September 8, 2010: Samsung has quietly added the budget-priced NX5 interchangeable lens camera to its range in Australia, with the international announcement of a new-look interchangeable model, the NX100, scheduled for next week.
The NX5 is essentially the NX10 without the superior 614K AMOLED LCD screen, replaced by a 3-inch 240K QVGA screen. The trade off takes $50 off the RRP of the NX10, which is $849 compared to the NX5’s $799. The NX5 becomes the least expensive interchangeable model on the Australian market today (offered at $699 with kit lens on Ted’s website).
(In my opinion, the NX10’s AMOLED screen is worth every one of the extra 50 dollars Samsung is asking, It’s the best LCD screen technology I have seen on a consumer camera to date – KS.)
Press shots of the NX100 made their way onto the internet over the past few weeks, possibly encouraging Samsung to confirm the announcement of the new camera in Hong Kong next week.
Not a lot is known about the new camera – the pictures floating around aren’t necessarily legitimate – but it’s rumoured to be smaller than the NX10 and have GPS. Samsung is putting on a major media event to launch the NX100 on the eve of Photokina, hinting in the invitation that this is a landmark camera release.
Interchangeables get traction
More broadly, interchangeable lens cameras are beginning to gain traction in the Australian marketplace, with the Sony NEX 5 scraping into the DSLR/interchangeable ‘top 10’ in July, its first full month on the market, according to a reliable industry source.
The NEX 5 grabbed a 4 percent market share – admittedly modest, but close to a threefold increase on the largest seller over the previous month, the Olympus E-PL1.
The E-PL1 itself also increased sales month on month, and in all there were 4 mirrorless interchangeables in the top 20. Although the new format cameras still represent less than 10 percent of the interchangeable segment, in unit terms sales have doubled from June to July.
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