Budding photographer

Perhaps it's a sign of things to come? :)

 
Apple iPhone 4 | 1/15 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125

Madelyn is 3!

My younger child, Madelyn, turned 3 today! We decided to have her celebrate with her school friends in school. I went ahead and packed 3 lenses with me: Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L II USM and Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM.

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L II USM | 1/40 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600

I really need to improve on my event shooting as I feel most of my photos turned out to be very 'typical' and 'normal'. The school was also doing a Lunar New Year celebration at the same time so the birthday itself felt a bit rushed. And man... taking photos and trying to direct hyperactive 2-3 year olds. Not easy! Heh. No excuses though, improvements need to be made!

Hard to believe my baby girl is 3 already!

Canon EOS 60D + Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM | 1/40 sec, f/1.4, ISO 160

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L II USM | 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 

Images from Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L II USM and Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM.

> Full set of pictures on Flickr

Canon announces tie-up with Apple: iCanon

In an exclusive, I've been given the privilege of revealing the latest Canon and Apple tie-up. Presenting the Apple iCanon. Features include: Full frame sensor, 35mm f0.5 fixed lens, 3inch super duper OLED screen, built-in flash and it doubles as the box for your iPhone 4/4S.

It's so easy to use, even a 6 year old can create BOKEHLICIOUS images with just a click of the shutter.

Best of all, Apple and Canon are giving this new iCanon out to anybody who already owns an iPhone 4/4S. Yes, FREE!

Images taken with Fujifilm X100

To the mall we go

Weekends here are usually spent taking the kids out for a short trip to the mall and a nice lunch. This time it was to do some last minute Lunar New Year shopping too.

And yes, I try to get some 'street' shots any way I can haha... 

In this particular mall, a definite stop is Books Kinokuniya. The boy usually grabs a book or two to read. How do you say no to a kid who wants to buy books? Of course, the girl isn't at the age where she's very curious about books yet. I hope that will change soon.

I'm continually amazed by the output I get from the X100. The colors and white balance are superb and the lack of AA filter means the photos are tack sharp straight out of the camera. For the colored pictures, I do a bare minimum of post processing. BOKEH is also very nicely rendered.

Perhaps it's the pending holiday but the mall was quieter than usual. Pastry shops get a lot of business though as that's what usually given and received particularly during the Lunar New Year.

Then it's off to lunch. We tried Chandara, a Thai restaurant. Food's authentic albeit a bit too sour for my taste. Price on the higher end though. I usually don't eat Pad Thai but it was quite decent here.

The beasts before the feast!

All taken with Fujifilm X100

> Full set of pictures on Flickr

A pre-reunion dinner BBQ

My brother has a BBQ pit and his wife is a wonderful cook. Put the two together and we get...

I took the plunge and purchased the Fujifilm X100 a couple of days ago so I thought I'd give it a whirl at the gathering. Stand a bit far and I don't get the blurred background. However, it can get the job done if I worked at it. It's an f2 lens after all.

And while it's slow to focus compared to my DSLR, it does work well enough when you can get the subjects to stand still for you. With an aperture of f2 and a higher ISO, I can also some what freeze action too. Nice.

I didn't take many photos because I was busy helping to cook and stuffing myself haha! As for the X100, because of the 24mm focal length, I did have to work slightly harder to get some shallow DOF going. But when it does happen, the X100 produces some very nice bokeh. I'm having quite a bit of fun using this camera.

A new yearly tradition perhaps? I sure hope so! YUM! :D

All taken with Fujifilm X10

> Full set of pictures on Flickr

Do I need another camera?

Need? Of course not. Want? Well… :D

So, why do I want one then? I thought it'll be great to have a carry-everywhere camera. I've been walking around the town area lately in Jakarta after work and carrying the 60D with me would be impractical, not to mention dangerous.

Yes I have the G11. But knowing its slow-ish AF speed, it's not practical for street shooting here. I thought of getting a camera with a faster AF speed and still be discreet. I boiled my choices down to two cameras, which are more or less in the same price range and within my budget.

52 Weeks - Week 2

Week 2 is my attempt at getting the tilt-shift effect. This was done in Photoshop.

 
Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM | 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100

New gadgets galore... fun times!

The Internet has been abuzz with the announcements from Canon and Fujifilm. Nikon doesn’t count because I don’t care about them haha.

Canon PowerShot G1X
Instead of following the market trend of introducing a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, they decided to create their own niche market by introducing a large sensor fixed zoom lens camera: the Canon G1X.

 

It has a lot going for it:

• Larger sensor than even M4/3 (hence, crop factor 1.8x)
• 14 megapixels
• Retaining the tilt screen from the G11 and G12
• The equivalent focal length of 28-115mm at f2.8-5.2 is both longer AND faster than what a DSLR kit lens can manage
• 1080p @ 24 fps video

But:

• It has an MSRP of $800 USD
• At the end of the day, it’s still a fixed zoom lens even though Canon G lenses are as good as it can get as compact lenses go
• All the material so far does not tout a ‘fast auto focus’ which is disconcerting (why wouldn’t they pimp that feature if it were true)
• It’s also bigger than the G12, which is already not pocketable in any sense of the word

Still, this is a massive upgrade compared to the G12. If AF is fast and DOF is decent (it should be better than what the M4/3 can manage), the G1X will be very hard to beat. Let’s face it, not everyone actually enjoys lugging around many lenses and having to switch between them on the fly.

Could Canon be following on the footsteps of Fujifilm? Introducing the G1X now and introduce a G2X that has interchangeable lens feature next year?

Fujifilm X-Pro 1
Now this one is the ‘Leica M9 killer’, not the X100.

  

It has a ton of pluses:

• It’s pretty
• It’s smaller than a typical mid-range DSLR
• Fast lenses on the get go and which are small unlike those from Sony’s NEX line
• It’s pretty
• IQ that will most likely be superb (like the X100)
• Multiple Fuji film emulations
• No anti-aliasing filter which means pictures should look much sharper

Did I mention it’s pretty?

Having seen one in person on the X100, I have to say the hybrid viewfinder is bar none, one of the coolest things I’ve seen on a camera.

However, there are major concerns with the X-Pro 1:

• End of the day, it’s still an APS-C sensor that has a 1.5x crop factor
• Fuji needs to fix all the problems of the X100 (like slow autofocus, buffer and operations) which they didn’t do even after a firmware upgrade
• Price. At $1700 USD body only with the lenses going for $500-650 USD each, it’s clearly a luxury item. Face it, it’s high for an APS-C sensor camera. I don’t think it’s fair to compare this to a Canon EOS 7D. Totally different target market.
• Brand new X-mount for the lenses. How long will Fujifilm support this?
• No zoom lenses. While fast primes are fun to shoot, zoom lenses (especially with fixed apertures) are still pretty much the practical lenses to go with for travel. Fuji has promised more lenses down the road though.

Fuji has posted sample JPG images on their website. Bokeh looks very nice and creamy but the Hibiscus is not sharp at all at f1.4 while the other photos are small aperture images. I think they need to pimp it more with better images.

I have to admit if I wasn’t already so invested in Canon lenses, the X-Pro 1 will be very hard to resist. It’s smaller than my Canon EOS 60D and is probably less attention grabbing. Even before reviews pop-up, it's a very compelling alternative for someone upgrading from a compact camera.

A walk around Singapore (05 - 07 Jan '12)

Since I just acquired the Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro I decided to bring it to Singapore to see how it fares as a general walkaround lens. At 1.6x crop, it's effectively a mid range zoom at 160mm. I also brought along my Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM this time. I've never been comfortable using it (it's a 48mm equivalent lens) mainly because I find that I have to stand very close to the subject to get any sort of shallow depth of field.

So it turns out that the 100mm f2.8L macro is quite good for 'sniper' style street shots. Even standing across the street I'm able to get nice shots without much cropping needed in post.

 
Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro | 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100

A belated Christmas present... for me!

Yep... I'm going Macro! This is the Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM (say that 3 times fast).

Giving it a go, I took some test shots and the IS is very good, allowing me to shoot handheld at 1/25 and even 1/5! The images below are all uncropped. The minimum shooting distance is 20cm. Nice.

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM | 1/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM | 1/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM | 1/13 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

How will this affect my Canon EF 85mm F1.8 USM? I'm not sure. But I think this will be a fun lens to use as a walkaround since it's so versatile even though it's a 160mm equivalent lens.

I also promised myself I will avoid as many bug and insect shots as I can. For one thing, it's so cliche. For another, I don't like bugs...

52 Weeks - Week 1

Starting my own one picture a week for 52 weeks. Anyhow here's Week 1:

 
Canon EOS 60D + Sigma 17-70 mm F2.8-4.0 DC Macro OS HS | 1/320 sec, f/4.0, ISO 1600

It landed on my car when I got home. Must have pissed it off royally since it flew right at me after I got 10 shots or so haha...