Olympus PEN E-P2 in Bangkok 2017!

Traffic at Siam. Shot with PEN E-P2 ISO800 with 20mm 1.7 Lumix lens

i feel like im lost for words.
But i have to write about my Bangkok trip with the Olympus PEN E-P2.
How was it as a 2017 go everywhere camera?
That is the reason why i bought the E-P2 in the first place.

Since i'm lost for words....
*WARNING* PLENTY OF PICS*

Anyway, lets talk about Bangkok!
I'm here for the Foo Fighters concert...
That was one awesome show! Seeing Dave Grohl live, its like a dream comes true....
Not so much sight seeing as i only stayed at one area, namely the Siam area, where the shopping malls are closely located. Pretty easy to reach as i only stayed nearby at my currently favourite hotel IBIS Siam. Its just next to MBK, an oldie but goodie famous shopping mall. All the malls are connected to each other via skywalk (a pedestrian bridge) and the BTS(tubes/mrt/train) is here too!.
This year alone i went to Bangkok 3 times already.... First is for the GnR concert...thats a fun show too! Second is an impromptu visit... And Third is this blog's contents...
First trip i stayed at the Asoke Sukhumvit and Thonglor area....
While its ok there, i prefer staying near MBK now...from now on i'm just gonna stay MBK area.
If you like clubbing n bars, Thonglor is definitely the place to go...

That's my favourite hotel, ibis hotel. Good for solo and couple travellers. Family? not so much. as the rooms are quite small. But the location is super good, if you want to be close to the malls and BTS.

The Thai people are still mourning for their king. 

 The view from my room. 

 BTS just in front of hotel. 

The IBIS of the PEN E-P2 is not as effective as the newer models. thats understandable. This is at 1/60 shutter speed..hmmm...i must have been shaking a lot....or i did not stop still... I didn't realise there's a puppy in the middle of the lane. 

 I just love shooting sign boards!

Man, looking at traffic. 

I'm using the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 lens. It is very famous for being a slow performer. Although at times i think the speed is "liveable". Im not shooting sports anyway. But combine with the old E-P2 the slowness is noticeable.

This is SOOC ISO800 PEN E-P2. 

When you're in Bangkok, you must try Cha Yen (Thai Iced Milk Tea) and of course Tom Yum Goong! F*#k Your McDonalds.. 

Pretty Cool Vespa.  

Thailand's Tuk Tuk... They are much expensive than your regular taxis! These guys r frikkin rip off. My advise stay away.. i'd rather use the motorbike/scooter taxi.. short distance only 20BATH! 

These Thai Pancakes are the real deal....pretty sweet though!! you have to get the crispy warm ones!! These ones you can grab it at MBK mall!

A shout out to my favourite Coffee Shop located in MBK, Cafe Amazon.. They served pretty good coffee. Screw the starbucks and the coffeebeans. Those shops are crowded anyways. Cafe Amazon is less popular and thus less people but hey their coffee is goooooooooodddddd!

 Talk about Vintage... I just love vintage scooters.

When pedestrian lane becomes a scooter lane too! These streets are full of Soccer Jerseys! But mostly are Thailand's soccer teams. You can make custom sizes/names/numbers, you know the lot!

Again with the vintage scooter.... oooh mama 

 

The dynamic range of the PEN E-P2 is quite OK. You can lift up the shadows but beware of shadow noise though! Highlights are pretty hard, i mean all cameras struggles with burnt highlights, so try not to burn highlights. Not a great example but you can see i can lift up the shadows to expose more of the plants on the left side. I can recover a bit of the highlights. Now you can see cloud structures! I shoot RAW with the E-P2. Base ISO 200 definitely has some noise..

I just love signboards! 

The thing i noticed my workflow with the E-P2 is i do a lot of sharpening.

I just find that the E-P2 files needed a touch of sharpening. 

I rarely do any type of sharpening by the way. Almost non existent. 

The hectic traffic in Bangkok. Where you wanna go?? Left, Right, Straight?? 

 The Calm Before The Storm

Pretty Wires! 

I fucking hate the SIAM BTS Stop. Its too crowded!!!!!!!

I try to limit my ISO at 1600. When you convert to Black n White, the noise added grit to the pictures which i liked. 

Trying my luck shooting at 1sec handheld. I am surprised it is quite good! Motion blur of course but usable.

 ISO200 and at f9. WTF!!

My Fav Mall for this trip.. at first i was really looking forward to go to the Sunday Market..and then the heat and the tiredness overcame me, so i just go to nearby MBK, because it have most of the stuffs that i want from the Market... im sure the market has more choices and probably cheaper but i wasnt looking for anything specific.. so in the end i'd just stayed back....i was occupied with something else too, thats for another blog post.. 

This is Thailand's trademark dessert.... There are so many variants but the same basic ingredients are used. Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut Milk! Yum!

Trying my best at Stealth photography...capturing the moments of a stranger getting lunch. Excuse the grain. It was added for grittiness. 

I've met my good buddy who happens to visit Bangkok. He's a photographer as well, so he asked me to join him shooting a model. Why not??! 

It was too hot and bright, my E-P2 cant shoot wide open at f1.7, the shutter keeps on blinking, if only there's a ND filter built in. This is at f2.8. I would prefer more bokeh than this. 

I've always wanted to shoot a fashion model... so i guess the stars aligned and my wish came true.

 This is SOOC! When the light is right.... everything's right

There happened to be a weekend street market at this area.... 

The owner was kind enough to let us take a photo of her puppies... 

 Thailand's GOT Talent... drumming away in the streets..

Here is my friend's Fuji X-Pro2. I love Fuji but compare to my Olympus, it is a tad bigger.... I cant stand long protruding lenses.. But I love Fuji IQ so i have to make some compromises... size vs iq. i choose size. The olympus is small to carry which is a joy. combine with a pancake lens... Its a good bring everywhere camera. The Olympus IQ is good enough for me.

 Check out that awesome ice cream! On a hot day eating ice cream is heaven on earth.

Here's a funny story... we were strolling around at the streets and nowhere to go..it was frikking hot and i want to be in an air-conditioned place... 

So I asked my friend, "Where are we going?"

He said "After you!"

So i was like, "Let's go to the mall, its frikking hot!!"

But he keep strolling around the streets, didn't enter the mall.

i mean WTF, Cmon its hot, lets go to the mall

he keeps saying after you....

in the end we came to this ice cream place, and its called "After You!"!

Anyway this place is packed!! and people are queuing to dine here...

Good business indeed!

 Afterwards we meet up with my friend's friend who likes to model as well... 

So how does the Olympus PEN E-P2 performs??

In good light the IQ is pretty good, a little less sharp than i like...

The AF i cannot say much because i only tested it with the famous slow lens the Panny 20mm 1.7.

But this combination is quite slow for today's standard. But i think it's liveable. As long you're not shooting sports or kids running around. 

As you can see, shooting a fashion model/static object is fine. 

The LCD is a low resolution sometimes, most of the times, its hard to see the IQ/sharpness of the photos you just took. I always wonder how it would look like on my laptop screen.  Do i get it sharp? is it blur? Most of the time its fine but you're just not confident enough just by looking at the LCd screen.

And i will not be confident shooting weddings with this camera. While it can, i'd rather use a better camera.

While face detection works, sometimes i cant get pin sharp eyes but this may be due to the fact that i shoot the Panny lens wide open at f1.7. The moustache is sharp but not the eyes. u get what i mean? If there's an eye detection it would be better. or i just shoot at f2.8 but that defeats the purpose of a 1.7 lens. Yes yes yes, i like shooting wide open.

Its not an indoor camera. 

If shooting at shutter speeds such as 1/15, 1/20 expect motion blur. The newer Olympus can shoot at that speed pin sharp.

Now i can understand when people say the 16mp sensor is better than the 12mp sensor of the E-P2.

16mp sensor definitely to go.

The response and performance of the newer models is just so satisfactory!

My conclusion for my PEN E-P2 is like Mick Jagger would sing ...

"I cant get no satisfaction"

While it is a capable travel camera as long as the light is good, but the corner of my heart tells me that im not satisfied. Thats why i bought a new PEN model here in Bangkok!!

Anyway im gonna leave you with a fashion shoot i did using the E-P2 with the 20mm 1.7 Panny.

Here onwards i use the orange n teal technique... which i kinda dig. you can find a lot of tutorials on youtube.

*please dont use the photos without permission*

Throwback: Milan in 2014

Taken with Fuji X100S.

I love Italy.
Will i ever be back?

From London to Italy and Leicester ...... (Part 2 Milan)

18th July 2014

It's 12pm and i am in Bergamo, Milan. The weather is hot unlike Leicester's cool breeze, its about 30degrees celcius and i'm sweating. I just had the worst morning, i was holding my pee and my bladder felt like its gonna explode, i was queuing to board the airplane but as it was a really long queue, i'm at the front by the way, i didn't want to simply leave the queue and go to the restroom, so i'd stay and planned to use the restroom on the plane instead.  As i boarded the plane, i head straight to the restroom after putting my bags on my seat but the stewardess simply said "After take off" with her italian slang, her face was like "Dude, NO", being the optimistic guy i am, i sat and wait for take off and it feels like forever. Finally the plane took off and when the seat belt lights turned off which also felt like forever, i went for the restroom but it was still locked, so i asked the stewardess to unlocked it for me and she got the nerve to joke "5 euro please" with a straight face, you know.. the "NO" face  and then she giggled and open the door for me, if only she knew what i just went through! I'd kick her ass all the way to italy

As we approached Milan, i looked out the window and below me is the Alps of Switzerland. It was a breathtaking view, it looks cold but somehow Milan being next to it, is hot.

The bus ride to Milan central is 60min non stop as advertised by terravision, and i dont want to sleep through the journey, i want to see what italy looks like. This is my first time in Italy. Italy always looked beautiful in films, movies, pictures. I want to see the old houses, the old buildings, but the long stretch highway journey was disappointing as there was nothing to see, just factories and gas stations.

As we approached the city, i've come to see the mostly brown and beige coloured buildings that later on i've found out its a typical italian buildings, so far nothing special yet. It did remind me of Paris. I've checked in at hotel Gonzaga, which is nicely located near the train station, i have Venice, Florence and Rome to look forward to and train ride is the best mode of transport for my Italy trip. I'm staying for 2 nights here in Milan. I was given a map by the hotel concierge and recommendations of places to visit and shop. To my surprise everything is walkable, in walking distance, to the main point of interest, its all within the map. The concierge said "Milan is not big like Rome, all the shoppings and the main points of interest is here (points to the map), Buenos Aires street, 200m from the hotel and here, Piazza Del Duomo."

I made my way to the Buenos Aires street and my first impression was, a bit disappointed. It is interesting but this just looked like Oxford Street in London or Orchard Road of Singapore. I'm not a big shopping guy, i wanted to see the unique buildings, the old buildings, what is this? i said to myself. Walked myself till the end of the street, this is a shopping street indeed. Not really my cup of tea. Time is getting late, gotta head back to the hotel and i'll visit the Duomo tomorrow.

These italians love graffiti, everywhere i look there will be walls with grafitti on it and even on a van!.

Next morning, i hop on the closest metro to get to the Duomo. Ya, i said everything is in walking distance, but to be honest, the long stretch of the Buenos Aires street is enough for me to ditch walking, it is tiring or should i say it's an unnecessary walk. i'd rather have fresh legs on the Duomo than tired legs. On a map the Duomo does look closer but when you're on the street itself, pheww... no comment.

When i reached the Duomo, i cursed myself for taking the wrong Uscita (Exit). The exit that i took involving me climbing a long flight of stairs, and that exit was quiet. There was no one else. i'm sure i took the wrong exit, i believed the other exit has an escalator. No time for turning back as i've already climbed so much stairs. So much for fresh legs. It was like climbing a hill, your legs tenses up, blood pumping, sweat, all the fun stuff.

I finally see the light on my way out, and when i got out of the exit, i was greeted with Piazza Del Duomo. I have to say i was in awe. "Ahhh finally, this is my awe moment, this is italy!" i said. Standing in the middle of the Piazza Del Duomo was all i can say breathtaking. It is the main city square in Milan. Its beautiful. Now this is much better than yesterday. Its like standing in the middle of 3 football field, surrounded by old architectures, monuments, cathedral and history. I'm in the middle of history.

What surprise me was this place is not just museums and cathedrals, this place is a shopping mall too! All the fashion big brands, i think the first ever Prada boutique was opened here.

I've read all the "Top ten places to go in Milan" all over the internet, everyone mentioned the same thing, go to Piazza Del Duomo, go to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele ii, do this, do that, eat gelato, eat pizza... duhh!! but nobody ever mentioned about those dodgy taking advantage rip offs guys who offers you something or stuffs and then asked for a certain steep amount of money. Yeah, those guys. If you've been to Italy you know these guys i'm talking about. They offered you string bracelets or seeds for pigeons, at least i've encountered those two. I am usually a "NO" guy, that's a rule i always kept to myself when travelling, always say NO to strangers, whatever their offerings. Its ok to be rude when you're travelling (depends on situation really), my philosophy could be different than yours, i'm sorry but this country is also famous for pickpockets! I'm just being safe.

And so i was offered a bracelet made of colourful strings, usually i would say no, maybe i was under a spell, i said yes, besides this guy said its "free". I was hesitant at first but my heart somehow goes weak, maybe i was amazed by the Piazza and said OK, why not. So he fixed the string on my wrist said its for good luck and then start asking for money, 5euro to be exact, i mean what?! 5euro for a piece of string? and you said its free?. At first i didn't want to pay a single dime and then i realised that these guys worked as a team, or maybe the other guy just helping a brother out, (he also offers those bright coloured strings). He said "Pay him bro"........ "Shit, i'm not just handling one guy here, there's 2 or more" i thought to myself. I didn't want to make a scene or being mug, but i've seen this before and experienced this, so i decided to just give him 1euro and left him as quick as possible. I think that made him happy or at least satisfied. But my mood is ruined. So much for Piazza Del Duomo.

Then there's the other guy with the pigeons seeds, while i was standing in the middle of Piazza Del Duomo, i was amazed at how many of the pigeons can stay close to the humans, the pigeons were not afraid, this is amazing i said, this is something i'm not used to, from where i come from, pigeons flew like crazy when you're near, ......apparently there is this guy who's been feeding these birds. He offered me the seeds although quite forcibly, even when you said no, he just put the seeds onto my hands and let the pigeons eat it on my hands, that was nice. Okay, i'm just gonna give this guy 1euro and be done with it, i said to myself.
He dont really speak good english but i swear i heard him said "10euros"....... "What? 10euros for a bloody frikkin seeds?" Man, that is just a ripoff. So i left him with 1euro and move on quickly, i can faintly heard him said "What is this?" while he looks at the 1euro i gave him on his palm.

I still let the colourful bracelet on my wrist and it was indeed good luck, good for preventing the other guys to offer me more bracelet that is. They were offering bracelets but when they saw the bracelet on my wrist they simply move on to another tourist. Wow! talked about good luck.

Everywhere i go be it in the streets of Milan or the Piazza Del Duomo, i must come across the word, "SALDI" .... its everywhere.... SALDI SALDI SALDI....

Italy is famous for pizza and spaghetti but they are also famous for their coffee! Espresso, Machiato, capuccino, all sounded italy, they must have invented that drink and me being a coffee lover slash addict, have to try them all. I just had my first espresso, i'm not really a black coffee guy but
thats the best black coffee i ever had, usually i'd take milk but not this time, its so good.

Thats pretty much sums up Milan.

Ciao, the italian way of saying hi AND also goodbye.......

which reminds me of this movie...

but not as confusing as that lol