Rare beast on the aftermarket: Samsung GX-20

The SAMSUNG GX-20 camera, released in 2008, is a unique artifact in the history of the photography industry. This is the fruit of close cooperation between Samsung and Pentax (the camera is almost a complete clone of the Pentax K20D, but with a sensor manufactured by Samsung). Today, this 14.6-megapixel device is a rarity on the secondary market. It is bought by collectors, enthusiasts and those who are looking for a cheap, but dust and waterproof DSLR for working with old manual optics.

The camera is inexorably approaching two decades old. During this time, she could lie in the closet for years, or she could shoot non-stop in photo studios “for documents.” The appearance of the plastic and rubber bands in this series is very wear-resistant, so it is completely impossible to visually determine how many lives the camera has lived. Buying “blindly” is fraught with rapid mechanical failure.

Mechanical resource of the Pentax K20D clone

Because the GX-20's chassis and mechanics were entirely derived from Pentax, the camera's shutter is conservatively reliable. The shooting speed is a modest 3 frames per second, which protects the mechanism from extreme shock loads. The manufacturer set the lifespan of the shutter block at 100,000 guaranteed operations.

For a camera of such a respectable age, finding a copy with up to 30,000 frames is a great success. Most often at flea markets you can find devices with a mileage of 70-90 thousand. Taking into account age-related changes (lubricant drying out, spring fatigue), buying a GX-20 with about a hundred thousand frames on it only makes sense for very modest money, since repairs will cost more than the carcass itself.

How to find out the mileage of an old Samsung DSLR from EXIF

The genetic relationship with Pentax made the Samsung GX-20 a very “honest” camera. The built-in processor does not hide usage statistics. It meticulously counts every lift of the mirror and movement of the curtains, recording this number in the structure of each image file.

The frame counter (Shutter Count) is written to the MakerNotes system metadata block of the EXIF ​​standard. You will not be able to reset it by resetting or flashing it. To find out the absolute truth about a camera, all you need is the original photo file (DNG/RAW or untouched JPEG).