In camera circles, Samsung and Pentax have been getting pretty chummy recently – so it’s no surprise that the Sammy GX-10 snapper looks so similar to the Pentax K10D.

No, ‘similar’ is the wrong word. You’d need a genetic fingerprint to tell these two apart. That aside, how does this unlikely contender in the name-led world of photography fare?

Picture perfect
The Samsung GX-10comes with an 18-55mm kit lens and the body itself is a chunky bit of kit, make no mistake. It’s also compatible with Pentax lenses, even though the kit lens is branded as a Schneider-Kreuznach.

The GX-10 dispenses with point-and-shoot features and concentrates on making in-depth adjustments more accessible. This dial switches between automatic focus point selection, manual selection and the centre focus point. It might be a bit fiddly to learn and the AF’s not very smooth, but these aren’t major faults.

Which will it be?
The only thing you’ve got to ask is who’d buy a Samsung when they could get a Pentax? It’s all about branding, and Samsung’s known for consumer electronics and digital compacts, not high-end SLRs.

When you consider the cast-iron build, dust-removal and anti-shake, it looks good value… except for the fact the essentially identical Pentax is significantly cheaper.

The Samsung’s picture quality is very nice, with strong contrast and rich colours, and all the controls are logically placed, while it displays shooting settings on a mono LCD on the top-plate – a nice ‘pro’ feature. Rivals rely on the LCD panels on the back.

There are no buttons for adjusting the ISO, flash mode, white balance and drive mode directly. Instead, you press the Fn button and access them via an on-screen interface. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than plodding through a menu system.