Customer Reviews

Samsung GX-1S 6.3MP Digital SLR Camera with Schneider D-XENON 18-55mm Lens

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

OFFERED FOR LESS THAN ALL BEGINNING DSLR CAMWERAS, THE CAMERA HAS FEWER FEATURES THAN THE SAMSUNG GX-1L THAT I ALREADY OWN. THE GX-1L HAS A MENU OF LIGHT SETTINGS ON AN fn SCREEN. THESE PRESET LIGHT SETTINGS MIGHT MAKE THE GX-1L SLIGHTLY EASIER TO USE THAN THE GX-1S, BUT YOU CAN'T BEAT THE PRICE. I USE THIS CAMERA TO TAKE WITH ME ALMOST EVERYWHERE AS THE GX-1S IS LIGHT WEIGHT LIKE THE GX-1L. BOTH CAMERAS ARE A GOOD WAY TO ENTER THE WORLD OF PENTAX MOUNT CAMERAS, AND KEEP THE PRICE LOW. THEY ARE WELL MADE WITH GOOD OPTICS. YOU CAN ALWAYS ADD TO A PENTAX MOUNT SYSTEM WITH CAMERAS HAVING RELATED CHARACTERISTICS. THERE ARE MANY, MANY LENSES AVAILABLE.

I'm glad to say I chose this camera as my first dslr and am beyond pleased! Like others have said, it's basically a copy of an *ist ds2 and can take k-mount lenses. The build is plastic (I suspect with the steel chassis of the *ist), it's nice and light, but feels very sturdy and not cheap. It's just right really. The grip is perfect for my girl hands, and the features have been easy to learn alongside the user manual. The xenon lens included feels much nicer than I expected a cheap kit lens to be, and it's a good starter to experiment with before diving into purchasing better and more expensive glass. (Seeing as Samsung and Pentax are in kahoots here, I think it must be like the Pentax kit lens, re-stamped.) I got this when it was $350 not too long ago and I'm still stoked about what an awesome value it was, and how much more of an awesome value it becomes as I get better at taking photos. I'm not so sure I would choose it over the Pentax now that the price has gone back (?) up to around $500, but it is a great camera nonetheless and I'm glad to have it.

Ever since I gave up on my 35mm and went digital I've had point and shoots. Nothing more expensive than $200.

I've missed my Pentax SLR, but was unwilling to pay the high price for Digital SLRs. I was closely watching the prices on the new Pentax cameras, especially the K100 and K110. When Amazon had this Samsung GX-1S on sale for half price, I jumped.

A rebranded Pentax *IST ds2, this camera is awesome. 6.1 mega pixal, 18-55mm lens. When you factor in the price, below many high end point and shoots, it can't be beat.

I've already bought a zoom lens (75-300mm) and filters. Pentax lenses are a direct match, so that's no problem. I have a whole kit to replace my old 35mm, for not much money.

Thank you Pentax, thank you Samsung, THANK YOU AMAZON!

I bought this when Amazon marked it down just prior to Christmas, and it's a fantastic little camera.
The body has some surprising features for what is an entry level camera: I was surprised when I discovered that it had DOF preview, and even more surprised when I found that it had the ability to pre-release the mirror to minimize vibration during long exposures. Cranking up the ISO past 800 will result in a bit of noise at 1600, and a fair amount of noise at 3200, but it's still great to find an ISO 3200 setting. Frames at 3200 are not horrible, but you can definitely see the noise, like using high ISO film(back when I used 35mm film), so it can give a kind of cool look to the image if you want it, and if you don't the very fine grain pattern cleans up really nice and smooth in Corel Paintshop Pro using the DCNR tool. The body is surprisingly solid feeling for a camera in this class as well. Since Samsung partnered with Pentax and both lines use the same KAF2 mount, there are lots of lenses to expand this camera with(I've used some of my manual focus Pentax lenses with excellent results), and it's ability to use AA batteries is great in my opinion, since I can use inexpensive NiMH instead of propietary batteries, and in a pinch alkaline AAs will work, but they won't last long. In all I'm happy with the GX-1S, considering the image quality and features and price this was an excellent value.

First I want to say that I got this camera for the incredible price of only $349 or 375 with next day shipping. It arrived on-time and I was so amazed that I even got a deal like this and it actually was real.. unlike some sites that give you japanese products or don't include everything.

My cameras are, Sony Cybershot F717 (which still costs more than this SLR), a panasonic Lumix, a Canon EOX Rebel X, an HP photosmart, and a Sanyo.

This camera is a really good camera, I have no real complaints other than it took me quite awhile to figure out how to get it to perform well in action photography and in indoor situations.

After I discovered a few simple techniques I was well on my way with this camera and even have taken some professional pics for friends and family!

First things first. DISABLE AUTOFOCUS!!! - the camera has to focus on everything and when taking pics of babies you cannot wait for the camera to focus every single time before firing a shot.

1. Set-up the OKAY button for your focus. go to: Menu, custom, Ok Btn Whn Shooting, and select number 3. This will allow you to focus with the Okay button and only take pictures with the shutter button. sounds simple but this is a lifesaver! I focus on a child with the okay button, and fire multiple shots by pressing the shutter release. this way the camera doesn't ask any questions or doubt your ability to focus! it just fires away! this is what professionals do. once you fix your focus point, you don't need to keep focusing for every shot.

2. Turn off auto metering*. choose the samsungs 11-point focus. This way the camera won't guess what your trying to focus on and give you what it thinks. what you focus the little red dot on is what the camera will focus on. (use the up, down, left, or right keys to focus on other areas on the screen. you will see the red focus light move in the viewfinder to one of the 11 points you choose.)

3. when indoors and zooming in on a subject to take a photo the camera guesses the exposure, so pictures will usually come out dark. Easy tip - when zooming out to its widest, keep exposure at 0.0. when zooming all the way in on a subject, change the exposure to 1.0. If you need it brighter change it to 1.5 if you need to. this will keep the subject well lit and sharp.

4. don't use anything over 400 for the exposure indoors, it just isn't worth it.

Well, these are my tips so far! hope you like! I promise they will enhance your photos tremendously!

I took over 5000 photos with this camera, it is fun, easy to use and delivers beautiful images, here follows the strong and weak points in my opinion:

Pros:
Large pentaprism viewfinder
Nice photos
Top LCD
Good solid construction
Pleasant to operate
Decent kit lens
Use AA batteries

Cons:
Slow auto focus in low light
Loud shutter release
No sensor cleaner
No image stabilisation
Auto white balance poor in incandescent light

I got this product for 350 at the time. Now i seen it went up in price. It's a great camera. The Auto features don't give you the best possible photos. They tend to be a little dark. I also went to a few local camera stores and picked up a few cheap pentax lens to cover a bigger range since the lens included isnt the greatest. Overall at 350 it was a great deal. At over 500 you are better to look towards other brands!

This is the same as a Pentax DS-2. The pros are that it is small and light, and has a big, bright viewfinder due to using a pentaprism instead of a pentamirror, which some say gives a slightly dimmer view. The cons are that it does not have image stabilization like the Pentax K100d or stabilization plus a self-cleaning sensor in the K100d super (both of those use the Pentamirror). When this was selling for 349, it was a steal.