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  • Physical Tour

  • Components

  • Design / Layout

  • Modes

  • Control Options

  • Image Parameters

  • Connectivity / Extras

  • Overall Impressions

  • Conclusion

  • Physical Tour
  • Components
  • Design / Layout
  • Modes
  • Control Options
  • Image Parameters
  • Connectivity / Extras
  • Overall Impressions
  • Conclusion

Physical Tour


The GX-1L is a small DSLR, with the typical handgrip on the left and viewfinder hump above the lens. The grip has a ridge curving down the front, scalloping out a bit of extra room for the lens mount. The grip would be more comfortable without the ridge. A small window on the front of the grip serves as the self-timer light and an infrared remote control. The lens is a D-Xenon 18-55mm f/ 3.5-5.6 that is branded Schneider-Kreuznach. It takes a 52mm filter – which is smaller than average – and is compact and proportionate with the camera body.

The lens release button is near the bottom of the camera, between the grip and the lens mount. Opposite that, on the right side of the mount, sits the autofocus switch. Like the **ist DL2, the GX-1L has a badge in its upper right corner. The GX-1L has the "GX" printed in white, and displays the "1L" under a transparent bubble of plastic, similar to the badge style on the **ist DL2.

**Back
**The GX-1L back is dominated by the 2.5-inch 210,000 pixel LCD and the optical viewfinder. The viewfinder is average-sized, but its comfortable rubber eyecup is large, even in comparison to the ones on other DSLRs. The diopter adjustment tab is above the eyecup.

The flash power button is left of the eyecup. Below that, to the left of the LCD, are the Menu, Trash, INFO and playback buttons, in a column. To the right of the viewfinder, there is a control dial which controls many parameters in shooting mode and controls magnification in playback. Below that and next to the LCD is the four-way controller with an OK button in the middle. Lower still, there is a function button which activates some controls in shooting mode. A status light is near the bottom of the camera, and to the far right of that is the latch to open the door to the memory card slot. The exposure lock button is also toward the right side of the camera, but it's near the top edge. A curving vertical ridge runs up the right side of the camera to form a thumb rest.

The Samsung logo appears below the LCD. Aside from the color of the labels, it's the only thing on the back of the GX-1L that distinguishes the camera from the *ist DL2.

**Left Side
**The GX-1L's left side features a nice, beefy strap lug and a flimsy door covering the USB, A/V and external power jacks. The left side is very flat and doesn't extend much past the lens mount, so most users won't grip that side; they'll use the left hand to support the lens instead.

**Right Side
**The GX-1L's SD card slot is under a door on the right side. The door lies flush with the rest of the side, so it doesn't detract from the grip. The latch on the door ought to protect it from being accidentally snagged open and broken. It swings wide open, so it's easy to remove the small SD memory cards that the GX-1L uses. The strap lug on this side is wide and well positioned.

**Top
**The mode dial is on the left side of the GX-1L's viewfinder hump. The dial is big and shows several custom scene modes, a full auto mode and manual modes. The viewfinder hump includes a pop-up flash and a hot shoe for dedicated flash.

A monochrome LCD takes up most of the right side of the top. The exposure compensation button is between this LCD and the shutter release and power control. The shutter release is a chrome button on the top of the grip. The power switch is a ring around the shutter release, and it doubles as a depth of field preview.

**Bottom
**The GX-1L has a metal tripod socket under the lens axis and a latched battery cover under the handgrip. The cover latch is a reassuring touch – we find that latches protect doors not only from opening accidentally, but also from breaking off.

Components

**

**
**Viewfinder
**The GX-1L's viewfinder vignettes a little in the corners, at least for those who wear glasses. It shows a range of shooting data, allowing the user to keep the camera at eye-level. The camera uses a pentamirror with 96 percent coverage, rather than a pentaprism. Pentamirrors are usually darker than prisms, but they are not as heavy and less expensive. They may make it harder to focus the camera manually, but most GX-1L users will likely rely on autofocus.

**LCD Screen
**

Like the *ist DL, the GX-1L sports a 2.5-inch, 210,000 pixel LCD that is bright and has good color. In this first impression review, we did not have the chance to look at it in daylight, and can't judge how well it performs in bright conditions. Indoors, though, it is adequate to judge image quality, though too dark to test how easily the screen solarizes. The GX-1L's top LCD panel is large and easy to read. It shows exposure information and other camera settings including burst mode, meter pattern and so on.

**Flash
**This GX-1L's pop-up flash has a guide number of 15.6 in meters at ISO 200. That means that it would need a lens set at about f/8 to shoot at 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) at ISO 200. The flash syncs at up to 1/180 of a second. Sync modes include auto, auto with red-eye reduction, manual and manual with red-eye reduction. According to Samsung, it can cover the equivalent of a 28mm lens on 35mm body.

Unfortunately, we did not get an opportunity to informally test the flash. Samsung’s model on the floor at PMA sported an attached external flash with the GX-1L’s flash disabled.

**Lens / Mount
**The Schneider-Kreuznach kit lens is a D-Xenon 18-55mm f/ 3.5-5.6. It 's equivalent to about a 28-90mm zoom on a 35mm camera. Look for our full review to see how the lens tests out. We will say that we generally regard lenses like this one as the bare minimum that manufacturers can offer. This lens seems mechanically delicate, and we find an f/5.6 maximum aperture very limiting indoors, particularly with a pretty weak flash. Even given the camera's ISO 3200 setting – which seems extremely noisy – shooting in dim available light will be very problematic with this lens.

Design / Layout

**Model Design / Appearance
**We found Pentax’s *ist DL visually appealing, with small, bold color accents here and there and a slick combination of curves and edges. The GX-1L has exactly the same shape, but has dropped the color accents, leaving it a little drab in comparison. Still, the camera is simple and restrained. The lack of unnecessary decoration has its own type of appeal.

The GX-1L is built on a stainless steel chassis, a strong indicator that it will hold up well against prolonged use.

**Size / Portability
**At 4.9 x 3.7 x 2.6 inches, the GX-1L is at the small end of DSLRs. The body weighs less than 20 ounces, and not a whole lot more with the kit lens. Users will need a shoulder strap to carry it, but it won't be much of a burden to carry on a day out, and won't take up much room in a camera bag.

**Handling Ability
**The edges and ridges that make the GX-1L look stylish also make it uncomfortable to hold. They are designed to fall under specific joints and knuckles, but for users who like to vary their grip, they actually get in the way.

Several small cameras have only one control dial, so the GX-1L is not unique in requiring users to hold down a button while turning a dial to adjust exposure. Still, this method is slow and awkward compared to making adjustments on cameras with two dials.

**Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
**The GX-1L's buttons are large and spread apart, so they are easy to use. Mechanically, they're solid – they don't jiggle, and they move enough so it's easy to tell when they've been activated. The control dial is too small. The AE lock button would be in a fine spot, but the ridge that forms the thumb rest makes it awkward to hit. The answer isn't to move the button – it's to get rid of the ridge.

We like the depth-of-field preview on the power switch. It's a convenient placement for a feature that an entry level shooter ought to use more often.

We wish that the function button weren't necessary to activate the controls for ISO, white balance, burst mode and flash mode. Those should ideally pop up as soon as the four-way controller buttons are hit.

**Menu
**The GX-1L's menus are split between items that appear when the user hits the Menu button and items that pop up for the Fn, or Function, button. The more common controls, the ones for burst mode, white balance, ISO and flash, come up under Function.

In shooting mode, the Menu button accesses less frequently set features, like resolution, quality, tone, saturation, sharpness, bracketing, meter pattern, focus area and automatic image review. Unfortunately, flash exposure compensation is buried in the menu as well.

In playback mode, Menu brings up controls for display information, highlight warning, slide show, formatting SD cards, sensor cleaning, LCD brightness, special effects and other settings.

The Menu button also brings up a Custom menu tab in either shooting or playback mode, which allows customization of features including noise reduction, whether the shutter and aperture move in 1/2 or 1/3-EV increments, alternate functions for some buttons, and the way the camera behaves in some automated modes. Look for our full review to learn more, after we've fully evaluated these functions.

**Ease of Use
**The GX-1L is simple to use – the controls are clear and sensible. Though a few controls may be uncomfortable to access or manipulate, they are not confusing. Unfortunately, some of them are also a bit slow, because they are buried in menus that must be activated before the controls can function.

Modes

**Auto Mode
**The GX-1L offers a full auto mode, a program mode and several custom image presets. ISO and white balance are automated in full auto and scene modes and can be automated in manual shooting modes as well.

**Movie Mode
**The GX-1L has no movie mode. No DSLR yet on the market records videos.

**Drive / Burst Mode
**We did not have the chance to test the GX-1L's burst mode, but Samsung claims 2.8 frames per second for up to 5 frames in JPEG mode, or for up to 3 frames in RAW mode. We'll officially test this performance in our full review, but we did notice a pause in the burst while shooting 5 JPEGs.

The self-timer on the GX-1L delays exposure for either 2 or 12 seconds.

**Playback Mode
**The 2.5-inch, 210,000 pixel display is better than the screens most entry level DSLRs have, so playback is pretty useful on the GX-1L. Image magnification goes up to 12x, which is enough to judge the camera's 6.1 megapixel images for focus. Playback displays thumbnails and slide shows as well as single images, and offers post-shot digital filters, including black and white, sepia, soft, slim and brightness.

**Custom Image Presets
**The GX-1L has presets for Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Moving Object, Night Scene, No Flash, Surf and Snow, Text, Sunset, Kids, Pets, Candlelight and Museum. We'll examine them thoroughly in our full review, but in general, the presets appear to set the camera’s shooting parameters the way an experienced photographer would set them in a given situation. If the GX-1L is a trend-setting camera, expect to see more presets than are necessary on consumer-level DSLRs in the future; it's likely that Kids, Pets and Moving Object are pretty similar.

Control Options

**Manual Control Options
**The GX-1L provides manual control of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance, which is typical of DSLRs. Because the GX-1L only has one control dial and relatively few buttons, some controls, such as ISO, require the user to press a couple of buttons in succession for access. Others require a combination of a button and the dial. So, though a given control may be available, it's not quick to find.

**Focus
***Auto Focus
*The GX-1L boasts a 5-point phase-matching autofocus system. The focus points are clustered in a cross shape at the center of the frame. A quick look at the system suggested that it works well in bright and average light, but it's not very quick, and that in dim light and low contrast, it can run into trouble. The GX-1L can be set to AF single, in which it stops focus once it has gotten something sharp; continuous autofocus, in which it continuously maintains focus; and manual focus.

*Manual Focus
*The GX-1L allows manual focus via the focusing ring on the lens. The viewfinder doesn't snap into focus as well as viewfinders on higher-end DSLRs. Part of the problem may be the relatively dim lens, but the pentamirror does leave the display darker than it would be with a pentaprism.

**Metering
**The GX-1L has multi, spot and center-weighted metering. Multi takes several separate exposure readings across the frame and then evaluates them to determine the exposure. The system can usually recognize backlighting and other high contrast lighting and make accommodations. The *ist DL's Multi setting works well, so we expect that the GX-1L's will be effective also. Spot reads a small segment of the frame, and is useful for manual mode shooters. Center-weighted metering takes one reading of the whole frame with emphasis on the middle of the frame, and is also sometimes useful in manual shooting.

**Exposure
**The GX-1L has full manual, aperture priority and shutter priority modes, as well as a program mode which can be manually shifted. On the *ist DL, the exposure compensation control works in scene modes as well as the priority modes. We'll have more to say about the exposure accuracy and options in our full review.

**White Balance
**The GX-1L offers the basics of white balance for a DSLR: it has an auto setting, a straightforward custom setting and 8 presets. The presets are: Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Flash and three Fluorescent settings. It would be more convenient if the GX-1L had the option of directly setting a Kelvin setting, or a manual "fine-tune" of white balance, which are features that are creeping into the sub-$1000 market. Panasonic includes white balance fine-tuning on its low-end compacts.

**ISO
**The GX-1L’s ISO runs from 200 to 3200 in full-stop increments. It can also choose its own ISO in Auto mode. We can't formally test image quality at a trade show, but we can say that 1600 and 3200 look really noisy. The camera has an ISO limit setting, which prevents the ISO from going too high when the ISO is set to Auto, a feature that will be useful for shooting when image noise would be objectionable.

**Shutter Speed
**Shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/4000 are available on the GX-1L, with a maximum flash sync speed of 1/180. Photographers who use fill flash outdoors would rather have a higher flash sync speed than that. The GX-1L also features a bulb setting for even longer exposures. The shutter speed can be set in either 1/2 or 1/3-stop increments.

**Aperture
**The 18-55mm kit lens for the GX-1L has a maximum aperture range from f/3.5 to f/5.6. Smaller apertures can be set in 1/2 or 1/3-stop increments. But users who are attracted to the GX-1L for its ISO 3200 setting and consequent low-light capability really ought to go for a lens with a wider maximum aperture – f/5.6 really won't do indoors.

Image Parameters

**Picture Quality / Size Options
**The GX-1L calls its JPEG quality settings "Super Fine," "Fine" and "Normal." We'll have to wait for a full review to see the quality impact of the settings, but Samsung indicates that Super Fine files are about twice the size of Fine files, and Normal files are about 2/3 the size of Fine files. Given the size difference, we expect to see significant differences in image quality at the various settings. Resolution options run from 3008 x 2000 pixels to 2400 x 1600 pixels to 1536 x 1024 pixels.

The GX-1L also records uncompressed RAW files, which are only recorded at full resolution.

All in all, the GX-1L offers a useful range of quality and size options. Users may want to shrink even the smallest sized image for emailing, but downsampling on the computer is usually a better option than taking low-res images that are only useful for emailing.

**Picture Effects Mode
**The GX-1L offers the same effects as the *ist DL, allowing post-processing of images. The effects are: black and white, sepia, soft focus and slim, which squeezes or stretches the image. The particular advantage of these effects is that they are applied after the image is shot, preserving the original. That's a big improvement over most effects modes on other cameras.

The GX-1L also has settings for saturation, sharpness and contrast, which affect images as they are shot.

Connectivity / Extras

**Connectivity
***Software
*The GX-1L sells with Storage Driver and Digimax Master software. Look for our full review to learn more about this software.

*Jacks, Ports, Plugs
*The GX-1L has a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, analog video output in PAL or NTSC, a hot shoe for dedicated flash and accepts an external power supply. These are typical ports for a DSLR.

*Direct Print Options
*The GX-1L is PictBridge and DPOF compatible, so users can print images without a computer, either by plugging a printer into the camera's USB port or by saving a print order on the GX-1L's SD memory card and taking the card to a photofinisher. Look for our full review to learn more about printing from the GX-1L.

*Battery
*The GX-1L takes four AA batteries, or 2 CR-V3 Lithium cells. Samsung says Lithium, Alkaline or NiMH rechargeable AAs are fine, but typically, Alkaline cells wear out very quickly in digital cameras, and no AA battery lasts as long as custom Lithium-ion cells. AAs are cheaper and almost universally available, so there are advantages to each technology.

*Memory
*The GX-1L takes SD cards, perhaps the most popular format for camera memory, and definitely the most popular for compact cameras. Users who upgrade to the GX-1L from a compact camera will most likely already have an SD card or two, and will be able to use them in the GX-1L.

**Other Features
***Sensor Cleaning - *The GX-1L has a sensor cleaning mode which opens the shutter to expose the sensor for dust removal.

*Wireless Remote - *The GX-1L accepts a wireless infrared remote control. The remote control can fire the camera instantly, or with a 3-second delay.

Overall Impressions

**Value
**We generally liked the **ist DL, except for the autofocus system. The **ist DL2, and therefore the GX-1L, have upgraded to a 5-sensor autofocus system, which we expect to perform better.

It's a little tricky to talk about the value of a camera which has only a tentative price, and Samsung won't say for sure that the GX-1L kit will cost $699. Assuming that it does, we'd call the camera a fairly good deal. It depends on how much better the GX-1L's autofocus system is than the *ist DL's.

Conclusion

**Conclusion
**We think the GX-1L is a respectable entry level option. We say that mainly because it seems to be a Pentax, which is a good thing for a few reasons. First, it shares Pentax's durable construction, simple interface and other positive qualities. Second, it shares the Pentax lens mount, so it's compatible with a large selection of Pentax system lenses and accessories. Third, Pentax has sent other emphatic signals that they are in the digital camera business for the long haul—and whether or not Samsung produces more DSLRs won’t really matter to the GX-1L owner, because Pentax will prove an upgrade path of fully compatible equipment.

Meet the tester

Patrick Singleton

Patrick Singleton

Editor

Patrick Singleton is a valued contributor to the Reviewed.com family of sites.

See all of Patrick Singleton's reviews

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