http://www.eoshd.com/2015/11/official-statement-samsung-withdraws-from-camera-market-in-germany/

This is a shame because the NX1 and NX500 are best in class for video performance and features, in some ways for stills too. Perhaps Samsung should consider building a professional $3000 cinema camera based around the Super 35mm sensor in the NX1 which plays on their astounding technological strengths

Andrew Reid suggested Samsung should make a cinema camera, and thought that is such a great idea it deserves its own detailed response thus this blog post . (waves to Samsung reps! Hopes they’re reading…. one can but hope!)

I don’t think it would take much more to get there (well…. it would be a significant sized project for Samsung for sure, but easily well within their grasp to pull off). Because the Samsung NX1 is already such a fantastic video camera! The best at its price point, and arguably the best stills camera for filming with at *any* price point! Even over a year later since the Samsung NX1 was announced. (yes, I’m even including the new Sony A7s mk2 in this comparison! Though what is “best” at this point can at times get to be highly subjective, depending on what you place more or less weight on as being important) Thus we could easily imagine how great a pro version of the NX1 focused on filming (rather than photo stills) could be….

All Samsung need to do is increase the size of the NX1 body the minimum amount needed so it can do this (perhaps C100/C300 shape/size? Although, I’d much much rather have the ergonomics of an FS5/FS7! But even if, g-d forbid, it has the shape of an FS100/FS700 then I’d still be “ok” with that that!):

1. Make space for dual mSATA slots, perhaps mSATA already in their own simple plastic casing like what Atomos does with SSDs (I think Sound Devices made a good choice going mSATA on their small PIX-E5 recorder, and in a small camera it makes even more sense over the large SSDs). Dual slots are needed so you can write a proxy to the 2nd slot, or just simply if you need the extra bandwidth when doing 6.5K raw at high speed. Can’t stick with SD cards, as they won’t handle 4K ProRes HQ, which leads me onto my next point….
2. Add DNxHR / ProRes, whichever licensing of DNxHR or ProRes is easiest for them to get. Though having ProRes HQ would be preferable I suspect over DNxHR (just because ProRes is more commonly recognised by the market, thanks to BMD and others widely using them), plus ProRes 444 or even raw would be dreamy! (but maybe a little unrealistic in a $3k camera?!)
3. Add two XLR inputs.
4. Make its HDMI port a full sized HDMI port.
5. Add two SDI outputs (important to have two, what happens if one breaks? You’ll have a nearly useless camera for many people, as SDI is for them *essential*. Plus is very common to run more than one monitor in a production environment, thus got to have two)

I think if Samsung did this (and nothing else, just the five points listed above: mSATA + DNxHR/ProRes + XLR + full HDMI + SDI inputs) for US$3,000 then they’d have a huge huge indy cinema camera hit on their hands! The next DVX100 or 5Dmk2 of our generation??

Even if it came out at US$5k I reckon it could maybe still be rather successful, although it would be up against the URSA Mini 4.6K, Sony FS5, and Canon C100 mk2, all at a similar price point. (plus whatever else comes out in the next 6 months)

For bonus points Samsung could do:

1. Camera mount: just before, I’m assuming they’re sticking with the Samsung NX mount that the NX1 has, and only making the body a little bit bigger. As Andrew mentioned perhaps their mount held back sales of the NX1, maybe this cinema camera should have a different mount? Ideally I’d like to see them use the Sony FZ mount (as this would mark it out as a true cinema camera, able to be used with the best of the best cinema lenses, yet also allowing tremendous flexibility with this mount!), next best choice would be using the Sony E mount, 3rd best is Micro Four Thirds (like the JVC LS300). Branding/marketing/licensing issues mean I expect sadly all of these are out of the question. Thus I feel the best Samsung can realistically do is create their own open cinema mount, which has similar features to the Sony FZ mount. But make it completely open and easy for anybody else to adapt. Thus Samsung will start off by selling their Samsung Cinema Camera with the high prestige PL Mount, but in a blink of an eye we’ll see third party manufacturers offering adapters for everything you can possibly imagine (like they do now for the Sony FZ mount!).
2. High Speed Options: apparently their engineers managed 6.5K 240fps in testing, maybe we could at least get this cinema camera to give us 1080p 240fps or 4K 60fps?
3. High than 4K resolutions: give us all 6.5K resolution from the sensor!! 😮
4. Raw: need I say any more? This could hit it out of the park!

What are your thoughts? Write a comment below! Remember, it should be based on the existing underlying NX1 technology (so not too much more R&D is needed for Samsung to get it to market. As even this limited list would take a huge effort on Samsung’s part to make happen) or using commonplace readily available tech (such as mSATA, or SDI connections) and hit a US$3k price point or at least not more than a couple thousand over that.