Health Tracking
I've been using an Apple Watch 6 for a few years now. However, it cannot check for blood pressure. For that, I tend to use the portable blood pressure monitors commonly found in some homes. Unfortunately, that is not convenient as you won't be carrying it around wherever you go.
I think I've found the solution - Huawei Watch D2. It was available for pre-order from 19 Nov 2024. I bought it online for RM1,899 and received it on 26 Nov 2024, together with some freebies worth RM1,276 - wireless earbuds, weighing scale, a spare wristband, and one-year additional warranty!
The Huawei Watch D2 is the world's first smart watch featuring Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM), meaning it can do 24-hour auto-monitoring anytime, to see where your BP has been and where it's trending, even while you're asleep. It does this in a similar fashion of a normal BP machine as it has a thin inflatable airbag around the wristband that is used to measure your blood pressure.
It can monitor six major systems, including the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, and muscular health systems. For example, it can do Beat-by-Beat ECG analysis, sleep monitoring, not to mention the standard heart rate, stress level, skin temperature, SpO2 , and has 80+ exercise modes.
Apart from these amazing capabilities, it also performs your usual smart watch functions, and pairs to my iPhone for updating health readings, displaying message notifications, etc.
Plus, it's so slim and light. Pretty well designed too.
Since it came with a Huawei Scale 3 weighing machine, it doesn't just measure your weight, but also provides a detailed body composition analysis, such as BMI, body fat rate, etc.
Both the health readings from the watch and the scale are consolidated into the Huawei Health app that is on my iPhone which enables comprehensive statistics and reporting.
Amazing technology! You can see more pictures here.
Gaming Power
Today Sony officially launched the Playstation PS5 Pro gaming console, and I went out to a nearby shop and bought one! This is my very first ever Playstation!
It cost me RM 3,849 and it comes with a dualsense wireless controller. It was very easy to setup and use.
More pics can be viewed here.
The Mother of Camera Bags
No doubt, one of the most difficult photography purchasing decisions to make, is what camera bag to buy. I believe, like many other photographers, I have more camera bags than I have cameras! One of my first camera bag is the Lowepro Photo Runner that I use to keep my Nikon D200. It had a cool feature that is a zippered top that allowed quick access to your camera.
As my equipment grew, with the Nikon D700 and later the D750, I bought bigger bags such as the LowePro Micro Trekker backpack, the Ona Leather Prince Street bag - a pretty shoulder bag but being full leather, was a little heavy even before putting stuff in it... the Crumpler Seven Million Dollar shoulder bag - much roomier, but as the internal dividers were designed to be stacked, they became less practical to get to an accessory quickly. I also bought a bigger bag, the Kata 3N1-30, which was quite sturdy and innovative in that it could be worn as a backpack or a sling bag, but it lacked side pockets and the cover didn't open fully so some items were a touch difficult to get to.
For my new Nikon ZF, I wanted a similar bag to the Lowepro Photo Runner, just a bit bigger, so I bought the Bellroy Venture Sling 10L - a splendid design that could fit in the ZF + 24-70 f4 with 14-30 f4 and my 85 f1.8G + FTZ2. It too had a unique quick access zippered top. However, it was not large enough to also store my flashgun or microphone.
So, I had to buy another larger bag, and after pondering long and hard and seeing tons of YouTube reviews of all sorts of bag, and with my preference for shoulder bags as it is very easy to access all your equipment while carrying the bag, I finally decided to get the Domke F2 camera bag, which by the way, had I bought this years ago, would have solved most of my aches and woes.
With this bag, I could fit in the whole enchilada - Nikon ZF with 24-70 f4 mounted, 14-30 f4, 85 f1.8G + FTZ2, 50 f1.8G, 20 f1.8G, Sennheiser MKE 440 Microphone, Godox V1 Pro Flashgun with X3 tigger and diffuser, not to mention some spare batteries, memory cards and charging cable! And the bag cost only RM800 including shipping - I think this is the least costly bag I own.
Surprisingly comfortable to carry even fully loaded, it moulds to your body as it hangs off your shoulder, and with the thick cotton canvas material, you feel confident all your equipment is protected well.
You can view more pictures of it here.
Grip of Power
To be honest, I like the Nikon Zf as it is. However, when using larger, longer lenses, the handling can be improved with a grip. So, I bought the Neewer CA079 grip that also has a thumb grip to provide a better anchor for holding the camera.
You can view more pictures here.
Light over Darkness
The last time I owned a flashgun was when I bought my Nikon D200 with a Sunpak almost eighteen years ago. All this while, with my D700 and D750, I only used its built-in popup flash that is useful but had harsh, direct lighting.
With my new Nikon Zf, I decided to get the latest Godox V1 Pro round head flashgun together with the Godox X3 wireless flash trigger and also a Godox AK-R22 collapsible dome diffuser.
I tested off-camera flash using the X3 and the dome diffuser and it produced excellent results, as shown below. Without this tiny but modern gadget, I couldn't do off-camera flash (unless I had another Godox flashgun acting in a commander mode), and the dome diffuser produced acceptable soft lighting.
More test pictures can be viewed in this page.