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: -
What I'm still getting used to:-
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....
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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.....
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Below is an Internet speed test I did (my TM Unifi is a 800 Mbps package) : -
Not bad eh?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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....
]]>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.
So now, I can finally devote some spare time to scan virtually all of my old slide collection....
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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) |
|
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 |
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 。^‿^。
]]>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:-
Note: My VW Golf GTi is a 2007 2.0L Turbo MKV FSI. It already has the following mods:-
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...
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
Enjoy the rest of the pics....
]]>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.
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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.
]]>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.
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...
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!
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More pictures of the above wedding here.
More pictures of the above wedding here.
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...
]]>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:-
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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...
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...
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....
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.....
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....
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....
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....
My rich cousin booked a whole night club that just newly opened in KL and we partied all night long!
More party pics....
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....
Every month, our department gathers and celebrate, giving away hampers as lucky draws and also birthday gifts.
Meet the lucky winners...
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....
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.....
Not content with the scheduled reunions, we had to steal a get-together at Bangsar Shopping Complex for high-tea.
More high tea pictures....
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...
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My primary schoolmates flocked to Raju for a roticanai and tosai brunch. Later, we headed for a walkaround MPS itself.
Fancy a Raju brekkie....?
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.....
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.....
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.....
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.....
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....
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.
Follow us on our site visit....
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...
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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.....
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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!
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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.
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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.....
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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....
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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...
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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....
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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.....
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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)
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.......
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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....]]>