Harun Wahab: Blog

Nikon Zf - Back to Retro

2023-12-26T09:27:53Z

My Nikon D750 is almost ten years old, and while it's working fine, I've been itching to make the jump to the mirrorless world. I skipped the Z6 and Z7, and certainly cannot afford to get the Z8 let alone the Z9. Fortunately, Nikon announced the new Zf, which is a full-frame version of their older APS-C ZFc, and it contains most of the technology of the Z8 minus the stacked sensor. In fact, it has similar resolution to the D750 at 24.5MP but endowed with IBIS (sensor stablizer), EVF (electronic viewfinder), and the Expeed 7 processor, not to mention the retro look of the old film camera like Nikon FM2. The other motivation to get the Zf was that the Fuji X-Pro4 I was considering has not appeared with no rumoured leaks either, and I'm quite happy with just having the Fuji X100V as a compact take-along-everywhere digicam.

So, after ordering it from Futuromic Photo AV Sdn. Bhd., the local distributor of Nikon, I received my Zf with 24-70 f4 kit set on 14 December 2023. I also purchased the Nikon FTZ II adapter, for a total cost of RM12,540.00. I had a special discount considering that the year-end sales already offered the ZF plus zoom kit only at RM12,838.

You can view some initial test shots I took with the Zf with the FTZ II adapter and some of my older F-mount prime lenses. Below are just a few selected images, all are SOOC JPEG and taken handheld: -

That last picture was taken at a whopping ISO 64,000 and there's hardly any noise!

A few things I really like about the Nikon Zf are: -

Really fast subject-detection autofocus with sticky 3D tracking.
Very natural looking and smoothly responsive EVF.
Pretty good sensor VR that works on my older, even manual focusing, lenses.
Noticeably better image quality than my D750 or X100V, especially improved dynamic range and nicer colours.
Incredibly low noise at high ISO, compared to my D750 or X100V.
Solid build and retro design.
Acceptably quiet and lovely sounding shutter.
Very good video recording with quick AF and support up to 4K/60p in N-Log too.

What I'm still getting used to:-

Since the D750 is OVF-based, for me to determine correct exposure required educated guesswork followed by some chimping and further adjustments. The Zf has a very nice EVF and LCD, so it's a WYSWIG experience and I can get correct exposure on the first try. Nevertheless, in difficult lighting situations, I tended to overcompensate the exposure when trying to brighten or darken the image, as I'm still getting used to the characteristics of the display.
I've been using the X100V more often than the D750 and with its APS-C sensor, it's DOF is deeper than the Zf or D750, so now I tend to underestimate how shallow the DOF of full-frame is. Even though the 24-70 is only an f4 (which is similar to f2.8 on the X100V I think), it can be quite shallow, especially at closer distances.
The X100V has a leaf shutter and that makes it surprisingly forgiving to handshake at slow shutter speeds. Although the Zf sensor VR is excellent, I noticed that I can't be lazy in my handholding technique, as I can easily tell if the Zf had taken a clean, sharp shot or the slight blur is due to my own unsteady hands.

I also purchased the Sennheiser MKE 440 external stereo microphone to give a boost to the quality of audio recording. This set me back RM 1,590 but it greatly improved the sound compared to the built-in mic and is certainly better than my existing Nikon ME-1 mic. Below is a picture of the MKE 440 fitted on the Zf attached to the FTZ II with Nikon 20mm f1.8G.

Lastly, I wanted a new yet compact camera bag to store the Zf in. I decided to buy the Bellroy Venture Sling 10L in midnight blue for RM950 (that includes shipping costs, and I also received with it, a free Bellroy Cooler Caddy bag worth RM299, in light copper colour). Although the Venture Sling is a small bag, it could easily fit the Zf with three small lenses, like the 24-70 f4 mounted, and for example, the Nikon 20mm f1.8G and 85mm f1.8G together with the FTZ II adapter. I like this bag because it has a flexible compartment with loosely attached dividers and the bag itself shapes to the contour of your body when you wear it. The Venture Sling is certainly smaller, lighter and less expensive than my existing Ona Leather Prince Street bag, yet I think is more effective as a camera bag.

I still have a few more stuff to buy, like Z-mount lenses and other accessories. I'll update on these purchases from time to time....

Aerial Videography

2023-05-12T18:06:08Z

I've always wanted to try out drone or aerial videography ever since the DJI Mavic Pro was released back in 2016. However, I never bought into it, until recently, when the DJI Mavic 3 Pro was launched in April 2023. It caught my attention because it had the newly developed triple-camera system, and all the latest bells and whistle technologies. One of the camera is a Hasselblad with a 24mm f/2.8 equivalent lens, the other two are 70mm f/2.8 and 166mm f/3.4 equivalent. So, I pre-ordered the Fly More Combo package online on 1 May 2023 at a whopping RM12,399. Now, I own both a drone and a Hasselblad camera :-D

It arrived safely ten days later, and I then realised I forgot to buy a microSD card. Thankfully, it has a built-in 8GB of storage, so after charging up the batteries, I took it for its maiden flight from my backyard.

Check out more photos of it here.

The microSD card is on its way.....

Asus Router Booster

2023-04-08T05:28:59Z

With the Rokoko mocap suit that I recently purchased, I also bought on 6 Mar 2023 a new Asus RT-AX56U router for RM450 at a special discounted sales. This is much faster than the TM Unifi supplied TP-Link C1200 router, not to mention being much more featured in terms of security, administrative control and ease-of-use.

Below is an Internet speed test I did (my TM Unifi is a 800 Mbps package) : -

Not bad eh?

Rokoko Mocap Suit

2023-04-08T05:10:47Z

One of my favourite hobbies is 3D animation storytelling, and in the pursuit of producing better character animation in an easy yet effective manner, I had purchased the Rokoko Smartsuit Pro II + Smartgloves motion capture package, and it arrived by courier on 2 Mar 2023. At around RM17K, this is quite an investment, but being state-of-the-art for inertia-based mocap systems, with the ability to integrate with Reallusion iClone animation system, it has proven by many to be a worthy product.

I am still playing around with this, and will be working to produce a simple short animated clip as part of testing and learning to do motion capture animation, together with iClone 8. So far, it has been easy to setup and does output incredibly smooth and life-like motions with virtually no cleanup needed.

New Rubber for my GTi

2022-12-23T09:59:23Z

As I had bought the Bridgestone RE004 tyres before the Covid-19 pandemic began, it is almost three years old, and during the lockdown period, I hardly used my car as driving around was restricted. Thus, although the tyres does not look worn out, it may be hard or even brittle, and may not be safe to be driven fast and furious...

So, it was time to get a new set of rubbers for my VW Golf GTi, and I decided on the newly announced and highly recommended Michelin Pilot Sport 5. The PS5 is the latest model replacing the famous PS4 and it has been independently tested and reviewed to be much better in almost every performance aspect.

Listed at RM700 per piece for a 225/45/17, I bargained it down to RM588 each, for a total of RM 2,352.

I also had my wheels repaired, repolished and resprayed to look brand new. It had suffered all sorts of dents, scratches and bruises due to me accidentally brushing them against the road curbs. That cost me RM 1,000 for the set of four wheels.

You can view the rest of the pictures here.

Power Shaver and a Breath of Fresh Air...

2022-08-15T12:19:27Z

I didn't really need to buy a new electric shaver, as my existing one is working fine, although is it ten years old. However, the battery doesn't seem to hold a full charge of 60 minutes anymore (nowadays around 40+ minutes), plus Harvey Norman was having their Merdeka Sale... So, a quick morning trip to Midvalley Megamall did the trick. Below is a picture of my new Philips S9982/50 electric shaver that cost me RM1,199 instead of the usual RM1,399.

Of course, being that it was on sale, I was attracted to also buy this Philips S800 Air Purifier. I had been suffering a bit of cough lately, and I concluded it was not just the flu that is flying around that is causing my throat to be a little irritated, but probably a large factor due to the dust and muck in my bedroom. I'm hoping that this small appliance costing RM579 instead of its usual RM768 can suck up all the pollutants and germs in the air.

You can see more photos of the two new gadgets here.

Breathing Life to my Mobile Phone

2021-12-05T14:49:00Z

My old phone - the Apple iPhone 6S Plus - was dying... it's battery was just not able to hold it's charge for long... I think I had to recharge it every hour as it's level would quickly drop below 5% by then.... well, it was over 5 years 7 months old...

I was waiting for Celcom, my telecommunications service provider, to announce their annual special offer to my organisation in terms of a discount package for the latest iPhone models.... and on 12 November 2021, that offer came though and I quickly ordered online for the new iPhone 13 Pro 256GB in Graphite colour for RM4,198. This is actually a tiny bit cheaper than my older iPhone that cost me RM4,199! (Although I didn't buy that through Celcom's usual offer, silly me).

The new iPhone was finally delivered to my home on 29 November 2021, and it took me a day to set it up... firstly, I had to unpair my Apple Watch 6 from the older iPhone, then I performed a backup of the old phone through iTunes, then after switching on the new iPhone, and going through some preliminary installation procedures that included an upgrade to the latest version of iOS, and this took a long time, more than an hour if I recalled. After that was done, I simply restored the backed up data to the new iPhone, and then paired it back to my Apple Watch, and it was completely configured and ready to be used.

I haven't really played around much with my new gadget but below is the first photo taken with it when I had lunch at Dave's Deli and ate the delicious quarter chicken meal.

So far, I'm very happy with my purchase and am delighted in its performance and quality. Hoping the battery would last longer than before....

Scanning Old Transparencies

2021-07-14T04:59:23Z

I have tons (literally thousands) of old slides that I had taken using my film SLR, from when I was just a teen.

My flatbed scanner, an Epson V33 if not mistaken, finally gave up sometime early last year.

So, I decided to buy a proper film scanner - the Plustek 8200i SE. It's pretty small, less than a typical shoebox, but it cost approx. RM2,074 including shipping from Amazon. This model is highly regarded and from reviews by owners throughout the Internet, it comes highly recommended. After using for two days, I totally agree. It is really easy to use, and comes with a film and slide holder that you insert in at its sides, and clicks in place for every slide that you want to scan. Also, provided together is the Silverfast 9 scanning software that is a marvel. It takes advantage of the 8200i infra red channel that helps detect dust, scratches and muck on the surface of the transparency, and then automatically removes it during the scan!

Below is my very first scan - of my Mum and me when i was just a baby.

Mak and Harun

So now, I can finally devote some spare time to scan virtually all of my old slide collection....

New Year - New PC

2021-02-07T11:10:29Z

My previous Alienware PC suddenly died on me... well, it was showing problematic signs for a few months, like sometimes only recognizing one of the monitors upon bootup, or occasionally not passing POST.... But one day, it suddenly won’t startup... i tried to reseat the memory chips and graphics cards, and even replaced the CMOS battery, but that didn’t get it to work...

I also tried to start the PC with no memory chips or graphics cards installed, to no avail; the PC didn’t make any beeping sounds, although the case lights would turn on and all the fans spinning nicely after pressing on the power button.... until one night, while i left the PC on to see if i could revive it, it made a loud pop noise, tripped the whole house, and then exuded a burnt smell.

Now, it won’t even light up, and i suspect the culprit is either a short-circuited motherboard, faulty power supply, or worse, a fried processor.... Sadly, it’s warranty is over, so, since repairing it could be a costly affair, and i needed a better PC anyway to continue with my photography processing and 3D animation works, it seemed a good idea to buy a new PC...

So i checked Dell’s website but their usual Alienware models were not sold anymore, and were replaced with the new G5 gaming desktops... thankfully, the G5’s were pretty high on specs, plus were on Chinese New Year sale, so i quickly ordered one...

Below is Dell Alienware Area 51 R2 (left) and new Dell G5 Gaming Desktop (right).

Just to compare the new PC with all the Dell PCs I have owned before, the newest is the least expensive of all, yet the most powerful and advanced.... do compare it with the 1999 PC - what an amazing difference!

Year	Spec	OS	Price
1999	Dell XPS R450 Intel Pentium II 450MHz 128MB	Windows 3.1	RM9,975 (incl. 1x 19” monitor)
2008	Dell XPS 730 H2C Intel 4-core Q9450 2.66GHz 4GB	Windows Vista	RM10,568 (incl. 2x 22” monitors)
2015	Dell Alienware Area 51 R2 Intel 6-core i7-5930K @3.5GHz 16GB 2x nVidia GTX980 SLi	Windows 7 (upgraded to Win10 over the years)	RM12,572 (PC) + RM4,198 (2x 27” monitors)
2021	Dell G5 Intel 10-core i9-10900KF @3.7-5.3GHz 32GB nVidia RTX3070	Windows 10	RM9,128 (incl. 1x 27” monitor)

Below is a comparison of my previous and new PC:-

	Dell Alienware Area 51 R2	Dell G5
Socket	LGA2011-3	LGA1200
Chipset	X99	H370
CPU	i7-5930K	i9-10900KF
Cache	15MB	20MB
RAM	16GB DDR4-2133	32GB DDR4-2933
GPU	nVidia 4GB GTX980	nVidia 8GB RTX3070
HD	128GB SSD + 1TB SATA	512GB SSD + 1TB SATA
Pwr	1500W	500W
Cooling	Liquid	Fan
Price	RM 12,572	RM 8,109

So, all in all, i’m very satisfied with the Dell G5 Gaming Desktop - it’s very fast, compact, and value for money....

VW Golf GTi Engine Rebuild Overhaul

2020-07-18T04:38:54Z

After the APR K04 performance upgrade, I had to do an engine overhaul and rebuild, which was completed in end of February 2020. Karl, Isaac and team rebore the engine block and replaced a slew of components, including:-

Wossner pistons (for all four pistons)
Conrod and main bearings
Timing belt
Water pump
Oil pump
Pressure control valve (PCV)
High performance spark plugs (NGK BKR9)

The whole new bundle with labour costs me around RM13,900.00!

After a run-in period of 5,000km I had the car dyno tested again (but please take note that from mid-March there was a Covid-19 Movement Control Order (MCO), so since I hardly got a chance to drive my car, as we had to work from home, it took me a while to cover the required distance). Below are the results dated 18 July 2020 (this is the third dyno test) :-

As you can see from the above graph:-

- the red coloured line is the original test before K04 upgrade,

- the blue line was after the K04 upgrade,

- the orange line was after the engine rebuild.

After the engine rebuild, there is a noticeable difference in surge by as much as of 50 Nm in torque at around 3,200 rpm, with a strong pull from as early as 2,500 rpm until 5,200 rpm. In fact, there is also an increase in power by as much as 30 PS at around 3,200 rpm, and certainly a good boost of power from 2,700 until 5,200 rpm. Compared to the original (although I already had done Stage 2 upgrades), I improved about 70 PS and 98 Nm! So now, my car has a max of 281 PS and 412 Nm (which is more than the Renault Megane RS at 280 PS and 390 Nm)! What can I say, the car just feels really, really good ｡^‿^｡

VW Golf GTi Turbo Performance Upgrade

2019-12-03T12:15:02Z

As of this writing, my Golf GTi is almost 13 years old, and although it is working fine, I felt it was about time for me to get a new car.... However, in order to purchase a new car that is much better, it would be a very pricey consideration. I'll let you in a secret - my dream car would be the new Renault Megane RS, a beautiful and very sporty hot hatch. Unfortunately, that will set me back an easy RM300K but that would give me a 1.8L turbo providing 280PS and 390NM of driving pleasure controlled via its unique 4-wheel steering system. Sadly, with a 5-year bank loan (I don't think I could get a longer term as I'll be retiring then), I'd be chained tightly around the neck for a crazy repayment of RM5K per month or more! That's like buying an iPhone 11 Pro practically every month!

So, I guess buying a new car was out of the question.... I could buy a 2nd hand car and do it up, but the thought of buying a used car and the hassle of going through the purchasing process irked me.... Then I thought, hey, I already have a used car - my current one! Yup, it's in very good condition, and I certainly know the owner's (me) driving habits.... So, why don't I just give it a boost in performance and maintain it the usual way, I reckon it could last for another 10 years, insya Allah.

Hence, instead of putting a down payment of RM30K for a new car, I'd used the same amount (well, around RM27K), to bring new life into my current car! The last time I did any performance modifications was over 10 years ago, and it made a lot of sense to follow through with APR Malaysia to inject the needed speed. Karl, who successfully did the Stage 2 mods the last time, recommended the following upgrades:-

APR K04 Turbocharger system + OEM Bosch Injectors
APR Intercooler
APR HPFP High Pressure Fuel Pump
APR K04 ECU software ugprade
NGK Laser Platinum PFR8 B Spark Plug

Note: My VW Golf GTi is a 2007 2.0L Turbo MKV FSI. It already has the following mods:-

APR Carbonio CAI Cold Air Intake
APR 3" Race Downpipe
APR Stage 2 remap

It took about a month for the parts above to arrive from USA after making the order, then Karl and his assistant Isaac plus technical team took around 4 days to install and test the entire system. Actually, it was supposed to take only 2 days, but there was a misfiring hitch that needed a while to troubleshoot, and was finally pinned down to one of the new injector being faulty, which Isaac replaced with a new and working one.

Also, a few other components needed to be replaced as they were discovered to be worn out, such as the cam follower, ignition coil pack, charcoal cannister, and air filter. By mid afternoon on 23 November 2019, all was completed and after a quick test drive, I was left smiling from ear to ear.

Mind you, before the installation, we had dyno'ed the car, to get a baseline of it's current performance stats, that is about 211PS and 314NM at the wheel, which is pretty good considering its age. A week after the installation, we did another dyno and the new output is a screaming 279PS and 386NM (on RON95 fuel)! Eat that, Megane RS...

VW Golf GTi Dyno Test #2 VW Golf GTi Dyno Test #2

Having driven my upgraded ride for a week, which included an outstation spin, all I can say is, "Wow!" Although I didn't do any 0-100 km/h test runs, without a doubt, not only is it significantly quicker and much more responsive, it does so with incredible smoothness with way less effort and it seems to be pulling strongly right till redline, where before it would run out of breath past 5,000 RPM.

Below are the before and after dyno charts. Notice that the K04 graph is very smooth while the before graph (incorrectly labelled "stock" as it really is "stage 2") shows a rather jumpy and unstable curve. That could be due to anything from old spark plugs to an aging turbo unit and certainly means that the new K04 system has been installed and tuned properly and is performing remarkably well. In any case, after 3,000 RPM, there is a sudden surge in power and torque with a total jump of about 68PS and 72NM from the previous setup!

You must understand, the standard, stock GTi is no slouch, so when Karl warned me that I must replace the existing braking system to a more stopping set (to be done another time...), he wasn't joking. I mean, this thing just rockets and doesn't seem to know when to slow down! Below 2,500 RPM it potters smoothly like before, but floor the pedal in Sport Mode, and you've unleashed a powerful beast bent on burning rubber on the tarmac, and leaving its stock rivals in a state of shock.... It's furious, unrelenting, and stupidly fast.

I like it.... very much ;-D

VW Golf GTi - APR K04 - Quick Test Drive

Enjoy the rest of the pics....

Drobo 5C with new Power Adapter

2018-12-31T03:59:13Z

A few months ago, my Drobo suddenly stopped working. In fact, everytime I switched on my computer system, the entire house would trip. I thought it was the UPS that was short-circuiting, so I bought another, only later to realise it was not the UPS that was faulty. Thinking that the culprit was the Drobo, I called up Shashinki where I had purchased it from, and was told to send it to them for repair or replacement (it was still under warranty).

I didn't want to courier it to them, so when I had an outstation trip, I decided to drive down all the way to Skudai, Johor and deliver the Drobo by hand. Upon arrival at the shop on 29 Oct 2018, I met Dr. Koh King who is the man behind Shashinki, and he pointed out that most likely, it was the power adapter that was at fault, not the Drobo unit itself. Unfortunately, he said the adapter was not covered by the warranty, so I left the adapter with him, and over the next couple of weeks, he had tried to get hold of a new one, but it took so long that I finally decided to buy it online from Amazon on 17 Dec 2018.

To my surprise, the new power adapter from Amazon arrived on 31 Dec 2018 instead of the estimated 15 Jan 2019, and after plugging it to the spare UPS and connecting it to my PC, the Drobo 5C was alive again, and backing up all my datafiles successfully. Actually, the Drobo was out of action for so long that it auto-detected its firmware and dashboard software had to be updated to the latest version, which it performed promptly. Below you can see it straddled on top of the two UPSs.

Speedy EVO SSD

2018-06-12T02:48:26Z

My PC is over three years old now, and it's time for a mid-life upgrade.

So, to give it a quick performance boost, I decided to purchase and install a new solid-state drive (SSD).
This took in the shape of the new 1TB Samsung NVMe M.2 970 EVO SSD. Phew, what a mouthful! Touted to contain the latest tech that can result in high-speed read/write performance, which after installation I had tested to produce approx. 3,542 MB/s for read and 2,490 MB/s for write! Compare that to the SSD it replaces which is the 128GB Samsung mSATA PM851 that maxes out at 400+ MB/s.

Actually, it doesn't replace the existing SSD; you see, the Dell Area 51 R2 does not have a M.2 slot to install the new SSD. So, the only way to put it into my PC is to have a M.2 PCIe adapter. After some reading, I opted for the Angelbird Wings PX1 that contains a unique heatsink design to dissipate heat. Since the 970 EVO is a single-sided SSD, I could make use of the two provided thermal pads to sandwich the SSD in the heatsink. It was quite easy to install the SSD into the PX1 and later plug it into a spare x16 slot in the Dell (the other two slots were taken up by the dual nVidia GTX 980 in SLI configuration - this pair might later be replaced with the new rumoured nVidia GTX 1180, but that's another story for later....).

Allah swt must be kind to me, as this whole installation and setup process worked the first time with no hitches whatsoever.

Before commencing with the SSD upgrade, I did a full system and data backup. Having done that, with the PC switched off, I plugged in the PX1, and restarted my PC and confirmed through Windows 10 Device Manager that the new SSD was recognised. I then proceeded to install the latest Samsung NVMe driver as well as Samsung's Magician and OS Migration software. Magician reported the SSD was working as expected (I used this to test its performance) and then initiated the cloning process using the Migration tool. Once cloning was completed, I restarted the PC and checked the BIOS that automatically detected the new SSD to be in the first UEFI bootable sequence. After Windows 10 was up, which I instantly noticed a faster bootup time, I ran Disk Management that showed the 970 EVO was online while the older SSD was offline (this was due to a conflict in Disk ID - as expected after successful disk cloning). I then shrunk the volume of C: drive to about 200GB and turned the remaining space to D: where I would copy all my data from the existing HD, which would later become my backup disk. I also deactivated the older SSD as I was not going to use it anymore.

To ensure everything was working fine, I ran all my programs including games such as Dragon Age Inquisition, and noticed a much faster speed when loading mission data! Using HWInfo, I noted that the SSD temperature averaged around 50C which was nice and cool. All in all, a smooth and more responsive experience with the Samsung 970 EVO.

Safe and Sound - the Drobo 5C

2018-04-06T17:12:08Z

Over many, many years, I have been backing up my computer system and data by using external hard drives. I would make both system images and data backups on multiple drives and end up having a stack full of them in my room. Finally, I decided to go RAID...actually BeyondRAID...and bought the Drobo 5C. It's a Direct Attached Storage (DAS) device that can hold up to five (5) internal drives that can be of any capacity, speed or brand.

It just so happened that I had five of these 3.5" 3TB external drives, which meant I could fill up the Drobo nicely. So what I did was cracked open the Western Digital and Seagate enclosures and stripped out its hard drives, which I then inserted into the Drobo. This saved me from buying new internal drives as I was able to reuse these older ones.

It worked like a charm, and after enabling dual-disk redundancy that allowed two drives to fail and still provide data protection, I silently copied over all my computer data to the Drobo.

It's so easy to install and setup, and a great relief that my backup system is more resilient than before and I manage to declutter my work environment at the same time.

Wrist Power

2018-01-05T23:28:37Z

I had planned to buy a new camera in late 2017, that is the latest Fujifilm X100F and its conversion lenses, but ended up only purchasing this tiny wrist strap by Peak Design for my Nikon D750. In skipping the X100F, I guess I'm hoping that Nikon would release a new full-frame mirrorless camera in 2018 that could interest me, and in any case, my X100 is still doing fine.

While my new wrist strap costs about RM160, my brother Yusof just bought a Sony A7R III + Sony 85mm f/1.8 for a whopping RM16,000+ in cash. Unfortunately he is using the standard Sony shoulder strap. Oh well...

This wrist strap is pretty nifty as you can adjust its size so that it fits nicely around your wrist. It also is quite comfortable and with that bit of leather strip, is pretty to look at. I bought it as I felt the Black Rapid shoulder strap I currently own to be a little bulky and I wanted a more compact and simpler way to carry my D750 and have it always ready in my hand for the next shot.

New Year Resolution - Triple Monitor Display

2017-01-05T02:31:06Z

To begin my New Year resolution for bigger and wider aspirations, I just acquired a new computer monitor, turning my existing dual-monitor setup into a triplet panoramic display!

This was triggered mainly after my online purchase of the Titanfall 2 game in December 2016, a top of the charts first-person shooter where you pilot a menacing Titan that rekindled my fondness for the Mechwarrior game I had a long time ago.

However, with a dual-monitor setup, it was very frustrating to play in. Actually any game is crippled in such a setup since you can only use one monitor that results you either looking at the left or right screen, never in a more appropriate centre display. You see, gamers either use one or three monitors, never two.

So, I had to get another Dell U2713H to match my existing units, but only the newer 27” QHD UltraSharp U2715H was available on Dell’s website, which was fine, as its specs were similar with even thinner bevels, and it also cost the same at RM2,099. I quickly ordered it online and it was delivered to my home on 3 Jan 2017.

It took a while for me to figure how to set it up correctly. Firstly, I realized I had to set it, using its own menu, to be driven by micro-DP (display port) rather than the default DP, which was why I couldn’t see anything on the monitor when it was hooked up to the PC. Secondly, for proper multi-monitor SLI to be enabled via the dual nVidia GTX 980 cards, all three monitors must be connected to the same card. Thirdly, you configure in the nVidia Control Panel on Windows 10 so that the display spans across for a native resolution of 7680 x 1440. Then, voila, it was magic.

Now, playing my computer games is such an immersive experience, whether it be battling it out in Titanfall 2 or adventuring in my older games, Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, which I’m inspired to play again from the start! Even doing photo or video editing, and muti-tasking several applications, is so liberating, as you have more desktop space to work with. I highly recommend having a three monitor setup – go for it!

My Latest Workhorse - The Apple iPad Pro

2016-02-06T10:37:23Z

Apple iPad Pro SetPJ Home. NX-D v1.30.

I've had the iPad 3 since 2012, and it has been helpful to me in my work where I would use it to take meeting notes and to "carry" my presentation materials (mostly PDFs or Powerpoint files). However, it had the following issues:-

- No native pen for note taking; I used an Adonit Jot stylus with the Notability app, and although it was ok, palm rejection wasn't so great, and the ink flow or pen sensitivity was sometimes not smooth.

- Editing of MS-Office documents was poor; It was only later that Microsoft introduced the Office suite, and although it allowed editing, I didn't have a keyboard nor was the iPad 3 fast or big enough to be useful.

Well, out came the iPad Pro in late 2015, which seemed to have solved most of the issues mentioned:-

- The Apple Pencil is incredible - ink flow is super smooth and responsive, it is even pressure-sensitive, and palm rejection is brilliant.

- The Smart Keyboard is great - works like a charm, and hopefully it can help me not depend on my office laptop anymore.

- However, to edit Office documents, I had to subscribe to Office 365; Microsoft insisted that the iPad Pro is a laptop-class device so charges for editing. This will cost me about US$59 per year, and gives you a 1TB OneDrive cloud-based storage.

- Also, the capabilities on the mobile Office suite is not the same as you get on the PC, so Outlook or Word, etc is not as full-featured. At least you get the split screen multitasking on the iPad Pro to help in working with two apps at the same time.

I also bought the Apple SD card and VGA adapter, which worked fine. And to complete the setup, I got the beautiful leather Pad & Quill bag, made specially for the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro slips nicely into the bag, but attached with the Smart Keyboard, it is a very tight fit.

For 2016 and beyond, this shall be my office workhorse. You can view more pictures here.

What's in my Camera Bag(s)?

2015-05-06T16:16:36Z

Over the years, I had acquired many photographic equipment and accessories. So much so, sometimes I think I'm beginning to be more of a camera collector. In fact, what you see here is what I have generally decided to settle in to. From trying out pocket digicams like the Sony RX100 (that took the photo above) to bridge cameras like the Fuji HS10, I've realised that what is important to is to know what type of subjects you like to take, then pick the system that fulfils the purpose. Obvious, but the naive gearhead in me tends to be attracted to all sorts of gimmicks and gloss. Not that I've completely healed from gear addiction, but I am heading in the right direction, I think.

I love to capture people and places. Not really into birds, or racing bikes, or tiny insects. That's why my purchase of the Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 telezoom and 150mm f2.8 macro were rarely used for taking pictures of wild animals or bugs. It's not as if I visit the zoo every month or hangout at sports events regularly. I wouldn't say those two lenses bred cobwebs in the closet, as they managed to let me capture nice portraits and candids, but lugging around heavy and obtrusive lenses is not my cup of tea. But if I wanted to use them, it feels way better balanced on the Nikon D700 with battery grip than the D750. Which is why I'm still keeping the D700. Same goes for the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. Incredible lens, giving such flexibility and image quality, no wonder it's classed as a pro lens. But again, a beast to lug around, and if you've ever had that large glass pointing at your face, then you'll know what being intimidated feels like. (As the photographer, you hardly realise this, as you are always behind the lens.)

Wanting to try out that super wide-angle look (notice the attraction to effect rather than story), I experimented with the Nikkor 10mm f2.8 fisheye, and later the Samyang 14mm f2.8 manual focus ultra-wide (because I couldn't afford the autofocusing Nikkor 14mm f2.8 or the badass 14-24mm f2.8.) Actually, the fisheye produces that unique distorted look, which I do like, and at the same time, it can be undistorted with the Fisheye-Hemi plugin by Image Trends, so it is like a multi-purpose lens. Only thing, you wouldn't want an entire album of fisheye looking pictures.

With static subjects, manual focus lenses are fine. However, for people, like in weddings or gatherings, using the Samyang 14mm f2.8 and 85mm f1.4 became tiresome. But these prime lenses, together with the fixed 23mm f2.0 that comes with the Fuji X100, or the 24mm f2.8 on the Sigma DP2, taught me how liberating and purposeful it was to shoot with what initially seemed inflexible tools. As they say, limitation is the springboard of creativity. Which was why when I upgraded to the D750, it became imperative that not only was fast autofocusing a must, compact and lightweight was a major criteria. Hence, the reason for getting what I called the f1.8 series lenses - Nikkor 20mm, 50mm and 85mm all f1.8. Compact, lightweight, fast autofosing, and as a bonus, inexpensive, with excellent image quality thrown in.

The hardest buying decisions has got to be camera bags. I bought the Crumpler 7 Million Dollar shoulder bag first, and later the Kata 3N1-30 sling backpack. The painful lesson here is that the larger the bag, the more you want to stuff it with, and the heavier you need to lug around with. Though both are really good and useful bags, having endured the back aches obtained from hauling tons of gear, I forced myself to get a smaller bag, yet not looking like a camera bag. An ardous search on the Internet finally led me to the Ona Leather Prince Street bag, which although costly, topped the list and even looked good. It holds my D750 and the f1.8s snugly and has space for other goodies like filters, spare batteries and memory cards too.

So there you have it. A brisk run through of my current camera setup, which I'm sure will grow quietly in the future...

Umrah 2013/2014

2014-01-14T16:25:24Z

I had performed my Hajj pilgrimage in 2010, but two of my brothers had not been to Mecca. So I invited them as well as my other brother and sister to go for the Umrah, including their spouses. So initially, twelve of us was agreeing to go, but due to clashes in exam schedules, two of the kids couldn't make it. Then, we were supposed to leave on 21 December 2013, but due to some logistic problems confronted by our travel agent, our flight was postponed to 26 Dec. This meant that my brother's wife and children couldn't make it, so the group was down to only eight people - four men and four women. This was convenient, as we shared two rooms comfortably. Our Umrah then proceeded nicely, taking off on AirAsia via LCCT (rather than the originally planned Saudi Airlines via KLIA) where we landed in Jeddah then took a bus ride to Madinah, and stayed there for a few days, after which we travelled by bus to Mecca. Unfortunately, due to the postponement, it had affected our hotel bookings - we were promised rooms in the majestic Zam Zam Towers, which is only 50m from the Masjidil-Haram, but ended up almost 500m away in a less prominent but decent hotel. Again, the plan was to return to Malaysia on 5 Jan 2014, but this was delayed until the 10 Jan. The bonus was the extra days we had in Mecca, fully paid for by the travel agent, and that we flew back by Etihad, Emirates premier airlines, rather than AirAsia.

Those were some of the testing challenges we faced, but otherwise, our Umrah itself went smoothly, and most of us managed to do it three times. The weather was colder than I expected, with Madinah dipping below 20deg Celsius. We toured the usual historic spots like Jabal Uhud and Masjid Quba, acquainted ourselves with a date farm and camel ranch, savoured the local Arabic cuisine, and browsed the shopping centres. Overall, it was a successful trip, and made more enjoyable by the company of my siblings!

Umrah 2013LCCT

Umrah 2013Madinah

Umrah 2013Mekah. LR 5.3

Explore our adventure in Part1 and Part2...

Wedding of Nataskia and Ivan

2013-12-08T11:45:16Z

I was invited to be the official photographer for my cousin's wedding. This was indeed a special occasion, as it was held at Carcosa Seri Negara, my first time attending a wedding at this prestigious luxury hotel, and my first time being a photographer there. Nataskia, or Saskia as she is affectionally called, chose to marry Ivan, a Frenchman, over in Malaysia as most of her relatives are here. Most of Ivan's family members came from Paris and Spain, and a few of Saskia's friends flew in from Australia and Scotland. Together with Saskia's Malaysian relatives, about fifty guests joined to celebrate her wedding. What can I say, it was a most lovely celebration, classic and beautiful. Both sides of the family seemed to be made for each other, and they certainly knew how to enjoy and party right through the night! It was a privilege for me to be a part of this experience, and I'm most grateful that they were happy with the wedding album that I produced for them. May they have an everlasting marriage!

Embrace and be enchanted by more pictures of their wedding!

September Weddings

2013-09-15T12:10:59Z

This month, there were so many weddings to attend to! So far, I've gone to three, and as usual, they are such colourful events. Below are a few snippets from those ceremonies with all pictures taken using my Fuji X100:-

More pictures of the above wedding here.

Needless to say, as we approach the year end, there'll be many more happy marriages...I'll share those moments as it comes...

Watches Galore

2013-09-01T05:23:00Z

I wanted a new watch especially for evening wear. After hunting for suitable models on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't afford Tag Heuer, Omega and not even Seiko. So, it was back to Tissot, which was my original brand. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, it was the V8 model that appealed to me most. It had a classic design with brown leather strap and a dial of ivory colour. However, while perusing the Tissot website, I was attracted to the Seastar, a diver's watch with a beautiful blue-coloured dial and very clean, uncluttered layout. So, off I went to Midvalley Megamall, and dropped in the Tissot shop, and quickly walked away with the two timepieces, costing RM997 and RM2,295 respectively. This purchase rewarded me with a free gift - a Bohemia crystal bowl that I gave to my mum :D

You can view the watches in more detail here....

Walk of LIfe Photo Exhibition

2013-06-13T06:03:00Z

I attended an exhibition by local street photographer Che Ahmad Azhar at the Starhill Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. He presented two dozens of his iconic pictures of life in and around Petaling Street and Pudu Market. I also met Reuters photographer Bazuki too.

You can view a few more pictures....

The One

2013-06-02T08:37:00Z

After more than three years, I finally bought a new mobile phone - the HTC One - to replace my workhorse, the HTC HD2. Apart from the obvious advances in technology, such as faster processor, brilliant display, awesome camera and running on the latest Android Jelly Bean, I'm now, for the very first time, connected to the Internet via mobile broadband...yup, before that, I had only Wifi to depend on...So, with my new toy, it's so connected to all my social media, from email to Facebook and Twitter, that it can be quite bewildering! The thing is, at RM2,299 the HTC One is actually cheaper than when I purchased the HD2!

You can view more pics of it here...and see a comparison of photos taken with it and the older HD2...

My first ever Photo Exhibition!

2012-12-11T08:00:00Z

Over a year ago, I had joined the Nikon Shooting Stars programme, which was aimed at mentoring enthusiast photographers who wanted to improve their skills and project work. Lead by top Malaysian professional photographers, we had monthly meetings where our photos were reviewed and we were guided on clarifying our storyline and vision. It was harder than I thought it would be, and the year-long programme was too tough for many to endure, till only a handful of us survived at the end. However, we were rewarded with being able to exhibit selected photos that went on display at the Kuala Lumpur Gallery (beside Dataran Merdeka)! To top it all, the entire programme and expo was free!

Here are some pics during the exhibition launch....

Benchmark Speeds

2012-10-15T02:37:00Z

I did a rendering test to compare performance of Hash Animation Master v15.0d against the latest v17.0a. The test was done using ThreeTeapotsBenchmarkv005.prj. Below are the results:-

v15d 32-bit 8:51
v17a 32-bit 5:33
v17a 64-bit 4:09 (!)

The improvement v17 has over v15 is terrific - more than twice as fast! My PC is a 2.66GHz Q9450 with 4GB RAM running Win7 64-bit Ultimate.

The test was updated after I bought a new PC in Jan 2015 that is a Dell Alienware Area-51 3.5GHz i7-5930K with 16GB DDR4 RAM and twin NVidia GeForce GTX 980 on SLI running Windows 10 Home 64-bit:-

v18o 64-bit 1:43

Kicking back into 3D animation....

2012-10-12T05:56:00Z

With the release of v17 of Hash Animation Master, my interest in getting back into 3D animation has grown stronger...but first, I needed to ensure that I could rig a character...using the freely available TSM2 (The Setup Machine by Anzovin), I successfully rigged and posed this model, and also tried out the LiteFace rig. I find TSM2 an easy-to-install rig that is comfortable to use and should provide me the neccessary controls needed for good animation.

A Pocket Rocket!

2012-10-12T05:40:00Z

I think my search for the pocketable digicam is over...my previous ones like the Lumix FX55 and Sigma DP2 both had image quality issues, but with this Sony RX100 that I purchased in Aug 2012, not only can it fit in my trouser or shirt pocket, but it produces amazing pictures through its wonderful Carl Zeiss 28-100mm (equiv.) f1.8 - f4.9 zoom lens. Very easy to use and filled with an incredible amount of advanced features, from multi-frame auto-aligning mergeable photos as well as HDR to automatically generating a second image cropped according to what it thinks is a better composition than your original person shot!

Sony did some fantastic tricks to ensure that although it packed 20MP into a 1" CMOS sensor, it can control noise to a minimum even at high ISOs and give us fast response in AF and continous shooting or video.

You need a pocket-sized digicam because 1) the best camera is the one always with you, and 2) the need for discretion at some events, like visits to the hospital, going to funerals, attending meetings at office, etc... yet you would like to capture moments of these scenes. So far, the RX100 has done an excellent job!

More cool pictures of my Sony RX100...

An Apple a Day...

2012-10-12T05:12:00Z

Well, Apple finally managed to convince me to acquire one of its product - the new iPad. I've always been a Microsoft Windows user, and didn't quite clique with the Apple way...but over the last one or two years, I've admired how Apple has matured and strengthened in terms of making its innovation business friendly. One of the important criteria for me was that the iPad had to integrate with my work environment, and at our office, we use the MS-Exchange platform. To cut a long story short, it was very easy to get it to sync with Outlook's email and calendar as well as our corporate Wifi.

I also wanted to use the iPad as a note-taking app, to capture meeting notes and ideas. Initially, I used a rubber-tipped stylus, but this felt too spongy and the tip became loose after a few weeks use...so I decided on the Adonit Jot that had a unique hard disc tip, which not only felt like a real pen and was very accurate and natural to write with, but became a talking point as my workmates' curiosity discovered its clever design. Btw, the cover is by Targus which comes with a neat stylus holder.

All in all, I'm very happy the new iPad. Having used it since April 2012, I found it very useful both at a personal as well as at a working level for me :-)

Take a closer look at my new iPad...

Storytellers

2012-04-29T20:58:00Z

Jerod Foster, 2011 [Technique]

This is a refreshing take on approaching photography by applying the art of storytelling. This book guides you to develop story themes and how the photographer can use his craft to tell great stories. Jerod does this by explaining the language of storytelling using the visual elements and shooting techniques, and covers the process of story design and workflow. Each chapter contains a storyteller profile that is an interview with professional photographers and how they do their storytelling. There are also a few exercises and case studies scattered throughout the book to strengthen your skills and understanding.

More information on Amazon.

Still going strong..

2012-04-04T18:59:00Z

My mobile phone, the HTC HD2 running Mobile Windows v6.5, is working perfectly after 2 years since I bought it..it helps me thru my day's appointments with syncing to my office's Exhange's calendar, contacts and todo...I can view updates of Facebook and surf the web via wifi..plus I managed to read the whole Quran translation on it while doing my Hajj pilgrimage in Mekah :)

You can see more photos here...

X100 Firmware v1.21

2012-04-04T18:44:00Z

Fuji has recenly released an update to the X100 firmware - I've installed this and it has made much improvement to the usability and performance. Focusing speed and accuracy has got better, and you can now reprogram the RAW button, just like the FN button! Here's a photo I recently snapped:-

Still Shining

2011-09-02T16:58:00Z

Even after 4 1/2 years, my VW GTi still looks good, thanks to it's Shine & Shield polish treatment. I only wash my car every now and again with normal 'wash & wax' liquid cleaner. Also, it performs even better with the slight modification I did to bring it up to Stage II using APR upgrades. Hope it last for another 10 or more years!

Another New Toy

2011-09-02T16:46:00Z

Although my Nikon D700 is the killer DSLR for assignment-type work, most of the time you just want to carry with you a light compact that is not intimidating to other people. Thanks to Fujifilm that released their Leica-like X100, an APS-C sized sensor rangefinder-like digicam, that doesn't just have superior image quality but looks beautiful too. I bought this in early April 2011 for RM3,888 and got the leather case for free.

Henri Cartier-Bresson - The Modern Century

2011-05-03T20:47:00Z

Peter Gallasi, 2010 [Biography]

This very large book covers the life of perhaps the greatest photographer of the twentieth century. It chronicles his career that spans over sixty years, and shows his photojournalistic pursuits and endeavours, always capturing the vagaries of human behaviour and to produce some of the most memorable and compelling photographs ever published. You can flip though tons of his most famous pictures, and included are a great number images that will be unfamiliar even to specialists. The extensive supporting material - featuring detailed chronologies of the photographer's professional travels and of spreads of his picture stories as they appeared in magazines - will revolutionize the study of Cartier-Bresson's work.

More information on Amazon.

Show less

Street Photography Now

2011-05-02T20:21:00Z

Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, 2012 [Technique]

This large book presents the work of almost four dozens contemporary image-makers noted for their candid depictions of everyday life in our streets, interspersed with four thought-provoking essays that explores the compelling and often controversial issues in the genre. If anything, the selection of photos makes you realise that there is such a large spectrum of subjects and scenes that can fall in the category of street photography, and an infinite number of styles and approaches were used to express them. Certainly the skills of the photographer, in terms of his vision, observation, anticipation and perseverance outweigh the technical considerations of camera brand, lenses and accessories.

More information on Amazon.

Within the Frame : The Journey of Photographic Vision

2011-05-01T19:58:00Z

David duChemin, 2009 [Technique]

This is a book about chasing your vision and telling your stories as clearly and passionately as possible with compelling photography. It emphasises on discovering your personal vision, evolving it and then expressing it through the visual capture using your camera. It encourages to shoot what moves your heart and mind, and necessitates the need to care and understand the subject. What to include and exclude in the frame, and the consideration of light and time, are part of the discussion on composition, and proceeds to enlighten us on storytelling approaches, and the various styles and techniques on capturing people, places and culture.

More information at Amazon.

Blender 3D

2011-05-01T17:08:00Z

While Hash Animation Master is my favourite 3D software, I wanted to try my hands on Blender, which is the free open source program. Very powerful and feature rich, the new v2.5x series has an improved user interface that is much easier to use than before. This book focuses more on the tools needed to create models and make animations for characters, which is great, as that's my main interest.
More details in Amazon.

Canyon Paintball

2010-01-02T00:24:00Z

My nephew organised a new year's paintball game at a new park called Canyon in Bandar Utama. The popular "capture the flag" scenario was played...

Take a look at the paintball game...

Another Island Holiday

2010-01-01T07:57:00Z

My mum, sister and I flew to Langkawi to visit my uncle and aunt who lives there. Didn't tour the island much, more of relaxing at home...

View the island photos here....

More Reunions

2010-01-01T07:54:00Z

A quick, adhoc all-boys reunion with my primary schoolmates held in Bangsar. It was fun and nostalgic to discuss old times and catch up with what we've achieved over the many years...

Some pics of us.....

Light Hill Photoshoot

2010-01-01T07:51:00Z

Another photoshoot with my photo club, at Bukit Cahaya in Shah Alam. A pretty large park, it has paddy fields, ponds, animal parks and lots of greenery to explore.

Come see the lit greens hills....

Crab Island Photoshoot

2010-01-01T07:49:00Z

My photo club outing this time was to Pulau Ketam, an island off Port Klang. I've not been here, so it was an interesting expedition for me.

View more crabby pics....

Gala Night

2010-01-01T07:47:00Z

My office partied too, this time to a black, gold and silver theme. This was our first dinner party to celebrate those top achievers in the division.

Lots of glitter and gold at our dinner night....

Birthday Ball

2010-01-01T07:45:00Z

My rich cousin booked a whole night club that just newly opened in KL and we partied all night long!

More party pics....

Winning Team

2009-12-09T06:48:00Z

My office is preparing for an annual dinner where we award outstanding staff. My job was to take pics of the winning teams as part of a slideshow to be presented that night.

A few selected award nominees....

Monthly Lucky Draws

2009-11-26T02:39:00Z

Every month, our department gathers and celebrate, giving away hampers as lucky draws and also birthday gifts.

Meet the lucky winners...

Orang Asli Village

2009-11-22T04:02:00Z

I recently joined the Petaling Jaya Photographic Society (PSPJ) and went for an outing to the orang asli village in Gombak. There weren't much activity but I managed a few pics here and there.

Take a look at the orang asli village....

MPS Dinner at WIP

2009-11-14T22:53:00Z

Again, and this time it was quite a large gathering, my primary schoolmates met for dinner at the happening joint called WIP in BSC.

Meet more of my MPS friends.....

MPS High Tea at Alexis

2009-11-11T05:44:00Z

Not content with the scheduled reunions, we had to steal a get-together at Bangsar Shopping Complex for high-tea.

More high tea pictures....

Upgraded to Windows 7

2009-11-08T03:58:00Z

I bought Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and did a clean install to my Dell XPS 730. It actually runs noticeably faster and has nice improvements in many places. It cost me RM739...

MPS Brekkie at Raju

2009-11-08T03:52:00Z

My primary schoolmates flocked to Raju for a roticanai and tosai brunch. Later, we headed for a walkaround MPS itself.

Fancy a Raju brekkie....?

VW GTi Power Booster

2009-10-31T05:08:00Z

I've just installed the APR 3" downpipe and remapped the ECU to Stage 2. This brings the power upto approx. 270hp at the crank (from a base of 200bhp) and torque upto approx. 320lb-ft (from a measly 207lb-ft)!

Follow the installation of the power boosters.....

Langkawi Holiday

2009-10-30T06:35:00Z

My cousin and I visited one of our uncle and aunt who lives in Langkawi over the weekend. Their new house is in a kampung area and there are cows and kerbaus nearby. Quite a crazy holiday, thanks to my cousin....

A quick visit to Langkawi.....

Good 'ol Monthly Gathering

2009-10-30T06:32:00Z

As usual, every now and then, our department has a monthly get-together to celebrate birthdays, and have some makan. I've been appointed head of the Welfare and Sports Club and have fun organising these events.

Fun at our monthly gathering.....

Annual Leadership Briefing

2009-10-30T06:30:00Z

My division held its ALB this time up in Cameron Highlands. Thankfully, the weather is nice and cool, and we savoured the famous strawberries with scones and cream.

More pictures of the leadership gathering.....

VW GTi Mods

2009-10-30T06:25:00Z

I am doing some performance upgrades to my car, the first being installation of a cold air intake by Carbonio and an APR ECU remap to Stage 1. This boosts power by 50hp!

See the GTi mods being done....

Nur Lembah Pangsun Site Visit

2009-10-16T18:33:00Z

We are planning a family day for our department, so a few committee members made a trip to the proposed venue situated in Ulu Langat. It looks nice and has all the necessary facilities and the organisers seem friendly and helpful.

My New Toy

2009-06-03T09:14:00Z

I don't carry my DSLR all the time. But my Lumix FX55 follows me everywhere. However, its image quality kinda sucks. So, I wanted a better yet compact digicam. After some reading, I decided on the Sigma DP2 that uses the APS-C sized Foveon X3 sensor paired to a 41mm-equivalent f2.8 lens. It costs a bomb - RM2,985 - but delivers exploding picture quality.

Have a look at the DP2..... and some test pics...

My Travel Photobook

2009-06-01T10:00:00Z

I decided to make a photobook album of selected travel pictures I've taken over the years. This is an A3 size album and is printed on high quality textured paper. It's an excellent way to publish your own works and should last many years.

See my photobook gallery.....

500GB External Harddisk

2009-04-05T06:38:00Z

To minimise the likelihood of data loss, I purchased a Transcend USB 500GB external harddisk, even though I burn my photos and datafiles onto DVD. After connecting this device to the PC, you can press a button on it that initiates file synchronisation or backup. It so simple to use!

Kata 3N1-30 Bag

2009-03-07T03:01:00Z

When shooting outdoors, I find the Crumpler 7MDH a little inadequate, especially when I want to use my superzoom Sigma 150-500mm lens. I needed a sling-type bag that allows for quick retrieval to equipment, and at the same time can also be setup like a backpack. After doing my research, I settled for the Kata 3N1-30. You can see it below compared to my existing smaller Lowepro Photo Runner and Crumpler 7MDH.

Read my review at DPreview and see more pictures of the bag.

Nikon MB-D10 Battery Pack

2009-03-04T09:03:00Z

I finally decided to buy this as it makes it easier to hold the camera for portrait shots and gives a good balance when paired with long lenses, like my Sigma 150-500mm. Also, it raises the speed of my D700 to 8fps and extends the battery life. At the same time, I purchased a Maha PowerEx 8-cell charger and 12 pcs 2700 mAh batteries.

You can see my D700 with the MB-D10 attached.....

Sigma Monster

2008-11-16T06:01:00Z

My DSLR lens arsenal is now strengthened with the new super-tele zoom Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 APO DG OS. This will be very useful for my travel and nature pics. When I bought it, the shopkeeper was surprised how light it was. It is well made and is quite handholdable, balancing nicely on my Nikon D700. With its built-in optical stabiliser, shooting at max zoom is not a problem, with the image becoming almost rock-steady in the viewfinder after a second or so once it kicks-in. So far, my initial tests showed that the lens performed well, focusing accurately and quickly, with sharp images that are rich in contrast and natural in colour. I liked that the zoom ring is a little stiff - this makes it stay in place and not creep. A further zoom lock switch makes for safe lugging around. As a bonus, it fits in snugly unmounted into my Crumpler 7MDH with the rest of my photo equipment! It costs me an affordable RM 3,840 and is certainly an eye-turner...

Take a look at my Sigma monster....

Whaletail Clone

2008-10-30T07:24:00Z

I fancied a more elaborate flash diffuser than the one provided with the Nikon SB-800. Mainly needed it for better outdoor night pics and also indoor shots of portraits with softer shadows. I liked the idea of Gary Fong's new Whaletail, but it costs a bomb. I discovered a clone version which performs virtually the same, yet costs almost a 1/3 of the real thing.

See some test pics of the Whaletail clone...

Sigma 150mm f2.8 APO Macro DG HSM

2008-10-07T00:50:00Z

I just bought this lens, having decided to delay my purchase of the Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR, since there were rumours of an upgraded version to appear possibly in PMA 2009. In any case, the Sigma offers 1:1 macro and can double as a portrait lens. My initial tests of it on my Nikon D700 showed that it delivered excellent sharpness and quick focusing, with typical Sigma colour and contrasts. It also feels lighter than the similarly sized Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. With a great build quality, a pinch-style lens cap, and removable tripod collar, for the price of RM 2,350, I think this lens is a steal.

You can browse several more pics of the Sigma 150mm lens....

Nikon Capture NX2 Video Tutorials

2008-09-22T03:01:00Z

I did a video tutorial of Nikon's Capture NX2 which covers changing IPTC info using presets, making RAW adjustments, making local image enhancements, and batch processing RAW to JPG.

Part 1:-

Part2:-

Testing DX on FX

2008-09-20T18:08:00Z

To make sure my existing set of DX lenses work properly on the new Nikon D700, I went to the FT Mosque in KL and took several snapshots using the Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye, 18-200mm VR and Sigma 30mm f1.4. The DX lenses performed very well.

Check out more DX lens testshots.....

D700 Custom Settings

2008-09-12T03:06:00Z

Below are my custom settings that I have modified from default, for my Nikon D700:-

Shooting bank:-
- File naming = dhw
- Image quality = raw
- Nef recording = lossless compression
- Active d-lighting = auto
- Iso sensitivity = auto, 6400, 1/60s

Custom settings bank:
“B” : newbie (default)
“A” : pro
A5: af activation = af-on only
D1 : beep = off
F2 : multi-selector centre button, playback mode = zoom in (medium)
F3 : multi-selector = reset meter-off delay
F5 : assign fn button = liveview
F5 : assign fn button + dials = dynamic area af
F7 : assign ae-l button = ae-lock (reset on release)

Camera setup:
- Image comment = personal website url
- Image authentication = on
- Copyright info = name (artist), email (copyright)

Nikon D700 and 24-70mm f2.8

2008-09-11T09:59:00Z

At last, having been a happy owner of a d200 for the last 2 years, I'm delighted with my purchase of a new D700 (that costs RM8,600) with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 (RM5,200).

You can see my D700 at http://harun.zenfolio.com/p329250002 :)

Sample pics taken with D700 at http://harun.zenfolio.com/p491578885

Well, all i can say is that it performs very much like has been said by many satisfied users. I've only done some quick snapshots, but already found that its AWB is surprisingly good, and so is AE, which doesn't underexpose like the D200, and of course, superior image quality with hardly any noise at high iso. Very easy to use, esp. coming from the D200, with improved ergonomics, like the multi-selector with centre button (no more accidental navigation), zoom in/out buttons (why didn't they do this before), playback and info button (better layout of screen data), marvellous hires lcd and vf, liveview (no more neckaches during tripod work or awkward pov), virtual horizon (actually found it useful and is quite sensitive). even the shutter sounds snappier. on the whole, no complaints.

The 24-70 is such a pro lens there's not much to talk about. it just delivers. matches and balances very well with the D700.

Anyway, the shots were taken in 14-bit raw, processed in nx2, and the fullsize jpgs can be viewed and downloaded here:-

http://harun.zenfolio.com/p491578885

Crumpler 7MDH

2008-09-01T03:56:00Z

I needed a larger camera bag than my current Lowepro Photo Runner, which is too small to fit my flashgun along with my DSLR and lenses. After much research, I settled on the Crumpler Seven Million Dollar Home that I purchased in KLCC for RM 379. It's an excellently built shoulder bag with plenty of space and padding inside. Best of all, it doesn't look like a camera bag, making it less of a target for thieves.

More photos of the Crumpler bag.......

Vosonic Multimedia Storage Viewer

2008-08-02T22:20:00Z

I just received the VP8860 on 23rd July that I purchased from http://www.shashinki.com/ for RM1,450. It has a 250MB SATA harddisk and can view several types of files, including RAW photos, movies, and MP3 audio. It also has an FM radio with earphones supplied, voice recorder with built-in mic, video recorder from a video source, and supports direct printing function. With a large 4.3" TFT LCD of 800x480 hires, it's a joy to view your images and movies, and it's pretty fast and easy to use.

A few more pics of the Vosonic....

My New PC - Dell XPS 730 H2C

2008-06-23T01:01:00Z

I had planned to buy a new PC for almost two years, ever since the quad-core CPUs were available. My aging computer crawled when trying to edit and process large RAW photos taken with my Nikon D200 DSLR, or when rendering a complex 3D animation scene.
I wanted a Dell, as I liked their reliable products and good service. However, their PCs were quite proprietary, making upgrades using off-the-shelf components difficult, and performing esoteric things like overclocking short of impossible.
So, I decided to build my own PC. Researching on the subject, I narrowed down on a specification based on the X48 chipset, Q9450 CPU, DDR2 SDRAMs, Nvidia 9600GT, etc. all with the intention that it could be overclocked, and wishing to run it on 64-bit Vista.
The plan was going fine, until by chance, I happened to surf the Dell website and spotted a new model they just introduced – the XPS 730 H2C. Almost immediately I fell in love with it (as it looked damn cool, hehe) and after reading about its technology and checking out some online reviews, I was convinced this was the PC I was waiting for!
So, without hesitation, (and I don’t normally react so impulsively, well, not always anyway…) I paid for the new XPS online, and within two weeks, got it delivered to my door-step! Yup, this is my very first overclockable, liquid-cooled, quad-core Dell!
I remembered I had owned another Dell XPS model, almost ten years ago, which only had a Pentium II CPU, yet that system cost me almost the same as the new XPS 730 I purchased!
Below, for comparison fun, are the computers I’ve owned:-

Below is a table listing key differences between my older Dell machine and the new speed demon:-

You can read some online reviews of both computers from the following links:-
Dell XPS R450 - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/1378/dell-dimension-xps-r450.html
Dell XPS 730 - http://hothardware.com/Articles/Dell_XPS_730_H2C_Performance_Gaming_System/
Have a look at more photos of my new PC.....

Inspired 3D Short Film Production

2008-03-28T22:16:00Z

Jeremy Cantor, Pepe Valencia, 2004

This is an excellent book on how to produce 3D animated shorts. The production processes are explained from A to Z, beginning with story and character development, art direction, storyboarding, to the typical production cycle from modeling to animating, rendering and compositing, and lastly to marketing and distribution. Four case studies of famous animated shorts are discussed in the book, while a DVD of around fifty animated shorts are included.

More details at Amazon.

The Animator’s Survival Kit

2008-03-28T22:15:00Z

Richard Williams, 2002

This is another must-have book for those interested in animation. Williams shares with us in great detail his techniques and philosophy in animation, from lessons he had learnt through trial and error while working with other great animators. Although he covers many of the basic movements such as walks, runs and dialogue, it's his analysis and tips of these fundamental actions that give great value to increasing one's understanding and appreciation to this magical art form.

More details at Amazon.

The Illusion of Life : Disney Animation

2008-03-28T22:14:00Z

Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson, 1995

This is a big and heavy book, both literally and metaphorically. I haven't finished reading it. Regarded as a must-have for any serious animator, this book gives an inside look on how Disney studio created their animated works, right from their historical beginnings, with useful explanations of the methodology utilised, including many illustrations and photographs of behind-the-scenes.

More details at Amazon.

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting

2008-03-28T22:12:00Z

Robert McKee, 1997

This is a guidebook for the screenwriter. It's written almost in the style of Stephen Covey's "Principle Centred Leadership" - systematic, thorough, and inspiring. McKee begins with by defining the story, and then dissecting the various elements that make up a story. He then puts forth his ideas on story design, and recommends design principles for us to apply. Finally, he examines story treatment and style, such as the use of antagonism, exposition, and how to handle problem areas like sustaining interest, or coping with holes in logic. There is also a chapter of character design, and the screenplay itself.

More details at Amazon.

Acting for Animators

2008-03-28T22:11:00Z

Ed Hooks, 2001

This book is about acting theory and technique specifically for the animator. An introduction to the Seven Essentials Acting Concepts, is followed by chapters on the audience, character, scene, movement and body language, and speech. Several tips are presented on acting for the camera, action techniques, and handling various forms such as comedy, and different mediums such as computer games or commercials. Finally, several classroom type exercises are provided and finished off with an analysis of the acting done in the movie "Iron Giant".

More details at Amazon.

Disney's Art of Animation : From Mickey Mouse To Hercules

2008-03-28T22:09:00Z

Bob Thomas, 1997

This book talked about the history of animation at Disney, and explored its animation process. It traces the efforts done to produce famous characters like Mickey Mouse and Snow White, to movies like Pinocchio, Cinderalla, Sleeping Beauty, Alladin, Lion King, Toy Story and features a special "making-of" section on Hercules. Elements that made each film, such as story sketches, layouts, and background paintings were explained, giving us a tour behind the scenes.

More details at Amazon.

The Art of the Storyboard : Storyboarding for Film, TV, and Animation

2008-03-28T21:59:00Z

John Hart, 1988

This isn't just a book on how to create storyboards, but elaborates on the the role a storyboard artist plays in the production team, and the whole process of ensuring the story concept is captured in its essence into the storyboard. There are chapters on drawing technique, visual perspective and depth of field, lighting, framing, cinematic composition and sequencing. The appendix contains notes about storyboarding for commercials and multimedia, and has a section where a few key production team members were interviewed regarding storyboard artists.

More details at Amazon.

Drawing the Head & Figure

2008-03-28T21:57:00Z

Jack Hamm, 1982

This is a how-to handbook that offers step-by-step procedures on pencil sketching the human figure in a practical and simplified way, and provides lots of tips and hints. Detailed steps are shown to draw in various styles for the head, hair, torso, neck and shoulders, arm and hand, legs and feet, and als0 clothing.

More details at Amazon.

The Animator’s Workbook : Step-By-Step Techniques of Drawn Animation

2008-03-28T21:56:00Z

Tony White, 1988

This book is mainly for hand-drawn cel animation, but many ideas can be applied to 3D computing. It has many example drawings to perform head turns, walks, runs, takes and double-takes, sneaks and staggers, adding weight and overlapping action. Later, it covers flying bird and four-legged animals, lipsync, and visual effects like wind, water and fire. It also has a chapter on background art.

More details at Amazon.

Digital Texturing & Painting

2008-03-28T21:53:00Z

Owen Demers, 2001

I bought but haven't actually read this book. Skimming through it, I can say that it emphasises on the importance of observing real life objects and the dissecting it's surface textures to determine what elements are needed to reproduce those impressions on the computer. Separate chapters are devoted to colour theory, paintings, and analysing the various input to help make your production decisions. Finally, several project assignments are provided to get you to turn theory into practice.

More details at Amazon.

Digital Lighting & Rendering

2008-03-28T21:51:00Z

Jeremy Birn, 2000

This is an excellent book if you need to understand how to light your scenes properly and produce pleasing results. It is not dependant on any software package yet covers important basics such as lighting workflow and setup, qualities of light, shadow, colour, and even exposure. Composition and staging is discussed much like in photography, followed by a primer on materials, texture, rendering, and compositing. You get to understand what it takes to make a scene look realistic.

More details at Amazon.

Character Animation 2 – Volume 2 : Advanced Techniques

2008-03-28T21:50:00Z

George Maestri, 2001

This book continues from Volume 1 and discusses the steps to making a 3D film and then talks about character and story design. Detailed explanation goes into topics like character rigging, human and animal motion, acting and games production. Some tips and tricks on how to make characters seem to think, doing effective facial expression, dialogue, and body language are also covered. This book doesn't go into each topic too in-depth, rather provides short notes and is to the point.

More details at Amazon.

Character Animation 2 – Volume 1 : Essential Techniques

2008-03-28T21:49:00Z

George Maestri, 1999

This is a very good introductory book on 3D animation. It can be applied to any software package, and covers the basics very well. It starts of with a discussion on design principles, then goes on to modeling and rigging for animation. Animation topics are then covered, such as posing characters with strong silhouettes and lines of actions, emphasis on timing and the language of movement, following similarly to disney's 12 principles. Walking and running are also covered nicely, together with facial expressions and lip-sync.

More details at Amazon.

Animation Master 2002

2008-03-28T21:42:00Z

David Rogers, 2002

An excellent book that describes systematically how to use A:M. However, books like these will very quickly lose its usefulness because the software has new and upgraded features every year. I'd rather have an online guide that is updated regularly. Of course, some of the concepts and techniques are still valid, it's just that how it's achieved may be different in newer versions.

More details at Amazon.

Welcome to my Animation World!

2008-03-28T21:30:00Z

Hi! My name is Harun and this is my 3D Animation blog. I've loved cartoons and especially 3D animated movies ever since Tron. I never knew I could dabble in this art form until I played a bit with Autodesk Animator and later in Hash Animation Master. I've tried several other software packages like Lightwave, 3D Max, and even the free Blender, but Animation Master won me over with it's ease of use, excellent animation tools, and great online community.

I hope to share with you my learnings in this 3D exploration, and make this simple blog a benefit to those that visit it.

Photographing the World Around You

2008-03-28T09:48:00Z

Freeman Patterson, 2004 [ Technique ]

An easier read than his other book, Patterson begins with building blocks of visual design, covering light, line, shape, texture and perspective with a few example pictures. He then explains to us on how to put the building blocks together using interesting ideas of dominance, balance, proportion and rhythm that is inherent in your images. He also reasons with us the importance of evaluating your own photos and finishes off by encouraging us to tackle a few assignments on people, natural things, and constructed things. He also discusses on how to make an album.

More details on Amazon.