The NEX system - Nex 3

Thanks to some poisoning from Chiff camera and othe M lenses users.  I plunged into the compact EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) System.

I was planning to get a M4/3 like Panasonic or Olympus but the 2x crop factor and its 4:3 ratio puts me off... So it was a big surprise when Sony came out this little devil system.  The NEX with E-mount with a 1.5 crop and 3:2 ratio which I am so used to.

At first, I was a bit put off with this cam when I saw the initial review and description.  Lousy interface and no View Finder (this is really a big minus as those who knew me knows that I want a VF in any serious camera I want to buy).

Then I made the stupid move of going over to Chiff's shop one day and I got poisoned.

Firstly, the LCD screen is good.  So good it blasted the Oly lousy 300k dots.  The colours and clarity it produces on the LCD makes focusing with a MF (manual focus) lens a breeze!  For first timers, you just need to enable the MF assist and shutter release with no lens attached in the camera settings.  After that, whenever you attached an old MF lens, the useless shooting tips soft button at the bottom will automatically changes to MF assit button, which allows you to zoom in at 14x or 7x view of the scene.  Very very useful for my old eyesight :)

Another wonderful thing is the articulate LCD screen which turns the little cam into a Waistlevel finder cam.  Like an old TLR.  Which makes street photography much easier.   Overall I am very satisfied with the little cam.

Some cons are already mentioned in other websites. 

1) The form factor which is a bit too small (small oso complain :P). A little bigger will be better to balance some bigger lenses that will be attached to it.
2) No built in sensor AS like their Alpha system. 
3) No EVF attachment (yet). 
4) Battery life a bit weak (but can last one whole day for me which is good enough). 
5) Some interface issues (ISO and WB needs to press a few buttons to change it)  Not a big problem for me as I shoot film so normally I just fix one ISO...
6) LCD might get a bit hard to see in very very bright daylight (so far I only encountered once when its hard for me to see but still can compose.  The MF assist button saves the day actually.

Overall, its a wonderful little gem for a certain type of photography.  Which to me, is street photography.  As the camera is small and if you shoot from your waist, its less intrusive and you get to get very close to your subject without them noticing you.

Another great point is the type of lenses you can attached to it.  It seems Sony's engineer who designed this actually wanted to attached all sorts of old MF lenses to it!  (can tell by the way they implement the MF assist functionality)  So for ppl like me with lots of old MF lenses its a great asset to have my film lenses converted to digital age.

My old CV 35mm Color Skopar 2.5 is now revived on my Nex-3! (See picture on top) .  So if you have a lot of old film camera lenses in your drybox.. I hightly recommend this camera for you (just buy the relative adaptor for it).  

Here's one more for the day.. my Nokton 50mm f1.1 on Nex-3 :P

Its all peaceful here in the north.

I guess most of you have heard the latest clash in Bangkok.  I'm still in Thailand and won't be back till 22nd April.  Just want to assure my friends who reads my blog that all is peaceful up here in the North.  This protests in the capital is also a huge disturbance to my plans to get married in Thailand.  I need to certefied with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Singapore Embassy before I can get married at any local Amphue.  So I guess the "getting married" part will be furthur delayed till everything sorts out in the capital.

Apologies I can't write as often nowadays as 2 kids are eating away most of my time.  I can't even find enough spare time to go out and shoot!  I have already lost a hobby and the spare time left for me is down to blogging about stuff or shooting stuff (photography lah) :P

So of course I chose the latter.  Just spent some time shooting some 120 with my Hassy.  Yup.  My MF is in Thailand... :P.  But the weather is hazy so I doubt the results will be great.

Okie.. Boy crying and girl girl is jumping around.... gotta go ...

12 Frames Project - A Year's Story

After completing the 36 frame project.  I decided to cook with my photog buddy on another.  This time a much longer term project.  How long?  How abut one whole year? :P

Since both of us has Medium Format cameras.  It will be challenging to shoot only 12 frames for the year.  Each month, we are just limited to one shot!

So we can only see the final result in year 2011.  The title was thought by me actually.  A year's story.  How this 12 frames translates to 2010. 

I hope I can get all 12 frames and I have already thought of the film I am going to use.  It will be slide film again... Provia 400X.  Since I won't be sure whether low light will be involved... I think choosing a higher ISO film will benefit.

Its going to be a tough one to complete.  But it will be fun way to start the year!

So to all readers.  Happy holidays and may your wishes come true!

Yashica EZF521

My first film camera was a Yashica SLR.  Can't exactly really remember the model as it was passed to me by my father when I was in Primary 6.  

Nevertheless, its a brand that was stuck in my head for quite some time.  Yashica (the brand) was bought over by some Hong Kong company and they started to come out with some digital cams. 

Recently, they came out this "Digital Holga" version which has some really cool features.  And the lens seems to be modable (its held only by 2 screws).  And the best part is it runs on 3 AAA battS!!  No need to hunt for hard to find CR123 or CR2 batts..

I saw some sample shots and of course the price was attractive too (less than SGD 200 with shipping) .  I got one immediately from japan exposure.  The first one came faulty (it was stuck in PC cam mode), so I need to returned it.  (talk about the poor QC in China).  The new just came a week before my trip to Melaka.  (Many thanks to Dirk of japan exposure on the quick shipping) And so I carried it with me for the trip.  It was the only digital camera I brought along but it was quite fun to use it. 

The LCD sucks and the preview on the images looks horrible.  But the camera actually produces surprisingly quite sharp and contrasty images.  Here's some samples :)

You can view more of the shots taken by this camera at my facebook album

Swarmed....

I have not been posting as I was recently swarmed with work in office.  Our company recently launched a new service managment system and we are still in the transition and training period of this new software.

Sad to say although the instructions (there are documentations) are clear but we are kind of being bombarded with information and things to learn.  The good thing is every 12 hours shifts ends quickly in a breeze but every night at the end of the shift, I was so shacked out that I just head to bed. They say when you hit 30s you start to feel this drag and I am literally living in it now.  How I wish I am 10 years younger in my prime :P

Anyway, I have lots of things to update for this site and I plan to do soon after I come back from Melaka.  Yup, I'm going for a weekend trip with my photog buddies in Melaka to relief some stress.

Will be back on Sunday night.  Hope I will have some energy to complete some posts when I'm back....