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By Leonard Goh
Apr 02, 2008

The GX-20 arrived in our office with seven lenses, the optional battery grip and an external flash. For a minute, we thought Christmas had come early this year. But, all good things must come to an end. So before we had to return the whole bundle back to Samsung, here's a quick look at what this new dSLR has to offer.

Design

Besides minor exterior differences and menu interface, a non-discerning eye may not be able to tell the difference between Samsung's GX-20 and the Pentax K20D. This is because both models are based on almost the same body that the two companies co-developed.

The weight of the GX20 unmistakably feels like a professional dSLR body--heavy. Tipping the scales at 808g after we put in the battery and SD card, we wondered how we were going to lug this 14.6-megapixel camera around on a full day's shoot. This is probably due to the solid build of the camera, which has a very comfortable handgrip.

The rear of the camera houses a nice 2.7-inch LCD. While large screens may be common in compact cameras, for dSLRs, it is still quite a new feature. The Live View looks sharp on the display, but we couldn't autofocus in real-time. Instead, we had to press the secondary AF button , which will flip the mirror back down, focus, then return to Live View with a focused scene.

The viewfinder offers a bright, clear 95 percent view of the actual scene and also shows the shutter speed, aperture, focus indicator, exposure meter and ISO value. It is also easy for some of us who are wearing spectacles to view properly.

We plugged in the optional SBG-D1V battery grip, which has one battery slot and a compartment for a spare SD card. This may sound weird because grips from other manufacturers allow two batteries. But for the GX-20, it houses one battery in the main body and another in the grip. This is thoughtful of Samsung because photographers can continue to shoot even when the battery grip is detached from the camera.

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