Koreans can buy Renault-Samsung cars, cover them with Samsung insurance, fill them with Samsung-refined petrol and take a trip to the Samsung Everland amusement park. Seriously. But up until now, you couldn't buy a Samsung digital SLR.
And to be honest you still can't, as the corporate giant's first step away from compact cameras is actually a Pentax *ist DS with a Samsung badge and lens cap hastily added.
That's not to say the GX-1S is a complete clone. The Pentax's two-tone retro housing has been replaced by a smart all-black case that recalls Samsung's genuinely home-grown prosumer effort: the 8Mp, 15x zoom DigiMax Pro815.
The GX-1S feels tough all round, from its chunky right-hand grip to the firm zoom ring. The controls are less impressive, with individual buttons that are slightly too small to locate without taking your eye from the viewfinder, and there's a four-way control pad that feels spongy and slow.
Fast warm up
The Samsung is quick to warm up and fairly quick to focus, although it is prone to 'chatter' if it's not quite sure what it's locking on to. Also, there's no focus assist from the flash, which requires a manual deploy. Bundled with the camera is a Schneider-Kreuznach branded 18-55mm zoom, which seems identical to the lens supplied with the Pentax *ist DL.
Manual zooming and focusing are commendably smooth and reliable, but otherwise this isn't a tremendously impressive package. There's more optical distortion than we would like and we noticed some chromatic fringing, even at the relatively modest 84mm equivalent telephoto. However, the 'in-viewfinder' feedback is good.
Around the back of the GX-1S there's a generous 2.5-inch screen and not much else. Dedicated controls have been kept to a minimum, with a single Function button used to access key settings instead.
It's a boost for simplicity but it soon gets frustrating having to hit the Fn button, then the right button, then scroll and Enter simply to change the ISO sensitivity, for example. Happily the maximum ISO3200 is welcome, given the relatively low levels of noise it produces.
Photo features are skewed to the novice photographer. A host of scene modes can be accessed from the main mode dial and menus, plus the essential PASM modes. The jog dial works well, although it's annoying not to be able to easily tweak aperture or shutter speed when you're in Program mode.
