Are you ready for the storm?

The storm of the semester is here! Are you up to it yet?

Click on if you are a techie..

Although Singapore have a very high occurrence of lightning storms, it’s still a rare chance to get to photograph one conveniently. Firstly, the storm took place quite a distance from my house, so it wasn’t raining at my place, allowing me to open my window wide and plant my tripod without worrying about getting wet. Secondly, the timing was just right, not too dark, yet dark enough for a long exposure of 40+ seconds (on bulb, iso200, f/16). Thirdly… the bolts came huge and fast!

Nonetheless.. the above was a merge of 3 exposures in photoshop. The file ended up over 500mb (16 bit Tiffs) and almost crashed my com. Damned.. I need an SSD and more RAM!

Ricoh GXR? Hmm…..

This is a rant post. Ranting is a side effect of mugging… Got a few minutes to spare?

Innovation is good. I applaud Ricoh’s bold new move to come up with the GXR. Go google if you don’t know what’s special in this camera. But basically it is a system of interchangeable lens+sensor, (instead of lens only). Yea.. so for USD500+ you buy yourself a body without a lens and sensor.

Advantage?

• A different sensor for a different application. Low light? An APS-C sensor and a fast prime (and you lose some compactness). Street? A 1/1.7 inch sensor with a useful 24-70 (which is similar in size to a G11) Travel? Probably an even smaller sensor, but a 10x zoom…
• Still get to shoot RAW, and the same amount of control, regardless of the modules used

Disadvantage?

• $$$. Close to USD450 for the 24-70 module, and USD800++ for the prime module. Together with the body, i might as well get a 35mm 1.8 (for my D300) and an LX3 for street use (only about SGD1K)
• I have doubts that Ricoh will remain loyal to this product, and make more modules for it in the future

(The list will be populated with more pros and cons as and when I thought about them)

If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll probably guess that I’m one of those waiting for a perfect point and shoot. I already have a pretty good DSLR system so I know what to bring if I want real speed and quality. I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of those for something more compact and portable and less flexible, yet still produce decent images with good controls. (and at least 24mm wide coz I’m a wide junky)

How can Ricoh tempt me with this product? Make it affordable, and comparable to alternatives. Something like SGD300 body, with <SGD500 lens modules is what I’ll consider reasonable. Otherwise one might as well buy new compacts as an when better options are available, as there isn’t any incentive to remain loyal to a camera body. And keep the size down… I will wait for a year after release and see how successful this concept will turn out to be…

Ok.. back to work..

It’s that time of the year again…

The stress… the gloom… the deadlines…

Good luck my friends! The sun is still shining beyond the clouds!

=)

What is a camera?

Isn't it frustrating every time when one sees a nice scene, and realizing that you don’t have a “camera” with you?

To me, a camera used to be something that shoots in RAW, has manual controls, responds quickly and produces decent detail up to iso 800 (for compacts), or iso 3200 (for dSLR). The problem is that while I have one that meets these requirements, it pulls my pants down if I force it to go into my pocket.

Well.. the heavy rain in the late morning today created such a different atmosphere, I was beginning to regret not bringing a “camera” with me. So I whipped out my handphone and for the first time (i think) i started using the camera function.

Whitebalance? Atrociously green. Responsiveness? Lag like siao. Noise? Plenty…

But when converted to monochrome… I thought this was a great representation to what I felt and saw at the moment…

So.. what is a camera?

How many sunrises have I passed sleeping?

I shouldn’t dread waking up early in the morning for school.. seeing how much there is to enjoy by waking up just 1 hour earlier than usual, and how much more enjoyable the walk to school seemed to be, with someone to talk to..

Ok now back to work =)