NEX-5 Touching Session

When you think of the name and branding of Sony, you will automatically think gadgetry, uber cool stuff and above average electronics thing at premium price. Generally when Sony announced EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens), ~~ I know .. I love this acronym ~~ I was pretty ecstatic. Imagine a mirror less camera (makes it very compact) with dslr quality image and interchangeable lens capability. Let's face it, DSLR is a great tool for image capturing but the sheer size of it can be painstaking for whole day hand holding shoot like street photography, general travel photography and perverts ... ok scratched that. Sony did the whole world a favor by creating the NEX.

This isn't exactly an unboxing, because I already taken the camera out 3 times. Haven't even touch my own camera for 1 week plus because of banyak kerja at the office.


It exudes so much uber coolness that while holding it, I'm screaming like a little girl touching Justin Bieber's kar moh. The NEX-5 body is made from magnesium alloy, which means the body is solid, nice weight to hold to overcome the odd shape lens size to body ratio and it doesn't feel like a china made cheap plastic toy.


The NEX, Micro Third and the holy grail of Leica M series will obliterate all point and shoot camera from existence. You heard it here first. hehe. Shown here the NEX-5 is mounted on a 18-55mm kit lens. Currently the E-Mount comes with a 16mm pancake and 18-55mm with the 18-200 coming out in August 2010 (as told by Fuho sales advisor at Boulevard Kuching).


Great touch from Sony for giving a lens hood also. Canon only give lens hood to their L (Lansi) series.




Nice large LCD but again the rule of life still applies here, nothing is perfect. Sony forgot about user friendliness when they created the NEX. A lot of button for shortcut such as ISO, WB are not included. This means in order to change those values, you have to dive deep deep into a sea of menu before you can change it. If they can include those in the next NEX, I might consider getting one as my working hour camera. :P


Each button includes a grandfather story.


Like all Alphas, the LCD can be tilted. A very nice feature that Canon still doesn't want to adopt!. Damn.


I only tried it indoors .. I'm not sure how visible will the LCD be under blinding sunlight. Another underlying problem with having a no optical viewfinder is that the LCD will suck the battery in no time. Hopefully someday scientist will come out with a renewable energy battery that recharge itself without a power source.





Nice metal mount. I love it.


Nice large sensor. It's even a little larger than my own camera's sensor.

Sample Photos.


18mm F3.5 1/30s ISO 500


18mm F5.6 1/15s ISO 1600

Lastly the Sweep Panorama mode, all I can say is, it works well where there is ample enough of light. You have to practise a few time before the camera can successfully take a panorama shot. Go too fast, the input will be rejected. Go too slow the resulting photo will be stitched unevenly. It is a nice feature to have though. No sample photo for that because I accidentally delete it from the memory card.

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Serapi Revisited

Joanna and me been talking up on the possibility of hiking Serapi since few weeks ago. The plan never got off the foot due to the constant raining lately. I know Sunday is a worship day for the Lord but a clear sky weather on weekend is a very hard chance to pass up. I went to fetch her at 8.15 am before departing to Kubah National Park (beside Matang Family Park).

   
Oh yeah, no photo this time around because I left my memory card at the office. So drawing will do.

At one time, I actually forgot how to go to Kubah National Park because I mostly go Bau, Lundu area more often instead of Matang area. We pass by E-Mart along the way, the place seem to be always jam packed with people. Never been there yet. It takes about 40 minute to reach Kubah National Park if your doing 80 Km/h.

We reach Kubah at 8.55 am and after registering and paying (RM 10 per head, if large group cheaper rate), we started the ascend at 9.00 am. Surprised to see they are adding a new building at the park which I think is probably a restaurant or something. Serapi summit trail is fully cemented, so the safety level here is very high. You'll be fine as long you don't walk to dangerous ledges, and start singing "I Believe I can Fly". Serapi is rated at 2938 Ft but you can only reach 2800 Ft because on top is a communication tower.

The actual ascend started at 300Ft (the car park area). Everything was fine and dandy up until 500 Ft or so. Afterward .. it's a different story altogether.





  With immense G Force by the time we reach 1600 Ft, I actually felt like quitting and go back instead. But since Joanna never actually reach the summit before, we press onwards albeit slowly.

2 Hours 10 minute later, we reach the summit. Exhausted and sweating like a pig on a roaster oven, dehydration starts to creep in. Luckily I got bring a black soy bean drink which was sweet enough for the both of us to replenish the sugar level (Someone forgot to make and bring bread to eat... kekeke.). We spend around 20 minute resting at the summit before descending back to the car park which took about 1 hour 20 minute with numerous stop because our heel starts to be rather painful.

And that's how we spend our weekend.

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Opportunity

What started out as a down right stressful week at work, ended with a sweet sign off. Given the requirement (which I've never used a studio light before), I had a hard time thinking on the location, light setup and tools to achieved what was being asked. First time trying out without the said lights at the canopy was a total disaster. Too much background distraction, too much light every where and too much interruption. After much needed impromptu and open discussion with Terence (For calming my nerve), Eric (Helping around with the bike and his brimming personality), Peter (Helping with contacting Davis), my dear (Being my everything) and God for imparting His Wisdom once again, I'm quite pleased that we all came about inspiring one another to overcome all obstacle once again. Praise the Lord!

The studio lighting became easily operable when we manage to understand the triggering, placement and the amount of light generated. An opportunity given, gladly taken! :D

Who say fat people cannot jump ?

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Orchid Garden Kuching

Same weekend, different place but again same weather condition. I first heard of this place from Eric @ BeYourself when I saw it from his blog many many weeks ago. Still mildly disappointed with how the weather ruined my pre-planned Serapi Hike with my dear, a few hours of the weekend to spare ... I knew we had to filled with some kind activity because free time are hard to come by. Considering that Orchid Garden was actually on the card last last week (also canceled due to piss poor weather), slotting it to this weekend will have to do. Unfortunately, we're only there for like 5 minute or so nia .. it started to rain.

How to go
Where is Orchid Garden ? Short answer ... Kuching lo. Medium Answer .... Beside the new DUN structure. Long Answer... In Between the old DUN and the new DUN. To locate it, just follow the DUN sign board lo, you should reach the place in no time.

Orchid Garden
As the name implies, the entire garden is filled with variants of orchid that is colorful, wonderful and plentiful. Entrance to the place is free. Just press the button on the line queue contraption (dunno the name ler) and you can pass through already. The place still look incomplete with a lot of Orchid are unlabeled. Pathway to the some of the orchid are not even made yet. Not to mention no proper irrigation built. There is a small cafe operating there and 2 souvenir shops. The Orchid Garden is a great place to test out Macro lenses (which i didn't have)

Improvements Needed

• A free shuttle bus for tourist please. Come on, how you'd expect people to visit the place if there is no frigging transport around ?
• The main building which is also the entrance and also contain the 3 aforementioned shop should be fully air conditioned. It's bad enough they had to take a sampan from the opposite side of the river, they still need to walk a couple of mile to reach it ler.

I love my ultra wide angle lens ... but I love her even more. hehe.

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Any Given Sunday

Sunday it was yesterday (I know, Captain Obvious isn't it ?), didn't fully complete the Church Service because the air conditioning was too cold (alah, I know banyak excuses.). When she ask me what I want for lunch, immediately I answered a bowl of instant mee would be great. Originally we were suppose to hike Mount Serapi that morning but unfortunately the party pooper typhoon showed up at wrong timing as usual. The weather was unpredictable and cloudy throughout. So we when back her home and she started cooking. It was a simple meal but the entire gesture is priceless. Always be glad and thankful for the people who cared around you and the Mighty One Himself.

The mee with the egg is actually already sufficient, but she added extra sausages lo. Already scare fat still feed me with so many thing.

Time for some shameless plug ...

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Simple Collage with PhotoScape

Photoshop too difficult to use ? Fret not, there is always alternatives and chances are, of those available alternatives are usually design to be very easy to use. PhotoScape is one of those easy to use photo editing software and it's free to boot (Yay!). Boosting loads of features, Photoscape is without doubt one of the better freeware photo editors out there. One of the features that I particularly like very much is the Page function which allow multiple photos to be collage-d into a nice page frame photo. You can do the same with Photoshop but with PhotoScape's Page, merging multiple photos is very easy and not to mention, efficient.

  
Select the Page from the PhotoScape main menu.


Depending on the majority of your photos to be combined into the page, choose the appropriate layout from the Layout Selection menu at the right hand side of the PhotoScape screen.


Select and drag each photos into the designated column inside the selected Layout on the main screen.

Once your done filling the photos into all the column, save the photo and it's done. Easy, Fast and Simple.








Some of the samples I created using my recent photos from the Sibu, Pasir Pandak, Pantai Puteri, Buntal trip. Using PhotoScape time taken, less than a minute. Using Photoshop about 10 minutes plus. :)

PhotoScape may be a freeware but if you really like the software, you can make good gesture by donating for future enhancement and development to the software.

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OIC, it's Sibu

I went on a short trip to Sibu with my dear this past weekend. It was really an unplanned trip, well long story short ... what started out as a bo kang tao trip (yes, i really felt so at the beginning), turned out into something of mini fun and worthwhile adventure for the both of us. Although the weather had been unfavorable about 55% of our entire duration here, the first day walking around the Sibu town had basically swayed my opinion on this very rich town (huge houses everywhere!). The one way road inside the town is great, some older architecture shop lots have been preserved and fused side by side with modern buildings without compromising it's old school feel.

The town itself is very concentrated which is good for street walkers like us, although places like Medan Jaya, Sin Kwong and Delta Mall are quite far for walking. The Central Market should be Sarawak's largest and the food stalls upstairs basically serve variety of cheap and deliciously scrumptious food, but not so excellent in the cleanliness department.

The Wisma is San Yan is synonymous with Sibu, sadly it only took us 15 minute tops to finish "Chang Kuang" the shopping mall. We walked very slowly already (honest!). Delta Mall about 10 minute, but I actually enjoyed the environment there better than San Yan.

Hmm ... maybe I should just use the 11-16mm as my regular walk around lens and forgo my wish list on the Sigma 30mm F1.4 or Canon 35mm F2 or Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 (I'm pretty greedy with these kind of things ... )

The place is call Manna Cafe. Not many customer but we've haven't had our lunch yet. So Bon Appetit lo.. I think I had a Manna Rendang Beef Rice which was tasted nice but the glutinous rice had some adverse effect on my stomach a few hours afterward. We actually wanted to try the famous food at Sibu such as the Kam Pua, Dian Bian Hu and Laksa nearby the shop vicinity of Orkid Hotel but a combination of bad weather and poor timing meant we just had to settle on the foreign food. Lastly, I was afraid of putting on more weight that I'm already on now. Time to increase my hiking regime as soon as possible.

I was as surprised as her, my first time seeing a red banana. I got to online less and get out more.








The weather is hot, when are they going to invent a t-shirt with a built in aircond ?






That Methodist Church is huge ... the photo doesn't actually do it any justice on it's sheer size. Probably the biggest Methodist Church I've seen in Sarawak thus far.


Fried Rice with Egg, my favorite food. If I'm on my death bed, and I was given a last request food, this would be it.


I'm pretty satisfied with Paramount Hotel. Terence told me the breakfast here is great, I think yes, I have to agree with him.

Eric was on his way back to Sibu and although we only spend some short time together, me and my dear were very grateful because of his generosity of showing us some of the places around Sibu. Delta Mall and Payung Cafe to be exact.

Nicely decorated cafe, I was skeptical of the darkness a bit at first (kia bang kah ..) but the ambiance of the place quickly helps me settle with the place. A blend of western and eastern cuisine for a fair price, I enjoyed my spaghetti with the rest. Payung Cafe is just situated beside King Wood Inn Hotel, so pay a visit if your in Sibu. Business hour starts from night time (i think 7pm).




Eric, Me and My Dear. Eric also operate a blog @ Be YourSelf.




And that concludes our trip to Sibu.

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