Category Archives: Geek

New Sony lenses announced at PMA!

(disregard the EXIF data; this was obviously a photograph of a slideshow at PMA. Credit to CNET News.)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-10186271-39.html

This doesn’t quite match what I’ve heard, but they apparently are:

Full frame:
1) super telephoto
2) 28-75mm F2.8

APS-C only:
1) 50mm F1.8 DT
2) 30mm F2.8 DT Macro
3) 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT (probably restyled)
4) 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT

Of course, I’d rather there be a 30mm or 35mm F1.8 DT lens to give the same angle of view as a 50mm lens on full-frame… quite like the Nikkor AF-S 35mm F1.8G. The only downside to that lens is its minimum focus distance of 30cm – the previous Nikkor AF-D 35mm F2.0 had a minimum focus distance of 25cm and a maximum magnification of 1:4.2x, the biggest of any Nikkor “normal” prime which was not a macro! Of course, the Nikkor AF-D 35mm F2.0 doesn’t autofocus for the Nikon D40/D40x/D60…

Oh, and…
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM and 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC OS HSM for Sony!

This is what DPReview says:
“This lens features a new Optical Stabilization unit which Sigma claims will work on Sony and Pentax bodies with in-body stabilization systems.”

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030304sigma18mm50mm.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030303sigma50mm200mm.asp

The Sigma 18-50mm F2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM is also internal focus and internal zoom!

Both aren’t as spectacular in minimum focus distance (MFD), though, with the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM having a plain 30cm MFD instead of the fantastic 20cm MFD of the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC and Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC. Even the Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT bests the Sigma equivalent at a 95cm MFD.

Oh, and the Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM is the brightest ultra-wide DT lens we’ve ever had. Sigma seems to be going back to 82mm filter sizes though.

Reign For Us

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Sometime back on the 16th of August 2008 – the Xfresh X-Gig at Borneo Rainforest Cafe!

Secret Love Cookies.

It wasn’t all guys in the crowd, yay!

Skudap Skudip. Only with ska do you get a keyboardist’s hands jumping up and down like that.

“Jom kita berjoget!”

Grey Sky Mourning. The reason why all these shots seem a bit different, is because they were shot mostly at high shutter speeds between 1/200s and 1/2500s, at F4 ISO1600, with +3 flash exposure compensation. Oh and of course, a daylight-to-tungsten flash gel on my Sony HVL-F56AM, to create a different color for the flashed subject and the background. The flash head was set to 85mm zoom and pointed forwards (for maximum output) and either TTL or full power.

I then set my (then) Sony Alpha 700’s white balance to around 2800 Kelvin and it made the background look extra blue, when it was in fact daylight.

That’s how you dance!

That’s how you play indie bass guitar!

I really am not sure if he changed, or if he has a brother.

With auto WB, the background was really normal-colored. This is of course without flash.

Hanafi of Estranged, and his beloved Fender Jagstang (which unfortunately got stolen.)

Andy on drums!

Times have changed and so have Estranged – I felt rather estranged from them hearing them play softer Malay songs.

…that’s not to say that they no longer rock out, or jump.

Komplot! I love this band. Disco rock. The vocalist dressed campy enough, too!

The drummer feels it.

Dance To The Radio, a healthy dose of indie. They have a song about how they are not the Arctic Monkeys.

This is how you dance to the music.

Let’s go outside!

27 Going On 28

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Rewind to the 27th of November 2008, with Deserters at Laundry Bar! This series will feature technically imperfect pictures.

Oh no, I’ve cropped the head/hands/body of the subject!

Oh no, I’ve overexposed Bo of Seven! (Darn lights, but he looks cute and smiley-like here.)

Count the number of Sony Alpha users in the picture!

Justin the chimp with a Sony Alpha 900 and the lovely Sigma 14mm F3.5.

D-Ash joins Seven on stage to do his white ~~boy~~ shirt boombox thang.

Fast-forward a day to the 28th of November 2008, where I landed for the first time in Lepaq.

You get to see all sorts of random acts. Anybody can come up and play, whenever they want to!

The wonderful thing about Lepaq is, of course, how lepak it is – you get to sit on carpets with throw pillows, enjoy live music and smoke shisha at the same time!

I’m not sure if a freedom of expression table is also something Lepaq provides.

He hops on for some songs to provide much needed backing. This dude can croon!

Udjinn has funky toes.

Otam. Just close your eyes and imagine you’re in a juke joint listening to this cool cat play blues.

I’m not quite sure what this guy is up to (or is pointing up at.)

LENghty

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24th January 2009 – a little street shooting session followed by a talk!

Interestingly, there were a few interesting pairs of relatively lesser-owned lenses:
– 2 Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheyes
– 2 Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM lenses
– 2 Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA lenses
– 2 Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM lenses

With the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8.

Here’s the Peleng with a 2x teleconverter, to make it a diagonal fisheye!

In really noisy conditions, I can walk past and snap unconspicuously from the hip.

The reflection on the wall has been boosted slightly.

Interestingly, the trademark Peleng flare does not show with the 2x teleconverter, it being outside the circle usually.

Then, we headed back to the Central Market Annexe Gallery for a talk by Sony Alpha Product Manager George Wong (who insists he is not representing Sony in the talk and thus makes no gear recommendations.)

Then it was Ted‘s turn to uh, make comments and critique on his own pictures. He also handed out his own autographed prints!

I wish I took this, or not. Ein took this. I normally strongly dislike slanted horizons but this one was done well in a very designer-ish fashion. This is a certain angle which is commonly used in website layouts.

Hoc Mun, on the amazing 1.2 meters minimum focus distance of the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM.

I wish I took this. The building is framed smack center and the table is mostly spread across the bottom of the frame.

The Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 has a tendency to capture ambient, reflected light like the green of the table bouncing onto his face. This is at the lens’ amazing 72cm minimum focus distance, the closest of any 135mm prime lens ever.

Kenchill shows us how to work my Vivitar 24mm F2.0 DIY tilt-shift lens.

I wonder if photographers look like this when they are sleepwalking.

I tried to take a picture of Ted busy talking (with the cup of Milo settled, to illustrate how long he was talking) but he noticed too quickly and smiled. There goes my shot!

And after all that, we went down to Sony Style KLCC to check out the new infamously silver Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM, and the Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 16-35mm F2.8 ZA SSM. Let’s just say that we really don’t care if it’s silver or not, based on the insane image quality the lens gives.

Smells Like New Lenses

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Geeking time with new lenses!

Kenchill got the 3 rear-mounted filters for his Peleng 8mm circular fisheye. I am jealous! Clockwise from top-left: YG-1.8 (turns daylight to flourescent, if you’re using flourescent WB film outdoors); UV-1 (no effect but the picture looks orangy because I shot all 3 at 6500K); O-2.8 (daylight to tungsten, if you’re using tungsten WB film outdoors); the three filters.

Left to right: Canon EF 200mm F2.8L, Canon EF 135mm F2.0L, Canon EF 24-105mm F4L IS.

Size-wise, my Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 (on the left) is pretty much around the same size as the Canon 135mm, but my Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D) (on the right) is a lot smaller than the Canon 24-105mm F4L IS because it does not have image stabilizer built in the lens, or a ring-type USM motor. But hey, it works! The Minolta is also the smallest full-frame zoom that starts at 24mm and goes to 105mm. Probably the only lens for Canons that is that small is the old Canon EF 28-105mm F3.5-4.5.

Left to right: Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm F2.8G, Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm F2.8D, Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX in A-mount, Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye, Minolta AF 50mm F1.4, 1.4x teleconverter in A-mount, 52mm lens cap.

Interestingly, the 14-24mm design enlarges towards the front, like the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 – this is quite unlike the Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8, which while having a 77mm filter thread also, keeps a straight profile and thus does not look as big.

The Nikkor AF-S 50mm F1.4G! When Nikkor puts G at the end of their lenses it usually means that it has no aperture ring. This also means that the aperture blades are stopped down unless the aperture lever is pulled, quite like the A-mount specification. This made it very hard to get a shot through this lens on my A900 since I needed to open the blades and focus. I either got a shot at F22 or a blurry out-of-focus shot at F1.4.

The unreleased Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 on TDR‘s Nikon D700. The black corners you see on full-frame are gone at 14mm, which makes this a very good budget lens when you can’t afford the 14-24mm and want 14mm coverage!

Olympus Zuiko Digital lenses! The 35-100mm F2.0 is interestingly 1.65 KG when it offers a 70-200mm F4.0 equivalent in terms of depth of field. The F2.0 is negated by Four Thirds having a small sensor and losing out 2 stops. What a bummer.

At least the 90-250mm F2.8 has a 180-500mm (on full-frame) range. That, and the 300mm F2.8!

The unreleased budget-conscious Olympus Zuiko Digital 9-18mm F4.5-5.6! This is the smallest ultra wide-angle zoom there is, reaching 18-36mm in full-frame terms.

Of course, the Micro Four-Thirds version of this will blow anything away, so I’m not sure how many would get this.

Fazri‘s Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC on A-mount is excellent! Sharp, punchy Sigma colors. Of course, there’s that typical Sigma bokeh which I can’t say I particularly like.

The Sigma looks like a little sawed-off shotgun.

Then there’s the very first third-party in-lens-motor lens for A-mount – the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG Macro HSM! This lens focuses to 1 meter close.

70mm F2.8.

With a 2x teleconverter, the Hyper Sonic Motor still drives at full speed, often missing the focus point and going back and trying to focus again. So I manually focused.

Again, I don’t like Sigma bokeh…

70mm F2.8 1/80s ISO1600 with flash, at the minimum focus distance of 1 meter.

100% crop of the above image. Very sharp, and the areas that are nearly in focus retain clarity.

200mm F2.8 1/125s ISO1600 with flash, at the minimum focus distance of 1 meter.

100% crop of the above image. Poor, considering what wonders this lens did at 70mm! Spherical aberration is everywhere, even in nearly focused areas.

Still, I reckon it’s a good value proposition for those who don’t want to pay serious money for the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM when they aren’t that serious about photography. Plus, the Sigma already beats the Sony’s already excellent minimum focus distance by 20cm!

liewwk, macro master and his former Sigma 180mm F3.5 Macro in A-mount, on a 2x teleconverter.

Sigma 180mm F3.5 Macro with 2x teleconverter and I believe, a 1.5x teleconverter, for a total magnification of 3:1, or 540mm F10, on the A700.

Filters And Flashes

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Now, for some assorted geeking out!

Kaleidoscopic colors! It comes with a rotating ring with a stub to rotate the effect around.

There was also the classic soft spot filter.

However, the coolest was this one! You could rotate it to affect the angle of repetition.

I had never seen so many rare filters in one place!

Yes these great finds were in a shop called dSLR in Subang Parade.

What else did I find there?

The Sunpak PF20XD! I had been contemplating a tiny flash for my Sony Alpha 900. This was the smallest I’d seen with manual power (since it uses the old hotshoe mount, I need to use my adapter, but the flash must be able to dial down its power or else it will always fire at full power when using the adapter!)

And now, for finds elsewhere.

A ring light…

…and something more portable with a wow effect.

Yep, that’s the Sony HVL-F58AM on my former Sony Alpha 700, wirelessly commanding the Sony HVL-F42AM (on the F58’s stand) on the right. The lens is my former diminutive Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4, with a very nice normal angle.

Notice the orange gel on the F58? It’s not on the F42 (it was the shop’s unit). I made a custom cardboard holder for it to quickly attach and remove the gels.

Now this is why the Nikon SB-900 costs RM400 more than the F58 – it comes with a flash gel clip-on holder! Of course, the guy who was using this n00bishly did not know what it was for but clipped it on anyway. This isn’t quite the same as the diffuser that is given!

Though, I would maintain that my design is faster to remove and put on.

Note that putting the gel clip without putting a gel is going to waste a wee bit of flash power for no reason.

The SB-900 comes with a very cool feature which detects which flash gel is on, and sends the correct color temperature to a compatible Nikon (D300/D3 onwards.) How does it know? I only found out yesterday – there are square markings which lie on an infrared sensor on the SB-900. Different combinations of squares will transmit different data – I noticed a full and half tungsten-to-daylight filter, and a full and half flourescent-to-daylight filter.

Anyway, back to the wonderful swivelling F58, seen here on a Type-A light stand mount adapter.

Flashes also have them AF assist lights, which honestly look very pretty. Tron, anyone?

Wireless flash. Flash head zoomed to 85mm and placed from the left and another flash head had its diffuser on so it becomes 17mm and gives a soft look.

Finally, KJ jumps! Flashes were on Strobe mode and shot the closest thing to closeup with this.

Introducing My New Year’s Resolution

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No Black Tie Music Countdown 2008, 29th December 2008.

With Reza Salleh the soulful…

Paolo Delfino Gomez the humorous…

+1 entertainment points to you dude for telling stories between songs!

And Rendra Zawawi the theatrical, featuring a trimmed down lineup consisting only of his brother.

Being a singer-songwriter’s round, the stage was set for all three of them, taking turns to sing songs in a round-robin fashion.

Next trio – Shanon Shah, singing songs from the soundtrack of Karaoke!

Well I’d be happy with the Bananarama song or that geeky engineer song but what the heck. 😀

Az Samad the amazing wood-knocking fingerstyle guitarist!

And, of course, this excellent, excellent, excellent Jerome Kugan.

A benefit of being in a singer-songwriter’s round is that your round mates often chip in with guitar solos and vocal harmonies. Such moments are magical.

Christmas season was not over. Baubles!

Next up – Peter Hassan Brown! He is often the angsty, opinionated folk singer. Some may not find his stuff with his band Soft Touch addictive, but when he sings one of his new songs with a load of gust and opinion, everybody sits up and takes notice. Who else could sing “because singer-songwriters are playing for free” and get away with it?

Only one of the respected otai (old-timers) in the scene.

It’s a real pity though, when I hear such biting lyrics, I never get to hear the same song again. I still remember when he sang a random freestyle rap with guitar. He was fired up! That performance stuck in my head.

Markiza, his wife, took a back seat as she was sick.

Then came Zalila Lee, hitting it up with some funk-blues mix. Rare it is to see her without her hat (which makes it a lot easier to photograph her eyes!)

Sharidir and Nizam P playing the blues like we were in a real juke joint and not the classy No Black Tie. I had been looking forward to seeing him since hearing his tune, Sighyoung, from the Voices From Next Door album. Of course, he went by the name Sherry back then.

Zalila, as always, pulled out a shaker out of nowhere to accompany.

When else can you sit on your instrument?

Zalila called Az up again for more accompaniment. Note his awesome Soloette (which almost looks like Az is playing it upside-down, seeing where the headstock is, but I bet Az could play a guitar any way he wanted to anyway.)

Ohai Cindy! Shot at 135mm F1.8 1/2s ISO3200 – good job standing still for half a second!

So what’s with the increase in image dimensions? It’s my New Year’s Resolution!

I wanted to celebrate the first gig I’d post with the Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA. I sat at a table near the base of the staircase. That’s how far I was from the stage! I like the new perspective and angle it gives as opposed to using my Minolta 50mm F1.4 and cramping my knees crouched in front of the stage while getting shots from their chin.

Oh, and of course, I cannot get any more excited about how crazy sharp this lens is. Peter Hassan Brown never looked so grand! Add to the fact that the increased distance increases depth of field and I get more depth of field on the subject. It’s contrasty wide open (I can’t say the same about the 50mm F1.4.)

Meanwhile, the 50mm F1.4 captures crowd ambience well. The lower contrast and small diminutive size makes it a great crowd-grabber.

People Of The World!

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Rewind to a common path at the Sarawak Cultural Village!

Wish you were here.

…or maybe she’s interested in someone in the crowd?

This is why Rainforest World Music Festival 2008 was called a mudfest. It was not fun to walk in this gooey mess at all! Nearest to the stage your feet would sink in, and the mud would wrestle your slippers out of your toes (so leave them behind) and you’d sink calf-deep until your feet land on hard rocks and other treasures found in the mud bed.

Enough of that, here’s some clear water!

Su Ann does the “I’m not looking here!” pose.

Liyana (left) and Bianca (right), who claim to be sisters. No shiiit!

Yes, that’s Liyana the cute vocalist from Estrella.

Then I bumped into Ted Adnan and his then newly bought Nikon D3 and his ol’ Nikkor AF-S 300mm F2.8 VR.

This was the first time I’d touched a D3 and a Nikkor AF-S 300mm F2.8 VR. I bumped up ISO, expecting an epiphany – I didn’t get it. It’s not exactly clean but it’s cleaner and has a different noise look. And I swung the 300mm around, sniped some people and got their ears in focus instead despite having approximately aimed at their faces. Operator error, apparently. And I still prefer all my relevant controls to be easily accessible by the right hand alone especially when wielding such an unwieldly lens with my left hand.

David Beckham lookalike spotted!

Obligatory slow-shutter-flash with Kenny Sia and Ing Hui!

This was a much faster way to wash sandals than to line up at the washroom. Yes we sat at a pier and swished our feet in the water.

I thought he was asleep. He was actually taking a picture.

I am beginning to like this house already!

Kid was not posed. Street!

Yummy! Fresh from the uh… furnace.

Yep, they still make them handmade.

Kids love balloons, even ones they can’t reach.

Yep, they dumped more sand into the mud pit. Supposedly, this helped…

And that concludes the series of pictures from Rainforest World Music Festival 2008 that has people in it.

11 12

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Moonshine: A Homemade Music Show, 11th December 2008, at Laundry Bar KL. This is Deb Fung!

And this is Alarice. Very niiice!

Some originals, some covers, well done.

So what’s up with the different color? The lights, that’s what – they were a bright purple (LED lights made of Blue and Magenta, to be exact.) The only way I could correct this was to get a Custom WB reading off their faces, where it would read 9900 Kelvin, Green +9. Even then it would say “Error” (though I could still proceed and save this WB setting.) 9900 K warms up the colors (to counter the strong Blue) while Green is the opposite of Magenta.

If I set the Kelvin WB to 9900 Kelvin, Green +9, I would get a different color altogether – that meant that when it said “Error” it was really beyond 9900K G9 on the camera.

Other technical details – Minolta 50mm F1.4 at F2.0.

This duo came down from Australia!

For the record, I didn’t intentionally change the second picture to a black-and-white shot; I was fiddling around with the color settings.

Then, it was Emmett! Yes, Emmett of Butterfingers!

So this is what 9900K G9 looks like. Not so pronounced, and you can see the purple lights wreaking havoc on the skintones. But I like the color in the rest of this picture so I’ll let it pass.

Greg Henderson, famous producer! He also shreds and plays licks. More of him rocking out to be seen at Rock The World 8, as he filled in for Loque.

Dax on acoustic bass.

Fans from Singapore?

For who else but Jack…

…and Rai! These guys from Singapore rock out in a electrocoustic way. They even had a song about that Singaporean model chick on TV whatshername uh…

I think he really, really looks like Paul McCartney here.

I told Emmett earlier, “I hate the lights“. He went “ha-ha.” I don’t think he knew what I meant – those darn LED lights!

Audience.

Then, it was time for L-Mo from the UK to blow my mind. He was making bird noises when I took this picture.

He also does fingerstyle with plenty of guitar-tapping and popping. He was also beatboxing!

Normally when I hear somebody beatbox, they would do so with a delay loop pedal, where they’d make a beat, record it, overlay it with more vocals, add that to the mix, add guitar, mix it, then sing… live.

This guy operated without one!

He just played guitar and beatboxed at the same time.

Then he did the amazing vocal trumpet – something I’d only have seen live from Raul Midon. Madness! I would put his quirky level up there with Dave Matthews Band… but with a barrel of coffee.

Oh and Happy Belated Birthday Level 9 Wrapper! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the rest of you!

22 11

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Moonshine: A Homemade Acoustic Show, The Apartment Downtown, Suria KLCC, 22nd November 2008.

Saxy time…

…with Ezam, who basically played his stuff from his band, Stoned Revivals.

I brought my Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5. What a surprisingly contrasty lens wide open!

And then there was Zalila Lee with the infectious funk guitar chops!

In the audience was a member of 98 Degrees. Don’t you think so?

Melina William, who basically played her stuff from her band, Tempered Mental.

“I usually don’t do this“, she said. As in, play all the riffs and progressions and fills and everything that makes her progressive uh… band kick ass.

Oh and I was trying out various levels of Dynamic Range Optimizer. To some extent it worked… previously the signboards and lights would’ve been blown out into whiteness!

You can see some uncontrasty artifacts like on the dude on the bottom-left of the picture, who obviously has been pulled out of the shadows by the DRO engine.

Then, Mia Palencia performed, with some guest appearances by Reza Salleh and beatbox man Darren Ashley.

Interestingly I could use a positive exposure compensation to ‘unflatten’ the DRO-ed shadows, at the slight expense of highlights. Of course, it would look much worse without it turned on.

D-Ash the multi-talented! He’s always seen in white, which I guess helped with the metering of this shot.

Sweet duo!

Mia then called Reza to the front to just… stand there while the lights turned off.

I wonder if people ever really, really get surprised on their birthday.

Well I guess I did, at work, when my colleagues brought a cake… I knew we always celebrated birthdays at the office at exactly 5pm, and I made a mental note of it, tried to finish my work before 5pm, but I still went, “whoa it’s here!”

Then, Melina, Mia and Zalila did a kickass medley of Reza’s songs! Their vocal harmonies were magical. Of course, Melina also plays in the electric incarnation of Reza Salleh (er, I mean, Reza Salleh in a band named Reza Salleh…)

A “This is going to go on Youtube” moment. Ooo, somebody in this picture has her birthday coming reaaal soon!

I would have to say that it was the highlight of the night, getting your song covered by an impromptu girl band! (I take it that Sheen Tse and Aidil don’t have cameraphones.)