Sony RX100iii, my nonsense review

I owned the RX100iii for almost 2 weeks now,
being the lazy bum i am, i did not really explore the camera features wholeheartedly. I just set my new camera on intelligent mode and begin snapping away.

I bought it at Sony store Bugis in Singapore, and i didn't even had time to come back to get my warranty card! Yes, they were out of warranty card, unbelievable. They asked me to come the next day or before i leave the country but i had too many places to go and in the end i left Singapore without the warranty card. and you know what the suckiest part of this story, i have a DEAD PIXEL on my Sony RX100iii, out of the box!! and the saddest part of it i didnt have time to exchange it, if they ever exchange one to one which i doubt it. maybe i'm wrong. oh to hell with it, now i just have to live with it, no warranty card and a dead pixel. which isn't really that annoying in broad daylight, but indoors....baarghh , sometimes it looked like a speck of dust that needs blowing but when i blow it of course it is still there. its a dead pixel. oh well....

Now with my rant aside, its actually a fun camera! Small and pocketable, although with my kind of skinny jeans, its bulging in pocket. and the horror of dust spots in Ricoh GR, i try to avoid putting it in my pocket which to be honest defeats the purpose of being pocketable. Yea, im too paranoid. But lucky me when i bought it i got a free belt strap bag, an extra battery and an SD card. So i use the belt strap bag most of the times although it gets kinda annoying when you loosen your belt, its kinda heavy to put the belt on, if you know what i mean.

To be honest i was kinda debating whether to purchase the Sony or the new iPhone 6plus. i was leaning towards the iPhone but lucky me, it was out of stock everywhere in Singapore, you know why i was lucky? because the iPhone6 BENDS when you put it in your pocket, which again defeats the purpose. Thats my purpose, to find a pocketable camera! small and take great pictures. i still believe an iPhone is better since it goes everywhere with me, hopefully one day Apple will make a 1inch sensor iPhone.

I have to say i am very happy with my purchase, the Sony RX100iii, even though it has a dead pixel on it... i am cursing myself for not testing the camera in store when i bought it!!! i was in a rush, people are waiting for me, i just could not stand the pressure i put myself to take a lil bit of time to test the camera so i just brought it home back to the hotel thinking everythings gonna be okay which is not. okay sorry for the random rant..

where am i? ok, Sony RX100iii. yes, i am very happy with it. its fun. it has a selfie mode. it got wifi. too bad it did not have touch screen. why oh why? in these days and age, every camera nowadays should be automatically built with touch screen features. and i just realised that 70mm is not really much of a zoom. its a "meh" zoom. i find myself needing a lil bit of reach. i guess 100mm should be fine. Well i guess a zoom is better than no zoom at all, unless you want prime lens but thats a different story. and as others on the net has reviewed, its actually a f2.8 aperture most of the time. the only time its f1.8 is at the very wide end at 24mm. Once you start to zoom a bit the aperture kind of instantly change to f2.8. i think these are my only gripe with this Sony RX100iii. Maybe the mark4 will fix these and if im crazy enough i'll buy it.

oh theres another, the selfie mode, most of the time with the intelligent mode, it tends to shoot at f1.8, yes, bokeh, i like that, but not in selfie mode, i want everything to be in focus, because when i want to take a quick group selfies or some BS new word ussies, i tend to be in front of the group as i'm the one holding the camera and because i want to get everyone in the pic and get the background as well, 24mm, its not as wide as the GoPro (the best selfie camera) and being f1.8 i'm the one in focus, the guys at the back is kinda blurry if you look at a bigger screen, it's fine if you look at tiny screens where everyone seems to be in focus but not really........ its not really a big deal, thats my problem i guess. i just need to quickly change the aperture to f4 or more and get everyone in focus. i guess thats where custom settings is handy, which i have yet to explore with.

So to summarise,

the PROS,

- Small, lightweight, pocketable
- Tilting Screen
- EVF
- Wifi
- Remote Control Wifi
- Selfie Mode
- Fast Lens

the GRIPE,

- No touch screen (which means no touch to focus, touch to shoot, bla bla bla)
- "Meh" zoom (sometimes i feel like needing a bit of reach)
- f1.8 only at 24mm
- Selfie mode on intelligent mode tends to defocus the background (ok for ownself, sucks for group)
- what else is there? i'll update if i found more 
- Oh yea, the stabilizer isnt that great like those on Olympus. or maybe im just too shakey.

During photokina, Canon comes up with a 1inch sensor model of their own, the G7X, which remedies most of my gripes, it has a better perform lens on paper, more reach up to 100mm, it retains its f1.8 a bit longer when zooming and touch screen! but the video features kinda sucks thats why i stick to buying the Sony!

Did i mention that the Sony RX100iii is a pocketable cinema camera? Just search on google or youtube for Sony RX100iii videos, and most of them are impressive coming from this little powerhorse! and since i am into videography now, i chose Sony rather than waiting for Canon G7x.

I did not say a lot about the EVF, i used it sometimes, its okay i guess, its tiny though.

Handling wise i must say is a lil bit slippery, since the body design where the hand holds the camera has no grip. There's a thumb rest which is nice but there are no "fingers rest" on the front, ya know, the grip..... i saw online theres a grip called Franiac i think, which seems to add grip for the Sony.

Wifi is a great feature nowadays, it is easier now to share pictures among friends and families, you can either download the original file or resize to 2Mb which is great for phones and saves a lot of storage. Remote control via wifi is a blast, now i can take selfie with a monopod, although the Sony can be a bit heavy when hand holding it with the monopod. I haven't test it yet but i think i cant touch to focus on my iphone via remote control, so just hope for the face detection and its wide focus points to choose focus. correct me if im wrong.

I've tried recording videos, and my only gripe is the stabilizer isnt as great as those on Olympus. When i used my Olympus before i can see the stabilizer working (some sort of smooth glide kinda motion, not so much on the Sony), its there but not really noticeable. but at least there is a stabilizer. On stills i think its great, i shot in low light at 1/10s and the picture came out sharp.

Built in flash is meh, the best built in flash camera i have ever experience is the Fuji X100S series. The flash on the Sony is just like those compact cameras flash, hard-direct-dump-on-all-of-your-face flash.

Live everyone else on the net said, the EVF is kinda annoying when it automatically shut down the camera when you decide not to use it and push it back in the camera. There should be a fix where i can just pull it up or push it down without it powering off. Powering on is fine but not powering off.

I saw a book on Google, i havent bought it, something called "A photographer's guide to Sony RX100iii" by Alexander White, seems a useful book to have for us Sony RX100iii owners. looks better than the manual. it explains better i guess.

IQ wise it is great enough for a small camera. Better than the iPhone4. like i said, its not Fujifilm territory but its great. Great in low light too. i dont mind shooting at iso6400 but i pretty much limit my auto iso to iso3200. its not the grain that i'm worried, its the smearing of details. maybe i post on another blog post comparing isos and what not.

Oh well, enough words, lets see some pictures.

Lets stack it up with the Fujis. Sizes wise.

 With the Fuji X100S. Look how small the Sony is.

Looking at the bulging lens of the X-M1, you know that aint pocketable.

Lets look at some sample images from my Sony RX100iii.

i went to the Singapore Zoo and waterpark, a great place to take a lot of pictures and test the camera.

Most of the time i'm on intelligent mode. Auto ISO. 

Just snapping away.

No editing done. Just resizing for web.

 Here's the zoom at 70mm

Here's the wide angle at 24mm

Here's another one,

 70mm

24mm

The rest of the sample images.

 This camera is great for food pornography

This little squirrel doesn't mind me shooting up close and personal, ......too busy munching this peanut, too busy. 

 Zebras are horses that escaped from prison

 Hello donkey, whats with the long face? ... they called you pony is it?

iso800 and 1/10 sec. i guess the stabilizer does good here. 

 Smell gasoline everywhere, those guys must have bad breath literally

On a moving tram at night safari, i didn't take a lot of pictures because the conductor was pissed someone used flash photography and her speaker got blown off everytime she gave the warning. 

 One more for the road, food pornography

My favourite look recently.... why not..

Go home

Hi, My Name is Dark Moody

I'm beginning to dig the look of my 'Andy Lee' wannabe look. It has the sort of surreal feel, painted look and really dark mood feeling about it, as if its about to rain in a few minutes. I dont really shoot a lot of landscapes lately or ever but now that i have that 'dark mood look' recipe, i wanna try it on all of my landscapes pictures but first i need to shoot more landscapes. I've been digging my library and see if i can find more landscapes pictures but alas there's only a few. Shucks! I need to get my ass off this couch and start taking photos!

I found a few photos from my last year's trip to Kota Kinabalu Sabah. I'm diggin the look. I'm calling this my "Dark Moody" set.

All shots taken with Fuji X-M1.
Awesome little camera!

My 'Andy Lee' Wannabe photo

I was reading dpreview when i stumbled upon an article featuring Andy Lee with his Iceland in Infrared landscapes photos. I'm not so much into landscapes, i love it but its always been done to death. "Hey, look at that, a mountain!" ..(setup tripod, set long exposure, shoot). I'm not saying that its not beautiful, it is beautiful when done right...to my eyes. What i'm trying to say is, our eyes are the best camera of all time. No camera can replicate what our eyes can see. So when you shot landscapes, sometimes you'll say to yourself, "It's nicer to see and experienced it with your own eyes than looking at photographs" or maybe i just sucked at photography. I guess its the latter. It's like my first time looking at the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes, i'm just in awe and it was breathtaking. I didn't have that same feeling when i look at a poster of Eiffel Tower. So when you look at pictures of landscapes and it was breathtaking, it makes you wanna go there and experience it yourself but to find out later, that place was just normal looking, it is beautiful, dont get me wrong but the pictures look nicer, then you got yourself a 'landscape photographer' genius. Andy Lee is one of them. When i look at Andy's pictures, i'm just inspired. It is my cup of tea. Bravo, bravo, that is nicely done. It's how he post-process his pictures, i bet if its OOC, its just normal looking landscapes but then he laid down his personal touch and OOoommpphh.... breathless!

For me, its all in the post processing, composition and light. Chasing light. I dont have neither. I'm still looking for post processing recipes and light? Me chasing light? Maybe the light chases me and if lucky i got a camera in my hand. and then came composition..... i'd be damn lucky if i got it right.

Here's my wannabe 'Andy Lee' look .... its not anywhere close....

So to Andy, Good Job, Bravo and i salute you...

Monday Blues.... Oh wait...It's Thursday

Maybe the weekend is coming, i'm just on hibernation mode. I wish i could stay in bed and look at the ceiling but we all gotta work. Now i'm just figuring my next move. Should i bid the Leica M8 just for GAS's sake? Or i should just ignore GAS? As history shows, GAS always won. I'm a slave to my desire. Not good at all, not good at all. Something about a Leica, i just wanted to have it, owned it. Its something i always wanted to do or have. Owned and shoot a Leica. It is just like owning a Harley Davidson, now that i own it, i'm not looking at other bikes. I hope i'm like that with Leica, because i'm actually tired of GASing for cameras. I should just concentrate on taking pictures or get another hobby or back to playing music. My Fujis are the best in the business, i have the cameras, i dont need no other cameras, i just need to shoot shoot shoot. but that's the thing, these gears, these cameras are just like toys to me. I mean we men never grow up. We still buy toys except that it is more expensive. You know we jumped for joy like a little boy when we get our so called "toys". I hate GAS. i totally am but i need it to feel alive LOL. Wait till my bank account goes zeros then lets see if i still feel alive!

Anyway, my mood at the moment is making my pictures over-processed, wayward colours, desaturated, contrasty, painted look, orthodox, all mix into one or not. I guess i'm bored. or i want to find/do/look something different. I'm not gonna print these over-processed pictures, just for web, just for fun. It's funny when i visited photography or camera forums, people or trolls get too critique, or attacking/bashing each other, especially fanboys who got really defensive and start swearing, attacking, arguing, fighting, and then there's the ego maniacs, and so on... i wont go into details but you know what i mean, you stumbled across this once in a while if you surf a lot on the internet. Why fight, why argue in the first place? Are we in the Olympics? Is there a gold medal to win for? When people start giving harsh critiques to someone else's photos, didn't they ever think that he/she wanted it to look like that? It's their taste, their cup of tea, who gives a sh!t what critiques have to say but of course being human, we were born with anger in one of our DNA and of course we got defensive and start arguing. i mean it's just a waste of time, arguing over the internet with no real winner of the debate competition which is not even taking place..... Oh boy i got too deep + emotional here... must be the monday blues eh wait, its thursday...weekend blues it is...... Its just sad to see our human civilisation is not even civilised...Sorry i just had to rant...You know how rants are...just got way off topic..........................

I believe taking photos are for the passion, pleasure, for fun, be it snapshot, documentary, reportage, art, manipulator, and the list goes on... but the root of it must be the passion, for the love of it.

Anyway, my mood at the moment is making my pictures over-processed, wayward colours, hey... didn't i already said this?

Lets put some random pictures, enough of this ramblings. Because a picture speaks a thousand words.

Some over-processed pictures goodies.

 Dark skies, moody landscape. Just like how i'm feeling today

There are times when i like to see things differently. Different colours. Like you're in a movie, the colours were never 'normal'. 

To photo nerds, this is taken with my Fuji X-M1 + kit lens. This is in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Kundasang, Malaysia, at Mount Kinabalu, ...far away from the city...... Thank god they have KFC here.

Weird but true! (Metallica style)

When i first owned a Fuji X camera, i was a bit dissapointed/upset with the purchase, especially as it was GAS driven. I bought the X-M1 for its retro looks, silver on black colour reminiscing those old film camera days, Fuji's image quality receives a lot of praises from professionals which also doesn't help with the GAS mode. Actually it add fuel to fire! I was a Canon user back then and i said to myself after watching a Canon 650d ad commercial on TV that i wanted to upgrade my old Canon 350d to that. but at the same time i was also looking for a retro camera, and i also did not want to spend a grand on a new camera. When Fuji announced the X100, X10 and X-pro1, at that time my passion for photography is practically switched off and also the price of the Fujis put me off. The thing is with me, my passions are like a flick of a switch, back then when i'm into guitars, i just do guitars, when i'm into motorcycles, all i do was read and looked for motorcycles related articles and images, and now my passion for photography is back, all i want to do is take photographs and checking out new cameras or gears. Like i said a flick of a switch and it comes with GAS too. One time when i was into music instruments back then, guitars, from Fenders to Gibsons, i'd have like 10 or more guitars....now thats a serious GAS condition......

I was also an Iphone-no-grapher (iphone photographer) which i find good enough and easy to bring anywhere to take photos. I was keeping tabs on Fuji developments, its not until they announced the Fuji X-M1, that got me looking into them seriously, its really a cheap affordable camera from their X series. It got the same sensor as its bigger brothers, no EVF... which i dont really need coming from an iphone user, and it's almost small like a point n shoot compact camera but the X-M1 breath DSLR.

So i decided to purchase it while i was in Singapore and as usual GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) just went gone when you done paying. Poof! I remember the first few weeks that i owned it i felt a lil bit regret. I was kind of disappointed that i didn't bought the Canon instead. The learning curve of using Fuji was full of frustration if i remember. I dont know why but if i think about it now after owning Canon, Olympus and Fuji, the Fuji was quite straight forward! easy! lol. But of course, anything new there is a learning curve to go through.

With the X-M1 i got a little taste of what Fuji X systems is all about. I am experiencing the Fuji experience, Fuji's image quality, small and lighter than the Canon and crazy HIGH ISO performances. Upset is no longer the word nor the feeling, it turned to happy and satisfaction. it was a pleasure to use such a system. No more regrets. Suddenly if i bought Canon instead i must have regret that decision. The Fuji colors is just amazing. and the tonal range is just crazy good. its something about the color, the richness and deepness, its not about sliding vibrance and saturation or one once said its all in the white balance, no, there is just something about the colors. i cant explain it. You just have to experience Fuji. Someone commented on my post which i fully and truly agree "Once you see a Fuji, you cant unsee them"  . and i'm talking JPGs here. Imagine what you can do with RAW.

As i've got a taste of what these X cameras are about, i am on GAS once more. When you google Fujifilm, everyone is talking about the x100s. Everyone seems to love it. Almost a perfect camera they said. DSLR killer....well, almost they said. All professionals praised this little beautiful camera. Everyone owned it. David Hobby aka the strobist owned it. Zack Arias called it the Leica killer or Leica is dead. Adam Lerner posted on youtube and raved all about it. Suddenly i'm reading up a lot about the X100S. And when you're on GAS you seem to just make up excuses on the why's. Why do i need the x100s? Why is the X-M1 not a x100s? Why is x100s better? why this why that.....

When you're on GAS, everything seems to be beautiful and perfect on the new "must own" camera. The X-M1 has lost its appeal. Its no longer retro. Suddenly no EVF on X-M1 becomes a reason to own the x100s for its EVF/OVF. But to be honest i do miss having an EVF as i like to plant the camera on my face lol. Since the X-M1 breath DSLR, i just wanted to plant it to my face and peek through the EVF. It didnt feel right to not peek through the EVF. Okay okay okay, i want the EVF, lets just buy the x100s already. The more i read about the x100s, the more GAS got pumped into me haha. Its just a beautiful camera, rangefinder looks, silver on black, as you know i am more on aesthetic than functions/features. But the x100s is only one fixed focal prime lens.... gasp!! i'm so used to having a camera with zooms but as GAS help explained, coming from an iphone user, i dont normally zoom with my iphone camera, i zoom with my feet. Oh thank you GAS, thats perfect technique for X100S. in fact thats how they operate the x100s. So off i went to Manila and i must bring home the x100s or dont bother coming back.

So i bought it and returned to my hotel room, played around with it and there it is again that feeling creeping up on me, a bit upset and disappointed, a slight mist of regret of purchasing the GAS driven Fuji X100S. I mean cmon, this is the camera that i wanted right? rangefinder looks, leica look, EVF/OVF, fast lens, easy bokeh. But somehow that upset feeling is ever present. Press the shutter and looked at the LCD display, "hmmmm, just normal picture, it didnt look like those gorgeous x100s pictures on google" is what i think to myself.  This is just what i would get with the X-M1, so why is it never enough? (buying cameras). i have GAS to blame and myself. And again there is a learning curve to go through. I got a bit frustrated, even though it is similar to X-M1 but yet different. There is a view mode, drive button, EVF/OVF settings, definitely more learning curve to learn. i have no time to RTFM (read the frikkin manual). i want to point and shoot. I just wanted to skip the learning curve but in the end i just had to go through with it because thats how i became comfortable and became the master of my x100s. i need to know the workings of my new camera.

When i first used it, i always misfocus/backfocus (focus the background) since i was using the OVF a lot and was closer to my subject. i didnt count for the parallax error.....like i said, i just wanna skip the learning curve. i did got WTF for a while. until i discovered the "Corrected AF frame" in the settings. Phew, that saved me from misfocus all the time. The more i use the x100s, the more i love using it, it became my go-to, bring anywhere camera. I didnt regret purchasing it at all, in fact i would regret if i did not buy it. And once again that initial feeling of frustrated and disappointed by the Fuji x100s turned into joy, pleasure, fun and satisfaction.

As usual, as much as i loved my x100s, GAS reared its ugly head, next on the list of course is the X-pro1. Another sexy black rangefinder looking camera with the ability to swap lenses. Another camera to add into my collection. I always loved the look of an all black Leica, i guess the X-pro1 is indeed a poor man's leica. I'm not ready to shell out 5 grand 7 grand for a camera, so of course Leica is out of the picture. speaking of rangefinder, I almost bought the first digital rangefinder, the epson RD1 used on ebay but based on review and cost i better off use that money to buy a new X-pro1 which has better IQ than the epson. Maybe i'll just wait for the reboot Epson RD1.  The thing with me is, when i get passionate about something i just have all these GAS to buy more gears. That happened to my guitars, motorcycles, classic cars and now cameras!. I guess i'm addicted to buying more gears, it's GAS faults.

So back to X-pro1, after browsing on Ebay, looking for great deals, i indeed purchased the X-pro1 after selling my beloved Olympus omd em10. I just had to go all Fuji. Something about its files that looked right to my eyes, not with Oly. As much as i loved the Olympus, i had to sell it to fund my new X-pro1.
And this is also the first time i bought a new camera online. i got worried if it got smashed on its way here or anything bad will happen to it. i dont like the hassle of returning it, being without a camera for a few weeks, that will just drove me mad. Fingers crossed, click buy it now and wait.

When it arrived, the unboxing begins, setting up was easy and quick as i'm used to the Fuji menus and did some test shots. and then as usual, that feeling is creeping up on me again. regrets? maybe, disappointed? yes.... i dont know why but somehow the files didnt look right to my eyes. it didnt looked like the Fuji's i'm used to. It looked more like the Olympus to be honest. Not a bad thing i guess but it did made me feel regret selling it too quickly, should have kept it first for a few weeks. I guess its a wrong decision to sell it to a fellow colleague as i see my Oly hanging round his neck everyday like a necklace. Bummer!

So back to my X-pro1, i was kinda not happy with the files that i got. I thought i had a bad copy. A factory defect maybe. The files just look too noisy. I do feel like returning it but the hassle that i have to go through put me off, i gotta give my new camera a second chance. I guess its wrong to set my bar high comparing the IQ to a Fuji X100S. x100s = cleaner images, x-pro1= not so much. Isnt it supposed to be the same image quality? But there the files do the talking, indeed something is wrong with my X-pro1 . I dont want to talk much about my X-pro1 here i'm saving it for another post. But what i'm trying to say, after getting grips with my X-pro1, i finally able to turn my disappointment to joy. again. i'm repeating myself here. do you see a pattern? lol

So yeah, after i bought my Fuji, i got disappointed, slight regret, weird but true, these goes to my X-M1, X100S and my newly acquired X-Pro1 but in the end, those feelings turned to joy, happiness and satisfaction (i sounded like a broken record here), the X100S made me want to pick up the camera and take pictures. Same goes to my new X-pro1.

So, why X-pro1 and not X-T1 you say?
..
..
..
..
X-T1 is next!

A Malay Engagement Day

Let me run you through it.
In a Malay culture when a couple wants to get married, they got engaged first, i mean thats normal everywhere in the world but most of the time, the guy didnt go down to his knees, unromantic right? thats what she said, but that just it, we went straight to the point, its like asking or even telling "Lets go dinner" but instead "let's get married." It is like a planned vacation. "This summer we go to Italy" but instead "This summer we get married"and no.... most of the time the guy didnt get down to his knees. If there is then he probably watched too many Hollywood movies. I think wedding is overrated or at least over budget. Usually when a couple wants to get married they made sure they have enough money first. Duh! Aint we all?? But really, a malay wedding can go up to $20K. True story. But that's the first stumbling block. A wedding can be cheap but with the way malay wedding culture goes, it tends to go over budget. Not "tends", but always.

EM10 with 25mm 1.8. Mad sharp!

X100S

Anyway, lets get into the engagement event.

Usually the guy's family will come to the girl's family home, by family i mean the guy's parents, uncles, aunts minus the groom-to-be, they'll come to the girl's house to meet with her parents as some sort of proposal. Usually, they also bring gifts for the bride-to-be and the engagement ring. Yes, the family is making the proposal and when you're at this stage basically the girl/parents already agreed to this proposal. This is just like a standard malay culture procedure, like a family meet up....

Fuji X-M1 OOC JPGs.

"These are the gifts and the ring"

Most of the time, the guy's family will come up with some kind of a poem,

roses are red,
violets are blue,
bla bla bla bla bla

and the bride's family will respond to that poem.

Fuji X100S

Fuji X100S

Of course this is all in malay. I dont remember what the poem was, but basically what they are trying to say is that their son (groom's name announced) is "interested" with the daughter (bride's name announced). And this is usually also the time to set up the wedding date and other things.

So assuming everything went well, this is when the bride-to-be comes out of her room, meet with the groom's mother, where the mother will put on the engagement ring into the bride-to-be fingers. I said fingers because usually there are 2 rings. I'm not really an expert in malay culture, so i cant explain why 2 rings, why this and why that but thats usually the flow of the event.

Taken with Fuji x100s

Fuji X-M1

After that, food is served. 

The groom-to-be comes for a photo session with family and friends and then after finish with the hi-tea the guy's family gone back home. So thats about it. The rest of the day is just photo session of the just-got-engaged couple. Look at the flower. Look into the sunset. Happily ever after.

Taken with X100S

Taken with OMD EM10 

Fujifilm OOC JPG and VSCO

I love VSCO.
I love vintage, film look style.
Heck i even start shooting film just because i love it so much.
But with the hassle and $$$ of shooting films, i rather not.
I love the flexibilty digital can offer.
And with the introduction of VSCO into this digital world, i no need to shoot films.
VSCO just nails it with that vintage look.
VSCO must mean Vintage Style COmpany......... instead of visual supply.

Every Fuji users i read on the internet praises Fuji for its colors.
Yes, i agree with them.
But i dont really care much about color since i VSCO'ed to death all my pictures lol.
I just love that vintage look so much.
i think i said too much love.
Well here's a picture taken with Fujifilm X-M1.
Its OOC but i bumped the exposure a bit because the original is a bit underexposed.
I like to shoot a bit underexposed, -1/3EV and bump the exposure in post process.
I dont mind blacks but not blown highlights!
Anyway...

 This is original (exposure +0.70)

As you can see, Fuji colors is oh so nice.

This is VSCOed.

i think its a Kodak portra preset.

i just love how vsco played with the greens. and make it sort of warmer.

This would be a nicer picture without the man at the back.

Now i need to google how to remove objects in the background in photoshop.

VSCO anyone?

I need, I want, the WCL-X100

With the recent announcements of a tele-conversion lens now officially available for the X100S, now i have the luxury of having a wide, normal and zoom lens in one great camera! There's the wide conversion lens already available which equivalent to 28mm focal length, not so much wide in my opinion but wider than the 35mm, would be great if it was 24mm wide, now thats a very much difference! And now the recently announced tele conversion, which will make it at 50mm focal length, great for tight crop portraits!

Which ultimately make me ONLY need to have one camera.
No more buying gears.
Just get these 2 conversion lenses and i'm covered.
Thats pretty much focal length that i need for my kind of photography.

I dont have to drool over the X-T1 or the bad ass X-pro1.
But GAS is GAS.
So many toys to own.
So much money not well spent.

After my previous post,
i do have a gut feeling that i'd be selling my Olympus OMD. GASP!
Its a great little camera, speed demon, great for candid photos but it just that my OCD will always kicks in. I will always pixel peep zooming in and out my OMD pictures. I'm just not happy with the noise that its JPEGs created. i know i'm crazy, i dont do large prints, its just that my OCD will always have that mindset that the OMD is not capable of doing very large prints. The noise is just not that clean to my eyes. i blame Fuji for that. Too fine quality. I might be wrong. Because i haven't prove it yet. But when will i be printing large banners for corporate ads? Right?? ironically, that picture of the x100s above is from my OMD EM10.

I still want to keep the Olympus but i'm no photographer pro. I dont make a living from photography, its still a hobby of mine, something i'm passionate about. i would love to go pro but yeahh ..not so at the moment.

Actually i'm out of my topic, suddenly the urge to rant is just stronger.
Actually i wanna talk about the WCL-X100.
I've been eyeing one on ebay, but i haven't pull the trigger.
I want it, i dont want it.
Next week, i want it. Next minute, i dont.
GAS is bad, but now after my OMD stint, i think i want to shoot Fuji exclusively.
I think i want the WCL and the new TCL................................. plus the X-T1 and the X-Pro1.
And be done with it.
Boom!

Fuji X-M1 Remote Shutter RR90..... the cheap one!

Which one would you rather buy?
the original Fuji RR90? (which cost about usd$80)
or
JJC Remote Shutter (replaces RR90)? which is only usd$10 on fleabay.

And the JJC works like a charm...
i've tried bulb mode and it works... pretty useful for those long exposures photography or night photography.. gotta get my ass out of my couch to test that one. but all in all this JJC works as intended. The downside maybe its just a little too short for full bodied selfies, not little but a lot short haha.

i have nothing against Fuji accessories except that it is expensive, and i'm a working class citizen, hard earned cold cash... i'd rather buy the cheap one as long as it is working.

But that is just me...

Fuji X-M1 first photos.. back from the dead!

If you've been secretly following my blog, you know, my X-M1 just had a fatal accident the other day... this post ... it was dead.... the shutter did not work....but everything else is ok...  so i thought this is gonna be just a video recorder.... but somehow after leaving it on the table for a week after taking out the battery and memory card, with a little pray, it works!

Its a miracle.... talk about craftsmanship... even though this sucker is made in thailand and china.... i guess it went coma for a week and now its alive and kicking..... here's a photo i took with it....

 Color

B&W

not bad X-M1...

keep it alive...

My Fuji X-M1 dead?

Not a beautiful sight indeed.... my X-M1 in all its not so glory days and the culprit behind it (literally)...

So we were heading the pantry, i went first and Matt's behind me when all of the sudden the pantry door slammed his hand that held the X-M1..... BOOM! it went fast.... it keeps repeating in my head.... the sound of the crash and my dead X-M1 lying on the ground...broken...in shattered glass...


"Oh, where oh where can my baby be?
  The Lord took her away from me......  I'll never forget the sound that night....... 
  the bustin' glass.....The painful scream that I heard last"
(Pearl Jam, Wayne Cochrane cover, Last Kiss)


So with fingers crossed, i was hoping for the magnificent works of japanese products to withstand this manslaughter although this X-M1 was made in Thailand. Switched it ON, everything seems normal, half press shutter and it auto focus like nothing happened.... almost a sigh of relief until i noticed the shutter didnt work! DAMNNN.... i half press the shutter again, it auto focus but when i finish fully press the shutter, no shutter works..no picture taking, it only keep its focusing.... press it harder nothing happen....FUDGE>> im screwed..... test the video mode and it works.... but i dont want video... i want it to take pictures!.... noooooooooooooooooooooooò

i never sleep easy forward on

PeeKaBoo ....

Unintentional....but works with the title..

Puzzled? Let me explain...

I was uploading a photo to my 500px , it looked like this in the website (black and white category)

See there?

As you can see its all blacked out on 500px website, it looks like there is something wrong with my picture, and viewers would also think either its just an all black photo or corrupted photo.

But actually if you're really intrigued and clicked on the picture, actually its a picture of ...

PeeKaBoo!!

my kid.....
right at the bottom of the pic...

It was unintentional, but somehow coincidentally works with the title!

The real story was, i'm tryin to do a self portrait but with manual focus and no help it was PITA to nail focus so i asked my kid to stand in and adjusted focus and took her picture along the way.

First attempt at night photography

This is taken from my hotel window. First attempt. i never done any night photography. i always imagined i do. im just so lazy to go out at night and take photos. But i do read on the how to, Rule of 600/400, star trails, long exposure and so on. Oh by the way this is in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

This hotel is located at the mountain's foot? lol... just somewhere in between...lets just say im at the mountainous area. Was looking out my hotel window when i realised that the sky was super clear. There were stars. so i quickly took my XM1 out of the bag and get my small tripod. Those tripod work wonders!. Set it to 25second and playing around with the ISOs, aperture wide open, mine was f/3.5. Set the self timer to 2 second and boom!

i was in awe with my results. its not the best night photography, im not gonna win whatever photographers price out there but it was my first attempt and i was really surprised that it looked damn good. i couldnt believe that so many stars are actually in the sky. it was really fun.