Astrophotography With Samsung NX Cameras

Hyuck Ki Lee (left) and Byung Ho Kang (right)

Astrophotography is something that has fascinated us as photographers and stargazers for a long time. 

Until recently, camera technology restricted the quality of astrophotography images that you could take with consumer DSLRs. Now though, many manufacturers, including Samsung, have made astrophotography affordable for the masses with cameras using high sensitivity sensors that control noise well and a wide variety of lenses for capturing the skies from your own back garden. 

Taking images of the universe high above us is now possible with Samsung NX cameras. Samsung teamed up with the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute to create a lunar landing site chart with the NX1 camera. During the project, some amazing images were captured of night sky scenery, deep-sky nebulas, the moon and even planets in the solar system. 

Samsung has exacting standards when it comes to lens technology. Hyuck Ki Lee, a Principal Engineer of the Lens Research and Development Group, explained why this has to be the case: "To capture the universe in a photo, both the camera and the lens must meet high standards because the deep sky is full of perfectly round, pinpoint stars. Therefore, a picture taken of the stars can reveal aberrations and manufacturing errors in a lens. For this reason, until just recently the camera industry used astronomical images as a barometer for high-end lenses", he says.

Byung Ho Kang, a Senior Engineer of the Camera Research and Development Group has also praised NX cameras when it come to astrophotography usage: "Since last year, I have used the NX30 for ordinary snapshots as well as for photos of the night sky. Notably, NX cameras have multiple advantages, such as their light-weight body and high-quality lenses. I believe that expert photographers will soon recognize NX cameras as a standard mirrorless camera for astrophotography", he said. 

During the project, the NX1 was used with NX lenses as well as fitted to a telescope using an adapter co capture images of the planets. To see some of the amazing images captured using the NX1, take a look at the Samsung Tomorrow astrophotography with NX1 article.