All I want for Christmas

It is ironic that one of the reasons I bought my Nikon P510 was for the DSLR-like body because over time, I’ve decided I really miss a compact body and now am looking for DSLR quality in a compact body. Sound like the perfect time to discover mirrorless compact system camera. 

I was initially drawn to Fujifilm after seeing the work of Dr Teh Ban Hup in a local magazine but it’s really expensive, especially their lenses. Then I discovered Sony NEX. In the meantime, I’ve decided I won’t even consider the Micro Four Third format. Why pay the same price for a smaller sensor when the features packed NEX is such a bargain?

But when an Olympus salesperson tried to introduce me to the Pen E-PL5, I tried it with open heart and fell in love with it. The Olympus’s auto focus is blazing fast and using touch shutter on its touch screen is really easy. And if I feel like using manual, its focusing (and zoom) ring feels really rich to turn. It also has more physical control and a PASM dial, which I have on my P510 and which I use often.  Review all over the internet taught me that it uses the same sensor as their popular OM-D E-M5. If I was sceptical before of the image quality, specifically concerning shallow depth of field, low light and high ISO performance, they are all put to rest by the abundant samples demonstrating the camera’s ability. Did I mention I simply adore the retro design in a camera? 

The NEX5T on the other hand is a do anything camera. It has a touch screen that flips all the way up for self-portrait (selfie is fun when within a group, not so cool alone) and its movie recording ability is top notch. There is also time lapse video, auto panorama and auto HDR, all of which are missing in the E-PL5. On top of that it has a bigger APS-C sensor and in all the concerns I mentioned above, it without dispute, beats the E-PL5 if only by a small margin. However, it didn’t feel so nice to turn its motorised kit lens, not to mention I didn’t quite like the whirling sound that comes with it. Its minimalist design has a character of its own but looked rather unbalanced with its relatively larger lens (diameter wise, when compared to a M43 lens).

But these are only the mid-range models. Moving up we have even better choices, although they do come at a price. Here are my quick thoughts on them.

Sony NEX7: The oldest among all the NEXes in the market. In my opinion, the most beautiful of them, as well as the most expensive and has the most physical controls. Despite its higher resolution, its older sensor has poorer high ISO performance.

Sony NEX6: Cost almost RM1000 more than the 5T but I’ll at least get the PASM dial, an electronic viewfinder (not absolutely crucial but great to have) and a standard hotshoe, all of which is missing on the 5T. I would consider this the best value buy among the models listed here.

Olympus E-M5: The hump on top of the camera may be somewhat superficial but its aesthetic is beautiful. It is also weather sealed and more importantly has a superior 5-axis image stabilisation, which is great for people like me who love to shoot handheld. Also has a built in electronic viewfinder.

Olympus E-P5: If the E-M5 is beautiful, then the E-P5 is absolutely gorgeous. It basically has everything the E-M5 has with a further improved stabilisation but minus the weather sealing and viewfinder. It’s even more expensive and adding a separate viewfinder would cost another RM1000. But it’s so absolutely gorgeous.

(I know Olympus E-M1 is even better but I’m currently not considering any camera with a deep grip)

The NEX is a camera that can fill all my photographic need for many years to come. It’s an excellent and reliable tool I will have no regret owning but that is just my head thinking out loud. My heart is screaming for the Olympus, with its beautiful retro design and truly compact but impactful lenses. It’s logical to get the NEX but does an artist listen to his head, or to his heart?

Like I once read, the good news is there are many choices but the bad news is there are many choices! There is also rumour of a new NEX7 coming (7R? 7T?) as well as an entry Olympus OM-D. Noone knows yet (or those who knew are unable to reveal) what they are like but I’ll like to hazard a guess for the latter.

Being labelled an entry OM-D, it most likely retains its EVF and hopefully the 5-axis image stabilisation while omitting its weather sealing. Pricing may be slightly higher that E-PL5’s introductory price. 

Sound promising. I guess I would have to wait until after Christmas.

Sekinchan 11/12/13

It is 2013 so I couldn't quite explain why I visited Sekinchan and actually expected to see farmers harvesting paddies with their sickle.

Technology makes everything faster now. The only workers I can see are setting the field on fire.

Fortunately, the burning was well contained and it was over very soon. I later learned from the factory that the ashes are used as fertilizer as well. PLS which opened their factory for public visit also explained that they now transitioning to a more environmental friendly method of processing the harvested stem into animal's feeds.

The paddy processing factory is huge and even has a tourist centre with multimedia presentation and a trained staff showing visitors around the place. The rices produced there aremostly only sold there with only one brand marketed in Speedmart. Outside the factory is a small stall selling other produces of Sekinchan.

Most of the fields there are already harvested. We found a small plot that is still untouched and I wondered if this plot was deliberately left for visitors.

It's funny how I didn't expect our local rice production to be so advanced and knowing this actually gives me something to be proud of as Malaysian.

Your Neighbour Shop

My sister has an old Levi's t-shirt that reads "Support your local merchant. He is your neighbour."

Not an easy sentiment to follow these days when hypermarkets are all over and they sell products at lower price in a more comfortable air conditioned place. All the local grocer can hope for are people coming to them because they are near, and because the customers only have a few items to buy.

A local magazine shop which I visit regularly for my magazines.

Still, there are many small business owner we can choose to support. The food hawker in your favourite kopitiam, the local bookstore (newspaper's and magazine's price are fixed anyway) and maybe even those old electrical shop that does repair too.

Keith Kee's The East is Red

I occasionally come across some fashion show in the shopping mall but never paid much attention to it. On the Wednesday night that I visited Paradigm Mall, I have my camera with me so I decided to stay on. It was Keith Kee’s East is Red collection for the upcoming Chinese New Year and what a show that turned out to be.

Some of the celebrities who guest-modelled for Keith that night.

 

I thought I was safe behind my 1000mm equivalent lens but she still caught me taking her picture

The show begun!

What a smile!

Keith appeared nervous on stage. I read somewhere later he is rather stage-shy.

I like how the logo in this picture appeared like a crown on Keith.

The show opened with these three models in black and we were hinted that black will ‘magically’ turn to red but I wasn’t ready for anything. Then the models released the collar and the fabric flow down to reveal another red design within. Quite spectacular really but I only managed to activated continuous shooting for the last model and even then, wasn’t quick enough to catch the action from the beginning.

It’s black, it’s red!

Some local celebrities also made an appearance to support Keith. I saw Amber Chia and Belinda Chee and maybe recognized another from a Jinny Boy’s YouTube video but I don’t know the rest of them, including the gorgeous emcee that hosted the show. Locally we tend to chase after Hong Kong or South Korean celebrities and ignore those from our own shores. Sadly these local talents put in a lot of effort but not gain much recognition so it takes a lot of courage to even venture into show business. We may have a long way to go but as long as they brave people are around, we will get there someday. 

I didn’t manage to get many good shots here but instead of abandoning their pictures, I decided to create a collage of them. Hope I didn’t miss out anyone. 

And as if an assurance that we have as much talents as we have beautiful people, this dynamic duo appeared to serenade us with music and song. I thought having a violin stuck to your shirt is a little over the top but what a showmanship. I can’t take my lens off them.

The show was too fast for my P510's humble autofocus. I've got way too many unusable shots but here are some that are still ok. I left out Amber Chia from the celebrities collage earlier as there wasn't enough space and also because there are plenty more of good photos of her. Somehow she is just so much easier to be shot. Maybe she held her pose just that split second longer for me to make the shot.

Toward the end of the show I realized I’ve fallen into the long zoom trap again. Zooming into the subject too much when I can take better pictures of the in wider angle or in portrait (above images are all cropped).

Keith Kee comes on the stage again to celebrate a successful show

The star is Keith Kee. Focus on Keith Kee please.

“Good bye, farewell. See you all in East is Red 2015!”

So I never bought the 1020...

I take a lot of pictures with my phone because it is the camera that is always with me. Naturally, whenever I look at a new phone, I always consider its imaging prowess as one of the top priority. When the Nokia Lumia 1020 was first announced, I was one of the many people excited but all that changed when it finally arrived. While significantly thinner than the Pureview 808, it is way bulkier than I imagined. Its write speed was also reportedly very slow and I know how frustrating that is using my old Nikon S210 and my older phones. The Lumia 925 may turned out to be the better option with its smaller footprint and still very good 8MP optically stabilised camera. 

Nokia has a great track record in producing revolutionary camera phones. My favourite though, is still the Nokia N8 in its beautiful aluminium body. The larger than compact camera sensor of 12MP is ground breaking then and arguably, still not beaten up to today. Its meager 680MHz processor did bothered me a little but I figured that as long as the phone can runs smoothly, its actual clock speed doesn’t really matter. Truly, the only reason I didn’t go for it was simply because I can’t quite afford a new phone at that time. 

The still beautiful Nokia N8

 

Unfortunately for Nokia, most people didn’t feel the same way. The phone was considered too slow and its Symbian platform unsalvageable next to the beasts that Android manufacturers have been churning out.  Eventually Stephen Elop from Microsoft took over as CEO and announced an exclusive focus on Window Phone platform. Some two years down the road, I read the sad news that Microsoft  will be buying over Nokia.

I was sad because I have great respect for Nokia and their works. The company struck me as one that looks beyond making a profit and often uses its vast resources to enrich the lives of others, especially its employees. Its defeat is a defeat for economy justice and a victory for corporate monopoly. An agreement that seems to favours MS heavily rubs even more salt into the injury and most of us began to question Elop’s role and integrity in the whole matter. As I understand Nokia will still be around but its mobile division now belongs to MS, which also own the right of the Nokia branding for the next 10 years, during which the original Nokia is not allowed to produce any smartphones. An apparent clause to prevent Nokia from making Android phones to compete with the WP platform. 

In my eyes, the CEO of Nokia has failed. He may rightly predicted that Nokia will dominate the WP market, a feat more conceivable than in the Android market but the WP’s share is simply too small. Going with Android would provide a quicker and more assured recovery and keeping Meego will ensure a proprietary license-able backup platform to fall on.  And yes, I am aware this has been mentioned many times by many different people before. 

In my opinion, Window Phone is refreshingly simple, cool to look at and surprisingly functional. It is a great mobile platform that deserves greater success than what it has achieved now but it is unfortunate that it has to drag Nokia down in the process.