My Rebound Camera.... The Canon G7X Mark eye eye (II)

Rebound camera?

YES!
After losing out on a great offer on a Sony RX1, I was dumbfounded. Frustrated to say the least.
A few days later, after reading numerous rave and positive reviews on the net, i took the plunge and bought myself a Canon G7X Mark ii, also on a great deal. Bought it on a whim!

Rebound Camera.... This is not gonna end well!

This camera is pre-owned but almost practically new, there's almost no sign of use on the body, of course there are smudges on the LCD screen but it was in good clean condition, it was at a great price too! Its about USD$365.

To be honest, i dont need a Sony RX1, but i wanted it due to my nature of GASing every camera in the world. I'm looking for a pocketable camera, ones that can fit in my back pocket jeans. So, the 1inch series cameras fit the profile. The RX100 series are too damn pricey and the Canon was at half price, so i bought the Canon.

After the emergence of Fujifilm, Sony and Olympus in the mirrorless market, i never liked the Canons and the Nikons, to be honest i'm quite despised with them failing to compete the Sonys, the Fujis..... like Nikon for example, they announced the DL series, a 1inch sensor camera to compete with Sony, after few months of no news, they scraped the whole project, wat dafuq are you on about Nikon??

Years after years, Sony and Fuji coming out with brave new technology and the Canons just keep on updating their enthusiast n mid range DSLR...yawn.... After using Fujis, Olympus and Sonys, i never liked Canons JPEG rendering, its worst at best., best at its worst, i dunno if thats the right phrase but yeah...i mean BAD.

But like i said, after reading great reviews, getting a great deal, and also being a rebound, i made the leap!

Most bloggers reviewed it on a positive note, raving to be exact, saw Chris Nichols from The Camera Store youtube video and he gave it a positive experience as well. So must be good right?

After looking at the files in my Lightroom, i'm disappointed. It wasn't what my eyes are expecting, its not sharp, it smearing much, the JPEG rendering is mush. Colors a little on the red side. Just way too mushy, smeared, aggresive noise reduction. But this is JPEGs, RAW could be better. But if i want RAW i might just shoot with my Full Frame Sony A7S which is awesome but could not fit my back pocket, unless im a Giant wearing a loose jeans.

Its funny how people rave so much about it, the lens is crazy soft on the wide edges, almost toy like quality, but somehow it looks like part of the bokeh?? If there is a bokeh.
Sure this camera can do bokeh, but that JPEG rendering is killing me. Its just my eyes is not used to seeing this inferiority.

But Maybe i'm expecting too much out of a 1inch sensor.

Or my eyes are too fixed on Sony's Full Frame Image Quality or what my Olympus Micro Four Thirds can output.

I'm sure my Sony RX100 Mark III took better pictures.

So i took out my hard drive and looked for my RX100 images and blew it up in Lightroom.... To my surprised they were similar!! The Sony JPEG rendering is much better though or maybe i liked the Sony colors better but the JPEG rendering and the smearing and the Noise reduction, the softness are similar... Just a note, with these type of cameras i'd prefer to shoot just JPGs,

Well i guess my eyes are expecting a full frame quality or at least a Micro Four Thirds IQ.

Guess my acceptable smallest sensor shud be a Micro Four Third then. I just cant look into the 1 inch sensor IQ no more!

Right now i'm looking at the Lumix GM1. 😅😂😁

As always, another day another camera...... (to lust for)

But i'm gonna give my Canon another chance to shine...

My thoughts on my Olympus PEN E-P2 as a 2017 camera!!

So as you know i bought an Olympus PEN E-P2 as a camera that i think i would be able to bring everywhere everyday... Just looking for something to at least take better photos than my iphone7+ can do...but of course everybody knows the iphone is the better camera because its with me everywhere everyday in my pocket. No camera no picture! After that trip to Washington and New York with the A7S, i just find that i dont like bringing the A7S with me all the time because it is kinda bulky, but to be honest it is small compare to DSLRs. im just being a nitpick. and i was also impress looking at how small the olympus lenses were compare to my 24-70 Full Frame Sony lens....urrghh yucK!

So anyway, i end up with the PEN E-P2 because i got it at a great deal, its about $135USD plus shipping all the way from Japan. And it took about a week to reach my hands!! yum!

Check out that sexy beast. Its already been fitted with a black color leather skin which makes it more retro-ish looking. I didn't really like the brown grip but it was alright! 

 I bought it together with the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens which gets rave reviews although i just found out its also the slowest, sluggish AF performance as well. I can live with the AF speed but moving from a newer camera to older camera does make you notice how slow the performance-wise back in those 2010 days.

 I was actually surprised that the PEN E-P2 looks bigger than the OMD E-M10...not bigger but thicker... but my friend kept saying because of the OMD's black color it makes it look smaller. Probably. 

 The PEN E-P2 is definitely thicker from this top view shot.

 The OMD handles much better. Due to the grip design. 

Such a handsome camera. So good looking.

Aesthetically this PEN ticks all the right boxes...

So the next important question? How is the image quality??

All i can say is the PEN E-P2 takes good photos but not great! Its certainly better than the iphones/androids of the world....

When i say great, that means i am comparing it to the newer OMD (to be fair). As being said a lot in the internet, the newer 16mp m43 sensor (omd em1, em10, em5 etc) is better than the old 12mp.

Where it fails, is low light photos, its quality is something left to be desired...same for its AF performance with the 20mm 1.7. Again....Something left to be desired.

But i knew straight ahead, the world already knows it, this camera is not great at low light but i still think its better than my old Canon rebel 350d. But even at base ISO which is ISO200, there are noise if you pixel peep, zoom in 100%. It baffles me when people say Olympus takes clean images at base ISO. What r they smoking? Their definition of clean maybe differs than mine but i can say there are noise.

Here is base ISO 200. Definitely there's grain/noise. This is zoom in 100%. Shadow noise definitely visible.

The image quality reminded me of my Leica M8. But i believe the M8 is better due to sensor size, but for low light they both are pretty much the same. Theres banding in shadow areas, if you push the exposure...limit to ISO1600 for acceptable IQ. ISO3200 is ok for the PEN and if you convert to B&W it should be fine.

The LCD of the PEN E-P2 also reminded me of my Leica M8/M9. Its very low quality i mean low resolution for 2017 standards. But the problem with the PEN compared to the Leica is you are composing using the LCD, if you are not using the external VF. In bad light the LCD screen will show noise, like snow coming down. The problem with low resolution LCD is you cant really know if you got your focus right. YOu have to zoom in and check. But what i like about the low res LCD is the muted color your picture look like..

So due to the resolution of the LCD, i wont be confident shooting this for a paid job especially weddings. Imagine the horror coming back with blur non-focus photos! 😱

Actually i kinda lost for words, i probably save my thoughts for next post...

Anyway here's a sample photo taken with 20mm 1.7.

The 20mm 1.7 has decent bokeh. i like it. theres a good separation between the subject and the background. This is ISO1000.

So what better way to test the PEN E-P2? Travel of course!! i have a Bangkok trip coming when i just got the E-P2...definitely the camera to bring along!! Why thats the main purpose of getting the E-P2 of course!!

I think i'll save it for the next post! Stay tune!

Sony A7S Quick First Impressions Review in 2017!

Sony A7S, what can i say??

I have not put it through it paces yet though, i only had it for almost 2 weeks.
All i can say is this is not what I would bring for my travels/street photography, that award goes to Fuji X100 series. But thats for another story. I dont want to praise X100 in a Sony A7S review.

 What can i say about the Sony A7S??

Low light is indeed impressive. This is what the camera is built for. It can see night. I only done indoor lighting, i have yet test it to do astrophotography or night long exposure photos. but in a dim room...damn! This camera can see!

Handling wise i gotta say, the A7Sii is better with the beefier grip, i've handled both, the mark II definitely better but it also add weight and a bit bigger size. Check comparisons on internet. Gaahh nvm lemme find for you.

For a full frame camera, the Sony A7S is small! I handled a Canon 1d Mark II or III, that thing is huge!! but back in the day, huge is the shit!! Small cameras are toys! Nowadays its the other way round now.... people prefer the smaller size.... and hell why didnt we think of that back then??

But the lenses size of the Sony's are quite awful, it just didnt complement the body... especially the zoom lenses... i have the 24-70 f4 fitted on the A7S and its just frikkin heavy....front heavy....i didn't like it but i probably need it for wide angle photography...i like the 24mm FOV. but for travels that thing is gonna stay at the shelf.

Or just maybe i got spoilt by X100. Again mentioning the X100. Stick with Sony please!!

Anyway yes, size wise i would prefer the X100, the A7S is for a specific job/photography. Studio work, portraits, astrophotography this thing is great. But for some lazy shithole that is me, every other camera is large...my iphone is the best camera.... but thats not the point... the point is if i need to bring a real camera for travels i would bring the Fuji or the A6000 for that matter but not the A7S... it just kinda heft for me.

I have a trip coming in a month, lets see if i can stand bringing the A7S everywhere. If i am a solo traveller then i would not mind. But with a baby stroller to drag around, the baby himself clinging on my shoulder, lets see if i ever get the Sony A7S out of the bag!! and i am also the only guy in this trip , all the luggages will be mine to carry!! 😓 😭

So far i've used it a lot with the 55mm 1.8 lens. I love that lens. i just love bokeh! Might as well glued it to the body... i find them to be heavy but not so heavy like the zoom lens...if you work in a studio i think its fine....or doing wedding, but for travels....maybe im just too nitpicky... slash lazy..... too much complains..... its just that i didnt like how the lens protrude, i find it not stealthy for me....people would know i am pointing that lens to their faces..... but with X100 i can get away with it.... or maybe i just didnt have enough balls.... i think its the latter not the camera....

I think that lens is a good size with the body, this is a killer combo if u like bokeh! Now i cant wait to get the 28mm f2 because that is my kinda go to FOV.

But the best lens body combo size is the 35mm f2.8. it is also the smallest compact Sony prime lens.

Cant wait to get my hands on a square hood for this lens! its a killer look! if you've been following me, you know i love aesthetic first than functions!

I have no problem with the shutter location on the original A7S but i do think it is better on the A7Sii

If you operate a Sony camera before then you are familiar with its menu. Most of the time i just googled what i cant find.

But there is no shortcut for silent mode!!!! you have to delve inside the menus....

Face detection works best with Wide Focus Area.... which i just discovered last night...i always use the Center Focus Area because i like to do focus and recompose technique.... Face detection only works if you frame the face at the center, but now with Wide Area Focus, i just need to frame and wait for the face detection to detects the face.

To be honest, now that i am using a Full Frame camera, i didnt really noticed about its looks, all these talks of Full Frame look and the likes..... to me i just realised that i look for sharpness in my picture.... i would take a portrait then i would zoom to see the sharpness.... so i guess i dont care Full Frame or APSC, i've used micro 4 third before, and Olympus was crazy sharp....more like oversharpen! but im not going back to micro four thirds anytime soon....maybe...because GAS is crazy...

Some photos...

Check out that 55mm 1.8 sharpness....!!!

When i edit my photos with the 55mm 1.8 i dont do any sharpening anymore...i dont like to oversharpen my photos, i think the lens sharpness OOC is enough!

The auto white balance can be inconsistent indoors.... when taking photos in quick successive, as i have amber lighting most of the photos are warm but one of the photo would turn out cold... 

i dont have plenty of photos to share just yet.... but here are some...

I think i have more to say about this camera, maybe i might take back what i said but lets wait for part 2 of this review.....

To be continued......

My first few minutes with my Leica M8 in 2015

Ok, to be honest. its been hours now. If you remember what i wrote in my previous post, i was being a little bit biased towards the M9 as it is full frame, younger, a better version of the M8. I even had the thought of selling the M8 as i already own the M9, not even testing it. But now after testing and using the M8, i just cant let it go.

First, aesthetically, the silver is much more sexier and retro looking. It looked like a toy camera. Film camera? definitely! The 15mm Voigtlander is much better on the crop sensor of the M8. It converts to around 21mm, pretty wide but not so wide like on the full frame M9. I didn't even had to deal with the cyan corners issues. There's a slight vignetting and darken bluish corners but it did not really bothers me up to the level of fixing it in CornerFix program. The exposure of the M8 is pretty much spot on. a bit on the overexposed side but not so much, i find that i need to lower the exposure during post processing in Lightroom. like i said not so much, maybe around -0.2. And somehow this made the LCD looked much better than the one i had on the M9. Now i feel like i made a fool of myself. On previous post i really bashed that LCD on the M9, its still bad on the M8, still a low quality LCD, but i can see my composition and exposure better. On the M9 it was underexposed so much that i pretty much cant see a thing. Like a dimly lit screen. I need to try it again on the M9. See if overexposing brightens up the LCD or maybe it was a lens coding setting issue. But thats the thing, i didnt even code it on the M8, i did not use a UV/IR Cut filter and i dont think i need it. But of course there's the problem with black clothing. i dont need to go on details, pretty much a M8 issue.

I used Auto ISO max on 640 like i did on my M9. Its a bit grainy, the M9 is cleaner but again not so much. ISO640 is usable. I think its enough for normal indoor lighting in most situations. I find it amusing that my Fujifilms used higher ISO in the same indoor lighting albeit at fast shutter speeds. The M8 and the M9 uses shutter speed at 1/8 - 1/15 at ISO 640 and amazingly can capture sharp pictures at those speed, not on the X100S. And again, remind you its at f4.5 on the Voigtlander 15mm, on faster lens probably on a much faster shutter.

Didn't really notice the difference in shutter speed sound, probably a bit louder than the M9 but honestly, unnoticeable. I didn't do a side by side comparison though. But that Leica's shutter sound serenades me. It felt good to press the shutter and hearing the sound it made. It mimics those film days, at least thats how it sounded to me. It makes me want to take more pictures. I've tried the discreet feature, while it's nice the shutter rewinds? or recock after you release the button but the initial click sound is loud to be discreet me thinks, unless its a loud place. My M8 had the Leica grip on it which improves on the handling. At first i'm not really into those with grips look but now it grows on me. i keep on glancing the M8. Wow she's a beauty, just like lady in red!

And i got this baby only at 1196 shutter actuations!

Wide? Yes. Distort? Of course. Slight Vignetting? Definitely.

As seen on the above picture, slight bluish/greenish vignetting can be seen. but like i said it didn't bother me that much. I'm not into accurate colours and what not, i'd love false colour!

On occasion, there are times when the bluish vignette is more obvious like the one pictured below.

So here comes CornerFix to rescue things!

Perfect! Fix the bluish vignetting. Comparing them side by side in lightroom, the fixed picture looked like it had white vignetting put on. It also corrects the overall bluish look to a more neutral slash natural look! But i prefer the darken vignetting picture. Individual taste i suppose.

So is the M8 still worth it in 2015? You bet! Sure it has its quirks and weaknesses but no camera is perfect. It all depends on the user.

Inferior? Never. It compliments the M9 very well.

The only question begs how long will the shutter last me?

First few hours with my Leica M9 in 2015

I'm pumped up! Finally my Voigtlander lens is here. But bummer its not the 40mm because i like bokeh in my pictures, anyway its the 15mm super wide heliar, enough for testing both of my newly acquired Leicas. I've been waiting for these lenses for weeks now. My Leicas are there on the desk, sitting and waiting for the lens. Its odd that my 40mm has not yet arrived since thats the first lens i bought. These HK mail is weird. I hope its not lost though! To be honest i haven't tested my Leica M8, somehow i'm more excited with the Leica M9, maybe because it's younger and supposedly better than the M8 IQ wise but everyone said its the same except for the crop factor of the M8.

I bought the 15mm for my M8 because its the first Leica i bought so that it'll convert to 21mm or 24mm, i love a wide angle lens. i didn't expect to win the bid for my M9, if i knew i was crazy enough back then to get the M9, i should have not bought the M8. Oh well, its water under the bridge now. 24mm is wide enough for me, i never thought to go 15mm wide, but now with the full frame M9, i have a 15mm super wide angle lens.

With this tiny lens to go with the M9, it looks super awesome. For me the size is just right for the Leica M9. If only all Leica M mount lenses are this small. And this is the first time i brought the M9 out into the sunshine. Man, this thing is more sexier under the sun!

Holding the M9 feels solid. like a brick made of metal. Its unlike the Fuji X-Pro1, which kinda feel hollow. like theres a hole inside the body. but with that its lighter. The M9 is heavy but it's solid heavy, if you get what i mean. You hit someone on the head with a Fuji X-pro1, boom! concussion. You hit someone on the head with the M9, boom! dead!

Everyone on the internet cringed at the LCD screen of the Leica M9. That LCD is a joke. I couldn't agree more. It was so bad that it reminded me of the old school Nokia symbian phones of the early 2000s. It didn't serve the M9 justice. It is so bad that it cannot be use for chimping, previewing or checking for focus or camera shake, so bad that its better to just switch off the LCD or dont use it for review thus saving battery power. You have to treat the M9 just like you treat a film camera. Know you got it right after it is developed. The LCD is so poor it doesn't belong on a what used to be a $7000 camera. And it still doesnt belong now! You cant see the great IQ of the M9 on its LCD, you have to look it on your computer. Unlike Fuji X100S, what's on its LCD is what you probably get on your computer screen. Every time i took a shot with the M9 and i'm so used to chimping, i probably think i didn't nail the shot. Ok, it was that bad. Enough of the LCD. Lets talk about something else.

I have to say i got a great deal on the M9. I just check the shutter actuations and it was only 386 shutter count. I mean this camera is seldomly used. Probably a collector's camera. Dont know why it got sold but i believe in "your gain, my loss" kinda phrase. If you wanna check your M9 shutter actuations you have to check your EXIF data, maybe using the free EXIF Viewer for Mac, and check the imageuniqueid number. I could not get it using the built-in "get info" via Mac. Its in Base16, there'll be a lot of zeros, you have to convert it to Base10, just google for the converter, and then you'll got your shutter actuations. This is a link which i find useful on checking your shutter actuations. http://diglloyd.com/blog/2013/20130809_1-EXIF-info-shutter-actuations.html 

The shutter sound is awesome. It reminded me of film days. Like i said, i'm gonna treat the M9 just like a film camera. No chimping. Manual focus. Those are the days. The shutter is not so loud, not so quiet. But i think it's not so discreet though. If you try candidly taking a picture of the guy within 2 meters , i think he can hear you. unless it's a loud street or environment. That is why i really like the X100 series, it is silent.

Rangefinder focusing takes a little bit of getting used to but its fun. I love the experience. I love the simplicity or "i'm in charge" old school kinda thing, although i'm still slow at it. I'm super slow to be honest. Just now i'd try to take a picture of my friend while she posed, i think she posed for more than the comfortable posing time LOL. I was so focus trying to align the rangefinder square patch. I wish there was an autofocus button that i could use so that she dont have to pose that long haha. i'm still learning the system. pardon me lol.

The M9 looks awesome under the sun, i just wanna fondle it all day and all night long.

I'm a JPEG shooter and with the Leica M9 i try to shoot RAW. I've been shooting with both format DNG + Jpg fine, i'm trying to see if the JPG is good enough for me, i know RAW will be great but there's something in the JPG look that i just cant replicate with the RAW file. I know its my limited knowledge of processing RAW and using Lightroom. But after looking at both format, i think i'll stick with DNG (RAW). It preserved the shadow detail better. With the JPG, its kinda darker, more contrast but losing the shadow detail. shadow turns to black. and a little bit greenish too. but that could depend on the lens's coding. I've used the 16-18-21 coding for the 15mm voigtlander. I read around and 21mm elmarit 11134 was recommended. I've yet to try it.

Let's see some pictures right? I only used the M9 for few hours and there's only a few pictures that are worth showing, the others are just snapshots, testing exposures and such. Shooting with the M9 i found that it underexposed a bit. and again i'm not sure maybe its the coding of the lens. I was shooting outside under the sun and it underexposed. I had to bump the exposure in PP to a full stop. I'm still in testing phase and getting to know the camera, i might not get the exposure right yet. The metering i have to be honest is tricky, i'm so used to auto everything in Fujifilm and with its great metering i get most exposure right. But with the M9, if i shoot directly at a light source, of course everything turns dark except for the light itself. Its like spot metering but i honestly dont know what's the metering on the Leica but it feels like spot. so sensitive to bright light. but then again, i'm still getting familiar with the camera. Trying to take a picture of my kid with a bright window behind her, boom! Dark face, bright window. This is a manual camera, just like film. Prepare your Sunny 16 app.

So what its like shooting 15mm on a full frame?

So far my maths is Leica M9 + 15mm Voigtlander = Cyan corners + vignetting. 

This is RAW. Processed in Lightroom.

I don't mind so much of the vignetting. but the cyan corners on the left is worst.

and this is OOC. See how underexposed it is. Probably the lens coding. or maybe it's just the way it does exposure.

There's a program that can fix or reduce this cyan corners. Its called CornerFix. I haven't create my own profile (just take a picture of a white wall and let the program try to fix the cyan and vignetting).

That profile is used as a reference to fix all your cyan pictures. I found a 15mm profile online by someone in the leica forum and used it, here's the result.

Well, it didn't really fix mine, so i guess i need to create my own profile. It did remove the cyan but instead giving a yellow corners instead. I'll post the result of my own profile on another post. But if you search cornerfix on google, it did help a lot of users! Good for you CornerFix!

I've used auto ISO max at 640 and auto shutter, so i'm on aperture priority. Composing with the 15mm is way off. I had to guess the composition. There's no way to compose using the M9's viewfinder, i need a 15mm external viewfinder to compose correctly. The widest the Leica M9 viewfinder can go is 28mm. I set my photo review for 1s, just for checking composition. Thats the only use of the LCD although i felt disgust looking at the quality of the LCD. i was like eeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk! I mean i can go on spilling out my hate of the LCD but you have to tried it yourself. Beat yourself in the head if you say "The LCD's alright".

The menu is simple on the M9. Its brilliant. No mumbos jumbos to deal with. Just set it once and forget. Set and forget. Forget about it!...(imitate Robert DeNiro slang). 

One thing Leica did to the digital Ms is that they staying true to their traiditions, taking out the battery and SD card is like taking out the film in Leica film days. You have to unscrew the bottom plate of the Leica and take it off, its unlike modern digital cameras where there is a flip door for battery and SD card. I didn't mind Leica did this but some are irritated by it.

I've set my max iso at 640 because i read somewhere that its the best ISO to bump up in low light. I could have use ISO1250 but i chose not to. Its about something how sensor meters the light bla bla bla, there's a chart that go with it, i'm not going into the technical stuff or the science of it, i just wanna take pictures. i never understand it anyways and i didn't even try. Here's the science though if you're interested http://blog.kasson.com/?p=2724 . I didn't bother to read the whole thing, i just need to know that i just need to use ISO640, and bump it up in PP (post processing). By the way, thanks Jim Kasson for your research. I just realised there's like 16 part for that one particular topic.

The Voigtlander 15mm center is sharp. I'll post more pictures soon. I love wide angle. I dont have to take that many steps backward to get the whole picture. Although it will get distorted towards the edges. But thats the signature of wide angle.

I can take sharp images at 1/8sec with the M9. Its pretty incredible. No OIS and everything but the Leica M9 still take sharp pictures at slow shutter. Its amazing. The body is so rock solid that it's kinda stable and hard to shake. Of course your hands need to be extra steady. My friend used to say my hands are like a tripod or monopod because i can glide his GoPro videos like it was using a steadicam. So far indoor low light with max ISO640 is sufficient for me. I could pushed it in PP and i still get decent quality. 

So far i'm loving the IQ of this Leica M9. I am probably still in my honeymoon mode with the Leica, so everything is beautiful. Our Love is still blooming. Except for that LCD.

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

I'm a sucker for presets.

I'm a sucker for Lightroom/Photoshop presets. Period. I'm just too lazy. One-click-boom. Thats why i love VSCO presets. They are so worth it. Recreate film looks, polaroid looks.... ya know, those vintage looks. But at the moment, i'm done with film looks, i got a bit tired of it. But thats today, maybe tomorrow i'm back into it. Right now, i'm into those contrasty but desaturated colors. I was actually looking for a tutorial on recreating that look when i stumbled upon free presets for Lightroom. See, i'm not that lazy, i want to learn on how to recreate those looks but instead i found presets thus diverted me from learning to just using the presets. Lazy over learning. Nice.

While browsing the internet, i found presets and tutorials but mostly free preset on creating gritty, grungy look, which is the look im into right now, some are really nice which made me search for more free presets all over the net. Who doesnt like free stuffs right?

While on the topic of grunge look, I also stumbled across a bloke named Dave Hill. Though his pictures are nice but not really my type, i mean i really like it but i'm not gonna use it all the time. and then there's the DRAGAN effect too. Based on my findings these free presets that tried to recreate the grunge, dave hill and dragan effect look are mostly pushing the sliders in lightroom to the max!

Highlights pushed to 100
Shadows pushed to 100
Blacks bring down to balance the look
Clarity pushed to, yes you guess it right, to 100. I love pushed clarity. Gave that painted look
Vibrance pushed to 100
Saturation pull to taste, -50, depends on how unsaturated look you're looking for.
Exposure to taste.

Some presets pushed the sharpness too hard, like 80, but for my taste i pulled a bit and just play around with it.

Let's use a sample image i've downloaded from Robin Wong EM10. I hope he don't mind. This are not my photo. It's Robin's.

Original File 

This is my Bleach Bypass look, i've edited from Lightroom's own bleach bypass preset 

 Not too forget, the "300" look, i found this lightroom preset on google

I called this my Wannabe Dave Hill look although i adjusted to my liking. I dont remember which preset i based this on. but i adjusted it to make it less painted effect.

*I based this on the Grunge preset i found on google*

Some may dig the look, some may not. Its for fun, sometimes i just want to push the files to never before land lols.

Street Shooting in Singapore with Olympus OMD EM10 ..... VSCO style!

Ok, today i'm gonna be lazy. I'm just gonna post process my pictures with VSCO's Fuji Superia 400 preset and adjust the tone curve to make it look faded and washed out. I wont bother with the color or white balance or exposure, this is OOC jpgs applied preset and boom!. I am no street photographer but with this kind of hat/thinking i get to just fire away shots, unlike back in the day, i was only shooting iconic places, or statues, or famous landmarks and so forth sometimes with that kind of habit i didnt get to really use my camera because Singapore is full of buildings, what so nice about shooting buildings?...yes, yes, yes, some buildings are awesome, like the white house, abe lincoln memorial, empire state, but those are still iconic, okay cityscapes is beautiful too but you know what i mean... i'm talking about boring buildings.... just an ugly tall building with windows...  but with street photography kind of thinking, i finally be able to just take pictures of whatever in front of me.... its gonna be shitty but hey, at least it brought back memories of the trip!

Just shoot shoot shoot....
thats where digital wins over film, flexibility to delete or keep photos, unless you're super duper rich to buy rolls of films, i dont. i just need an SD card.

So the story goes like this, i just bought an OMD EM10 at Vivo city Singapore, and i straight away want to test the camera.... i havent figured out how to focus at the center, it automatically chooses for me. Hell, lets just do it. This is also in 4:3 format thus the non wide look. i set the auto iso limit to 3200. i dont remember which mode i was, its either aperture or program mode. and so i left Vivo city with a brand new OMD EM10. Black.

Hop into the MRT 

 And stopped by Chinatown

So this is Chinatown, my first time here. its a street market. nice.

Lanterns anyone?

 My main reason to go Chinatown is to eat Chilli Crab or Satay, i'm looking for Maxwell Hawker Centre.

That aint maxwell hawker centre, lets move on

The year of the horse. Chinese new year just ended last week.

i love this kind of shot. blurred pedestrians. in chinatown nobody gives a shit if you have a camera with you. its a tourist area. so its kinda cheat/easier street photography 

My first taste of Boudoir photography. Some onlookers may think i'm a pervert and give me a strange look but hey the lighting is nice. Sorry but VSCO didnt do it justice. told ya im lazy!

This guy needs a bed

Told ya, nobody gives a shit with your camera but i do think twice here that white tshirt guy just seem so mean looking! dont hit me please!

Olympus focusing here is a snap. Olympus really is fast at focusing. Beats Fuji everytime. Thats why i got this shot. i hope there's no car on my left...

Made my way to the temple. Some chromatic aberration here. poor olympus.

 Which way to Maxwell Hawker Centre? No? No Sign?

Wide angle is really handy here. The Fuji X100S cant fit this scene from where i stood. but you can fit a wide converter lens which costs millions.... just kidding... its about SGD$500 here, so thats about usd$390

 Finally here....

 Damn, this place blows..... everything is closing. I did not find any Chilli crab here and the satay here is pork satay. i dont eat pork. What a waste of walking time.

In the end i settled for Indian Mutton Steak. Man, this stuff is tasty. and the lime juice is cold and yummy. i can feel my sweat dried off after drinking that lime juice. The Fuji X100S is for aesthetic only haha, i didnt bother to use the x100s as i had to carry a backpack too.... i dont want too much to carry around. i also want to test the EM10 capabilities. i think at this point the battery died on me.

THE NEXT DAY

By this time i'm already exhausted from my yesterday all day walking trip but i still have to make my way to the airport, i dont know where else to go, i dont want to go to Orchard, i already spent on a new camera, i should just stop shopping now and just wait for my plane but flight home is at 9pm. There's more time to kill. a lot of time to kill. i need to go somewhere. chill somewhere. last thing to do is to eat some good food. shitty part is i have to walk with my backpack and my hand carry luggage, dragging it around. i love that luggage. its been with me everywhere i went, Washington, Vegas, London, all throughout UK, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore.....drag drag drag and the wheels are still working. one bad-ass hand carry luggage. Almost didnt fit all my stuffs but when there is a will there is a way hahah...

Anyway, i charged my OMD EM10 battery the night before and it took about 3 hours plus or maybe 4 hours.... and the charging light went off... i thought it never gonna went off..... pheewww... i thought id fully drained the damn thing till theres no more juices to charge. Again, i keep my x100s in the bag and hang the em10 on my neck.... but to be honest i just wanna stop taking pictures.... too tired.... too exhausting... too many things to carry.... a full hand.... i just wanna go home....

After checking out, i'm heading to Little India 

 Assalamualaikum brothers

i love how that path leading to ............... there....

 i dunno how to explain that...

perspective this perspective that...

 Some funky cool looking buildings...

or a failed window measurements hahah

Uhuh!.. Little india mari.... 

 I had to adjust the shadow slider here to get more details... i wanna take picture of the lady, so i pretend that im shooting this "chef" here... but i havnt figure out the focusing so the camera chooses the background...oh well.... and metered the background too... this is actually a dark picture.

Ah well..

 i'm not being sexist but please ladies... dont urinate here.. hahaha just kidding.

Okay okay its for the guys... Dude, please dont...

 Some dudes waiting for their meal

 The main reason to come here in little India Tekka Centre.. the let-me-translate-the-malay-words

"Power red bone soup"

 And 2nd reason, the briyani.... oh man... i need to lose some weight...

After my little india trip and my awesome lunch, i did not do a thing. i went to Funan, just to feed my GAS some camera window shopping and sit in one corner just killing time. so i decided to go to the airport early. by this time i'm already too tired to take pictures. but when i saw a moment i just took some pictures anyway. i just cant resist.

Thats a giant ass ceiling fan, just circling around like a windmill speed... i wonder how crazy it is on full speed. 

 For the life of me i havent figured out the auto exposure lock, i was trying the Zack Arias skill, pretending shooting the sign board and want to shoot those strangers on the bench but in the end, i couldnt figure to set the exposure right...the camera meters for the background, 

 so i'm left with this dark picture

on 2nd look, this silhouette looks nice too.. 

 Time to head home, 

"its coming home, its coming home, its coming," - Lightning Seeds Three Lions

Again AEL fail, but i like this photo. 

Its not the EM10 fault's, its just me not reading the manual yet!

Thats me on the airplane.... i used my OMD EM10 wifi to shoot this selfie in the plane.. hahahha

just kidding!

That is a lot of pictures...phewwwww....

See you again Singapore.... March!