7d and 60d

I'm not sure why, but... Both of these cameras have the 'ON,OFF' switch at the wrong place, which is the left side of the camera. Since both of them are considered semi-pro (7D) and enthusiast level (60D), they are quite expensive, to have made such a 'huge' error in terms of ergonomics. Why is the 'On-Off' switch very important to be at the right side?

[Canon 7D]

[Canon 60D]

Well, before you turn the camera on, you have to use your left hand, instead of grabbing the lens, with the right finger ready at the shutter. This decrease the 'start-up' time. If it were at the right side of the body, your right hands are naturally at the area, quick to start it up and shoot. You will come to appreciate it when your battery is dwindling, needing to conserve as much power as you can, squeezing the last 100-50 or so shots on your camera.

Well, many have used them, and I would think that it would only effect us Nikon shooters which have the 'ON-OFF' switch right at the shutter, ready for quick action. I think its something that most people grow into.

Well, this is just a rant, not to diss Canon or anything. Just wondering if accidentally switching the power off during shooting with it at the right side were what the engineers were thinking over at Canon.

To say the least, Nikon got a few buttons at the wrong place too, like the play button or delete button needing both hands to operate. Guess they want you to be really sure to delete the image.

Why Lens Sharpness don't Matter as Much.

Thinking of getting that 50mm f1.4 or that 85mm f1.4?

Well, I'd admit if you are getting it for the speed of a super fast prime, than go ahead. If you think that you are getting it got sharpness, then, I would think that those f1.8 is a good bargain.


Why?
Click on the Jump to find out why.

Countdown to 2011

Genting + Fog = No Fireworks... =(



[1. Even the caterpillar is sad of the fog.]


That's what happened that night, while we were waiting at the side of the stage, my arms, primed on a post next to me for bulb mode, and... NOTHING!





[2. Hmm.. Stage... Ear almost went deaf...]


Well, got to the stage instead, and did gig shooting. All using the 18-105mm, and forgive the flare in some of the pics, since its foggy, don't want my front element to be naked.




[3. Stage Lights]

Click on the jump for more pictures.

Backlog - Xmas 2010

Sorry for the backlog of photos. Well, been busy, you know, with stuff, homework and class and the fyp..


Today's feature will be the nifty-fifty, or the Nikon 50mm f/1.8, since its small, light, and cheap, and sharp. My only qualms will be that, its bokeh is not the best you can get, ranging from average to poor, depending on what you take. On a DSLR like my D90, its actually a 75mm lens, about reaching the portrait lens focal length. Great for portraits for those smooth out of focus background, depending on your background that is.


The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 reminds us that, you don't have to buy an expensive lens to get sharp results, its even sharper than my 18-105mm lens which cost 2-3 times as much. Its fast, since its aperture is at f/1.8, its 2 stops faster than my zoom lens at 18mm at f/3.5. 2 stops is about 4 times as much light that will enter through the lens, or, reduce my ISO from 800 to 200, or increase my shutter speed from 1/30 to 1/120. Great eh?


But, I still need my 18-105mm since, at 18mm, its about 3 times shorter the focal length, giving me about 1 stop extra (or more) for my shutter speed, and it allows me to grab photos of 1-2 second exposures hand held, since I've got a greater depth of field, meaning more will be in focus. And the VR helps too. But, at the longer end of the zoom, what I really need is the 50mm f/1.8 where it will make more sense.


Another great thing about the 50mm, is that it has zero distortion. If Nikon made all their prime lenses to have zero distortion, I think that primes would be more popular. They have made a wide angle rectilinear lens with zero distortion, called the 13mm f/3.5. Google it and be amazed.


Examples and explanations will be provided when you click on the jump.

Firmware

If you have a Nokia XM-5800, best check your firmware, especially if you had it like forever, (before the iPhone was really that awesome). Why?

Recently updated the firmware on the hand-me-down 5800, from version 11.x.x.x (forgot the exact firmware number) to version 52.0.007.

Big difference.

1. Its faster, I mean physically, since they up-ed the clock speed on the processor through the firmware, from 369MHz to 434MHz.

2. Its not as stupid. In the old firmware, having your screen (in typing mode, a.k.a messaging) in portrait mode initially and switching it to landscape does nothing. Now, it switches to QWERTY mode when in landscape. (Isn't that what the iPhone did all along? (To be clear, IO.S 4.1 or something, as of the latest of the time of posting) Well, no. Reason why I dislike typing on the iPhone is that its capacitive, and the QWERTY pad or layout is small in portrait mode, and sometimes (like entering your details in iTunes or some form info) you can't switch it to landscape QWERTY which suck a hell lot, since my fingers are not that small. Some users might not find this an issue.

3. Did I say its faster? How fast? Did a Hard Reset on the phone, still slow. Then did the firmware update, FAST!

4. Less Buggy. Its still has its bugs, like un-logical sequence and UI. But, the iPhone have the same problem too. Like the landscape QWERTY thing in (2).

2010 Langkawi

Went to Langkawi last weekend, using MAS.




[1. Sunset at the rich-men port. Look at all those yachts-sssss] 



All I can say that, Langkawi = Duty FREE!!!!!


Meaning, a bottle of 1 liter Black Label cost about RM70, where as in KL, the bottle of Black Label is around RM160-180 for the 750ml.


SWING!!! JIM BEAM!!! CHIVAS!!!


wahahaha...

Anyway, was raining all day for most of the day, since its Dec, except for a few hours where we manage to get some sun.



Click on the jump for the photos I took during the trip.

What Mircosoft Project is to me...

[Click to enlarge..]

KLIMS 2010

Kuala Lumpur "International" Motor "Show"

That's a lot of quotation marks.








Well, it deserves it, as it was not as "International" as I would hoped, and the "Show" was more like a street performance. I think I am being harsh, but, at least they could have fired up that 458 Italia. It would make everybody happy that they spent RM20.00 or 15 and be f***ed by a fake batman and bat-mobile.





[Look at them tiny wheels...]



Well, them showroom booth professionals are not as you would expect from the sexiness you would normally get during PC fair, (which reminds me that I wouldn't have the chance to go.. =.=), but, in return, you would get some sense of elegance, if there is to be found among Korean and our Local car manufacturers.









There is only so much I could rant, as I paid the RM 5.00 student fee. If not, it would be a total rip-off!


The rest of the photos are in my Facebook album, since I'm lazy to post it here.

>>>CLICK ME

Guilin Trip Day 8

Day 8 is all about travel, that is from Shen Zhen to Hong Kong through the ferry port of She Kou 蛇口.





[1.]



So, it would be pictures about the plane.. I'm bored..

Click on the jump for more pictures.

Guilin Trip Day 7

Day 7, travel again, and shopping at Shen Zhen... Crazy, with lots of people




[1. At Shen Zhen's 步行街, or shopping district. This shot was hand held at 1s, ISO 200, f/9, -1.0 EV in Matrix Metering. Minor camera shake, but forgive me for not using a tripod and taking the picture for 1 whole second at 18mm (27mm equivalent in 35mm format) ]





[2.]


Again, few pictures, but do click on the jump for the rest of Day 7 pics.

Guilin Trip Day 6

Day 6 were all travel.

From Guang Xi to Shen Zhen, with more than 8hrs on the coach.




[1.]





[2.]



Hence the few pictures.


Click on the jump for the rest of the pics.

Guilin Trip Day 5

Day 5.








Got a cold in a super windy boat ride (again), went to the lake where we took some of the night scene, some night scene shots..






p/s. I'm lazy to comment on my photos... sorry..

Click on the jump for more pictures.

Guilin Trip Day 4

Day 4








In Guilin, went to the King's Palace (not the Emperor), and a scenic boat ride, and night scenes, and finally, what trip would it be without shopping??






Click on the jump for more pictures.

Guilin Trip Day 3

Day 3.

I think travel to Guilin, sit on a bamboo raft, look at them chocking a bird, silk 'museum', circus, and hotel.






Click on the jump for more pictures...

Guilin Trip Day 2

Day 2.

Hmm... Travel from Shenzhen to Guilin.


Went to a cave. Don't ask me what cave, since I'm too lazy to find out and the travel itinerary is at Kuching.






p/s. Get ready for an acid trip when looking at the pictures of the cave. Looks nice on photos, but in real life, the Mulu cave is more impressive!


Click for more pictures after the break.

Guilin Trip Day 1

Went to Guilin 桂林 on the 20th of Nov till the 27th Nov.

It was foggy =(

But it was an exciting experience.








Nothing more to say on the first day, since it was all travel.








Firstly, we reached the airport at 6.35 a.m. Flight was at 9.00 a.m., to KK then to HK.

From HK, go through immigration to get to Mainland China.







Then a bus to Shenzhen, 深圳.

Hotel at Maple Leaf at Shenzhen.

And that pretty much concludes day 1.


Click on the jump for the photos.

Philosoraptor!!!

Awesome!!!  =)

From theCHIVE

Finals

Exam time... 


23rd Oct - Foundation Engineering 1 (Saturday afternoon) That's tomorrow!!!

29th Oct - Engineers in Society (Friday morning)

1st Nov - Highway and Transportation Engineering (Monday morning)
             - RC 2 (Afternoon)


Funny how I'm the more free during the exam week...

So far...

What two and a half months with a camera has thought me...

1. Camera doesn't matter much, since you would need it to take photos. If it gets the intended job done, its golden.


2. Same thing with the lens. Think first, with steps, like feel, ask, refine then finally, take the picture. FARTing is what newbies like me keep on forgetting since we would tweak the DSLR first, as we are still learning what to do with the giant log. DSLRs are complicated, even if one knows the basic of exposure. Simple is best. Makes you focus more.


3. Don't worry. Keep shooting. What is important is to learn the mistakes that we made.


4. Henri Carier-Bresson (The guy who shoots with a Leica and a single lens throughout his life) was right when he said "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst". In fact, in digital, its more like 20,000-100,000 cause maybe we are 10 times more likely to take useless crappy photos. (Ever used your camera phone to take pictures of the floor, toes, wall, etc. and then delete them?) What is important with digital, is that to learn. Like students, we are forgiven (somewhat) when we make a mistake (like in a test or quiz or exams) where no lives (significant) are at stake. If we don't learn, we don't pass.

An example of me learning is, when shooting the drift event, using a fast normal lens, i.e. the 50mm f1.8 is far better, since the wide aperture allows me to lower the ISO, giving better results (less noise).


5. Experiment. Just shoot, don't research stuff online, cause you will forget it by the time you've read this sentence. Doing is learning. Reading and not applying is just spectating. Just like watching football doesn't mean you know how to play (well).


Well, that's all. Thanks for reading.

Street Camera

Leica is a good system to shoot street photography.

Well, so is the newly announced Fujifilm X100... Its great (on paper), with a fix lens (means you can't take it off and switch lenses) of f2.0 with an equivalent field of view of 35mm on a full frame 35mm camera. This could mean cheaper construction of the lens and body.

[Click to Enlarge]

Wait, there's more... Its hybrid viewfinder, ala Rangefinder system which is sorta like a fake Leica with magical electronic viewfinder to line up with the optical viewfinder. Means its small, and compact. Packs an APS-C sensor too, means that it will be cheaper.

[Click to Enlarge]

Until they mentioned the launching price of $1000 USD, or RM3300!!! WTH!??!!! It is RM1300 way overpriced for this piece of shit, I mean work of fake Leica rangefinder. Too bad though, cause it would have destroyed those crappy NEXs, PENs and GF1 crap. Heck, we need proper dials and buttons to use the cameras, and an Optical Viewfinder is helpful, either that or make it so that it is able to shoot 1500++ pictures on 40% battery life =), and the AUTO setting is still not smart enough. Menu system are stupid, means that the designer is too lazy to think of how to put in buttons and dials in the correct place, so they just put it in the menu. Heck, even Nikon does this, but it has buttons for more important stuff. Hmmm...


More to the reason is that digital is too complex.For that amount of money, a Leica M3? Though, would need to self develop the B/W negatives by yourself to get the same amount of savings.


Though, going into Leica is sorta like... Well, you can figure that out yourself...


Well, the Canon S95 is just shy of RM1000 today, passable ISO performance, and is a good price. But its not a X100.. LOLX!!!


In the end? A D90 with a 24mm f2.8D... Either that, I heard that those newfangled camera phones are still crap... WAKAKAKAKAKA!!!


PS: Thanks to fujifilm.com for the press release.