Nuffnang's Ad

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Truth about Women

I watched this clip at my friend's site and cannot tahan! Must share!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Photography: Night View from Pantai Senibong

As promised earlier, here are some night view shots from the Pantai Senibong. We are actually looking at Singapore shore and the industrial lights will calm water reflections will never fail to attract photographer like us. Enjoy.


Sembawang Shipyard in night action.


Senoko Power Plant in Singapore.

Learnt alot during the night shot. I set up the tripod on the deck and cannot get a clear shot. Finally give up and move to a concrete floor for another try. Still I'm unable to get a clear shot. After adjustment, finally get to f/11 and have some ok shot up there. Need further improvements!

Nasi Lemak @ Senibong

I'm quite sure that all Johorians will know about Senibong Nasi Lemak. I've heard about it since I arrived at JB 3 years ago but until yesterday night only I tried the famous Nasi Lemak.


Pusat Pelancongan Pantai Senibong financed by the government. Not sure what the goverment is financing though. Pantai Senibong is located at the side of the beach and you can see Singapore's island from here. Those lights are from Singapore and I've taken some pictures to show in next post.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

2012


On 10th Nov 2009 midnight, just right after the clock show 12.00, I log on to the GSC website trying to book myself tickets for the long awaited 2012 movie. Knowing Malaysian's style, I can't risk booking later or else I will need to wait for another 2 weeks to watch it. To my surprise! People already start reserving seats through online banking and within minutes, almost 30-40% of the seats are gone. I've got some problems with my credit card, so finally manage to settle with a good seat for midnight show. Crazy Malaysian, I know, that means me too.

We always opt to watch action movie at Cinema because of the sound system setup. Therefore, normally we don't miss any action pack or sci-fiction movie, and this definitely includes the 2012. The movie is great and as you can see from the poster, it's about earth tearing apart. So we are expecting lots of disasters, but the scale of the destruction is much more massive that we anticipated. The city sliding into the sea, and they meant it! It's crazy and you will actually worry. Some of the scenes showing how helpless and tiny human is sometimes disturbing.

No matter what is your expectations, this movie will definitely blow you away with all its explosive sounds and special effects. Some of the running scene looks fake, but you will love and cheer when they survive it. So overall, thumbs up and RM23.00 well spent. RM30 actually, including popcorns =P



I always choose the biggest hall for maximum sound impact, and it never fails me =P Our seats are island double seats at the side of the stairways similar to couple seat but with normal price. The only different? The arm rest cannot be lifted for close proximity =P but still nice =)

ps: watch out for the scene in the car, everyone claps their hands ...

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Nikon Dream Set

Every photographer will have their own list of dream set that will cover every aspect of moment. I've pull together a list, which is best of the best lens available and I'm sure all Nikonians will agree as well. Let's see what we got here:

1. AF-S Nikkor 50mm f1.4G priced at RM2,188.00


2. AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8G ED priced at RM6,888.00


3. AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8G ED priced at RM6,688.00


4. AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8G ED VR priced at RM7,388.00


5. AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8G IF-ED priced at RM3,688.00


The entire range of the lens I've listed will cost RM26,840.00 and yes, you will get some discount, so how about rounding it up to RM20,000. WTF! All the lens listed above have superior quality and are FX lens. So we will need a FX camera to go with it.

I think the compact body of Nikon D700 (RM9,688.00) is a must as backup camera while supporting the main body of supreme Nikon D3 (RM16,288.00) or maybe the highest professional range of Nikon D3X (RM29,988.00).

Yeah I know, I'm dreaming. But everyone dream, that's why I called it dream set =P

Monday, November 16, 2009

Basic in Image Sensor

Since I started this blog, there are more and more people asking me questions regarding dSLR. Most of them didn't rush out the door to get one after I've told them the advantages, mainly due to the price, of course. But I can see all of them are very interested in photographing. The main obvious advantageous is, of course, the sensor size. In which I realise lots of people do not understand how it works. So here go a short tutorial on sensor & megapixels myth. (to fill my blog coz no updates also =P)


Image Sensor found in Nikon D90

Ages ago when we are still living in the caves, we do not know what is megapixels. It does not exist, and all we care is not the camera built quality, but the film itself. There are high & low quality films that determines the outcome of our photos. Film SLR is only used by professional with professional interchangable lens.

Things started to get complicated when the 0 and 1 come into pictures, the logic for electronics world. Imagine a sensor is actually a solar panel, it's the same actually, so no need to imagine. It take in lights wavelength and convert it into electrons. This electrons will then be fed into the image processor for processing.


35mm Full Frame:  Nikon D700, Nikon D3, Canon 5d

APS-C (Nikon) : Nikon D300, Nikon D90, Nikon D5000

APS-C (Canon): Canon 50D, Canon 500D, Canon 1000D

Four Thirds System: Olympus PEN-E-P1

1/1.63": Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

1/1.7": Canon Powershot G9, Canon Poweshot SD950IS

1/1.8": Nikon Coolpix P5000

1/2.5": Canon Powershot A570IS, Canon IXUS 860IS, Sony Cybershot DSC-W80, Sony Cybershot DSC-H9


The sensor size is actually equivalent to a film size. The normal film size we normally used is 35mm measured in sensor length. Same goes to sensor size. Looking at the table, the only equivalent quality of sensor to the normal 35mm film we used ages ago is the full frame sensor in highest specifications of dSLR! After so many years, we finally picking up to what our grandfather is using. Funny, but true. Most compact are 1/2.5" sensor size, and that explains why the quality is not comparable to a dSLR.

The 2nd affecting factor is the pixels. Imagine a piece of land (the sensor size) is built with concrete divider that separate the the entire piece of land into 800 equal lengths and 600 equal widths. Each concrete box is a pixel. The land now have 800x600 pixels or equivalent to 480,000 pixels. Pixels is defined without considering the size of the sensor, therefore, imagine cramming 10,200,000 pixels (10.2megapixels) into that tiny 25mm2 (1/2.5") size while the same pixels is comfortably fit into the 864mm2 (35mm) sensor. These small pixels/dots will combine becoming a photos. That my friend, is the power of technology and different in quality.


Pixel Art in low pixel array arrangement

Once you understand this, you will know that why megapixels does not matter because the sensor size is limited. No matter how many megapixels you throw in, the size is still the same. Of course that it's still important that higher megapixels sensor do provide higher resolution, in which avoid pixelisation during large printout. However, it's still only a very minor unnoticable improvement over the advantageous offer by larger sensor.

However, do take note that pixelisation (boxy edge) still will happen if you use a small megapixels setting in dSLR and print out the photo in a very large poster paper. That's when the megapixels come into the picture. Other than that, it's not noticable in small printout out like 4"x3" photos we normally keep. Considering the photos printer is 300dpi (dots per inch), then your 4"x3" photos will need 1,200 x 900 pixels/dots only. All other pixels will be deleted during printing, just because the printer cannot make use of the rest of the pixels. So, why bother shooting higher resolution?

I kept my D90 setting to highest resolution but maximum jpeg compression. That give me the highest resolution, and I rely on the camera processor to "intelligently" compress the non-relevant pixels in my photos. I will normally get 3-4Mb for each photo that I've taken in 4288x2848 (12.2megapixels). If you take raw, you should get size of the photo similar to the megapixels, in this case, 12.2Mb. As I said, each pixel is converted into 0 or 1, therefore 1 bytes for 1 pixel =)

Jpeg compression in Fine or Normal determines the rate of compression you choose. It's similar to zip or rar program that we used in documents. Just that this time, the camera will determine which pixels is not important / repetitive in the photos to human eyes, that will still produce the same quality. It should be the best quality to size combination. If there is a job, then I will start shooting RAW, but not now.

There are still other technology considerations in sensor advantageous, which too vast to cover. Maybe next post. Those are like CCD, CMOS, sensor built, how lights is captured, noise, colour, different in Nikon / Canon system and etc. I shall write more when I'm free. Thanks for listening and do correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.

Cheers.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photography: Jom Scouting

Been really busy and not much updates. Throwing in some shots for your comments.







Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Auntie Lora Kopitiam - Asam Laksa @ Cheras

After almost a month of my friend's wedding, I've finally have time to meet them up to pass them my photography works. They are kind enough to treat me and my wife some special breakfast in Cheras. Asam Laksa and Prawn Mee at Auntie Lora Kopitiam. This shop is located around the shop area next to Cheras Leisure Mall, GPS coordinate at the bottom of the page.


The shop view. That's a big prawn they hang there. Earlier duck hanging, now prawn hanging. Trendy?

Monday, November 2, 2009

Nikon Speedlight SB-600

Before I buy my Nikon D90, I've heard stories that a dSLR is not harnessing it's full power without an external flash. The major strength of a dSLR is due to the flash ability that's design to work with the camera. Still, an external flash unit is expensive and the cheapest Nikon Speedlight SB-400 still cost RM400.00. However, SB-400 do have limitations and that's the reason it's cheaper. I did my researched and opt for the wait a little longer for this baby. Need to save the money!

Finally! The Nikon Speedlight SB-600 joined the family on 1st November 2009.


The beautiful Nikon Speedlight SB-600 box. Nikon always have the same design for its boxes, but my heart still get all the adrenalin rush when un-packing every one of it. Dreaming of the moment with wide angle =)