In Need for A Bridged Camera..

It's been quite sometimes since I did my last purchase on anything related with camera. With the progress of camera technology in the last two years, my collection of photograpy paraphernalia may be a little bit outdated and probably requires timely upgrade!

For awhile I have been thinking to get a good all-round bridged camera that fits my need for wide-angle and telephoto capability during the time when I need to travel light without having to lug around my DSLRs. My superb Canon G7 is no longer with me as I have given it to my eldest daughter before her departure to Jordan several months back. It is a very good camera and considering the quality photos it can generate, I would strongly suggest it to any aspiring photographer. Recently Canon has announced even a new G Series model called Canon G10. I have a chance to play with this camera last week when I visited the Camera shop in Pertama Complex and these are soem highlights of the camera.

* 14.7-megapixel digital camera for the highest image quality
* 5x optical zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer plus a 28mm wide-angle lens
* New DIGIC 4 Image Processor improves Face Detection, adds Servo AF, Face Detection * Self-Timer and Intelligent Contrast Correction
* Red-eye Correction provides 3 options for removing red-eye in flash pictures.
* Full range of shooting and recording modes including RAW + JPEG
* Large 3.0-inch PureColor LCD II

Price wise, I m still not very sure but I guess I can get it at about the same amount with the price of my previous G7 model.

The other bridged camera that I am seriuosly considering is the Fujifilm Finepix S100FS. This camera has won several accolades including the 2008 TIPA Award.The lens covers focal lengths of 28mm-400mm equivalent and aperture stop settings. Because of the composite body and lens structure, there is no penetration of dirt and dust onto the CCD of a bright F 2.8 (wide angle) or F5.3 (telephoto).

A feature set borrowed from the S5 Pro incorporated some of the FinePix S5 Pro’s features that have been most appreciated by professional photographers, including film simulation modes and settings that expand the camera’s dynamic range. The FinePix S100FS has an extended dynamic range (100, 200, 400 percent ) that is similar to that of negative film, thanks to the newly developed 2/3-inch, 11.1-megapixel SuperCCD VIII "HR" and the new RP Processor III.

Another prominent features is the Dual Image Stabilization to ensure clean, sharp and blur-free images, even in low-light conditions. This combines image stabilization through a mechanically stabilized "floating" lens element to reduce blur from the photographer’s hand-shake, with Fujifilm’s Picture Stabilization Technology, to reduce blur caused by subject movement, for the ultimate in stabilization technology. High-speed shooting Reliable high-speed performance is possible through Fujifilm’s newly developed Super CCD VIII "HR" and the new image processor RP (Real Photo) III Processor. At 3-megapixels, a maximum of 50 continuous shots at 7 frames/second is possible. .

Movie Mode Movie mode with sound at 30 frames per second in VGA quality, and zoom capable with manual zoom ring while in movie mode.

xD/SD/SDHC-compatible slot The FinePix S100FS features an xD/SD-compatible slot, which accepts not only Fujifilm’s traditional xD-Picture Cards but also Secure Digital (SD) and SD-High Capacity/SDHC cards too.

2.5-inch tiltable LCD The FinePix s100FS features a tilting 2.5-inch LCD that makes it easy to frame shots from a variety of shooting positions.



The retail price of this baby is around RM2500 and I think it's a bit pricey for a 3/4 DSLR camera. However, many reviews that I read put this camera among the best of the 3/4 DSLR and this definitely justify the price...

The other camera under my serious consideration is the Olympus SP-570UZ 10MP camera.


The most prominent feature of the Olympus is the Dual Image Stabilization which enables users to take crisp, clear pictures in virtually any shooting situation. Olympus’ mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization keeps images sharp by adjusting the CCD to compensate for camera shake, which often occurs when zooming in on your subject and in low-light conditions when shutter speeds are slower. Digital Image Stabilization freezes the action with high ISO sensitivity and fast shutter speeds that prevent blur caused by a moving subject. The street price for this baby is RM1450 and with this price tag it's sure will catch my attention a lot !

The forth bridged camera that I reviewed is the new Canon S10 IS 10MP camera. The specification of this camera almost similar to the G10 except it has only 10MP and 2.5 inch swivel LDC screen. The plus point is it has 20x Zoom which is four time higher than the G10. This is equivalent to 28mm-500mm lens. WOW!!


Price wise, the Canon Sx10 IS is about RM300-350 cheaper than the G10 and again with this price tag, It is sure to be a luring attribute for me to get it soon...

VERDICT

Although the Fujifilm Finepix S100fs is expensive, it is obvious by now that this is the bridged camera for me. However, I might want to wait for a while until the price drops to below 2K. In fact in the states, the price is something in the region of US600 and I won't be surprise that this price can also be obtained here locally. My second choice would be the Canon SX10 IS simply due to its telefoto capability. Really, the G10 is only a winner to SX10 due to its larger pixel of 14.1MP and 3 inch LCD which can be traded off for other features.

A Workshop and Perceived Gap...

I was involved in the system operators workshop organised by the colleagues from the SO department from 22-23 August. The workshop was held at the A'Famosa Resort in Melaka and was attended by about 50 people from the SO, OPP and RCC's departments. I have never been to this workshop before and when I was asked to nominate my engineers to go, I nominated myself instead ! Yeah, called me selfish but sincerely I really felt that this is one workshop that I should go to foster even better relationship with our counterparts in the SO office and also to understand their problems in operating the system daily. Nonetheless, there were 5 others from my office attended the workshop and I hope my presence would at least be a symbolic gesture that we are serious in closing the perceived 'gap' between the planners and the operators.



Although the forum coincided with the school 1-week holiday, I travelled alone because my other-half decided to preserve her official leaves for other important event later this year. Thus, on Monday at about 6.40pm after work, I drove to Melaka alone and arrived at the hotel at approximately 20 minutes past eight.

The workshop only started the next day on Tuesday and again our VP came down to officiate the opening, albeit his opening speech was deferred a bit after two presentations. Nonetheless, true to his form and energy, the VP did spend sometimes with us and I sometimes wonder how busy he is to do what he is doing.



The participants also include the technician level staff and several of them presented their papers. This workshop is more of of a forum of sharing information and knowledge and for a first-timer like me, the workshop is quite 'interesting' to say the least. A friend of mine did commented quietly to me on the quality of papers being presented having attended the Technical Forum a week earlier but I would say that it is good enough for non-exec to present papers and anything else would be a bonus.



For some reason, the organiser forgot to bring a camera for the photo session. Guess what, I was probably the only one who brought a decent one (apart from the mobile phone camera most people would have)and the organiser asked if I could take some group photos and also the event itself. Surely I would not object and thus I finally ended up taking close to 200 photos of the workshop and also the surrounding landscape of A'Famosa.




In summary, the workshop is totally new experience for me. At personal level, I feel kinda releive that I finally managed to participate in this forum and contribute during the discussion time. I also hope that my presence will be seen as sincere gesture of OPP to assimilate into or at least understand the 'culture' of real-time operators. Obviosuly we still have many differences in opinions and also the way we see things but as Maroon 5 says it, "It's not always rainbows or butterflies, but compromise that moves us along".

Photo Blog : Putrajaya Day Scenes

Putrajaya is one of the so many places in the Klang Valley area of which I really like to take pictures of. Naturally, I have been to this area so many times since even before 1998 when this area was still under development.In fact way back in 1997, I was assigned to work together with a Japanese utility to study the distribution electrical infrastructure for this highly publicised area. That work resulted in at least three trips to Tokyo for me between 1997 and 1999 and at times we stayed in Tokyo to work with the consultant for a period of three weeks straight. Long enough for us to know Akihabara, Shinjuku, Ginza and of course Tokyo Disneyland! One of my friends that was with us during the Tokyo work is vey fluent in Japanese as he used to study in Tokyo for six years. He taught us a lot of Japanses culture and of course, he knows many places where we could buy things reasonably cheap in Tokyo area.

Today Putrajaya is such a majestic city. I am not so sure of how much money government has spent on its development todate but suffice to say that much more money will be spent in the coming years. However, most of the foreign visitors that I have personaly brought to this place were very much impressed with it and perhaps, all the money spent on developing this area will be worth it some day !

The following photos are some pictures of Putrajaya that I took few months ago when I took my family for a Sunday stroll. In fact Putrajaya is not a very unfamiliar place to us as my brother is one of the residence of this city and his home has been frequently visited by us.



The two photos above were taken from a Putrajaya Boating Club near Precint 8. Perhaps, the views will be even better at night. The following photos were also taken from the same site. It is the rear view of the Putrajaya Mosque which also located just beside Putrajaya waterfront.



Near the Agong Palace in Putrajaya, there is a beautiful garden overlooking the Prime Ministers office and also the famous Putrajaya bridge. As this garden is located on top of a hill, one can also see overall view of Putrajaya and the following two samples photos can better describe the condition...




Well, the last photo is the picture of Gondai Jr. He was not even born yet when I first set foot in this area sometimes in late 1997, when Putrajaya was still covered with rubber trees. Insha'allah, I will be making more trips to Putrajaya in the future. One of the highest priority on my Putrajaya agenda is to take the night photos. Hopefully, I could find the time and energy to realise this 'project' of mine !

Photo Blog : Night Scenes

I really like to take photos of night scenes. However, off late, I have not been able to take out my lenses at night due to many reasons and mainly because of time constraint and also motivation ! Out of few thousands photos I have already captured thus far, only few of them were taken at night. Well, to snap photos at night and to capture the views without using a flash, I got to lug around the tripod and this is probably the main reason why my night shots are very few.The following are some of my favorite night scenes which I have managed to capture for the last 4-5 months or so. Insha'allah, should time permit, I am going to shot some more at night and also to learn more technique to capture the night views...

These two photos were taken during my Management Course in Kuantan. The hotel is located by the Teluk Chempedak beach and I used long exposure mode for both photos.



On one of my trips to Singapore, I managed to capture the view in front of the crowded Mustapaha Center, a 24-hour shopping arcade in the republic. The photo of the mosque following that was the scene of Masjid Terapung in Kuala Trengganu after Isyak Prayer in early February.



Of course when one shots the night scene, the slow shutter speed creates so much spectacle to the extend the photo could be surreal. This is illustrated well by the two following photos. The first photo was the scene I captured in front of the Kuantan Riverfront while the second photos is the the night scene of the exit from Guthrie Expressway to Bukit Jelutong.





I have yet to capture the night scenes of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. I hope I will be able to that soon, insha'allah. Having said that, I have been able to capture so many day scenes of Putrajaya and KLCC. My next blog should highlight several pics from these outings...insha'allah

A Glorious Day for Photography..

Off late, the weather has been kinda gloomy and overcast if not raining. However, on Sunday afternoon, the weather suddenly turned into a glorious day with blue sky and high thin cloud covering most part of Shah Alam. I took this oppurtunity to snap several photos of BJ and the area surrounding the Shah Alam State mosque. This time, I decided to use my 10-22mm lens to capture the moments as widely as possible. Mind you, this lens has a slight fish-eye characteristics and you will find images at the edges will be slightly distorted. Many people like this characteristics as it can give a new look or perspective of the thing we normally see with the naked eyes. Please take a look at the following photos and I would appreciate comments on the pictures so that I can improve in my next available oppurtunity...







I know the Shah Alam state mosque is probably one of the views most amature photographers like myself, would love to take pictures of. To some extend, the mosque beautiful dome and minaret views have become so common and banal. Thus, I tried to capture this scenic views of the mosque from different angles and thanks to the good backlighting of the late evening sun.



I also took the oppurtunity to capture the MBSA building and the Bluewave Hotel from the other side of the pond, adjacent to the mosque parking area. Again, the late evening sun almost sunset in fact, helped in lighting up the images...





As I was walking towards my car for home when I managed to capture one last image of the sunset behind some trees...I thought this worth sharing with others...

Powercast Dreaming Up Wireless Charging

This article on CNNMoney (credit to them for the illustration, too) features a company called Powercast. Right now they are developing technology that would allow you to charge electronics products (think BlackBerries, cell phones, iPods, game controllers, etc.) without a messy tangle of wires.

Whoa.

It took me about three seconds of reading to realize that this is potentially one of the coolest breakthroughs I've ever heard of. One look at my kitchen counter--which is a nest of cables for charging all manner of daily gadgets--and you'd agree instantly.


According to the article:
It may sound futuristic, but Powercast's platform uses nothing more complex than a radio--and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device's battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.
The story also notes that Powercast has agreements to develop its technology for over 100 companies already. The feature should start appearing in consumer electronics products as soon as 2008. Think MP3 players, mice, and keyboards first. The power demands of a notebook PC are too great right now, but further development could make Powercast-compatible PCs a reality soon.

~Chris B., Amazon Current

Canon's EOS-1D Mark III Shoots Like a Machine Gun

One of the new releases making waves on the PMA show floor recently was the Canon EOS-1D Mark III. It features a live three-inch LCD that shows the direct image through the lens, just as it does through the viewfinder, and shoots a blistering 10 frames-per-second for a 110-frame burst. It's able to process all that information because it has dual Digic III image processors that, combined, can handle more than 100 MP of image data per second. It's also fast out of the gate--it's ready to shoot just 0.2 seconds after hitting the power button. This Canon will start firing some time next month.



~Porter B. Hall, Amazon Current

Beauty in a Small Package..

I have the oppurtunity this weekend to try out my other half's new compact digital camera purchased at Foto Selangor on Saturday afternoon (after the BJ Carnival). I convinced her that for getting the value for money, the best compact camera at the moment is Ricoh Capalio R5. I have been reading many magazines and also did a bit of research on this camera and after actually fondling with this camera at Foto Selangor, I myself was convinced that this is indeed a remarkable small camera. The deal at Selangor Foto was completed within half an hour after we also tested many small compacts such as the Canon G7, S3-IS, and also Olympus 550. In my opinion, the price we paid at RM1080 (including 1GB SD Card) was a bargain considering that this camera is sold for more than 250 Pound Sterling in UK.



A bit on this camera, the new Ricoh Caplio R5 digital camera features a 7.1x optical wide zoom lens (28–200 mm in 35 mm camera format). Combining the Caplio R5’s Ricoh-original CCD-shift vibration correction method and brand new image processing engine greatly expands the range of shooting in low light areas producing high quality images at even higher ISO settings with low noise.

The camera’s macro mode allows close in shooting of objects from a wide macro 1 cm to tele macro 14 cm. This is one feature that I could not find from other units we tested at the shop thus enhanced my confidence on how good this camera is. Another feature that made us fall in love with this camera is on its ability to also capture movie clips. They movie image might not be as good as a DVD quality image but hey, we are more focus on still images here and not into movie making.

So, on Sunday morning, we tested the new compact and here are some results which I would say, quite good for a compact camera. The first four photos were taken using the camera's Macro Mode and the next four basically using the Landscape mode. By the way, the crescent moon in the starting photo was taken using the Macro mode with me holding the camera very close to my telescope eyepiece and I feel satisfied with the result.

OUR VERDICT

The results from our tests convinced my other half that the choice for this compact camera was a good one. The macro capability of this camera is superb and this is helped by the anti-shake mechanism built in the camera making the use of a tripod unnessary. The images are sharp and almost resemble to those produced by my DSLR. However, the telefoto zoom does generate some noise close to maximum zoom when the image is blown up for viewing the details. Well, you can't violate the rule of physics here. Small lens means lesser amount of light can enter the CCD sensor and thus image captured will be less detail as compared to the bigger SLR lenses.

For such a small camera, I think this camera can be a good second to a full-fledge DSLR especially when we want to travel light. But of course, you can't be that creative when using a compact as practically, you will not have any control on aperture or shutter priority functions unlike all DSLRs. Pricewise, this camera is among the cheapest with all those capabiliies.

In short, this camera is very portable and beautiful design with an eye to robustness and quality. I strongly recommend this camera for those intent to start with creative photography but don't have a big budget for a DSLR.

Wish List...A quick Survey on Canon Lenses

The following is my quick survey of several Canon lenses for my EOS DSLR. I just have to think of how to finance those investment !

For now, I have to content with the 18-55mm Kit Lens and the 90-300mm f/4-5.6 lenses which are not great but good enough for casual photography. After some reading and quick researching, Prime Lenses (no zoom) should be good consideration as they are normally fast lenses (work well at low light situation) and not bulky. One major problem is however, I have to carry many lenses to cover several zoom and focal distances. With a zoom lens, this problem is minimized albeit that some image crispness will be lost and not to mention the requirement for good ambiance light. Ah..decision..decision. Perhaps my Sifu Mr. CD can shed some light on this...

I also found a very interesting table from the net on comparison on Entry Level Canon DSLR. I forgot where I got it but I like to post it in this blog for my record.

Unsuccessful Try...

How do you make a still object looks moving in a photo ? The answer is zooming and longer shutter speed timing. I was trying this technique late Sunday afternoon just before sunset near the Gerbang Utama roundabout in BJ. Well actually, this was not on purpose as we were driving back from Ikano and as we were reaching the roundabout, the view of the sunset suddenly caught my attention. I quickly pull over by the roadside and looking for a good angle for composing the frame. I found one location behind a tree with the view of the sunset partially blocked, ideal for the snapshot format I was trying to compose. However, my tripod was not with me and this was not good because the view I was about to compose requires at least 0.5s shutter speed. Without a tripod, it's very difficult to have a consistent focus and steady image. Despite this setback, I tried few snaps on the zooming effect and only 1 photo I think deserved to be shown here albeit a sub-standard one.


The view without the zooming technique will be something like this..


Insha'allah, I will give it another try once the opportunity arises. Only this time I must remember to bring my tripod along...