Safe and Sound - the Drobo 5C
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'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
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
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
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)?
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...