Category Archives: Rants

Clearing Time!

13 Replies

Ferns Album Launch, 2nd of February 2007, at KL Jamasia. Finally, I’m updating within the same month!


Keng of Furniture, shredding the blues for folk-rocker Azmyl Yunor. Shanon Shah was on keyboards!


Azmyl, ganas wei.


One half of Couple, lo-fi indie pop darlings. Quite a massive following.


…even if Hana wasn’t playing with them. Eh?


Happy music!


Warren Chan of Ferns, dreamy indie pop of the softer, frail variety.


Abigail blows the… uh… keyboard.


Adlin gets a KLue (speaking of which, where the heck is this month’s issue?) and sits down.

Fast forward to 8th February 2007, Moonshine, A Homemade Music Show.

The first thing people would notice about Laundry Bar is how the stage had shifted.

The second is that the comfy Laundry Bar plushies have disappeared.

The third would be the carpets, left to hang dry on the walls.

The first and third help to make the sound better, by reducing sound reflections. Okay, maybe it was for Chinese New Year too. 😀


The sound engineer gets a more glamorous deck.


Melina (who I shall no longer identify by her main band because she has become a band slut) performing with…


Reza Salleh, sexy alternative/modern/grunge/R&B rocker.


Guess which band Rahul (only of One Buck Short, heh) is playing for!


I let my friends play with my camera, and they set the white balance for me. I went up and took this shot with flash. Gee, thanks! (Your standard uninnovative photographer-wannabe would say, “Next time, shoot in RAW, stupid!“)

Aye, but he/she is forgetting the days of point-and-shoot and intensive Photoshop post-processing (and how proud he/she was of it.)


Don’t be lazy, even Levels can fix it. I went further and made it look like a cheap digicam. Anyway, that’s Alex Ang, yet another band slut. Guessed which band this is yet? (There’s also Zaim of Curtis Blues Review on bass.)


Ash Nair! Best known for his stint in Malaysian Idol and as one of those CLEO Bachelors.

I might’ve just discovered an interesting effect; using the wrong white balance with controlled flash power to isolate subjects.


I’m not sure if I’ve seen him before.

And now, for a rant.


An out-of-focus picture of Kimberly and Tan Yee Hou‘s friend, shot at 50mm F2.0. Shot by a friend who I won’t identify.

And this is why the Nikon D40 sucks. (No, this was taken with my Sony A100 with Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens… in manual focus.)

The D40 cannot use auto-focus on Nikkor lenses that do not have motors inside them. Thus, you’d need to get an AF-S or AF-I lens. However, Nikon does not make AF-S versions of their bright primes (at least F1.8), like the popular Nikkor 50mm F1.8D lens! (And when they do announce it, it takes ages to arrive and goes out of stock.)

Ironically, a bright prime which has narrow depth of field needs auto-focus the most.


Tan Yee Hou. Shot at 50mm F2.0, which is enough for someone sitting at the same table to be reasonably in focus. Identity of shooter withheld.

I’ve discovered is that most people can’t do manual focus, even in restaurant lighting! (Or haven’t a clue how to see if something is critically in focus.)

Yes, I’ve been asking people to try to manual focus, doing random samplings. (I didn’t ask them to half-press and spot the focus-assist dot, though… that would tell them if it’s in focus, which defeats the purpose of the experiment.)

There was once I met Fazri and his friend, Brian, and I asked him to manual focus and he got a sharp, in-focus shot.

Later in conversation, I found out that his father had an Olympus OM-2. Yep, one of those legendary, very quiet fabric-shutter manual exposure manual focus film SLRs. Manual focusing must be in his blood!

(Okay, so later he whipped out a digital SLR, so he already knew what in focus looked like.)

Imagine, there could be a generation of budget-strapped people getting D40 units with the cheapest first-hand Nikkor lens, the 50mm F1.8D, and taking loads of out-of-focus shots… and not knowing it.

A D40 could be retrofitted with a manual focusing screen, but because of the matte area, metering would be screwed, overexposing out-of-focus areas. Teehee.


Xian Jin nails the focus on this shot of Matthew. This was on the 50mm at F1.4! F1.4 is much more challenging, but done correctly, the right parts of the picture are in focus, with the bonus of soft focus in the other areas.

In general, with a small depth-of-field, one should focus one-thirds into the subject. For a face, the eyes are most critical; focus that and the nose and ears will be reasonably in focus.

The Age-Old Debate

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What’s worse than a young fart who thinks he/she knows everything?

An old fart who thinks he/she knows everything.

What’s worse than someone who says that something is wrong and then tells you why? (Okay, this isn’t bad at all. Constructive criticism rocks.)

Someone who tells you something is wrong, and doesn’t tell you why, but instead tells you to refer to something which is barely related.

Okay, even worse is when the person cannot or won’t tell you.

(Heck, I’d rather debate with a twenty-something who at least tells you why your argument is flawed.)

I hate those Chinese aunties in queues and on the LRT (or in BMWs) who think they have right-of-way and cut all of us. All age has given them is an excuse to “tssk” people like they did nothing wrong. And these same people have the cheek to call people rude.

Thank God my mother is not like that. *hugs mum proudly*

I really believe that maturity and age aren’t always connected. Sure, there are some things everyone will learn at the age of 15 in school. There are other things that you might not have experienced even at 25, which some other 15 year old is experiencing right now.

I know so many people my age who have achieved and know so many things; I also know a lot of people who haven’t done or learned anything much on that same scale.

30-year-olds now are not 20-year-olds now, evolved 10 years later.

They’re 20-year-olds from 10 years ago, evolved 10 years later. Different generation, different mindsets.

Alpha? You Bet

19 Replies

I bought myself the biggest birthday present ever; a Sony A100 digital SLR!

Now, anybody who knows digital SLRs will immediately jump and ask, “Why this brand? Why this model? Why not this model? Are you stupid?”

I think it’s dumb that I’ve to justify why to everybody, but hey, I know what I want and what I use it for. What I use the camera for is different from other people (which is why I get different shots, aha!)

First, a long rant for those of you who are Nikon fanboys. (Since Canon fans seem to be more… docile.)

I am not a Nikon fanboy. Every damn fanboy I know rushes out to get a 50mm F1.8D. They also have this typical craving for a Nikon SB-800.

I don’t care about that. I am not a flasher.


I shoot in low light without flash, and Super SteadyShot is needed for that.

Similiarly, if you were a macro shooter, the Olympus E330 with Live View and swiveling LCD is a great, great help.

I do greatly admire the Nikon D80, though, and Nikon’s huge array of lenses. Nikons feel sturdier, though I’ve met a Nikon D50 with a cracked viewfinder LCD screen, like so:


(Red line indicates where a fault line moved; white box drawn in to show viewfinder. Please pardon the camera shake.)

I have no idea how you can cause impact to the insides like that. The shutter count was supposedly 300.

The fanboys are annoying, though; they can’t seem to acknowledge what other brands have.

So, since the Nikon D80 and Sony A100 are at similiar price points, I’ll compare these two.

Things that the Nikon D80 has that the Sony A100 has, as well:

AF-A (Auto-focus Auto) – when the subject moves it changes from Single-AF to Continuous-AF.

Focus Priority/Release Priority option – in Focus Priority the camera will NOT take a picture until it is in focus. I find it annoying so I’m in release priority all the time.


Color profiles – this was in Vivid, +2 Saturation.


Spot the not-so-hidden Mickey!


Yes, I’m discovering the joys of 18mm (27mm equivalent.)

Differences:

The Nikon D80 does not have a center joystick button, so you can’t jump to the center AF point. The Sony A100 and Nikon D200 have this. (The Sony A100 allows you to choose diagonal points in the 9-point AF. Top-left arrow corresponds to top-left point, so it’s one press to get to any AF point.)

I don’t bother with multiple AF points, really; I’m on Direct Manual Focus by default. Half-press, focus; if it focuses on the wrong thing I turn the focus ring!

Alternatively, I could use AF-A, and whip the AF/MF switch to manually focus it. Much faster than pressing left, left, down, aiming the AF point at the object, and shooting.

With multi-segment metering, the camera tended to underexpose by 2/3rds of a stop (quite the opposite of the overexposing D80); easily adjusted when you know your subject is dark. It could be said that it keeps the blacks black, when you look at the scene and go “Yeah, it IS black.” Thankfully, pulling the shadows up in Photoshop shows detail.

Tight dials
I love how quickly I can flick Canon dSLR dials; they’re light but accurate. Nikon dSLRs have this heavy rubberized tension I have to overcome, which is worse on the Nikon D200. Sony takes the sweet in-between.

I saw no ISO?

One major gripe about the Sony A100 is how they don’t have an ISO button. However, when the left dial is in ISO mode, holding down (or tapping) the Fn button and rolling the dial changes the ISO! You can even see the ISO change in the viewfinder, like the Nikon D200! You can tap the custom button on the Nikon D80, but that only shows the ISO and doesn’t let you change it! I know the ISO is low, duh; I wanna increase it!


This is great when you’ve moved from a sunny ISO 100 area, to some sneaky indoors spying, and you half-press and find “Aye captain, we need more sensitivity!” How? Tap Fn and roll, without taking your eye off the viewfinder! (Of course, you’d use your left hand to tap Fn, and the right hand to roll, not as shown in the picture.)


The view inside the Sony A100’s viewfinder as you change ISO. Going from ISO 100 to ISO 1600 is exactly 4 clicks in either direction.

With the Nikon D80, you’d have to look at the status LCD screen on the top-right (or tap the custom button if it’s programmed to show ISO in the viewfinder… but you can’t change it). With the Canon 350D, you’d have to move your head back a bit to see the ISO on the status LCD screen above the main LCD screen. (So that’s why Canon put it there instead!)

I have to give credit to Nikon’s press-and-roll system; holding down the Flash button, then rolling one dial, changes the flash exposure; the other dial changes the flash mode. Like I said, I’m not a flasher by habit so I don’t need that button. 😀 I set my slow-sync mode to rear-sync/second-curtain by default, and flash compensation to 0 (never needing to change it) so I don’t ever go there.

That controversial control dial

Yes, to change some settings, you need to roll the dial and press Fn. Going clockwise:
– Metering: always multi-segment metering
– Flash: always rear flash, EV 0 compensation (slow sync off by default)
– Focus: Spot AF (I always thought selecting an AF point was slower than just pointing at the object then framing it), Direct Manual Focus (once you know what you like, you’ll hardly change it)
– ISO: Auto ISO (it goes up to 800)
– WB: Auto White Balance (except when using a grey card in studio lighting, which affords me time to roll the dial)
– D-R: Dynamic Range Optimizer Advanced mode
– Color: Vivid color

The supposedly relevant ones are ISO and White Balance, but I trust my WB and the dial’s always on ISO. In the dark, I can flick the dial quickly to DEC (to change to Black-and-white color), then count three clicks back to ISO. ISO is smack center, 3 clicks from either end, so it’s easy to locate.

But it does not suck as much as going through a custom menu

If you thought having a function dial was bad, wait till you see the Nikon D40; the Fn button changes from self-timer (default), shooting mode (drive), image quality, ISO or white balance. You can’t roll a dial; you have to go to Custom Function 11 for this! Yeah, I think the Nikon D40 sucks bad, being a shame to previous Nikons. With no in-body focus drive, it forces you to use that Nikkor 50mm F1.8D in manual focus, which is going to be hard for most people.

I don’t know how Ken Rockwell can love it, when the exact reasons why he won’t try a Sony A100 is for the same reasons the D40 sucks.

It’s like Ken Rockwell’s site is a site Nikon fanboys go to, to feel better about themselves.

Flash!

Also, the Sony does not automatically pop up the flash. I always found auto-flash annoying. Often, when you let a friend play with your camera, they might return it in Auto mode. Next time you need to make a quick shot, you whip it out, turn it on, shoot, and find that you’ve blown your cover! The A100 however doesn’t flash unless you flip it up.

Tapping the AEL button while the flash is up turns on slow sync fill flash. You get to see AEL in the viewfinder, so I rarely have to wander to the function dial and muck around flash settings. (I changed the AEL button to Toggle, not Hold, so I don’t have to hold it down.)

I almost miss how Nikon dSLRs can delete pictures by double-tapping the Delete button. I have to press Delete then Set, quite like my Canon Powershot A520. (By default, I’d have to press Delete, Left, Set.) The Sony A100 also has a Marked Images deletion.


Yet another picture break.


Barrel distortion at 18mm.

Mirror Lockup

There’s an interesting way to use mirror lockup; when you choose 2 second timer, it locks up first, and opens the shutter after 2 seconds, then releases the mirror after that. The 10 second timer, however, works like every other dSLR, locking up only right before the exposure. I’m not sure if Super SteadyShot counters this, since the mirror locking up should always provide the same amount of vibration, and thus the sensor could be moved exactly the same way to counter this same vibration.

Countdown


An interesting way to shoot people inconspiciously is with the 10-second countdown timer. Set your exposure and focus. Activate the timer and hang it around your neck… while lingering, pointing to the subject until the picture is taken. Eureka!

Anti-dust

Anti-dust shake activates when you turn the camera off (instead of holding you back when you turn it on.) I panicked when a speck of dust wouldn’t go away after turning it on and off 5 times, even with the camera facing down with no lens attached. Strangely, later that night, the speck disappeared!

While I do admit I have paid allegiance to Sony’s dSLR system, I do credit and cherish the following brands:

Canon: Vibrant colors, cleaner noise, full-frame dSLRs (for wide shots and smaller depth-of-field), electro-focus lenses (a Canon 50mm F1.8 II will have a focus motor inside, unlike a Nikkor 50mm F1.8D), faster AF at the long long professional range.
Nikon: Compatibility with ancient lenses (the temptation to go ape buying lenses is worse since you can, and shops here seem to have more old Nikkors), a button for everything (almost), Creative Lighting System (mastering flash however isn’t simple).
Pentax: Innovative modes (the Pentax K10D has Sensitivity Priority, among other things), kickass Limited lenses (77mm F1.8 limited), kickass pancake lenses, brighter viewfinders, and seems to be the third most common lens mount for third-party lenses (it’s hard to find Pentax lenses, so ask for a Sigma catalogue)
Olympus: Four-thirds system means smaller, brighter lenses (40-150mm F3.5-4.5 gives a 300mm equivalent at F4.5 where others are F5.6), Live View (Olympus E330, for macro photography), anti-dust (but where’s anti-shake on body or lens?), is the fourth most common lens mount for third-party lenses.
Panasonic: Aperture rings and shutter speed dials! Live View, too.

And finally, Sony:


Anti-dust (I changed lenses often on the Olympus OM-2000, pictured on left.) Anti-shake. Low-light usage. Playing with a Nikkor 50mm F1.8D I found that often, I was in too dark a situation, e.g. a roadside bistro, or a mamak. Yes, even with ISO1600. I even contemplated getting the body only, with the Sony 50mm F1.4 lens, but the 50mm was rare then, so I went for the body and kit lens for RM2799 at Boeing, Sungei Wang.

The lady there asked if I wanted to add a camera bag and spare battery for RM200.


I didn’t expect it to be so big! It’s a blimp. Major major bargain, that was.


I also got a Transcend 2GB 120x Compact Flash card for RM185 at Low Yat Plaza. Note the Lowepro Mini AW; that was RM190 originally! Compare that to the size of the blimp, and remember that it comes with a spare battery!


Two days later, I stumbled upon a Minolta 600si sitting in a camera shop in BB Plaza… with a Minolta 50mm F1.4! Thankfully they recognized me and let me buy the lens alone for RM800. The lens focused very fast compared to a Nikkor 50mm F1.8 on a Nikon D80, but in field usage I found it stupid at close range and dark places; I’d often whip it to manual focus, which is great because it takes a 135 degree turn to go from 45cm to infinity.


Note how objects you focus on are soft, because very little of that is in focus at F1.4.


However, the further away the subject, the greater the depth of field. This was at F1.4.


Decent portrait lens.


It does show some interesting artifacts with bokeh, though, notably where the flowers intersect with the bokeh circles.

I’ve always been shooting in low light situations, so Super SteadyShot is great on my Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens. 1/4th of a second has never looked so possible, and 1/15th of a second is great when you do a quick snap without bothering to hold it steady with both hands and nose.

The brightest, widest prime that Sony had was the Sony 20mm F2.8 lens (other than the Sony 16mm F2.8 fisheye). However, in the same dark situation, the 50mm F1.4 would be more stable (needing the same shutter speed as a theoretical 12.5mm F2.8.)

The lens that would give the biggest bokeh and smallest depth of field would be the Sony 500mm F8 Reflex with auto-focus. A close second would be the Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.4.


(Nope, still a 50mm F1.4.)

How do I know who has bigger bokeh?

Divide the focal length by the aperture. The bigger the number, the bigger the bokeh if you are framing the subject to fill up the same space in the frame. (Edited)

Sony 500mm F8 Reflex = 500/8 = 62.5
Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.4 = 60.71
Cosina 100-400mm F4.5-6.7 at 400mm = 59.70
Sony 75-300 F4.5-5.6 at 300mm = 53.57
Sony 50mm F1.4 = 35.71
Sony 75-300 F4.5-5.6 at 200mm (brightest aperture F5.6) = 35.71
Nikkor 18-200 F3.5-5.6 at 200mm = 35.71
Sony 18-200 F3.5-6.3 at 200mm = 31.75
Nikkor 50mm F1.8D = 27.77
Cosina 100-400mm F4.5-6.7 at 100mm = 22.22
Sony 75-300 F4.5-5.6 at 75mm = 16.66
Sony 18-200 F3.5-6.3 at 70mm (brightest aperture F5.6) = 12.5

A F1.4 has 29% bigger bokeh than a F1.8 lens for the same focal length.

The Sony 75-300 is brighter at most focal lengths compared to the 18-200. It has a big throw, which is a joy for manual focus, but is slow with auto-focus. The 18-200 however is quite zippy, with a tiny 30 degree throw.

I haven’t tried the Cosina 100-400mm so I don’t know if it gives soft images at all focal lengths. The 75-300mm, in theory, should be better at 200mm than the 18-200mm at its end. The 18-200mm apparently has soft corners… but who frames the subject at the corners, especially at 200mm? As long as my rule-of-thirds lines are still crisp I’m fine with it.

Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 apertures:
18mm onwards F3.5
26mm onwards F4.0
35mm onwards F4.5
50mm onwards F5.0
70mm onwards F5.6
135mm onwards F6.3

Sony 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 apertures:
75mm onwards F4.5
90mm onwards F5.0
120mm onwards F5.6


More 18mm-loving.

The 18-200mm and 75-300mm only share a F5.6 aperture between 120 and 135mm. The 70-200mm F2.8 is beyond me, sorry. 😛


…like a chocolate tower caged in glass.

I also tried the Sony 11-18mm F4.5-5.6:
11mm onwards F4.5
12mm onwards F5.0
16mm onwards F5.6

What about the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens?
18mm onwards F3.5
20mm onwards F4.0
24mm onwards F4.5
28mm onwards F5.0
35mm onwards F5.6


50mm at F1.4.

2/3rds of a stop might not sound like much (that’s the distance from a F1.8 to F1.4 lens) but 1 stop, people pay a lot for! (Like F4 to F2.8).


50mm at F2.0.


50mm at F4.0.

I LOVE how the old 49mm-filter-threaded Minolta 50mm F1.4 lenses do not have circular aperture blades. This means that out-of-focus points will only look like circles at F1.4; at F2 they start to look angular; at F2.8 there is a slight shape, and at F4 it makes beautiful heptagons! (The newer 55mm-filter-threaded Minolta and Sony versions have circular aperture blades.)

I loved that effect in Casino Royale (noticed the octagonal bokeh, anyone?) and I’m glad I can replicate that.


However, the Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens has a retractable lens hood, which is real cool.

The Sony 16mm Fisheye was rather interesting, as it had built-in graduated color filters (since you can’t screw on filters). I had to pull on the front and turn to adjust the intensity of each filter; it would work quite like my two-polarizer white-balance setup. The darkest is the 056 black-and-white-contrast filter, 180 degrees from the normal mode, which gives a 1 and 1/3 stop drop in speed, while the A12 (removes blues) and B12 (removes reds) make the lens 1 stop slower.

It also focuses to 20 cm, which is camwhoringly awesome!

So why don’t they make their fisheye a 8mm one? A 16mm fisheye has smaller depth of field but retains the 180 degree view (okay, 110 degrees cropped.) Makes for better flower macro shots.

In other branding issues, I wish Konica Minolta didn’t recall their stock; if those lenses were still out Sony would seem more viable with lens availability.

Infrared photography performance:

These shots were at 24mm:


F8 1/80 ISO 100


F4.5 1 ISO 1600 (not sharpened or auto-leveled, but you should load this in Photoshop to see what it could become)

The infrared-cut hot-mirror filter inside the A100 cuts away 12 stops of infrared.


My Canon Powershot A520 shot this equivalent crop at F2.8 1/3 ISO 200. In this case, it’s 3 stops faster.


The Minolta 50mm F1.4 is so sharp at F4, it’s almost 3D-like, especially when separating the object and background. Please click on the bigger version.


Super macro shooters: The Sony A100 with Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens with Fujinon 50mm F1.4 lens reversed; the Olympus OM-2000 with Olympus 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens with Vivitar 24mm F2.0 lens reversed.


Oh, and finally, Merry Christmas!

Reviews In October

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The company I work for gives me 20 days of leave, of which I rarely take. And so, at the end of the year, I do Leave Clearance to avoid it going to waste. That means Tuesdays and Thursdays off for the rest of the year! Yay, I get more time for geeks and chicks. And yeah, free movies.

In retrospect, I wish I could take Fridays off so I could hang out late on Thursday without worry, but the work comes on Friday. I cannot really take two days off in a row because the office would miss me too much, so I take alternate days. The worst part of taking alternate days is that everyday feels like a Monday, coming in after a leisurely day.

IMAX is so real, it’s like Boog really pounced on me.

Open Season has to be seen in IMAX 3D. You’d wanna reach out and pet the bear!

I then saw Robots on ASTRO, and I greatly regretted not catching it in IMAX 3D. The movie was made for IMAX, with all the action sequences.

How does IMAX work? The glasses are two polarizers, one 90 degrees from the other. Same goes for the two projectors; each is polarized differently. The left polarizer cuts out light from the right projector and vice versa. I tested this with my polarizer; turning it would fade between the two images being projected on screen at the moment.

On to more funnies.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby was alright; there were some great intellectual moments, but there were more slapstick moments. Still, Will Ferrell plays the arrogant uneducated buffoon best in Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. The intellectual moments I love are classic Homer Simpson humor – “Heh Heh Heh! Lisa! Vampires are make believe, just like elves and gremlins and eskimos!”

Or, like “How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?” Teehee!

I didn’t expect too much from Talladega, from the trailer, knowing that I would always compare it to Anchorman. Same went for Nacho Libre, which had that pointless stoning at the camera brought by that director of Napoleon Dynamite. School Of Rock was what got me a fan of Jack Black.

I finally saw Saw on Halloween night. Wow.

John Tucker Must Die was good! John’s brother reminded me a bit too much of Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, with the cynicism and long locks. If forced to make a choice, I’d pick the girl who played Carrie (Arielle Kebbel), though Ashanti was good. They made Jenny McCartney look real old though. 🙁

Also, this (and Talladega Nights) did not have that annoying bluish digital video tone. Colors were natural and vibrant.

I also managed to catch Frankenstein In Love and was entertained. (Go read the blog, that’s entertaining, too.) Once you stop trying to make sense of things, you get some pretty neat one-liners. I didn’t get how Mary George was a ghost and then a nurse… but then, this play had an excuse to be disjointed; after all, it was about Frankenstein and his mishmash of monsters. Some other plays were much less coherent. I didn’t recognize Ari Ratos, as he wasn’t playing a bumbling idiot! U-En Ng wielded yet another hammer, true to his style. Melissa Maureen also looked a lot smaller than I remember. I wanted to stay and apologize for mistaking her superstar friend as a supporting cast but my friend had to run.

I think I’m Doctor Frankenstein with digital cameras. Wait till I blog about it. (Or see a sneak preview off somebody’s blog.)

21 Inches Of Love

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So I got myself a 21″ Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor. Most specifically, an IBM 6558 P202, a 21″ behemoth running at 1600×1200 resolution at 85 hertz. Multiply 1200 by 85 hz to get its maximum vertical refresh rate; 102 khz.

LCD Rant

No, it’s not a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor. I hate current LCDs in the market, as the technology has not matured. The Dell 17″ LCDs I use at the office are very comfortable and look good, but they run at a slow 16ms update rate (thus being useless for games). The Samsung 17″ LCDs in the office, meanwhile, run faster at 12ms, but no matter how I adjusted the moire and patterns, I could never get consistent sharpness or a comfortable view. 19″ LCDs can reach 1440×900, while 17″ LCDs max out at 1280×1024 resolution. A 17″ CRT does 1024×768, which is lower… but most 19″ CRTs do 1600×1200 at 85hz (except Samsungs), and some even allow 2048×1536 at 60hz! A 21″ CRT usually has the same pixel clock and thus, same resolutions, just at a bigger scale.

I also had to keep adjusting the Samsung LCD’s brightness (when I had to use it at the office). It would be uncomfortably dim one moment and bright the next, so I had to adjust it about… each hour. I love Samsung CRTs, just not Samsung LCDs.

I see dead pixels.

LCDs are sold with a warning that says that as a part of the manufacturing process, a few pixels may be dead, meaning they stay a certain color no matter what you’re looking at. Unless there are seven dead pixels (or worse, 1%, which is 13 thousand pixels on a 1280×1024 display), you can’t get it replaced under warranty.

CRT manufacturers don’t chicken out.

L C Death

Cherrie‘s Dell laptop’s LCD died after one year of extensive usage. Edrei‘s Toshiba laptop’s LCD died after 2.5 years of extensive usage. I don’t know if this will happen to desktop LCDs too, but hey, I’ve had my good Samsung CRT for 5 years already.

Buying an LCD is not an investment for the future. I’d stay with my CRT, and buy an LCD later if it gets cheaper and better than CRTs.

Color And Gamma

CRTs also have accurate color and gamma. A major annoyance (going from my 5-years-and-20-days-old Samsung SyncMaster 750s CRT to the Dell LCD at work) is how the Dell tends to brighten the shadows, especially dark mids, giving the picture a dry, desaturated look. The Dell is already at minimum brightness, and the Samsung, its maximum brightness!

The upper picture is an example of what I’d see on a CRT; the lower one is on a LCD. It brings out the ugly compression of JPG, which doesn’t look so nice in the shadows.

NVidia’s Display Optimization Wizard helps you to set the correct color and gamma for your monitor. In my Samsung’s case, it was 70% brightness. However, if I was to Photoshop pictures to follow my Samsung’s brightness, it would be so much brighter on another CRT (on an unbranded Medion 17″ CRT, 0% brightness was my Samsung’s 100%, and 0% brightness on the Dell LCD was still much brighter than my Samsung’s 100%. But NVidia says that everything should be darker, really.)

Brightness Correction

And so, I left my Samsung at 100% brightness, and adjust gamma in Photoshop to look slightly dark (but with detail hidden in darker mids). It wouldn’t turn out so bad on the Dell. Meanwhile, on the Dell, I had to brighten the mids just a bit. If you noticed, my latest pictures all have blacker shadows; darker mids bring stronger color and more saturation, and pictures with a lot of darks also have smaller filesizes using JPG compression.

Price Wise

A 19″ CRT is also the same price as a 17″ LCD, and does better resolution, doesn’t mess with your colors, better gamma, and is better for games too. My computer table is the same size; we’ve always had space for CRTs until recently, so why are you all complaining about space?

P.S. I got mine secondhand. It had defocusing towards the left and right of the screen, so I got a discount, whee! The defocusing was quite annoying at 1600×1200 when reading small text, so I bumped up the font sizes for everything. (Well give it a break, it was 7 years old.) I could afford to do so at such a resolution! For games and movies, the defocusing didn’t matter, since we only pay attention to the middle of the screen. Watching a DVD full-screen has never been so visceral on a computer before! Also, such high resolution means that the DVD doesn’t look sharp enough for the screen!

Why’d I get it?
The Medion 17″ monitor, after fixing, had the same problem again. So I put it aside, moved the Samsung 17″ monitor from the primary computer (on the right) to the secondary computer (on the left), and the IBM 21″ to the primary computer. The last time I had two monitors of different sizes was in November 2002, with a shitty Princeton EO950 19″ CRT. Click here to see a 17″ versus a 19″. 😀

Ambitschin’

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Recent events have led to a wake up call. A good blow to the head.

If you asked me 5 days ago where I saw myself in 5 years from now, I wouldn’t know. Heck, I hated those ambition-type questions to the core, me being a laidback hippie, a voluntary honorary red ant. Is everybody supposed to be a managing director at the age of 25? I like hands-on programming. I don’t want to be giving orders to subordinates, who I feel would not do the job the way I want it. John Carmack has always been a hardcore programmer for id Software, despite co-owning it! His dedication and passion is what kept their game engines top-notch.

Move Out
I plan to move out of my parents’ house sometime.

I’ve never given it thought. I’ve never thought that I should, or that I would. Until recently.

Just like in Failure To Launch, there really isn’t a reason to move out. I do not hate my parents. I’m not inseparable from them either. I come home just to sleep, use the computer, fix the computer, provide free ASTRO for my family (it’s a company perk) and eat dinner. Sometimes. My Nokia N70‘s alarm clock is more annoying than previous Nokias I’ve had, but I am still coming back after gigs at 2am and sleeping right through the alarm. That’s where family comes in. The human alarm clock.

I don’t need to move out. I don’t get cigarette withdrawal symptoms at home. I don’t get the munchies. (I don’t smoke or do weed.) I don’t have a curfew. They’ve never said that I can’t bring girls into my room but I don’t, because I am shyyy. 😮

I was never forced to live independently before, since I went to college at Informatics KL, which was very near the Ampang Park LRT station. Perhaps, if I was studying Game Design in Multimedia University, Melacca (and then Cyberjaya) I’d be forced to experience it. Perhaps, if I came to the Klang Valley to study, from say Ipoh, I’d be forced to.

At this point, being forced to go for National Service would be good for me. It teaches kids to be independent! It really isn’t about learning how to fire guns. It’s about getting some muscles, a bit of a tan, and watching your back as you pick up the soap.

Where To?

Preferably somewhere in the middle of everything, like KL Sentral or Bangsar. Of course, both areas are prime property, so Seputeh, Brickfields and Kerinchi are cheaper options.

Oh, and it would have to be next to an LRT station, so even schoolgirls can come to my place… and play with my Transformers and watch me play guitar. I’m a private person and only do private performances, unless under inhibition-inhibiting substances.

Getting Around

I love the LRT and fully support it. It’s too bad people aren’t patient enough to live with it. A banged up car, and the cost of banging it back into shape, could be half a Kancil. Plus I could park anywhere without worrying. I wouldn’t put my junk in the backseat.

But really, do I need a car?

NO.

I am one of those people who can live with long bus rides. I’ve got my phone and loads of Symbian games. I’ve got my pen and paper and a Rubik’s Cube. I’ve always got something to mentally occupy myself with.

I just want a car so I can pick up chicks.

…and maybe come home late after clubbing in some place where taxis exorbitantly charge RM50 just to exit Subang/Sunway. But then, I shouldn’t be drinking and driving, so… do you see the irony here?

If I got married, I’d rather she drive while I take the bus. I might have a car, but it’s a matter of having a choice. (Like KL Commuter, a blog about public transportation in Malaysia, says.)

I’d hate myself the moment I find myself unable to ride the LRT.

Saving Up?

Since I’m so good at starting things and not finishing them, I shall exercise the policy of buying a functional item and then not upgrading it. For example, I was getting restless with my (sister’s) acoustic guitar, and wanted a lickable butterscotch Ibanez GSA 370-QM AM electric guitar badly. Just as I had the money for it, I failed for the first time in college. Plans were delayed, and the itch subsided.

Similiarly, I have a Canon Powershot A520, a functional geek camera with manual features. The itch is currently high to get a digital SLR… but I’ve a feeling that that too, will pass. I already have one item of camera. That cash could go to the car.

“Dad, I’m gonna move out. Can you buy me a Kancil?”

That’s not the point. Complete, true independence is the point.

…of course, provisions will be made for a gradual transition, but I will do as much as I am able to.

Food

I can’t don’t know how to haven’t tried to cook, but I have a whole lot of hair that I can afford to lose, by eating a carton of instant cup noodle. I’m used to my family’s kitchen mishaps, so if my cooking sucked I’d be pretty used to it. 😀

Drinks

I’m still at the age where I enjoy just having a sober conversation at a mamak compared to having a sober conversation in the smoky nethers of a pub or bistro. Alcohol is great, yeah, but just like food it goes in and goes out. Starbucks, too. Yeah, so I’m not big on coffee or alcohol. You could say that I haven’t cultivated such cultured tastes… but I should be thankful I don’t have such costly preferences. Ramli Burger anytime!

Changes, Plans

Self-preparation is the plan.

But first, I need to start practising as if I was independent at home, while I save up.

Cut Off Alarming Dependence

Tune myself to the alarm. It will be unavoidable that I will lack sleep. If I sleep at 2am, I’d only wake up automatically 8 hours later. However, there have been occurences where I remind myself before I sleep that the batteries are charging downstairs… and when I wake up, I actually remember to look for them. I set three alarms 15 minutes apart, and the jackpot’s on the third.

When I move, my room will be a mark of minimalism. Wardrobe in a box, the rest of my junk in a box, sofabed, computer table, office chair, fan (air-cond gives me the sniffles) and a toilet.

I felt that this blog entry would’ve been better written last night, since all the points were running in my head all day, but I decided to get off my lazy ass and clean up my room. How would I live the minimalist concept if I had heaps of boxes and papers around?

Thanks Ms. B. and best friend for helping me come to this realization. I’ve been such a dependent person for so long. (And shameless and stupid too.) I just don’t know where to hide my face in shame.

Traffic King

16 Replies

Here’s a post in the style of politics, a break from the pictures. ‘sides, I’m trying to cut down on my bandwidth usage, hence the 10 posts per page (instead of the usual 20.) It’s just temporary until I work out a good ratio of text to pictures.

“We do not want your money. Keep your money. We only want you to behave and drive safely. We do not want a single sen from you

Sparks Fly

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I was at The Curve to shoot fireworks.


I went in to Laundry Bar, to check out the crowd, and they started counting down 5 minutes early, so I rushed out, to get stuck near the bar. I present the roof as proof.


Initial overexposure caused a torch-like effect.


I also zoomed all the way in to try panning shots.


Sprinkles!


Corny ears!


Overexposure argh. On a technical note, lower your ISO to its minimum, say ISO 50 or ISO 80, since you don’t need it. Set the mode to shutter priority and dial in EV -2 (to darken the smoke clouds, and to have brightly colored trails rather than whitened out trails). Add a polarizer filter to darken the smoke clouds as well (I forgot to bring mine.) I used shutter speeds from 0.5 seconds to 1.6 seconds, looking through the viewfinder upwards. My neck hurt but I was amazed at how stable that position was! (Bring a tripod next time.)


Shrubs.


Splash into a mash! Handshake can be artsy.


Faster shutter speeds capture fireworks at the apex, like floating spermatozoa.


Watch out it’s the glowing ball of energy, draining power from Cineleisure Damansara!


Longer exposures leave room for more explosions.


Poppy!


Finally, a mainstream fireworks shot everybody loves.


…and one more, for the encore.

Happy 49th Independence Day, Malaysia. I hope you’ll mature and may we not be harrassed by undercover triggerhappy gunmen.

…and here’s some text copied from Alda‘s blog.

From Paul Millott, owner, Solar Power Training Centre, 8, Resource Industrial Centre. Old Klang Road, Kuala Lumpur

The following incident occurred OUTSIDE in the car park, not inside any premises

Natasha (witness):

I was walking towards the restaurant next to Rajoo Flour Mill. Just as I saw Paul at the restaurant and went over to join him, I heard gunfire. The first two or three shots were from the opposite side of the car park, but at first I could not see the gunman.

Suddenly a crazed gunman in jeans and black T shirt appeared, running towards Paul and fired shots into the air. He did not identify himself or give any reason why he was firing his gun. He then pointed the gun at Paul and shouted “You get over there”, indicating with the gun the direction he wanted him to go. He had just fired two shots about ten feet from the people seated in the restaurant They promptly ran, terrified, knocking over tables and chairs. People in the car park also ran but the gunman turned around and ordered them to come back. At this point Paul ran back to the entrance to his cafe, which was empty but one half of the two shutters was still half open. I saw two or three people rushing out of the cafe and the glass door was shattered in the panic. This was plate glass and will cost something like RM2

Bridge Before Chorus

1 Reply

I forgot to pimp Broken Bridges. Go watch it because it has one of the most real emotional scenes. Almost made me cry. Almost. My friend wished she didn’t wear mascara.

Colin Kirton’s fatherly anger and disappointment reverberates through the hall in the last scene of the first half. So real, so intense and visceral, Ming (played by Douglas Lim) need not fake tears. Now this really hit me, unlike a Samuel Beckett play. This wasn’t a play where you’d need to look beyond the symbolism. This was it, in your face. (Though the fact that it was in spoken dialogue instead of song probably helped.)

Major props to the costume designer for dressing the chicks in colorful 60’s one-piece dresses. Makes my imagination go wild as to what is underneath. 🙂 (Though you know what they say – Ipoh Mali Kencing Tada Bunyi.)

Also check out Davina, who takes hardly any effort to act (she already has experience playing a Goofy-like nerd and a hot waitress!)

While the plot jumps abruptly (where’d the hot sister go? Is she reappearing as one of the musical ensemble?) it’s still easy to follow. Besides, the show would be longer if they explained everything. 😛

It bummed me out because of the story – Ming was leaving Ipoh for the greener grass of Kuala Lumpur. Being from KL myself, I’d be selfish and beg them not-from-KL people to stay. Don’t leave us! I’d miss your house parties and cooking and singing and rubbing your head for enlightenment. There’d be better modelling gigs in KL… right? There’d be rockier gigs in KL… right?

At the same time, some people want to leave this country. The reason why I stay is because I want to make a difference here… and there, they don’t need my help as much. If you leave, things won’t get any better. For those rockers unable to rock freely, go forth and teach your students how to jam on the blues! Inspire them, for these kids will be rocking out in the year 2010.

A Food Choice

7 Replies

Many a time, people have made plans to eat at certain places, to my objection. It is indeed funny then, that irony would bless me.

Case 1: Steven’s Corner Banana Leaf Rice

I’ve never been a big fan of Banana Leaf Rice, but my colleagues were all excited and hyped up, craving BLR. So we got in a car and went there.

Nando’s Flaming Hot Peri-Peri I can take without breaking a sweat, but Indian spices torture my tongue.

The food was alright, but they didn’t enjoy it. A colleague asked, “Why did we want Banana Leaf Rice again?”

I was the only person who finished my leaf of rice.

Case 2: SS2 Murni

I’ve never been a fan of SS2 Murni, since it takes ages to:

  1. Call for a waiter (who will then signal to you that he/she will call someone to attend to you)
  2. Wait for the waiter to come and take your order
  3. Wait for your orders

Yeah yeah so you’ve got gigantic drinks in jars, but I’ve always settled for Teh O Ais (Iced Tea) or Sirap Ais (Iced Syrup).

Fate be it, then, that a big group of us were supposed to go to Hartamas Square, but couldn’t find parking, so plans were diverted to SS2 Murni. Slinky and I were first to arrive, and we found two tables across the road, near the drain. We ordered our drinks, then the others came later, and found two tables nearer, on the same side of the road as the shop, which was also brightly lit.

We adjourned to that table, and as I walked there I spotted the guy with my drink. I took it and sat down.

“Aiyooo, this place service very slow lah. Why did we come here?”
“Don’t worry, I know some people here.” (She then hails a waiter by his name, who then signals to her to wait.)

For the next 10 minutes, the rest of them looked at me jealously as I sipped loudly. I ordered another Sirap Ais when the waiter finally came.

The lights then went out nearby! So it would’ve been the same as where I sat. And yeah, they awaited thirstily.

Case 3: Italiannie’s The Curve

I’m not big on Italian food, or pasta, but the rest were craving the RM19.90 all-you-can-eat package. I ordered the RM11.90 minestrone soup instead, because:

  1. I’ve heard that their pasta is done in a different style, an acquired taste, drier and cheesier that would otherwise cause slight nausea
  2. I was broke, and I hoped that the soup would be in as big a serving as Fasta Pasta’s, so it would be both my food and drink
  3. I wasn’t hungry, so an all-you-can-eat would be a waste, especially since I don’t know my pastas

My minestrone soup came first, and everybody else’s pasta came at different times, much later. The cherubic, innocent-looking Erin got hers last, after a waitress reminded us that all-you-can-eat cannot be shared (and then apologized).

As for the minestrone? Fasta Pasta was better, bigger, and had croutons! Baked crusty crispy bits of bread, soaking to their death in glorious minestrone soup!

So what is the lesson, people?

Listen to me when I say, “Hey let’s not go there!” or I will get my order first (for once) and everyone else’s will came loads later. I told you so.

…I just hope this doesn’t mean that you all won’t invite me to food outings anymore, lest such cases happen again.