YASHICA... the unexpected!!!

Expect the unexpected Yashica said and they nailed it!!
That was really unexpected.
Unexpected the expected.
And here i am expecting a Retro-ish Digital Camera that can rival the Fujis, Sonys and Olympuses.
My wishlist was, a full frame 35mm f2, retro Yashica body, with EVF....well Full Frame was wishful thinking but at least big sensor like APSC or M43.
But instead we get a toy.....sort of....
Yashica called it DigiFilm....
it's a pretend film that you load inside the camera. and theres also a winder! sort of "film advance" or shutter cock
The digifilm is like your Instagram filter but physical. Thus digifilm. different digifilm just gives different effect to each shots taken.
This does appeal to those Lomo/Diana camera fans...and of course hipsters....
I actually think its a clever idea....genius...if only it has a big sensor....but what we got here is what most smartphone camera sensor has.
1/3.2 inch CMOS sensor.
And then there's a confusion whether it was 1.4Mp or 14Mp....there was a possibility of a typo... 1.4Mp in 2017??? Cmon....
I've just checked the updated kickstarter page...it says 14Mp.... well thats reasonable... but still a small sensor??!
1 inch would be great!! but full frame is better!
Definitely a different, possible fun experience.
No LCD to chimp on.
Not sure whether you will get the right exposure.
Just like those film days...without the hassle to develop prints.
To be honest, now that it sinks in, it kinda grows on me. i actually want one. But still a disappointment.
Here i am wishing a rival to X100's or Sony Rx1 or Pen F.
The sample pictures does look a lot like film which is intriguing.
But all these (no LCD chimping, selected ISO, right exposure) can also be done with my PEN F. Just slap back the LCD and dont chimp. and bigger sensor than the Yashica.
Oh...didnt i tell you? I just bought a PEN F!
But still i want the Yashica.

This kickstarter project has reached its target
But still....
Backed this project!

Between Fuji and Olympus...

Okay,

This is an old age debate i've been having ever since i got the Olympus OMD EM10. From shooting with a Fuji system with stunning images quality to the small micro four third system of Olympus which is also praised all over the internet/world for its images quality. But i am still having second thoughts on Olympus. How did the world praises it so much that sometimes some would say the images quality is the same or even greater as the bigger size sensor of the Fuji? 

First off, i'm a totally JPEG only shooter, i like to shoot people, portraits, and candid plus street photography. Expression is more precious to me than a beautiful landscapes. With landscapes, you can come back to it twice, triple or more, to get a better light, better composition, better this and better that but not with expressions, that can only come once and its gone. Poof! Thats my type of photography, For me Out of Camera JPEG, the Fuji wins hands down. Something about the skin tones that the Olympus failed for me. I always read Olympus colors are the best and best this, best that.. but i think Fuji wins hands down. But salute Olympus for having a small sensor to produce a great image quality that can rival say, a crop Canon DSLR like a 700d. But people talking about Olympus being great than Fuji? That is just nonsense talk.

Or Maybe i should start shooting RAW with Olympus but that is just adding work for me. More hassle. With Fuji i can just shoot JPG and be done with it. If i want to edit the files, there are so much details in the Fuji's JPEG file.

Then there's the High ISO talk. Okay, noise is noise, grain is grain. But Olympus JPG files produce something what my friend like to call "a low JPG quality effect". There is just this black artifacts, or oversharpen kind of effect, that is always visible on skin tones. And it does not just affect the HIgh ISOs even at base ISO of 200, there's still that effect. i'll show you what i mean.

 Nothing is wrong with this pic.

OCD kicks in. Zoom in. See those black dots/spots on the face. This is ISO200.

 Nothing wrong with this one too.

 Zoom in and see those fingers, black spots/dots or smudges (i cant explain). i dont think its grain or noise. This is at ISO400.

Here's the Fuji. Shot with X-M1

OOC JPG. Look at it. There's little or no editing you can just print it or post it straight away.

Clean noise free at ISO400. 

There's maybe noise reduction in camera but still it doesnt look painted to me.

Let's try another Olympus picture.

I think this is not a bad one. 

 OMD EM10 at ISO500. Not bad not bad.

Ooooh mama. Ouch! What is those black spots-dots-smudges? i did not add grain here. Thats edited JPG.

Its just annoying. I hate looking at those black smudges (i dont know what its called). Its just annoying. I know its only visible if you zoom in and pixel peep but its just annoys me that its there if you wanna look. It probably matter if you do a lot of large prints which i dont but it still annoys the hell out of me that its there. it might be my OCD talking but its there. i would just zoom in and pixel peep and look at it and be frustrated about it. Gosh! But there's none of that effect with Fuji. I'm not bashing Olympus     (maybe i did a lil bit) but its just there.

 Well maybe thats just me being anal wanting the best, perfect and ultimate camera. but there's none. I can praise Fuji for all of their fine stunning images quality but the focusing is slow. Sometimes its painful to miss a shot just because my Fuji's aren't locking the focus. Thats where the Olympus win.

Olympus is speed king. If your photography needs speed then i would suggest Olympus.

Its been a while since i last use a Fuji, i've been shooting with Olympus (its the new toy!). But yesterday i get to used my X-M1 for the whole time and i did not zoom in pixel peep. Man, i just realised it was tiring to pixel peep. With the Olympus i pixel peep a lot! hohoho... but with Fuji, i dont have to. Clean noise free images and no black spots, dots artifacts. But i do miss shots because of Fuji's slow auto focus technology. Sometimes it focus quick only to get the focus box in red color which means it didnt focus right. Blarghh!

Since i am too picky over image quality but i still need the speed of Olympus, i guess i need to realise that i have to get that....

Fuji X-T1 !!!!

GAS alert!

How to change the size of the focus point box of Fujifilm X100S

Ok,
i just learnt something new today. Actually i learnt two new things today but thats for another post.
Apparently you can change the size of the focus point of the X100S. DUH! n00b!
I admit, the box was a little too big by default but i've been shooting with it ever since i bought it and got used to it over time.
This might also be the reason why i always focus at the background instead of the main subject. But i blame that on Fuji's quirky auto focus hunting game.
i always wonder if i could reduce the box but never do anything about it. i dont know if its even in the manual. i thought i read the whole thing or maybe i just glanced through.
Oh well this happen to me before, its about that 'silent mode' thing i posted way back before. i guess i didnt explore the camera too much. which then lead me to realise that i am actually a pixel peeper! Gosh.
i guess i just need a camera that shoots nice picture, not so much on features and then zoom 100% to see all the noise, grain, speckles. and here i always thought that im no pixel peep. (T_T)

Anyway back to the subject, here's how to....
And i believe this only works on EVF/LCD, using OVF the box is back to the default size.

Press the AF button on the scroll wheel and it will display the 49 focus points of the camera. 

Then just turn left or right of the command dial to change sizes.

This is a command dial.

Sorry i dont have Photoshop yet so i cant point a red arrow to the command dial.

Thats about it.

Happy Shooting.

X-pro1 or not to X-pro1 .... plus Royal Enfield

We have discussed this before have we? More like I myself rambled about this a lot.... i've been eyeing a new or a used X-pro1 on fleabay.... i even make a bid last week and boy was i frustrated... losing at the last minute.... not really losing but my bid was not that high enough... i think it was a real bargain.... damn..... only USD$580 i think... for a used X-pro1 body.... i got confused with the australian currency exchange thats why i didnt bid high enough because i set a limit on the bidding value. i was worried that i might end up paying more, if only it was bid in US dollar... the X-pro1 could be on its way here...

Anyway, enough with X-pro1.... my focus at the moment is to purchase the 25mm 1.8 by Olympus... but still X-pro1 clouds my judgement....

Over the weekend, my friend borrowed another friend's royal enfield, boy, it sure is such a breathtaking view.... i just love classics motorcycles although this one is brand new.... i think its a remanufactured, reproduced, reviving back Royal Enfield by India... i think Royal Enfield got bankrupt and India bought the company to revive this legend.

Shot with OMD EM10

i always brought my camera so its a chance to take photos of this classic! Of course, OMD EM10 being new, it gets to shoot it.... i'm still testing the high ISOs on this one.... i always have the mindset, that the Fuji is better than the Olympus...but many have said that the OMD is capable of doing High ISOs.... maybe i will compare them next post.....

High ISOs make me pixel peep.....

VSCO preset Kodak Tri-X 400+

You may be wondering what its like in color, here's one and VSCOed of course..

All shots taken with Olympus OMD EM10

Olympus OMD EM10 Camera Review that you've been waiting for!!!...

.....Not really....

taken with Fuji x100s

Having just own an Olympus OMD EM10, i just had to test the camera straight away. Take it straight out of the box, put in the battery, fire some test shots and here we go. i dont know how much battery power left so lets just snap away till it died.

This is my review. This aint scientific. Hell, i dont even know how much megapixels this camera is, i just know that it's the same as OMD EM5 and EM1's processor but i still dont know whats the science in that. Since those both OMDs won awards i guess its a fine camera. This is not a pro review because this is for the noobs, amateurs, and enthusiast, pointers and shooters just like me. This is a point of view coming from a Fuji X100S user. So i'll be comparing the two. i dont care if its apples and oranges, yea you trolls just gonna bashed me, say its a different cameras bla bla bla (insert trolls lines here) bla bla....
I'll be doing point and shoot, a lil bit of manual controls, just a travel camera user experience kinda review. i dont really pixel peep. just occasionally for low light pictures. i hate unbearable noise. i am not gonna do tech specs or describe you how the body is, there's dpreview for you. lets just cut to the chase and show pictures shall we?

Anyway, i was in Singapore, i just hop off the MRT to Chinatown from Vivo City where i got my EM10. its night time. and i love low light. its also good way to test the Em10 low light capabilities. i set the auto ISO to 3200. i think based on my internet research everybody is not recommending the iso6400, thats why i still love my fuji. Damn those fujis are good at low light. These pictures will be OOC (out of camera for you noobies like me out there). i'm gonna try some night time street shooting. although i suck at street shooting.


THE CAMERA

taken with Fuji x100s

At this time i haven't figured how to set the camera focus at the center, so the camera automatically chooses which to focus. it sucks but the camera focus quickly, by the second focus it already focus where i want it to. Autofocus is handy but i still want to be in control. Need to RTFM. but the manual is in the CD and i dont bring a laptop. so i have to live with it. Lets just autofocus through the night.

The OMD EM10 is bundled with the new pancake auto zoom kit lens. that lens is awesome, its so small making the em10 compact easy to carry around. I think personally based on the compactness and the slight lighter weight of the OMD and dont me get started with the zoom, okay okay, it got zoom where as the Fuji X100S is just one focal length camera, if zoom is your sort of thing i think the OMD is a much better camera to bring around anywhere, covers all the angle, wide to zoom, its 14-42mm multiply by crop factor two so its 28mm-84mm. but with Fuji x100s u can easily get bokeh. you can get bokeh with EM10 kit lens if you zoom in.

and i also think the OMD in your hand handles better because of the slight grip than the x100s. Put the OMD around my neck and its not heavy, x100s too is not heavy. i once travel with SLR and i made a promise will never bring SLR for travel. too heavy and bulky. its a nuisance. but the OMDs and the Fujis, no problems at all. it doesnt fit your jeans pockets but its small enough to put in a backpack or pouch. i dont think i mind if i use a wrist strap all the way.

EVF is great. i dont really mind using both camera's EVF although i used a lot of OVF with Fuji X100S. During Sunny Day is a great time to use EVF's.

What else is there to say? hmm... lets just go straight to pictures.

Disclaimer: i'm not sure if blogger enhanced the pictures i uploaded but i upload this straight from my hard drvie. and if you wanna use my picture please ask permission and do credit me. lol...and i just realised that the pictures that i upload here are not the full blown out jpgs. its been resized by blogger.

HIGH ISOs

iso 2000 f3.5 14mm 1/60

To be honset, honest...damn you typo... honestly, i think i prefer how the Fuji handles noise and their grain structure, whatever that means, the omd noise and grain is errrr... i dunno... to smudgy i think? but maybe there is a way of doing noise reduction, i mean like settings, or lightroom process. please point me to the direction. all i can do is play around with luminance noise in lightroom, setting it up to 30 seems to lower the noise better. not bad not bad at all... you just have to control the noise, limit the iso to 3200. More high isos pictures below.

All pictures above are ISO3200

a lil bit of manual shooting... blur pedestrians

FOCUSING

The OMD wins hands down. You just have to point your camera, half press the shutter and beep, its in focus, shoot. thats ninja style. Fuji X100S likes to hunt sometimes. especially at low light scene. If you like a really fast auto focus then the OMD is the camera for you. i think the x100s mindset is like a leica, but in auto. a really fast manual focus but its actually auto. u get it? no? its ok. i rant sometimes.

With the OMD, i just need to pick up my camera and point at the subject and focus and shoot, sometimes i do it while i walked, the stabilisation helps though some pictures wont be really sharp if you pixel peep but its okay for web or 3R 4R prints.

i was looking for hawker centre when i saw this oldie sleep, like i said, point, focus, shoot, walk.

you cant do that on a x100s. maybe you can 50% of the time but the other 50% it likes to hunt. 

not with the omd.

THE REST

Before i put thoughts on keyboard i have a lot to say but now i think im out of words. let me just post pictures and you pixel peep all you want. and let me just rant whatever comes to mind. All JPGs size are average less than 10Mb. Same with X100S.

Nice to have wide angle lens. iso3200.

You do get a bit of bokeh with this kit lens. this is also iso3200.

Sometimes the 3 axis didnt really work wonders, i was trying to be a ninja but i think i shake a lil bit. i think i shake a lot. this was walking and then noticed there's an alley to my right, point, focus, shoot while walking. so there's a lot of shaking going on.

blogger enhanced this photo. anyway, i have to credit Zack Arias for this. his tips were really helpful. You pretend that you shooting for the menu board (looking up) via EVF and then point to the strangers looking at the back lcd pretending you're checking the photo you just took but actually taking their photos. 

too bad this guy at the right taking up too much space. need to crop this later.

the reason i went to little india. Red Mutton Soup.

iso2500. The noise during day time is better than night time. obviously. just mentioning.

 i want to do this in black and white but i promised you OOC.

Here's bokeh for you bokeh lovers. Zoom at 42mm equivalent to 84mm at f/5.6 iso3200

its handy to have a zoom. did i say that already?

Anyways, both cameras are great and i'm not ditching Fuji. i love both companies. But to be honest i still prefer Fuji, the way they handle/render images, i dont know what that means. honestly i think Fuji has better image quality although im not saying that the OMD sucks. OMD also creates good image quality with controlled noise. with OMD i had to adjust luminance noise in lightroom, not with Fuji. but maybe i need to use the OMD with a different lens, a faster lens, maybe the new 25mm 1.8. Please OLYMPUS lend me the lens, i want to try it before i buy it. i also have the old Zuiko lens of the OM10, i need to get an adapter, fast!.

So my conclusions would be:-

Fuji is better at low light conditions. Olympus is faster at focusing. The EM10 is also compact, smaller and lighter than the x100s. The X100S looks cool if aesthetic/rangefinder is your thing. EM10 kit lens covers all the angles u need for travel photography. The Fuji can easily get bokeh. Let me put in bullet points.

Fuji X100S:-

1. better at low light

2. cool looking rangefinder-ish (this is personal)

3. easy bokeh

4. faster lens

OMD EM10

1. Faster focus

2. Smaller and lighter

3. Kit lens wide and zoom.

4. tilt-able lcd

5. Wifi, cool for selfies. and spy. and the list goes on.

Both have built in flash but i dare say Fuji X100S has better built in flash. The EM10 is too direct? splat on your face flash kinda. but the EM10 has wifi. You can take selfie with EM10 via your iphone. now thats pretty cool. you can zoom in and out via wifi. focus via wifi. thats some cool stuffs. i know the Fuji Xt1 have those features too but for one grand cheaper, the Em10 is value for money.

UPDATES: i just realised OMD is making noise when focusing. like a white noise/tv channel ends. google it up and its the axis stabilisation making noise. some kind of magnetic field. only in quiet room you can hear it but not annoyingly loud.

And i just remember when you record video with your OMD, you can take pictures at the same time too! aint that cool? Fuji dont have that. in fact everybody said Fuji videos sucks. i guess its a pure photography camera like a Nikon DF, except that a DF dont have video capabilities but Fuji does, just an added bonus of Fuji. i dont really mind with videos to be honest. im all pure photography haha.

i know back in my mind i have a lot to say but im just lost for words.

iso1000 1/30 f5.3 32mm

i loved tight crop and that is razor sharp. thats OOC.

So my GAS have won me over and make me buy an EM10. if i have to blame someone for my recent purchase of the omd em10, i guess its robin wong and damian mcgilycuddy. creating such nice pictures with the OMDs. Robin should get a raise cos he work for Olympus.

Next up Xpro1.

My Olympus OM10

The more reason to get the new EM10. Brother is waiting!

Yesterday Fuji X-T1, Tomorrow Olympus EM10

Well, both have been announced last Tuesday and yesterday, the Fuji X-T1 i think is the most advanced of the X-series yet and the Olympus OMD EM10 is at the bottom of its other siblings OMD's, EM1 being the top.

Somehow design wise i still prefer the EM10 than the Fuji X-T1. Damn! i'm not choosing sides but i am a Fuji Fanboy although the background of this blog is Olympus OM10. Camera looks, Olympus wins my heart although image quality wise i'd much prefer Fuji. Its like Olympus is the beautiful girl with a not-so-clicked-with-you heart but Fuji nevertheless is still good looking with a heart that clicked with yours kinda thing. Its like Scarlett Johannson vs Blake Lively. Both Gorgeous, but maybe just one will clicked to your liking, attitude wise etc etc etc.... and im ranting, forgive me. but that's just how its gonna be. I might just dated both. i mean i might just own both cameras. :)   GAS alert!

pic taken from trustedreviews.com

That is one sexy camera!

Something special about this OMD EM10, it is similar to EM5 but my heart sets to EM10. Maybe because its a new product or maybe because i had the classic OM10. wouldnt it be cool to have both series OM10 and EM10? my wallet would disagree. i gotta wait for the real world review, mind you i have high ISO performance standard. i just like taking pictures in low light. With Fuji i can trust them but not so sure with the OMDs.

pic taken from trustedreviews.com

I dont know. Somehow it didnt look retro enough to my eyes. its like a normal SLR built in 2013. i wanted it to look like it was made in the 80s. Maybe if there was a Silver option then it would look more retro? but i dont think there's a silver version yet. Now im thinking should i get the X-pro1 now?

why so serious, its just GAS!

it's finally here! Fujifilm X-T1!

Loved the video, so japanese. its like listening to Kitaro and watching Ultraman in the 80's at the same time.

One week and no updates???

I must be run out of GAS. One week has passed and no updates. Well, nothing much in a week. I'm just waiting for the announcement of the X-T1, thats today! Come on X-T1 already!

I went out for a trip to the flooded area with my trusty X100S. When i was there its not that deep, it has watered down? i guess.. but some of the roads are still flooded though my friend's Nissan Patrol can go through it with no harm. i'll post that trip on another day.

Finally my wife found the battery charger for my Lumix LX3 after putting it somewhere in her bag for almost a year now. i can play around with my lumix then. The Lumix LX3 is the first "retro" camera that i hunted for. Back in the days before Fuji even started with this retro look camera, i was already looking for one. The closest i get was the Lumix LX3. and i bought it, end of story.

Olympus OM10 is still in my bag, since its using film, i've been waiting fo the right moment or the right precious time to take pictures since i am a cheapskate. Yes, i'm a cheapskate. Films cost money. Thats why id still prefer digital and the flexibility it offers. But i love Camera Film looks. Damn X-T1. Why cant you be really retro like the x100.

Oh and gasp..... my X-M1 is back alive!!!

Olympus has arrived!

Downloading manual as we speak...
Cant wait to load and roll....film!