Samsung makes.
A general observation about the interconnectivity of the device between iOs and Android is that, not surprisingly, Android is a much smoother, easier setup and operation.
Sensor and Processor
The Samsung NX1 comes with a 28 megapixel APS-C BSI CMOS sensor 23.5 x 15.7 mm with image processing by the DRIMe V image processing engine.
Wow, that sounds impressive, and it is. Memorize it and use it at the next party you go to and you will be the “Grand Nerd of the Night”.
But what does it really mean to your shooting experience? Why is it such a big deal?
Let’s pull it apart and see how it relates.
The BSI or BackSide Illuminated CMOS image sensor uses a novel approach to the layout of the electronics for the sensor. Traditional CMOS sensors have the electronics on the front of the chip with microlenses, then the real workhorses, the photosites that actually record the light behind them. By placing the electronics behind the sensor, Samsung has been able to add more photosites to the same size sensor area, thus enabling more precious light to reach the photosites. More light means less amplification is needed which in turn means less noise in your picture and cleaner, crisper images.
This same tech is the reason that smartphones today are producing better images. It was, in fact, originally used in astronomy sensors for complex telescopes. Till then, no one had made a BSI CMOS this big. Sony has since upped the game by introducing a 42.4MP image sensor on the a7RII.
To give you a comparison, Samsung’s NX30 has a traditional CMOS configuration. The same sensor size yields a 20.8 MP image. So you can see by adding the BSI CMOS Samsung was able to increase the amount of pixels on the sensor to 28.2MP. That’s 8 million more pixels spread across the same size sensor.
Another result of the additional light is the additional sensitivity for better low light performance giving the camera a native resolution range of ISO 100-25,600. Which can be electronically stretched to a whopping 51,200.
The DRIMe V (pronounced DREAM) image processing engine (a quad-core chip) is really the brains of the operation. that Samsung describes as It takes all the information gathered by the sensor electronics and creates the image. Sounds simple, but it’s not, especially when you realize that the NX1 can shoot at a blistering 15fps for 90 images (with the 1.40 firmware upgrade) in Superfine JPEG or 25 images in SRW RAW. That’s a mind-blowing 700 million pixels of information being spewed out at 15fps. Add to the mix the 14-bit sampling of raw images and 12-bit in continuous shooting application. To look at it in another way, shooting 4K UHD video at 30fps means that you are capturing thirty – 8MP images every second. With continuous shooting the engine is handling fifteen – 28MP images every second. Quite a processing feat indeed.
One more item that will bring home the inherent value of this camera. The NikonD4S shoots 16MP at 11fps and costs almost 3 1/2 times the Samsung NX1.
The processing engine also handles the autofocus duties. With 205 phase and 209 contrast-detection autofocus points the camera is lightning fast focus. These points are built into the surface of the sensor.
If you aren’t familiar with how these two focus systems work, allow me to give you a quick primer.
Advanced Hybrid Autofocus System
Phase Detection Autofocus compares two complimentary images of the selected subject. Simply put if they don’t line up, then they are not in focus. The difference in the distance between the two images tell the camera how much to refocus, either nearer or further.
Contrast-detection autofocus measures the subject contrast ratio. If the ratio increases, then the camera knows it’s going the right way. If it decreases, it reverses course and goes back. While all of this trial and error measuring happens very quickly, nevertheless, you will see a slight blurring, sometimes referred to as breathing, before the focus snaps into place.
Why then, do cameras have both? Because Contract Autofocus works better on faces and Phase Detection Autofocus tunes in moving objects faster. Hence the hybrid combination.
By spreading the autofocus detection points across the entire surface of the sensor with a denser package towards the center versus the edges produces the most efficient results.
That once again takes us back to that wonderfully lightning fast DRIMe V image processing engine which creates the fastest and most accurate autofocusing system that I have seen on any camera.
That is not to say that you don’t run into issues. This is where understanding the limitations of any machine versus the human brain comes into play. In certain conditions, the autofocus does lose the plot, but these are mostly extreme circumstances where, for instance, an extremely bright back light directly next to your subject. That’s where you use your processing engine, your brain, and either move the subject or switch to manual focus.
You have three autofocus settings to choose from, Single AF (SAF), Continuous AF (CAF) and Active AF (AAF).
SAF is designed for shooting still subjects. A half-press of the shutter adjusts the focus in the boxed focus area. When in focus the box has a green outline.
CAF is the workhorse position. This is designed to continually adjust the focus. You can resize or move the focus box using the touchscreen or the command dial.
AAF will flip between SAF and CAF as needed. So if the subject is far away but moving towards the camera, it would start with SAF and as the image gets closer and bigger it would switch automatically to CAF. Manual assisted focusing either enlarges the picture by 5x or 8x.
My personal choice is to use CAF for video and SAF for stills.
In video, the speed of the processor is the reason that you can record 4K to the internal SDHC cards. Because it is processing the image information so fast, then utilizing the H.265 codec to capture the video files in a compressed format that still retains the original image quality. In fact, H.265 can be as much as 1/2 the file size of H.264. Plus it aids the SDHC cards by not requiring them to capture so much data. Meaning that you don’t need the incredible speed need in the cards as you do for cameras like the RED that have to capture to extremely high-speed SSD drives.
Autofocus modes consist of Selection AF, whereby touching the screen you decide on a focus point. Whereas Zone AF will set the autofocus to adjust within a zone area that you preset. This works well with camera movement.
Multi AF displays a green rectangle in places where focus is set correctly. The photo is divided into two or more areas, and the camera obtains focus points of each area. This mode is recommended for taking landscape photos.
Face Detection AF is designed for group photo settings.
Self-Portrait AF It can be difficult to check whether your face is in focus when you are taking a self-portrait. When this function is on, the camera beeps faster when your face is in focus and located at the center of the composition.
I must say that the last two Face Detection and Self-Portrait are definitely solely consumer based. And with the heft of this camera it is certainly not designed for selfies.
That said, the Selection AF, Zone AF and less so the Multi AF are definitely helpful for pros as well as consumers.
These modes combine with the Focus Assist Modes for the greatest efficiency outside of good old fashion manual focus.
Touch AF
AF Point
Tracking AF
One Touch Shot
I have found that Selection AF combined with Touch AF is my most used AF mode combo.
The NX1 captures both 4K DCI (4096 x 2160) @24p and UHD (3840 x 2160)@23.98p, 24p, 25p/30p plus Full HD (1920×1080) @ variable to 120fps, 60p/50p, 25p/30p, 23.98p, 1280×720 , 640×480 Resolution (though I’m not sure why anyone would use the last few).
H.265 Codec
H.265, the heir apparent to H.264 was developed as the “HEVC” (High Efficiency Video Coding) format by both the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the Video Coding Experts Group(VCEG).
How H.265 works is similar to H.264 in that it uses “image blocks”. It “sees” the image frames and scans for the areas that change and those that don’t. What H.265 does differently is it adjusts the size of the “blocks” to match what is happening on the screen. So the static area gets bigger “blocks” while the changing areas get smaller “blocks” which are easier to rapidly change as the image does.
I’ve kept the explanation somewhat simplified and there are other factors that contribute to the quality improvements. If I went into everything that goes into H.265, this article would be more like a very thick book.
The result is that the image quality is substantially improved while the file size is drastically reduced. The process does require substantially more processing power. Again where the DRIMe V image processing engine comes into play.
You’ll notice later that I list the H.265 codec as both a “Pro” and a “Con”. There is good reason for both.
As a “Pro”, it is a pretty sure bet that H.265 will be the next de facto codec for camera recording, just as H.264 was before it. It will certainly not disappear in the face of Google’s VP-9 codec. Even Google doesn’t believe that it will as they also support H.265 playback on Chrome.
Samsung has taken a bold step in being the first to feature this codec. Although in all honesty, the NX1 forums have more than their share of moaners and groaners cajoling Samsung to offer both H.264 and H.265 codecs in the camera. These neophytes don’t realize the added complexity nor the pointlessness of offering both. You either lead the charge or sit on the fence. Samsung has decided to take a picture of the fence as it surges forward.
As a “Con” it is a short term one. At this point, there is no NLE on the market that can edit the codec. In fact, until recently it was hard to find a player that worked properly. Samsung supplies both a player and a converter for the H.265 codec. The NLE situation will be resolving itself as well as software companies are already working on ways to edit this tightly compressed codec.
If you don’t care for Samsung’s Conversion solution there are several others out there and some are free.
here is a list and brief description.
Footage Studio 4K – Acrovid.com
This is not a free one, but it packs a ton of features into an introductory price of $129.
You can convert into multiple formats including ProRes, DNxHD, MJPEG, MP4 (H.264), plus more and even resample and upscale to 10-bit in the process. Noise reduction, Frame rate change, overcranking and undercranking plus a whole lot more.
Convert to Multiple formats including ProRes 4444, HQ, LT, 422, DNxHD, H.264 MPEG4, VP9 and a whole lot more. Add LUTs, Cut/Trim videos, Control Adjustments, Crop, Split videos, Overlays, Batch Outputs and the list goes on. Upscale/downscale to HD, 4K, 6K, 8K at 8-bit or 10-bit. It even has a RAW editor to create video files from an image sequence, supporting stills in TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, Cinema DNG and DPX. Available in three versions $226 / $340 / $910
This Free converter is quite a deal and was born out the frustration with the Samsung Converter. It basically utilizes FFmpeg source code in a GUI application. It is basic but very quick at converting to H.264, H.265. ProRes Proxy, LT, SQ and HQ codecs. Your choice of downscaling to 1080p or converting to 4K. No bells and whistles here, just simple and efficient.
True 6.5K Video in TimeLapse
This is a marvelous little extra treat. The Samsung NX1 has a built in intervalometer for doing time lapse and it will even process the image files into a 4K video file. My advice, don’t do it.
Leave the image sequence as is. When you import it into your NLE (Pro Tip: adjust in Lightroom first) you will then have a glorious 3:2 ratio 6.5K video to play with. Zoom in to 60% and it will fill the screen with a decision to crop at the top or bottom. The 6.5K resolution means you can zoom as much as you like with little or no effect on the image quality.
Or leave it at 100% and create a Hyper-Lapse by keyframing your pan and scan moves. Either way enjoy and take advantage of the extra resolution.
(links to samples on our site)
HDMI Output
Why only 8-bit 4:2:2 Samsung? With all the 10-bit proffered by other manufacturers and the need for 10-bit color sampling for 4K I can only hope that we will see it in a firmware upgrade.
The weakest point on all the modern breed of mirrorless cameras is the mini HDMI port. The port may be mini but the physical weight of the cables certainly is not. I have seen far too may issues when using these tiny ports when connecting to external HDMI devices like the Atomos Shogun. The best solution is an HDMI saver. Most that I saw on the market were heavy and cumbersome. The answer for me was in designing and 3D printing my own. It is practically weightless and works perfectly to reduce the strain from the HDMI cable and save you from needless repairs and the loss of time with your camera. (http://bit.ly/1EyfnYg)
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range describes the ratio between the minimum and maximum useable light captured by the camera.
This is one of the most misunderstood and misused buzzword out there. It is akin to the wildly extravagant claims of contrast ratio for TV’s. There are a million different ways to measure it, all of which can be slanted in one direction or the next. Add to that the fact that the new BT2020 standard, which will show how that immense dynamic range will perform, has not made it to market yet.
Test conditions make a huge difference as well. What type of lighting? Studio? Outdoor Daytime? Outdoor Nighttime? ISO Setting? How much digital noise is there in the image? How much is acceptable?
There are no real established standards at this time.
While Samsung NX1 does not have a raw or LOG setting for video, it does have GammaDR and Smart Range+. While both of these work together to increase the range available, it won’t be complete until Samsung offers a true flat profile.
For our purposes, let’s discuss this with more practical applications.
As an example, you are shooting at sunset. You have the sun visible in the shot and you have a darkened area that goes all the way to a deep black. The True Dynamic Range would be measured between the highest degree of white that isn’t blowing out and the most visible detail in the blackest area.
In my subjective testing, I have found that the NX1 is almost as good as a full frame sensor. Depending upon the lighting and the exposure, aim for proper exposure of the highlights as the Samsung really holds the details in the shadows much better. So the trick is to slightly underexpose on the highlights and correct and expand in post.
There are several parameters to bear in mind during testing.
It is a given that the higher the ISO, the more digital noise is introduced into the image. Settings of 100 to 800 ISO were used for testing. I pushed beyond all the way up to 51,200, but it just got silly testing for any kind of true pro quality at those settings. For me, they are there for those images you just HAVE to get and don’t care how fuzzy it looks.
Shutter speed plays a factor in the testing. Lower shutter speeds are great for gathering more light for shadow areas whereas higher shutter speeds, in general, they can save you in the highlights.
And not to get you more confused but, Exposure compensation is another one of those, “tricks of the trade”. I found that depending upon lighting conditions, that adjusting the EV by +4EV can result in a much better image than increasing or decreasing shutter and ISO.
The final factor is the lens. Each lens is designed to have a “sweet spot”. This is the optimum f-stop setting for any particular lens. Manufacturers don’t want to talk about this because the misconception would be that the lens is somehow “less” at any other setting. That is NOT true. It is widely accepted that there is a “native” ISO for every camera. Well, the same goes for lenses.
Without testing, there is no definitive way to know, but in most cases a “middle-of-the-road” approach is safe.
Keeping those parameters in mind I have found that, at it’s best the Samsung affords a solid 12 1/2 stops of Dynamic Range. At it’s worst, you will bottom out at 10 – 11 stops. These were all shot with a 100 ISO setting. The results will drop steadily with any ISO over 800.
One final thought about dynamic range. Many talk about it like it’s the Holy Grail. And it is wonderful when you are shooting on a camera that has it built in. But if not, the truth is that proper exposure can result in just as good or better results. True profiles to increase dynamic range are wonderful, but unfortunately, the trend lately has been to create these pseudo LUTs or profiles or even de-LUT’s (whatever that snake oil is) in post.
But reader, let me tell you, if you are not applying this to the camera as it records then all you are doing is adjusting the color correction to create a flatter video image and then color correcting it again. It’s pseudo-science, snake oil, my friends, now you see it, now you don’t. If you buy it, then I’ve got some dry swamp land to sell you!
Menu
This is the one place where I think there is a need for improvement, page numbers on the menu. There are none. You go to any book, there are page numbers. When you look something up in the index, there are page numbers. It is a simple but extremely effective way to find the item that you are looking for. It slows you down to look for the exact item you want to change. It’s unbelievable to me that with the technological advances of this machine that the menu doesn’t have page numbers. Ok, enough of my rant. Samsung please give us page numbers. that’s all I’ll say on that.
The menu operation is smooth and easy with either touchscreen or dial control.
Shooting Modes
Samsung Smart Shot, Picture Wizard, and Smart Filters are both a bow to the consumer side of the prosumer users.
Picture Wizard gives you the option to pre-adjust your image with built in looks. You can also create and save your own look with Custom Settings.
Built in choices include:
Standard
Classic which applies a black and white effect
Vivid with highly saturated colors
Portrait creates natural skin tones.
Landscape emphasizes the forest greenery
Retro gives you a brown sepia tone
Cool adds accent to the cool blues
Calm is described by Samsung as creating a calm scene effect.
Clicking the up arrow on the control dial will allow you to customize each one of these if you like.
Scrolling over to Custom 1, 2 or 3 allows for complete customization of the look.
Smart Filters
The Smart Filter options are
Vignetting Applies the retro-looking colors, high contrast, and strong vignette effect of Lomo cameras.
Miniature (H) Applies a tilt-shift effect to make the subject appear in miniature. The top and bottom of the photo will be blurred.
Miniature (V) Applies a tilt-shift effect to make the subject appear in miniature. The left and right of the photo will be blurred.
Watercolor Applies a watercolor painting effect.
Red Desaturate all colors but red.
Green Desaturate all colors but green.
Samsung Auto Shot
Beauty Face Capture a portrait with options to hide facial imperfections.
Landscape Capture still-life scenes and landscapes.
Action Freeze Capture subjects moving at high speed.
Rich Tones Capture a photo with vibrant colors HDR.
Panorama Capture a wide panoramic scene in a single photo.
Waterfall Capture scenes with waterfalls.
Multi Exposure Capture multiple photos and overlap them to create one photo.
Samsung Auto Shot Capture action photos, such as someone hitting a baseball, a jumpshot, or when the subject passes a preset point.
Silhouette Capture subjects as dark shapes against a light background.
Sunset Capture scenes at sunset, with natural-looking reds and yellows.
Personally, while I did test these and they all worked fine. I keep the setting in the “off” position, preferring to shoot in SRW RAW mode and adjust in Lightroom and Photoshop. Please keep in mind that if you are shooting in RAW only, the Smart Filters setting will be grayed out in the menu along with the choice of Photo Size.
i-Function
With one button on the lens and two dials on the body you can set the aperture, shutter sped, ISO, Exposure Value, and White Balance and Intelli-Zoom (if the lens is so equipped). This is a fantastic feature for “run and gun” shooters eliminating having to go to the menu to make these adjustments.
I like it because you can make all of these adjustments after enabling the i-Function with just using the two command dials at the top and back of the camera. Customization of the features are available through the menu under “iFn Customizing”.
Interconnectivity
The trio of NFC, WiFi and Bluetooth make the NX1 the top of its class in wireless camera connectivity. Dual Band communication features a choice of 2.4GHz or 5GHz transmission. This is especially helpful if there is an overload of 2.4GHz devices in the area.
Utilizing the Bluetooth you can have the time set automatically and add GPS coordinates to your image file. One caveat is that the Bluetooth only works on Android and not the iOS version. Overall I would say that the Android experience is smoother than the iOS app, which is to be expected considering you are linking to Samsung smartphones. Which is too bad because I really like the Bluetooth shutter feature on the Android version.
Both do offer smartphone camera control and remote viewfinder control. With Remote Viewfinder, you can set the file size for stills or video, change picture modes, drive settings, AF settings, white balance and decide on either VGA or QVGA streaming. There is very little lag in operation, but if the camera goes dark then you can lose the connection and have to re-establish.
While you can directly post to your Facebook or Instagram accounts, you can transfer between the camera and smart device easily with the application.
The i-Launcher software system is built into the Samsung NX1 Camera. Once you plug your camera into your Mac or PC the i-Launcher or i-Launcher Web allows you to update the firmware of the camera or the lens, or download the User Manual. It also allows you to
download and install Samsung Movie Converter, Samsung DNG Converter, PC Auto Backup, Power Media Player, and the SDK reference program.
No more CD with software that gets lost when you need to install again. Everything your need to work with your camera including the H.265 converter software is there.
In addition, there is a licensed copy of Adobe Lightroom for you. Be sure to update the software as soon as you install it as the version supplied does not support Samsung’s SRW RAW file format.
Lenses
Adding any of the Premium “S” Series lenses, like the 50-150mm F2.8 S ED OIS Lens at 915grams or the 16-50mm F2-2.8 S ED OIS Zoom Lens at 621 grams add some beef to your hand. But it feels good. Traditionally, as long as the camera is well balanced a little more weight lends itself to better stability in your shots. Plus these lenses have optical stabilization built in.
For my testing, I have been provided with these two lenses and I can truthfully say they have served me for 95% of my shooting. I would have liked a true wide angle to test like the 10mm F3.5 Fisheye lens for testing, but perhaps at a later date I can get my hands on one.
The 16-50mm F2-2.8 S ED OIS Zoom Lens offers an 82.6 degree angle of view at 16mm, equal to a 24mm lens to a 31.4 degree angle of view, the same as a 75mm lens in a 35mm system.
The 50-150mm F2.8 S ED OIS Zoom Lens picks up from there nicely offering an 31.4 degree angle of view at 50mm, equal to a 75mm lens and tapers off to a 10.7 degree angle of view at 150mm, the same as a 231mm lens in a 35mm system.
The availability of a range of lenses which was an early criticism of the system is rapidly expanding. Samsung now offers 28 lens choices, including primes, with more on the way.
Rokinon, Samyang, Bower, Lensbaby & Rising are all offering a steadily increasing selection of Samsung NX mount lenses.
In addition Fotasy and FotodioX both have economically priced adapters to use either Canon EF or Nikon lenses. Although using these adapters send you to manual only adjustments. No word yet from Metabones about a powered adapter, although I am sure as the camera grows in popularity, we will see an offering from them.
These two lenses represent the high end of the lenses offered by Samsung. What sets them apart is the overall combination of features.
The 16-50mm F2-2.8 S ED OIS Zoom Lens has 18 elements in 12 groups. The lens includes three aspherical, two ED, and two XHR lenses. The aspherical elements control the softness often seen at the edges of other lenses. These elements balance the distribution of light more effectively creating a much smoother distribution of light across the image.
The ED or Extra-low Dispersion performs a similar equalling out of the color, preventing fringing on the edges and keeping a smooth dispersion of the color wavelengths across the surface of the lens. this gives you superior sharpness and color correction by diminishing chromatic aberration.
The Xtreme High Refractive (XHR) lenses makes for more efficient and uniform distribution of light and keeps the lens more compact and lightweight than other lenses.
These features combine with the lens-shift OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and the Ultra-Precise Stepping Motor (UPSM) to produce true professional quality image results even in the most adverse conditions. The additional bonus is that these lenses are truly dust and splash proof.
An interesting difference in the 50-150mm F2.8 S ED OIS Lens is the SHS or Samsung Hyper Shield Coating on the lens. It incorporates Anti-Fingerprint, Anti-Fog and Anti-Splash characteristics to the lens versus convention coating.
In addition, the lens has a custom focus range limiter that can be adjusted to a specific distance area of focus. This in turn allows for extremely fast autofocus. In testing this feature, I found it especially useful in distance shots in outdoor nature situations. The 6-axis Optical Image Stabilization performs excellently to keep the image in the viewfinder stable for framing.
My testing with both lenses revealed a well designed and executed lens system. There was a great deal of thought that went into this pair of optic tools. Clean, clear crisp images with fast accurate focusing, weather proofing with a strong feel and responsive action in your hands. I especially appreciated the little things like both lenses having a filter ring size of 72mm, making it easy to switch any filters or even interchange lens caps as you alternate between cameras.
The Bokeh is the term for the ascetics of the out of focus areas of the image. The origin of the word comes from the Japanese word ボケ味, the “blur quality”. The best cinematic lens offers Bokeh described with terms like smooth or creamy or harsh. They enhance your images by enhancing your subject against a pleasing intentionally blurred background. In my opinion, I would describe the Bokeh as creamy and rates highly in comparison to almost any professional lens on the market. Both the 50-150mm F2.8 S ED OIS Lens and the 16-50mm F2-2.8 S ED OIS Zoom Lens use nine rounded aperture blades, so the Bokeh for both areas matched set.
Another example of team minded design.
Newest Firmware Upgrade
While working on the completion of this review, the eighth (8th) Firmware Upgrade and sixth (6th) Lens Firmware Upgrade was released by Samsung, Version 1.40.
Samsung has continued to follow an aggressive stream of upgrades with a combination of fixing issues and adding or improving additional features. Honestly, I can’t remember another camera manufacturer who has been this committed to improving it’s product.
Some of the listed changes are obvious, some not so much. In testing these add-ons four stand out as being major.
First, the increased continuous maximum shot counts. Adding 20 is a testament to the power of the DRIMe V image processing engine. And while adding another 5 shots in the continuous burst of 15fps may not sound like a lot, it most certainly is when you realize that each SRW RAW is 47.6MP.
Adding DIS (Digital Image Stabilization) is, in my opinion, the most important of the group. It is a boon to handheld shooters. There is a slight crop applied to the image which is a necessary and acceptable trade off for the visibly improved image quality.
Critically focused shots are an absolute must for 4K shooting and Focus peaking is your best friend. One of the major bugs before this update was that the focus peaking would have to be reinitialized. Now it can be Key-mapped to a custom button in the menu. I choose the down arrow of the command dial.
Lastly, the improved autofocus during zooming is a very noticeable improvement. While it is restricted for only 6 lenses, these do constitute the real workhorse lenses in the Samsung arsenal. In video, I usually don’t zoom unless it’s a sports event that I am shooting with one camera. In the past in those cases I was stuck with a sometimes nasty “breathing” of the focus until it settled. It didn’t take very long, but it was, nonetheless, unacceptable for professional video. That issue has been eradicated totally with this upgrade.
One major thing to remember with installing a firmware upgrade is that it does a reset of the choices in your settings. If you change a lot it would be worthwhile to make a text file or take pics of each menu page for easy resetting after.
The movie, penned and co-directed by Dimitris Logothetis and John Stockwell is more than an action packed martial arts fest. It is a UFC, MMA fan dream with such notables as George St.Pierre, Gina Carano, Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum and more. The reboot costars Alain Moussi, a rising Canadian actor/stuntman with kicking and splits abilities that surpass Van Damme himself. The female lead is Sara Malakul Lane, an up and coming successful Thai model and actress who elevates the original female lead to Lui a tough Thai Policewoman and love interest to Kurt Sloan. Ted Field, of Riddick, Last Samurai and Three Men and a Baby produces.
Having just received the Samsung NX1, at the time, to review this seemed like the ideal real-world testing ground. What better way to find the capabilities of the camera than to use it on a Hollywood movie set.
My video weapons of choice included the Samsung NX1 with the 16-50mm F 2-2.8 S ED OIS and the 50-150mm F 2.8 S OIS lens. This pair offered the flexibility for both wide angle masters as well as tight portrait shots. In addition, I used the Atomos Shogun, but I will talk about that in a separate review.
The concept was to shoot both 6.5k stills and 4K video, from which high quality stills could be easily pulled from the NLE timeline.
Both Director of Photography, Mateo Londono and the Director, Dimitris Logothetis took notice of the quality of the shots and the camera. They both commented that the Samsung NX1 produced cinema quality shots that could be paired with the Red Epic being used by the production.
Having lived and breathed with this camera for 14 days of shooting everything from night scenes to high action martial arts fights to press conferences it is safe to say that I am fully indoctrinated to the nuances of the camera.
Conclusion
The NX1 manages to achieve something no one else has been able to do at this level, create a camera that delivers both professional quality stills alongside spectacular Pro video.
As a still camera, the amazing 90 JPEG @ 1/8000th-second continuous image burst at 15fps surpasses cameras three times the price. With that kind of latitude the need for neutral density filters disappears.
The SRW RAW files contain a spectacular amount of image data that can easily and creatively adjusted in Lightroom and Photoshop. But never fear, if you straight from the camera stills, the NX1 delivers them quite well. This is where the built-in creativity of the Smart Shot, Picture Wizard and Smart Filters comes into play nicely. And the built-in wiFi means that you are a connection away from emailing anyone a picture straight out of the camera.
The video performance of this camera is flat out stunning. Having tested it in low light on a night shoot of a Hollywood movie to the overpowering brightness of shooting a sunset, the camera has constantly outperformed expectations.
There is a huge fixation lately about RAW and flat S-LOG which is overinflated and misleading. While it is true that the NX1 does not offer a super flat image, a properly exposed shot can be adjusted in post to do everything that a flat profile can offer. Indeed one that same Hollywood movie set of Kickboxer Vengeance the consensus was that the Samsung NX1 could be used side by side with the Red Epic footage in post production. You simply can’t expect better than that for a sub $2000 camera.
I highly advise avoiding this strange concept that seems to be brewing for those who sell these NLE based LUTS and De-LUTS. In my opinion, if you don’t apply it in the camera, then you are doing nothing to add the dynamic range or quality of the image. In fact, you are basically color correcting to achieve a flat image only to color correct a second time to reach the “look” that you want. It’s like flying from New York to New Jersey by first flying to LA. Sure you can do it. But the question is, WHY?
While the NX1 allows for custom controlling of the Luminance Levels and Master Black Levels these as not designed to expand the dynamic range but rather as a way to match to other cameras in given shooting environments. The base settings in combination with the Gamma DR setting grants you the widest latitude in true dynamic range.
I found it very easy to use the Touch AF for set up of focus during those hectic points in shooting behind the scenes on a stunt-filled action movie like Kickboxer Vengeance. In fact, I was even able to pull off rack focus using the Touch AF and the AF Responsiveness adjustment in the menu. The results were as smooth as using the lens control but without needing a second person focus puller.
When I had the time the 1280×70 viewfinder was sharp and spectacular with the manual focus switch on the lens barrel easy to access.
There are however a few hurdles for Samsung’s wizards in engineering to overcome to achieve full professional parity. 10-bit 4:2:2 color sampling and 4k 60p frame rates among them. Enabling 10-bit 4:2:2 instead of 8-bit4:2:2 from the HDMI port would be a welcome first step. That would grant us the ability to use the Atomos Shogun to its fullest potential in external video recording.
Audio has always been a weak link in all mirrorless cameras, but the newest firmware upgrade has taken the first step by improving the external audio capture. But still more needs to be done.
H.265 is a definite long term advantage allowing you to record twice as much as H.264 while still maintain the same professional quality standards. An added bonus is that you don’t need the excessive fast SDHC cards that can cause long term overheating issues and failure.
If you are serious about capturing stills or video, my advice is that this is THE camera to get. There is no other camera in this price range that delivers the bang for the buck that the Samsung NX1 Camera does.
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