Category Archives: Rants

The big debate about Live View

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…because reading about the newly announced Sony Alpha 700 has taken up my time.

SLR cameras traditionally need you to look through the optical viewfinder to compose. This is different from digital cameras, which let you see what you are shooting on the LCD screen. This feature is known as Live View.

However, as of late, major camera brands have introduced Live View on their digital SLRs.

What’s good about Live View?
– You could hold your dSLR way up high and shoot a crowd while aiming accurately …or go way below and shoot from the floor. (I do this when handed a digital camera and am asked to help take pictures at gigs.)
– You get 100% frame coverage. Some dSLR viewfinders show less, often 95%. After you shoot you’d find the picture has more stuff on the sides.
– You can zoom in on the image for more accurate manual focusing.
– You can shoot macro, much much easier.

What’s bad about Live View?
– Leaving the sensor on for extended periods of time will make the sensor hot (due to current running through it, and light coming in) and thus more noise will show.
– Opening the shutter to go into Live View, and then shooting, probably needs the shutter to return. Thus, every time you activate Live View, you take one shutter cycle away from your camera’s life. Some cameras are rated at 100

Musical Progression And All That Jazz

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So I bumped into Hunny the rapper from Admonition/guest-starred-in-Three-Flow/Doze-2 who is now-a-hitz.fm-deejay at the last night of the Sunrise Jazz Fest. She said I was familiar!

How I’d love to pick that as a pick-up line but she said she’d stumbled upon my blog.

So here’s a “Albert with celebrity who found my blog” shot.

I really need to figure out a better expression to have in pictures.

So there was Adil, Malaysia’s best saxophonist according to Saharadja, this kickass Indonesian jazz/fusion band. Yes he is kickass because he used to play Prince and James Brown covers back in California, and I have yet to see anybody do one of those super funky Prince numbers (just piano ballads like How Come You Don’t Call and Nothing Compares To You.)

Somehow most naturally, the topic went to music.

What if we had… progressive rap?

You know, progressive in the sense of progressive rock, not progressive dance. Where the song tempo and mood changes often, with complex time signatures, polyrhythms and elaborate instrumentation. Think Pink Floyd and Dream Theater… or even Queen – Bicycle Race for a simpler example of such musical schizophrenia. Locally, I could cite Tempered Mental as a well-known progressive band around here.

Rappers could be switching beats and vocal styles real quick. The only coherence might be that they’d have to rhyme.

The lazy crop of song producers these days don’t bother playing with beats that interweave with the vocals. They’ll put in just one part of the song and loop it all over. Think Rihanna.

Try to play Beastie Boys – Intergalactic in your head. Note that you can remember all those times the deejay starts scratching and making funny bleeps?

At this point somebody pointed out that Kanye West is progressive.

…well, not with what he did with Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. So not cool, man. The original song feels progressive due to the ever changing tempo, although it keeps to its motif. Like what Fatboy Slim does.

Despite how much the Black Eyed Peas annoy me, I think they did good with Pump It. Without vocals, the song is exactly the same as the Dick Dale – Miserlou instrumental.

Anyway, on to pictures from a gig long time ago, Moonshine 9th August 2007 to be exact. Shot with my newfound love for Kelvin White Balance set to 2500 K.


Mia Palencia!


From acoustic fingerstyle, she now has a full band, with the ever guitar-lick-ready Faz.


Reza Salleh, who I’d say has a few rock progressions up his sleeve. Spot a different drummer!

The crowd went too insane, plus I didn’t want to get caught in the Hujan crowd.

Blame It On The Rain

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A quick update.

I spent my last working day at the All-Asia Broadcast Center facility last Friday, 27th July 2007, where I spent 2412 days. The big heads upstairs relocated the technological workforce to a building somewhat nearby.

It was this Monday morning that I was looking forward to. I’d get on the company bus to the same old building, then take a sunny morning walk through Technology Park, soaking in the smell of trees and the sound of birds chirping.

Of course, the grand rule of Monday dictated that I was to have no such grand entry; instead, it had to rain on my parade.

And so, I blog this, sitting at my old Xfresh office, nicknamed The Fishtank, from another workstation, with no pictures. My workstation, ah! It lies beyond, when the rain is over. The promise of a faster Internet connection, without sharing a 2 megabit line with over a thousand users, might be enough to summon such foolhardy walking in the rain.

If I sneeze profusely the next time I see you, you’ll know why.

Major Geekout Time!

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Sony has leaked several images on their site, hidden in news links somewhere. Anyway, they’re all at this link at Photoclub Alpha!

* I will refer to my Minolta Dynax 7 film SLR as the D7, and the Konica Minolta 7 Digital as the 7D.

What I love:
– Grip sensor (only when you are gripping the hand grip and look through the viewfinder, does Eye-Start Autofocus work, just like my D7.)
– Two dials like the D7 and 7D
– ISO, WB, Drive buttons
– AF/MF toggle button (this is different from an AF On button, because you can use it to switch from any AF mode to MF, or in MF mode to AF)
– metering mode knob (though I’m quite used to tapping AEL to toggle between multi-segment and spot metering.)
– (possibly) CMOS sensor. Now, the Sonys will have less noise! Sony is known for their cutting edge sensors, so we might see some Live View. Or not. No biggie.

What I like:
– Support for vertical grip, so people can stop complaining.

What I don’t like:
– missing EV dial and flash EV dial on top-left which goes -3 to +3 in half stops, or -2 to +2 in third stops (it was on the D7 and 7D)
– mode dial moved to the left (I prefer to do everything right-handed, and not take my hand off the lens I am supporting. This is possible with the D7 and 7D.)
– not having the WB as a knob on the 7D.
– Drive knob missing. They’d better show everything in the viewfinder while changing.
– Where’s the Flash button? I hope they don’t hide it in the menus like on the 7D, while on the D7 it was a recessed knob under your right hand.


Left: Konica Minolta 7 Digital, right: Minolta Dynax 7.

What I really appreciate about my Dynax 7, which even Xian Jin has realized, is how everything can be changed with just the right hand. When you’re holding a heavy lens with your left hand, it would be a pain to let go and tweak something on the left.

In this sense, it’s a bit more practical than the Nikon D200, which has Qual, ISO, BKT and WB buttons on the top-left, and the Drive dial right under those.


Left: Konica Minolta 7 Digital, right: Minolta Dynax 7 (Click image for bigger version.)

Although the EV and flash EV dial was on the top-left of the D7 and 7D, I did not need to tweak it unless I wanted to set a permanent EV compensation. If anything, I’d turn it to 0 on the -3 to +3 side, to change EV in half steps, and turn it to 0 on the -2 to +2 side to change EV in third steps. However, I prefer third steps anyway, so I leave it on the 0 on the -2 to +2 side. If I change EV, it’s by the rear right dial anyway, so I don’t need to touch the left EV dial. Flash EV is also bound to EV compensation by default on my Sony A100, so when I dial -2 EV the flash underexposes.

Thus, I might not miss the EV/Flash EV dials after all. 🙂 I would like my Mode dial on the right, though, or I’d have to use my chin to turn it. Yes it looks silly but I’ve operated my camera in such a way, in dire one-handed times. Fortunately, I am very much an Aperture-Priority person, with rare trips to Shutter-Priority.

I wouldn’t need a vertical grip unless I had a 1.4kg lens. The Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, at 695 grams, and the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 1050 grams, is still handholdable on my A100 even in portrait mode, anti-clockwise handgrip up (for low shots) or clockwise handgrip down (for birds-eye view grabs).

On to lenses!

The classic Minolta 600mm F4 APO returns!

Can you walk around town shooting, requiring just 1/60th of a second to get a steady shot? Yes.

The 80-400mm range looks interesting, too, for the birder/chick stalker in all of us. A part of me secretly wishes that the new 70-300mm is actually a 70-200mm F4.

The 16-35mm F2.8 full-frame lens is sweet!

The 24mm F1.4 is definitely my kind of lens. 24mm on full-frame and 36mm on APS-C, two of my favorite wide focal lengths.

The Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 finally makes its debut.

The 35mm F1.8 will appease everybody who wants a normal lens. So that’s why Sony didn’t rerelease the Minolta 50mm F1.7; they had something more people would want. It’s also brighter than everybody else’s 35mm F2.


I wish they brought back the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, though. The Sony will just have to settle with something 1% of its original price. Here’s a real beercan next to the Minolta beercan.

All this makes previous speculation very fun to read. 😀


That makes us at ClubAlpha excited. (Of course there are more than these.)


I found an old flash concentrator in my stash somewhere. Effect on top-right image. I doubt I’d have much use for it, though.


I also found a Kenko 2x teleconverter for Minolta AF/Sony A-mount! I put my Minolta 50mm F1.4 on it excitedly, but the camera thought it was a 105mm F3.5 for some reason. It should be a 100mm F2.8! (The shutter speed however corresponded with F2.8, just that the teleconverter chip reported it wrongly.)

You can see it stacked with my Tamron 1.4x teleconverter, too, for a 3x teleconverter effect. It physically cannot stack the other way.


Top: The 50mm F1.4 with Kenko 2x teleconverter for 105mm F3.5, bottom is the 50mm F1.4 with the Tamron 1.4x teleconverter then the Kenko 2x teleconverter for 150mm F4! As you can see it was extremely soft, but if you follow my blog you’ll know there is a practical application for everything.


I went to Bandung and came back with this – a Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 lens for A-mount, for a very very good price. This was the 18-70mm of film. The lens is a push-pull, which might be odd to some people but perfectly fine by me. There is obvious lens creep.

I love this lens.

The autofocus is zippy and as violent as my Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 N! Focus slaps into place. This is because the AF motor only needs 1.6 turns to go from minimum focus distance to infinity. The 35-105mm on the other hand takes 2.5 turns. At 105mm F3.8 there is no hunting, or rather, hunting happens so fast.

The only downside would be the minimum focusing distance of 5 meters/1.5 feet, making it hard to use even on full-frame to get a standard wide camwhore shot. This works to the autofocus speed though, as it does not have to focus through macro ranges.

This made my Minolta-related collection an obscene 7, in the A-mount alone.

From back row, left to right: Minolta AF Big Finder (35mm compact), Sony Alpha 100 digital SLR with Tamron 1.4x teleconverter and Sony HVL-F56AM, Minolta Dynax 7 35mm SLR, Minolta X300 35mm SLR.

The lenses on the right, from the Minolta X300, in Minolta MD manual-focus mount, are the Vivitar 28-70mm F3.9-4.8 and Seagull 50mm F1.8, and a whole lot of caps.

The lenses from the right, front row, are the Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye for M42 mount (with M42 to A-mount adapter), Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT kit lens, Minolta 28-80mm F3.5-5.6, Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8, Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 N, Minolta 50mm F1.4 original, Minolta 70-210mm F4.0 beercan.

I am selling the Minolta 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 (and sold the Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 N) as I got the Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 which replaces both lenses and is brighter, faster focusing and covers both lenses’ range.

Details here:
http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27507

Tamron 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 for A-mount


I got to try one of these at Leos Com Trading, 1st Floor, Ampang Park. This shot was handheld, 250mm F6.3 1/25s ISO800. Yep, SuperSteadyShot held true.


This lens is also pretty sharp! This is a 100% crop of a 5.6 megapixel image, 250mm F6.3 1/125s ISO100 with flash. Please pardon the nose closeup.

My rule of determining whether a lens is sharp is very simple – can I see stubble?

Screw MTF charts man.

However, it is slow to focus – it took 25 turns of the AF screw to go from minimum focusing distance to infinity. However, this is the walkaround lens of the moment.


The Canon EOS 1D MkII! However, it had a Canon 50mm F1.8 MkII on it, a slow, slow, slow focusing lens. Or rather, just as slow as if it was on a Canon EOS 350D. A slow lens will make your camera uncool. I felt no difference.

The 1.3x crop factor did make a difference, though. 😀 (This is not the full-frame Canon EOS 1Ds MkII, though.)

I like the idea of those three buttons used in different combinations to change stuff. However, that goes against my right-hand-controls-only preference.

I went around Bintang Walk with KJ, who wanted to survey digital SLRs. He was stuck between the Canon EOS 400D for noise control and the Sony Alpha 100 for cheapo stabilization. He felt that the 400D’s grip was too small, and not that great for portrait shots, so he wanted a battery grip too. He also wanted to play with wireless flash. We added the street prices up:

Canon 400D with 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens – RM2700
Canon 70-200mm F4L non-IS USM = RM2600
Canon ST-E2 wireless flash trigger – RM600
Canon 580EX big flash – RM1580
Canon BG-E3 battery grip – RM300
Extra battery – RM300
Total = RM8080

Sony A100 with 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens – RM2600
Minolta 70-210mm F4 (secondhand) = RM700
Sony HVL-F56AM big flash – RM1170
Extra battery – RM200
Total = RM4670

Other things notably missing from the 400D were spot metering (do you shoot, chimp, adjust EV, and repeat until proper exposure?) and a most annoying way of choosing focus point. The only thing it’s good at is noise control.

We were joined by Ray and Hui Wen. I’d been cajoling them to get the Pentax K10D. That was another button-and-knob fest; it also has in-body lens stabilization, the cheapest 50mm F1.4 lens around, and wireless flash capability!

I loved the Pentax K10D’s emergency green button, for use in getting correct exposure in Manual Exposure mode. I also liked the idea of MTF Priority Program mode, where it picks the best aperture for the lens to be at its sharpest. You can’t go wrong with 9 cross-type AF sensors, either!

On the left, it had a Raw toggle button, a Flash button, a Drive button, a Metering dial and the Mode dial.


I thought the Sony HVL-F56AM was fat compared to the slim Nikon SB-800… until I saw the Pentax AF540 FGZ TTL flash (on the left).


We also found this hidden gem. A Sigma 300mm F4 APO Macro for A-mount!


300mm F4 ISO400 at 1/20s you say with SuperSteadyShot? (I’m amazed the guy was still enough.)


I could even add my Tamron 1.4x teleconverter for 420mm F5.6 ISO400 at 1/15s. This was KJ’s shot. Good idea shooting a poster to test stability, as everybody else was walking.

The lens was, well, very affordable. Hooray to orphaned lenses nobody else wants!

I found the sliding, unscrewing lens hood cool. The adjustable tripod collar, at any angle, was cool too. The AF/MF clutch was a bit of confusion, but it made more sense than a tiny AF/MF switch. It wouldn’t AF on my Dynax 7, oddly; usually the D7 is more compatible than my A100!

The lens hunted badly in indoor lighting as it lacked an internal focus motor. I had to half-press until it was near focus, then tap it a bit to get into focus. This worked much better than half-pressing all the way and overshooting. This technique can also be used on any lens, try it!

AF speeds were a lot faster once I discovered the AF Limit/Full switch and turned it to Limit, heh. 😀


Meanwhile, back at Leos Com Trading, Jeff had the Gary Fong Photojournalist Lightsphere for Minolta 5600HS/Sony HVL-F56AM flash units.


I removed the white cap and stuck my Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye inside it.


8mm fisheye F8 1/125s ISO100.

The fisheye can capture the lightsphere! (Okay, so I tilted it in front a bit to test. It’s supposed to point straight up.) However, whether the flash was in the picture or not, I was still getting a lot of light loss. Maybe I was too ambitious to tax the flash at F8 and ISO100. Plus every fisheye shot I take with flash always taxes the flash and tends to underexpose.


28mm F2.8 1/125s ISO400. I also tried the Stofen Omnibounce, but that too ate batteries and caused a harsher neck shadow. However, Jeff’s face appears to be more lit in a graduation from his nose.


Honestly however, I preferred my method of just using the built-in diffuser. Just pull the wide-panel diffuser up, but not all the way, so it stands up and acts as a bounce card. Of all the shots I took, draining batteries at that, this method turned out the best, with a graduated shadow down Jeff’s neck. Also, light bounced from the top, giving a more naturally-lit-from-above look.

And now, from Mount Olympus!

I got to try out the new Olympus EVOLT E-410 and Olympus EVOLT E-510.

I like how the E-410 felt just like my Olympus OM-2000. Also, its rear dial could be accessed with my right thumb or forefinger. However, it was missing functions bound to the keypad.

As for the E-510, Image Stabilization seems to work on 45mm at 1/13s (3 stops) but the noise reduction makes it softer and harder to tell. IS at 1/8 is hit-and-miss with a bit of chimping. I used the relaxed grip method as Pentax’s Ned Bunnell suggests.

I loved how ALL settings can be seen in the viewfinder LCD. They literally moved the shooting info LCD inside! Plus, the relevant settings can be changed with the arrow keys (ISO, etc). This was notably missing from the E-410. Even Olympus point-and-shoots have functions bound to their arrow keys!

I hated the dial being at your thumb instead of near the shutter. Now you have to press a button on the keypad with your thumb to change ISO, then use the same thumb to change the setting by tapping the keypad or rolling the dial (which is more tedious as your thumb has to travel up.)

If I got a E-510 body for free, I’d want to hack it so the dial is in front instead of the back. That would make it so much faster to use.

The 14-45mm F3.5-5.6 is soft at 45mm F4.5 1/8s ISO200. Noise reduction smearing is evident (though I should’ve went through the menus to disable it.)

In Live View, you must press AFL/AEL to focus first. Half-pressing the shutter in Live View will not focus the lens!

Annoyingly, if you don’t focus first, pressing the shutter will lag the camera indefinitely until it focuses. You will hear the shutter trip anywhere up to two seconds, if it can find the subject by then. You’re better off in MF mode, and tapping the AFL/AEL when you need some AF.

I would not recommend the E-410 even on a budget because you’ll take a long time to change settings. You’ll feel like you’re dealing with a point-and-shoot here. The E-510 is much, much faster in this aspect.

The prices of midrange lenses are pretty scary, too, and the only cheap one is the 40-150mm F3.5-4.5. The only hope is getting those something-to-4/3rds-mount adapters. I could use my Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 OM-mount on this!

Would I buy the E-510 if I was not a second-hand lens collector? Well, I’d really hope they move the dial forward. It’s like driving out into a clear highway and finding a massive jam at the end of it. That horribly misplaced dial, and them not using a digicam-style AF mode in Live View, are two glaring niggles about this camera. Also, with a dodgy AF implementation, Live View becomes purely for MF applications in angles where you simply cannot look through the viewfinder.

In other news, there is an awesome Olympus hacker blog:
http://olyflyer.blogspot.com/

CameraLabs tested the Olympus E-510 with in-body stabilization with the Leica 14-50mm F2.8-3.5 with Mega OIS in-lens stabilization.
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/OlympusE510/Olympus_E510_with_Leica_14-50mm.shtml

Sadly, as predicted, activating both stabilization methods cancels each other out. Imagine two dudes on a boat; they both want to make a turn, so both start paddling but end up going straight.

Links, for those who are not tired of reading:

Minolta AF/Sony Alpha FAQ:
http://www.mhohner.de/minolta/faq.php

Here’s a technical explanation of how Minolta’s wireless flash system works:
http://www.friedmanarchives.com/flash.htm

My First Autofocus Film SLR!

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Guess what I just got, sitting in between the Minolta X300 manual-focus film SLR (left) and Sony Alpha A100 digital SLR (right).


Squint no more, geeks! It’s the legendary Minolta Dynax 7.


Compared to the Sony A100, you can immediately see that it’s a button and knobfest. I know people who love it that way. I know I do.


The main dial controls exposure mode (where the center button must be pressed to unlock the dial); a dial below it controls drive mode, with options like multiple exposure and mirror lock up after 2 second self-timer; a knob controls metering, including an AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) button; a knob controls focus point selection, while the 9-point directional pad chooses the focus point, aligned perfectly on the rule of thirds.

In front of the shutter release button is one dial; behind the shutter release is a tiny LCD to show film frame count, and aperture. The dial behind can be used to dial in a custom exposure quickly.

Finally, one of the best buttons is the AF/MF toggle; when in AF mode, pressing it will switch to MF, while in MF you can press it to switch to AF. Beats changing the AF mode on the switch near the lens. 😀

Yes, this stroke of genius just arrived on the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III!

Also, when AF mode is set to Automatic AF, and the lens is focused, the focusing motor screw will disengage from the lens to use Direct Manual Focus mode. You can then fine-tune focus without spoiling the focusing motor! Pentax has a similiar implementation called Quick-Shift Focus System to give their lenses something like full-time manual override focus.


On the left hand, there’s the exposure compensation dial, which goes from -2 to +2 in 1/3 stops, and -3 to +3 in 1/2 stops. This also needs the middle button to be pressed to turn. There is also a flash exposure compensation dial right below it.

For some reason, Minolta said that their On/Off switches should be on the left, and that decree carried on to the Konica Minolta digital SLRs and the Sony A100.

Frankly, it does not bother me. Have you found the switch on the Canon EOS 30D?

There is also a dial on the right of the camera to switch from red-eye reduction flash, normal flash, rear-sync flash and wireless flash (with adjustable 2:1 ratio).


Left: The data back. I LOVE THIS! It stores exposure data for the last 7 rolls shot with the camera. Scouring through, I could tell that the previous owner used the Minolta 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 lens and something at 150mm F5.6. He/she also used it with bright studio lighting, based on the smaller apertures (F11) and yet fast shutter speeds (1/500s). The last recorded date was somewhere in April 2003; after that, the camera time was reset to January 1st, 2000.

I can only wonder why he/she didn’t get the Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 lens instead. Budget, I guess. I got this and the 28-80mm at a second-hand pawn shop for RM399.

Right: The bitmapped screen is genius. Not only does it show your status and aperture/shutter settings in one go (like Konica Minolta SLRs, Sony A100, Olympus dSLRs, Panasonic L1, Nikon D40/D40x, Canon 400D), it can also be used to view the custom function text. Yup, no more cards and guessing what custom function number does what!

Personally, I never liked the idea of having a status LCD screen on top; when you switch to portrait orientation, you have to peek over the body to look for a tiny LCD that till today’s Nikon D80, still looks like a Game&Watch. The Dynax 7 reorients the screen when you turn it sideways!

…also, the LCD screen on the back has led many to think my Dynax 7 is a digital SLR. Heh.


Left: Miss the depth of field markers on your zoom lens? Worry no more, pressing the Depth Of Field preview button shows how much depth of field you get in front and behind the subject at your set aperture. This feature only works on Minolta/Sony D lenses, though, as it needs the distance information from the lens.

Right: The standard status LCD. Direct Manual Focus, Release Priority, single-shot drive mode, no exposure compensation, center AF point, multi-segment metering, 26th frame.

And now, for a rant.

I love Aperture Priority mode. I value having instant control over my depth of field. I honestly think that having your camera on Manual Exposure mode all the time is a very impractical thing to do, especially when racing to balance the exposure when you should be worrying about shutter speed or aperture alone.

If I need as fast a shutter speed or am shooting in dark places, I quickly flick the dial to choose the brightest aperture. If I’m capturing a sunny landscape or macro, I quickly flick the dial down to F16. If I’m shooting a sunny portrait and I wanna show your pores, I’ll flick to F8 to get more sharpness out of the lens. Backlit subject? Bump up the exposure compensation.

At no point should I have to worry about balancing shutter speed too. Frankly, people who roll two dials frantically look silly. Get with the program, yo.

And yes, it does annoy me when somebody picks up my Sony A100 and switches to Manual Exposure to take a shot that has no need for M mode. While it does show that the person has knowledge of aperture/shutter/ISO and its relationships, it is hardly practical nor smart.

I only ever use Manual Exposure mode when:
– shooting with flash to mix in just the right amount of ambient light while getting a deeper depth of field
– shooting out-of-Earth objects like the sun, moon and stars
– shooting in infrared
– shooting a gig where the lights fade in and out quickly, where clicking at the wrong moment will leave me waiting for a 4 second exposure to clear (though for this case, you should use Shutter Priority.)

End rant.


Pressing the AEL button, then pressing the Disp button, shows the camera’s metering of the 14 segments! (The 14th segment is the entire frame.) It shows which segment is over or underexposed (which is great for slide film shooters, who can quickly change compensation and have it recalculate the numbers on the fly.)

So why did I go out and get a Minolta film SLR?

I could use the Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens on a body it was meant to be used on, where 50mm is sweet. I could even walk around with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan without having to step back much, being used to the Sony A100 with 50mm F1.4 giving a similiar telephoto feel.


Oh, and I could use the Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye on a full-frame body. 😀

The big ‘pro spec’ mirror on the Dynax 7 sometimes causes an error with the Peleng 8mm F3.5 fisheye attached; I’d have to unscrew the lens a bit (to get more distance), turn off and turn on the camera to resolve this. Strangely the Nikon D2X doesn’t hit it, while the Nikon D70 and FM does. (Source.)

This entry was posted in Geek, Pictures, Rants on by .

Spare The Cane

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I don’t like food courts in shopping malls. They’re crowded, full of screaming kids, the queues for drink counters are long, and… they don’t serve artificial sugar cane anymore.

I like artificial sugar cane.

Specifically, the one sold in food courts, not those in tin cans, though I can settle for that.

Real sugar cane stalls are harder to come by for a mallrat like me.

Yes, they do serve sugar cane with water chestnut, but it’s not the same! It’s not the stuff I grew up on!

There, a quick filler rant.

In, Competent

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Life is not a competition.

Why do we subject ourselves to evaluation everytime?

And now, for a camera rant:

When reading camera reviews, I hate reading the phrase, “This camera cannot compete…”

I think it’s the most ridiculous phrase that could be said aloud. Since when was using a camera a competition? Are you a wholesaler of camera equipment? Why do you care about market sales to use words like “compete“?

Do you only buy winners? Do you believe all contests are built well? Do you buy it based on somebody else’s criteria? Do you even know your own criteria?

Alright, some of you may know wiser and know this post was just filler. Yes, I promise good pictures tomorrow!

Shot On Purpose

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Do your pictures have a purpose?

I’ll answer that on my behalf.

I believe mine do, to some extent. The technical stuff is to educate people on alternative ways and effects. The gig pictures are so bands can steal them for their Myspace accounts and say “Thanks Albert!” (Of course, a video would be much better but I’ll leave that to a videographer.)

So what is the point of taking a picture of a flower?

What about them clouds?

What about them insects?

Wouldn’t it be better, say, to take a picture of an elderly man sitting outside a retirement home? The purpose and message would be: Don’t leave your parents at a home!

Wouldn’t it be better to take a picture of steaming hot tomyam soup prepared by this unknown restaurant in a hidden corner somewhere?

(Okay, if your pictures seek to entertain, or evoke feelings in people, then hooray they have a purpose!)

We can all take pictures of the Eye On Malaysia. What I want to do, is take a picture from the inside, with both a wide and a tele lens. “See this is what I can see if I ride it!”

I could make out with a chick up there and caption it, “See this is what I can do here!”

Right now, all those shots of the Eye On Malaysia just convey one message:

“Come and take a picture of the Eye On Malaysia.”

Some photographers are so annoyingly cocky, I wanna whip out a condom and pull it over their heads. You can brag how a lens does not make the photo, but at the same time you stick to your brand. You can imply that some other dude does not deserve that lens, but I think he takes better pictures than you. Pictures with more soul.

I don’t claim my pictures have soul, but let’s all get over the needless negative feedback loop of being an annoying fanboy because somebody else was an annoying fanboy to you. Or making someone else your slave flasher because you were made to hold flashes.

Actually, this rant doesn’t just apply to taking pictures. What about what you do in life?

Do you have a purpose?

Do you have an impact on people in your life?

I believe I am here to help. To enlighten. The world is full of people who don’t know (calling them ignorant people is just a judgemental way of labelling them that sounds like they are beyond hope). I want to help them. I want to teach people how to fish.

…okay, not exactly, as I don’t know how to fish myself.

Raymond once asked, “Do you play videogames?”

Whatever games I played, I always played their single-player missions to finish, and not so much of those practice games. I never liked wasting time on the same level.

If I want to do something, I want to progress in it.

I could be an ace at Daytona, and drag people to that particular machine where my record is #1. “See see haaa ALB! That’s ME!”

Now, I feel that my time on the computer is best used to Photoshop and blog. Yes, I enjoy it muchly. There, my efforts have a bigger effect.


Pay your taxes! The deadline for employed people is on the 30th of April 2007! (Shot with my Nokia N70.)

I had to put something of purpose in this blog post. So there. Some people don’t actually know what these buildings on Jalan Duta are. This is where you pay your taxes, yo.

They’re doing overtime till 10pm till 30th April! (See how hardworking they are to get your money heh.)

Okay, maybe I could be more helpful and draw a map, and make an online tax calculator or something. Or hack into their system and generate e-Filing PIN numbers for all of you procrastinators so you don’t have to head down there.

My Greatest Fear

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…is becoming someone with no soul.

My definition of soul is different; my soul relates to passion; and passion is something you do out of love and not for money.

My great fear is becoming a person so one-dimensional. You know those friends from long time ago who have become multi-level marketers? Yes. They have no soul. They speak of nothing else.

(That may also apply to some otakus, or people obsessed with Japanese culture, most specifically anime.)

I fear that I have become obsessed. About cameras (not the art of photography, mind you.) Before I sleep, I use Opera on my Nokia N70 to Google something camera-related. Yes, something just pops out of nowhere on my inquisitive mind.

My friends, whom I used to talk about anything with (except politics and current affairs), when I find out they have an interest in photography… I end up always falling back on the topic of it. I’m throttling through new things at warp speed.

I scare myself.

I am glad when I have close friends or colleagues who do not share interest in cameras. We then speak of other things, but I’m still appalled at myself at how shallow I get. We gossip about real people (gossipping about celebrities is passe) and talk about girls and sex.

Sometimes, with my camera geek-out buddies, I wonder what we used to talk about.

I used to pride myself in being able to converse of the abstract. Social constructs. Music. Life or the lack thereof. Random theories. However, the older I get, and the older the crowd gets, I find myself trying hard to catch up. I never liked being asked about my academic plan back when I was in school or college. Only after all that was over could I ask, “So, what do you do?” and understand how to proceed accordingly.

I used to think I was interesting and funny, too.

Okay, honestly, I still think I have it. I still think I kept it real. However, I fear one day the obsession will go overboard. I mean, it was still cute when this photography geek dude went “WHOOOAAA the skies are so blue! So saturated!” and proceed to stop and snap skies in the middle of KL. I just hope I won’t carry a wireless flash around and assign friends to hold them in position while I shoot something.

(Yes, I am not completely against the idea of buying a wireless flash; you know the geek in me is hankering for the Sony HVL-F56AM.)

Which gets to my gripe on, well, destructive photography.

I’ve always been of the opinion that I should respect the natural or artificial lighting the sun or moon or lighting crew has given us. I shall not blind a subject. I don’t like taking pictures of performers looking at me and smiling because I, well, I am supposed to be an observer capturing a moment in life’s movie, not in the picture (though technically behind it.)

I also would not pick up a snail to put it on a rock so it would look more artsy. I’d wait for the snail to get into a position that would make better composition.

I still don’t have a car.

I’m trying to save up… but I’m also trying to save up to geek out.

Even after getting a car, I’ll still walk around town, around the ghetto, because that’s where I got my street walking shots from. Back before I had a camera, I’d walk in the streets, downtown KL, and see something and wish I had a camera. I could imagine the catchy captions for them already.

I don’t like going out for the sole purpose of being on a photoshoot. (Also because I have shitloads of pictures and blog entries to clear!) I like carrying my camera around in case I saw something.

So, I’ve gotta walk. If I didn’t wait at the Segambut KTM station, I would not have shot goats. If I didn’t walk home from the bus stop after the rain, I would not have spotted many many snails coming out to play. (I haven’t blogged about those.)

I feel like a hippie walking around with long hair, looking like a scraggy youth myself, blending in. Save the environment! Quit congesting the roads! Quit adding smog to the city!

It is also said that riding a bicycle for a kilometer requires the energy of one egg. Walking requires two eggs. A bus engine takes 7 eggs to carry you. Driving takes 35 (the engine, not you… so you won’t lose weight driving). Or something like that, I really don’t remember and can’t seem to Google it.

I don’t live within 5 minutes to an LRT station, oh dear spoilt brats.

I remember meeting a chick with a Canon EOS 400D. I popped my Hoya R72 infrared pass filter on her Canon 50mm F1.8 MkII, laid it on a table, pointed to a sunny garden and shot a test shot to see how infrared would turn out.

The mirror locked up… and waited… and went back down.

“I think the shutter speed is a bit too long.”

She didn’t know I put an IR filter in front. I don’t know why, but that was a turn on. Knowing that she could tell without looking.

When camwhoring in noisy places, I can tell by how far the focusing ring is whether it is focused close or accidentally focusing on the background. I think I am cool, that way.

There, see, I’m talking about photography again.

I’m still a bit shy around the term ‘photographer’. I am, in all essence, a camera geek primarily, photographer second. I don’t get nice shots all the time. I only start getting them once I shoot one magic shot, look at my shot (also known as chimping) and find that it was a great shot. From then on, I feel encouraged and inspired to shoot more such shots after that.

I quite hate the suffix Photography, (or Through The Lens or any photography cliche) especially when I’m reading a blog and seeing all soul-less, badly composed pictures.

If a picture has bad composition, but has soul (in my definition, it captures the emotion and moment or shows an expression) then it passes by my book.

Heck, I find such suffixes to almost certainly jinx it for me. Too many people adding Photography to their namecards.

My name is Albert, and I have an obsession with cameras.

(This blog entry was somewhat sparked off by Yee Hou’s rant.)

Full of G.A.S.

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Thanks to Yin, Lau, Jeff, Wai Fon, Andersen and Jason for some of the items in this blog entry.


My collection of non-interchangeable-lens cameras; from left:
Canon Powershot A520 digital camera; Sony Cybershot P72 digital camera; Kodak Easyshare CX6230 digital camera; Fujifilm Fotonex 210ix Zoom APS film camera; Minolta AF50 35mm film camera; Pentax PC-30 35mm film camera. (Technically, some are in my custody till I fix them.)


Okay, there might not be hope for this one.


My collection of interchangeable-lens cameras; from left:
Pentax P30t 35mm film SLR with Auto Chinon 135mm F2.8 manual focus lens; Olympus OM-2000 35mm film SLR with Olympus OM Zuiko 50mm F1.8 lens; Sony Alpha A100 APS-C digital SLR with Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens; infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 digital camera with DIY-52mm-to-Minolta-MD-adapter and Seagull 50mm F1.8 lens. These are the brightest lenses I have for each camera.


Same, this time with as much zoom as I can get; from left:
Pentax P30t with Vivitar 75-205mm F3.5-4.5 manual focus lens with matched-multiplied 2x teleconverter (making it a 150-410mm F7.0-9.0 lens); Olympus OM-2000 with Soligor 70-220mm constant aperture F3.5 manual focus lens with Vivitar 2x teleconverter (making it a sweeet 140-440mm F7.0 lens); Sony Alpha A100 with Minolta 70-210mm constant aperture F4 “beercan” lens; Fujifilm Digital Q1 with DIY-52mm-to-Olympus-OM-adapter and Olympus Zuiko 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 manual focus lens.

Believe it or not, the one with the furthest apparent reach here is the Fujifilm Digital Q1. With its 6x crop factor it gets 1260mm equivalent focal length! 2640mm can be gotten if I mount the Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 with 2x teleconverter on it instead.


Big big flashes, from left to right:
Sony Alpha A100 with Sony HVL-F56AM (guide number 56m at ISO100); Pentax P30t with Canon Speedlite 580EX (guide number 58m at ISO100); Olympus OM-2000 with Nikon Speedlight SB-28 (guide number 36m at ISO100).

This does not mean I have become full-time flasher. I’m not completely against the idea of using flash; I just think it’s stupid to be unable to take pictures without flash. I liked playing with wireless flash (and Minolta/Sony’s implementation works perfectly) but I will not die without it.

A blog entry about the HVL-F56AM’s wireless flash capabilities will come soon. Yes, Minolta (now swallowed into Sony) came up with wireless flash before Nikon started getting all these annoying CLS fanboys whose brains are incapable of using any other camera.

I find myself perfectly able to use any common camera brand system. Hello it’s not that hard! The EV icon looks like a -/+ icon all the time. The flash icon is always a lightning icon. Is it that hard to pick up a camera and turn it around in your hands to look for buttons?

Same goes for point-and-shoots. Some brands may require menus to access certain functions, but it certainly is not impossible to find, if people say the feature is there.

And what if you can’t find the ISO setting on old Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoots? Set the EV to underexpose, then bring the exposure back to zero in Photoshop and you have a higher-ISO image!

Go figure out a bellows medium-format camera. I’ll shake your hand.

Ah yes, I’m whining about whiners.

…I also think by the time you have gotten past these pictures and brand alphabet soups that I’m all for all mount compatibility and defying the limitations set by proprietary brands. Peace and unity!


This is the widest I’ve ever got with my Fujifilm Digital Q1 using a 35mm-format SLR lens. The Vivitar 24mm F2.0 paired with a Pro Tama 0.45x wideangle converter (which feels more like a 0.7x) gives a… 24mm * 6x crop factor * 0.7x wideangle = 100.8mm F2.0 equivalent. Add the fact that it is sensitive to infrared, and you get much higher shutter speeds!


I eventually returned to the Pentax K-mount. (The first SLR lens I bought was a Cosina 19-35mm F3.5-4.5 AF K-mount.) I’ve already identified these lenses earlier so spare me the alphabet soup!


Pentax P30t, with PASM modes. Set Aperture and Shutter to Auto for Programmed Auto-exposure. Gotta love the separate flash-sync speed on the shutter speed dial!


Pentax flash diffuser, Pentax-K-mount-to-49mm-filter-thread reversal ring (oddly, a sticker on it says Pentax-M49 which is not true because the M49 mount has a different screw pitch (aka the thickness of screw threads) than a 49mm screw filter thread) and silica gel in a microwaveable plastic container. Microwave them for 7 minutes at low heat to turn the gels blue. When it turns pink it loses its effectiveness.

Yeah, with all these I got a non-electric dry box.


I also got this; it plugs into a wall socket (with adapter) and heats up the silica gels inside it. This is great if you have an air-proof box which you can then use as a dry box. The silica gels absorb moisture and keep the insides dry, to protect your lenses from getting fungus.


The good ol’ shutter release cable! Top-left: Unscrew the ring, and when you press down it will lock. Press the ring to unlock and release the shutter. Top-right: Screwed in, it does not lock. Bottom: This is where the shutter release cable screws into; sadly, digital SLRs don’t have this anymore. Pressing on the shutter cable makes the pin extend by hydraulic pressure, activating the shutter.


A shutter release cable is useful for bulb mode, when you want to do long exposures. You’ll tire your fingers holding the shutter down for over a minute! In this case, the Olympus OM-2000 has the Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 lens with Vivitar 2x teleconverter. I might add that the monstrous Soligor has a tripod mount (my only lens with tripod mount) and a macro extending ring (though macro is questionable because it doesn’t go to life-size magnification).


Mounted on the Fujifilm Digital Q1…


…the lens eclipses the camera!


Looks like a mini telescope. How cute. The front takes 72mm filters. It’s a bit screwed up though; at 70mm it cannot focus on infinity.


Hoya filters are really made by Tokina! Who the heck are you guys now?


And now, for stuff that is not in my custody. Kodak Retina Reflex with 35mm F4.0 lens. This is great fun to figure out, It has two sets of lenses and rings!


Please download this file and check its EXIF data. From the picture, you’d be able to tell where you can get this gem of a lens, at a great bargain, too. I’d have gotten it if I had the money (and use such focal lengths often).