ROBIN WONG

I recently bought myself a new budget macro lens, the 7Artisans 60mm F2.8 II Macro. Not many people know this, I don't actually have macro lens for my Micro Four Thirds setup. Previously I did have the Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, which was borrowed from Olympus when I was their ambassador, but of course I have returned the lens to them after I left the program. I do have multiple macro solutions, mainly the Raynox DR250 Macro filter as well as Extension Tubes, both worked well enough or some macro shooting but they also come with their own inconveniences and limitations. I have decided to pay more attention to macro shooting lately, so I thought maybe a true, dedicated macro lens would benefit my shooting needs. I have shared my thought on the 7Artisans 60mm F2.8 II Macro in video format here (click). 

I am revisiting a topic which I have covered 3 years ago, about fixing ISO at 200 for low light night shooting. This time, I did something differently as I brought along my HDMI video capture device, so I can show you what was happening through my viewfinder as I adjusted my settings and composed my shots. The main concept of this exercise was the same, we can get away with just ISO200 shooting hand-held, trusting the camera's powerful image stabilization. ISO200 produces perfectly clean results, optimized for sharpness, noise control, dynamic range, and color tonality. I highly suggest that you give it a try, just fix your camera's ISO to 200, and roam around at night in the city, capturing some awesome city scapes. 

I was shooting with Olympus E-M1 Mark III and M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO, the great combination for having a bit of zoom versatility, while the F2.8 bright aperture helps a lot in dimmer environment. Everything was shot hand-held, around Petaling Street area in Kuala Lumpur. POV video here (click). 

Laowa recently sent me their latest lens the Laowa 6mm F2 manual focus lens for Micro Four Thirds mount. This is currently (at the time of writing) the widest lens for the entire Micro Four Thirds system. I spent about two weeks with the lens, shooting various locations in Kuala Lumpur and I am sharing my thoughts about using this lens in my latest video (click here) and also here in this blog article. In short, I really like this lens, it is really good optically, produces sharp images with good contrast and has some cool tricks up the sleeves. 

I had the privillege to borrow the Ricoh GR IIIX from my friend Matti Sulanto and took it out for a few days' worth of shutter therapy adventures in Malacca. The Ricoh GR series somehow gathered quite a cult-following status for being the perfect street photography machine. I wanted to try this out myself and see if that is really the case. My friend Matti of course loves his Ricoh GR III and IIIX and have made many videos singing praises for these cameras. I, on the other hand have my own reservations and I am discussing what I like and dislike about the camera after using the GR IIIX extensively for a few days. 

I have also a video version here (click). 

Back in December I made a quick trip home to Kuching, Borneo to visit dear mum and spend some time catching up with friends and relatives. There was no agenda in mind, but I did bring along the Panasonic Lumix LX10 which I borrowed from a friend. I found myself some free time and decided to do a POV style street shooting video, showing you how I composed my shots and what happened around and in front of me before I clicked the shutter button. I also took this opportunity to share my thoughts on theLumix LX10 and overall opinion on whether 1-inch image sensor compact camera is still relevant today. You can find the POV video here (click). 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!

In 2014, China decided to ban the sales of Nikon D600 due to the oil stain and dust on sensor manufacturing defect. This was the last drastic decision by the government following the protests from angry consumers demanding refunds which was refused by local retailers. The drama escalated to national news TV reporting this issue, and immediately after that the government ordered the sales of D600 to be stopped, all retail units to be recalled. I believe this was the only consumer level camera that was ever banned anywhere in the world! I found one used unit here locally in Malaysia at a price I just cannot refuse, I bought it and boy oh boy was I excited to find out what this banned full frame camera can do for my shutter therapy adventures!