ROBIN WONG

If you have been following this space, or my YouTube channel, you would know that I have recently added a Nikon Z5 into my arsenal. I have explained my reasons why I did so, you can find it in my previous blog entry here (click). There was something unusual that happened during the acquisition of that camera. Long story short, I brought the camera home without the charger and battery, a mystery which I have not solved until today. I thought this incident was quite interesting and worth sharing here. 

Blogging was where it all started for me. I started this blog all the way back in 2005, sharing stories and adventures as a university student in Perth, Australia. Little did I know the blog would go this far, as I dived deeper into the world of photography, and it has opened so many doors for me over the years. As I got involved with Olympus on an official capacity, and subsequently left, and then started my YouTube channel, the attention was taken away from the blog. It is no secret that YouTube pays a lot more than blogger, when it comes to ad money, and it has become a sustainable source of income during the dark times of Covid/Lockdown. YouTube was the sole reason I survived the pandemic. It was no coincidence that I poured my heart and soul into growing my channel in the past 4 years, and only recently I have surpassed 75k subscriber count on YouTube, which was no small feat for this Kuching boy. Nevertheless, the blogger in me is yet to give up on blogging!

Most of my friends work normal 9-5 jobs on weekdays, and the only time I get to catch up with them would be in the weekends. A lot of my friends already have their own families and usually are tied down with their commitments, which I can fully understand, family first always, I would have made the same decisions. However, the close friends which remains a few, would always make time to catch up, no matter how busy life gets, and I appreciate them doing so. Last weekend, I had brunch with Jackie and Jaslyn (I think we have been friends for almost 12 years at this point?) and boy oh boy, did we feast! I brought out the Nikon Z5 and 40mm prime just for a few quick shots. It was nice seeing everyone again and hearing individual life stories and dramas. Indeed, real life is more exciting than fiction. 

Insect macro is so fun, and I can spend the entire afternoon hunting for bugs and spiders. Besides the thrill of discovering new insects that I have not seen before; part of the excitement was also experimenting with different lighting alternatives and gear setup to boost magnification. The quickest way to do macro is to get the rather expensive dedicated macro lens, but if you are not shooting macro a lot, and it is not what you do 90% of the time, yet you want to achieve some high magnification shots, there are many options for you to do so. The Olympus M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 has a dedicated macro function, once enabled can give you about 0.72x (equivalent to 35mm format) magnification, which is quite incredible on its own. I decided to amplify the magnification further by adding extension tubes, and this was quite an interesting trial, with really decent results. The image quality, especially sharpness and flaw controls (spherical aberrations, purple fringing, corner softness, etc) are far from the level of a true macro lens, but on a pure budget standpoint, the images are satisfactory. In my latest YouTube video, I also demonstrated my gear setup which includes wireless flash and all my camera settings, you can find it here (click). 

Summary of gear setup: 

OM System OM-1 with 12-50mm kit lens with Meike Extension Tubes

Olympus FL-50R external flash fired wirelessly, triggered by on camera flash FL-LM2

Softbox attached to the wireless flash, and flash power controlled manually. 

Camera settings: 1/250, F8-11 (adjusted as necessary), ISO200

I have been getting an influx of paid shoots recently, and the calendar is getting filled fast, at least for the coming several months. Thankfully I have also piled up on my content buffer for YouTube, with some free time I had previously, I had as many as 8 videos stacked in the pipeline to be released one by one for the coming weeks. It is not easy being a YouTuber, as we adhere to consistency, we do need to continue pumping up comments to please the algorithm. Being a freelance photographer, honestly I cannot predict my work schedule, I can be free for the entire two week stretch, or I will be fully booked with back to back shoots. Either way, having more jobs is better than none at all, so I should not be complaining. 

Viltrox is releasing their 40mm F2.5 soon (I am not sure when the exact date is at the moment) at the price of USD158. This is the second lens in their budget primes line up, after the first Viltrox 20mm F2.8. They both look very similar, and have similar price tag too. I am privileged to get an advanced copy for review purposes, and I took the lens out for some street photography action. I have made a video review if you prefer to watch in video format (here). I am sharing my thoughts after having used the Viltrox 40mm F2.5 on the streets quite extensively. 

I have started doing Live Streaming on YouTube about more than half a year ago, regularly on my channel, typically on Thursday night 10pm, Malaysian time. I have written before about my intentions why I started Live Streaming, the challenges that I faced and how I worked around them, you can find my previous articles here and here. Since my last update more than 3 months ago, there has been some small changes which I do want to explore and talk about in this blog. It has been quite fulfilling being able to reach about 150-200 people concurrently during a live session, and throughout the entire stream, thousands of people. My Live Stream is definitely a work in progress, so from time to time it is important to sit down, reelect and make adjustments for further improvements. 

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends who are celebrating this incredibly beautiful festival. Maaf Zahir dan Batin. 

My friends and I decided to take a short evening walk along Kampung Baru, a Malay village settlement located right smacked in the middle of the city, just adjacent to the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur City Center. This is also my frequent street hunting grounds. Our primary objective was just to observe the festive celebrations by the residents there and document whatever we can, without being intrusive. Everyone in Kampung Baru was super joyous. I brought along the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8, which is the perfect combo for this photowalk. I captured a mix of the surrounding environment, with human elements in the frames. The cloudy weather added to the overall atmosphere, and made the walk a little more bearable, as we have had quite a bad heat wave hitting Malaysia in the past several weeks. 

Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the largest festive celebration in Malaysia. Though Eid is a Muslim celebration, we do it with our own style here. Everyone dressed up in traditional costumes and looked their best for the festive days. They will visit each other's houses, all prepared with scrumptious feasts. We even got invited to one of the houses for a feast! Unfortunately, the invite came at the start of our walk, so we wanted to explore the area and have some shutter action first before sitting down for dinner. It was a pleasant walk, and definitely invoked some nostalgia in me, as me and my friends back in my high school days, used to visit Malay Muslim friends during Raya too. Such good, old times. 

Here are some of my curated shots (cut down to 10), Raya at Kampung Baru 2024. 

I remember when the Olympus OM-D E-M5 original was launched in 2012, I thought there was no other camera like it. The E-M5 Original showed the world that a compact sized mirrorless camera can be used in a professional shooting environment - the camera was solidly built with magnesium alloy construction, sealed against splash and dust, has ultra-fast and reliable AF system, has a viewfinder built in, featured new 16MP image sensor that has dramatically improved resolution, dynamic range and high ISO performance in comparison to predecessors, and the camera also introduced 5-Axis Image Stabilization, which is staple in every single flagship camera from any brand today. The E-M5 original was ahead of its time, it became the default blueprint of how to make a good mirrorless camera for everyone. I revisited the E-M5 original, took it out for some shutter therapy action, and I shared my thoughts on how OM Digital Solutions can recapture the magic of the E-M5 original in my latest video (click here). Micro Four Thirds was the pioneer and leader that spearheaded the mirrorless revolution, I think they can do it again. 

If you have followed the April Fool's crossover between myself and my friend Matti, you would have come across the Nikon Z5, which I claimed to have purchased myself. That was not part of the April Fool's joke, it was true, I bought a Nikon Z5. I found one unit in the used market in excellent condition at a very good price, in fact it costs about 20% of the full retail price of the new OM System OM-1 II, and I figured I had nothing to lose getting the Z5. After all, if I, for whatever reasons do not like the Z5, I can always re-sell it in the used marketplace. So far, I have not that many issues with the Z5, and have been very impressed with its overall performance, and what you can get out of so little money spent! For my full thoughts, I have shared my opinion on the Z5 on Matti' channel here (click). 

It was in December 2023 that I went on a weekend out of Kuala Lumpur with a few friends, and I brought along the Fujifilm XF1. I intended to do some street shooting with the XF1, and the camera died on me halfway through the session. There was the infamous "Lens Error" and after about 2 hours of troubleshooting to get the camera to work again, I gave up. Instead, for the rest of the session, I whipped out my smartphone (then, I was using Asus Zenfone 8) and continued with my shutter clicking action. Of course the smartphone was not as good as a dedicated camera, no comparison here, but it was still alive and was able to shoot images. Instead of whining and feeling dejected for the rest of my trip, I decided to take up the challenge of using the inferior phone, and enjoyed the walk and shoot session with my friends. Here are just a handful of shots from that session. Chase Jarvis was right, the best camera is indeed the one you have with you. 

I have enabled YouTube membership, and you can join it here (click). 

The perks that you get from just spending the price of a cup of coffee for a month include:

1. 24 hours early access to my new videos

2. Exclusive members only Live Stream sessions, once a month (date to be decided, and will start after 20 or more members have joined). 

3. Priority replies to comments. 

Everything else about the channel remains the same, I will still release new videos every single week without fail, and I will still do my weekly live streams. So as a member, you get to see the videos one day earlier than everyone else, you get to chat to me more directly through members only streams. 

Since I have put so much effort and time into YouTube, more and more recently, I thought it would be prudent to explore their native membership options, that can enhance the experience of subscribers. I look forward to making more videos and interact with all you awesome people! 

LET'S DO THIS!

I probably had too much fun making the crossover videos on Matti's and my YouTube channels. If you have not seen the videos, I think it is definitely worth spending a bit of your time checking them out, here and here. You know the movies and TV shows that have crossovers? Much like Superman appearing on Batman's film, we thought we would do something really cheeky for April Fool's day. Matti arrived in KL just one week before 1st April, and we had too much exceitement drafting ideas and filming our prank videos, and this was the time when we could let loose and just say about anything that we wanted to say!

I brought the Canon 5D Original out for a shutter therapy session recently and realized how older DSLR is perfect for newcomers to photography. Modern digital latest cameras have too many advanced tech and features that took away the need for the photographer's input in photo taking. The older DSLR does not have what you see is what you get live exposure simulation, as you adjust your exposure you need to know what you are doing without clutches. Also, the older cameras do not have advanced human face/eye detect tracking AI Autofocus, and you need ot use older center focus and recompose technique that require a lot more effort before pressing the shutter button. There is also no image stabilization or super high burst speed for spray and pray, you need to make every shot count. Shooting discipline becomes more important, and when you are learning the craft. these limitations will help you to grow. My latest video here (click). 

The first camera that I ever owned was the Kodak CX7430 which I bought in Perth, Australia in 2005. It was a 4MP basic compact point and shoot digital camera with minimal control and made to be easy to operate for beginners. The Kodak CX7430 introduced me to the world of photography and got me falling extremely hard into it. My earlier days of this blog were filled with images taken with the Kodak compact, but I have achieved those blog entries for privacy reasons. After 3 years of extensive use, or abuse, depending on how you look at it, the CX7430 died. Recently, I found similar camera in the used marketplace here, a Kodak CX7525, which was not exactly the same, but it was 99% similar. They have similar body design, controls layout, lens, LCD screen, everything, the only difference was the CCD image sensor in CX7525 being 5MP vs 4MP in the CX7430. I thought it would be fun to relive the nostalgia and bring this old Kodak out for a spin! I made a video to share my thoughts about the camera here (click). 

I don't do a lot of night shooting, mainly because by the end of long shoot days, or video making for YouTube, I am usually exhausted, and just want to lounge at home watching some comedy on TV. Or read a book, or listen to loud music blasting through headphones. Most of the times, it also rains heavily in Kuala Lumpur in the evenings, my gear may be weather-sealed, but I am certainly not, and I don't want to catch anything that can compromise my health, I need to be fit to shoot for paid jobs, or else, how can I feed myself? Whenever I do get the chance to go out and shoot at night, when it does not rain too heavily, it is always super fun. There is just something magical about shooting the urban streets at night, and this session I brought out the tiny and mighty Lumix GM1, paired with the venerable 12-32mm kit lens. I used Program mode because I was lazy, and I set the ISO to auto. Yes, the high ISO images were full of horrible noise, but seriously, who cares? I don't. Good images are good images regardless of high ISO noise. You can check out my POV video from this shoot here (click). 

I self invited myself to a studio portrait shooting session organized by photographer and friend, Jojo. He was collaborating with Canon Malaysia, with the R5 and 70-200mm F4 on loan, and he arranged a model photoshoot with make-up artists and all, and I just shamelessly tagged along and planned to have a little fun. I brought along the old, budget Olympus PEN E-PL7, which is more than 10 years old now, together with the cheapest AF Micro Four Thirds kit lenses you can find, the Lumix 12-32mm and Olympus 40-150mm R. While these are super budget setup, I thought they performed incredibly well in this studio shoot and delivered amazingly sharp and detailed results. This is a reminder to myself that I don't need the latest and greatest gear to produce excellent results, there are many other factors that can determine the outcome of the photography results - lighting, talent, make-up, the photographer's vision, just to name a few. And of course, in my latest video showcasing the E-PL7 in action, I also shared some tips on optimizing E-PL7 for this shooting situation. You can find the video here (click). 

As for this blog entry, I shall share the selected images taken from that shooting session. 

Credits

Organizer & Lead Photographer: Julius Elisan (IG @jojoelisan)

Model: Ivani Leang (IG @ivani_leang)

Make Up Artist: Jojie (IG @iamjojiemakeupartist)

I was dining out with my friend Spencer at this Pork Steak specialist place called Ante, and we wanted to try their Pork Burger. Of course we ordered the usual stuff, the Pork Shoulder Steak and some pasta to go along all the crazy amount of meat we were consuming. With so much food for two people, I thought it would be a nice idea to share the burger, since we won't be able to finish one all by one person. I asked the waiter to have the burger cut in half. It was too bad the lighting in the restaurant was so dim and flat, else this would have been quite an awesome photograph of a burger cross section, something I have never shot before in my life!

So my main photography YouTube Channel has hit 75,000 subscribers in early January 2024, and almost at the same time my secondary vlog channel just surpassed 2,000 subscribers. I had hoped that both these milestones would be accomplished by end of 2023, so I can have a nice wrap up for the year, but no, they needed to be extended to one month later. Not that there was any conseqeunce, these were self-decided deadlines, and I missed them by just a hair's width. 75,000 subscribers is no small feat, never had I thought I would achieve this in several years, and now 100k subs count seems very attainable and not too far away. I treated myself with a pair of new in-ear monitor headphones. I went to Starspicker Audio with Andrew Chow, a fellow photographer and friend and we spent hours auditioning various IEMs from different brands. I finally settled with EPZ Q5, mainly because the sound profile was completely different from my usual preference (I have used the Sennheiser IE 800 regularly for years, so that is my reference). It is nowhere near as good as the IE 800 in terms of soundstage imaging, and detail retrieval but I do like that it sounds completely different from my usual listening experience, a bit more warmth and the vocals in the EPZ Q5 is a lot more forward. Nevertheless, it was not too much damage to the wallet, and a good little celebration of a small milestone. Gotta celebrate the small wins, right?

If you have been around this blog long enough you would have seen Jason Lioh appearing quite prominently in this blog since the beginning. We were born on the same year, started photography at about the same time, and we had even shared some similar photography journey for some time. He has just turned 40 recently, and we or course, celebrated his birthday with a feast. This only reminded me of my very limited time remaining for my time in my thirties, as I too, will turn 40 at the end of this year. We went to a newish Italian Restaurant in Bangsar, Trattoria Dacristian, and if you have seen some of my older blog entries, we always ate too much food, sometimes I think it is a different level of sin in itself. Anyways, here are some random shots from that dinner, and I wish you Happy Belated Birthday, Jason Lioh. May there be many, many more glorious feasts to come. 

I managed to have a quick hands on with the newly launched Fujifilm X100VI at Artishutter X N4 Camera store, where they had a demo unit available for touch and try. I was happy to find out that finally Fuji included 5-Axis Image Stabilization into their latest iteration of X100 series. The lack of any form of image stabilization in the previous X100 incarnations was one of the few complains I had with the camera, which held it back from being a truly great street shooting machine. If you have truly experienced the reliability of powerful image stabilization and how much it can improve your photography, you won't use a camera without one. I took this opportunity to test the 5-Axis IS in the X100VI out during my brief session with the camera, and I made a video to share my findings, as well as my initial thoughts on the camera here (click). 

After countless bashing online by fans and supporters on the lack of firmware updates for OM-1, followed by my vocal live stream session about the importance of having firmware updates for flagship cameras last week, and finally the online petition that went live just yesterday, OM Digital Solutions has finally broke silence today. They announced that a new firmware is in the works for the OM-1 original and will be available by fall this year. The announcement at this moment (you can view it here) is only available in Japanese, and the content is translated of course, but good enough to indicate what is to come. 

A group of OM System photographers and supporters have started an online petition to get a new Firmware Update for the original OM System OM-1 camera! I applaud this initiative, and I fully support their efforts. I have signed up the online petition and you can also do your part to have our voices heard! OM Digital Solutions had promised "regular, robust firmware updates" for their cameras on their official website, but they clearly abandoned this when they released the OM-1 Mark II with minor updates and merely some "firmware tweaks", which could have been made available for the original OM-1 via a firmware update. Also, the OM-1 only received minor, incremental firmware updates and has not seen an update since May 2023, that was about 8 months ago. The petition is a show of faith from the core OM System fans and supporters, and myself being one, I do want that firmware update 2.0 happen for OM-1 original. You can do your part by signing the online petition here (click). 

I get asked this a lot - which lens do you like better, the Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 or Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm F1.8? I have both lenses with me, and I have shot with them for my professional jobs, made YouTube videos as well as did some personal shoots with them over the years. I am sharing my thoughts and experience on using both lenses in my latest video here (click). I personlly think it is not right to compare both lenses against each other, as they both correspond to different focal lengths. The Olympus 17mm is closer to classic 35mm equivalent, and the Panasonic 15mm is almost like the 28mm. At the end of the day, it all comes down to your own shooting style and preference, do you like the wider coverage of 28mm, or are you a classic 35mm shooter? I personally lean toward the Panasonic 15mm, as I have never got along well with 35mm focal length. That's just me, but hey, both are excellent lenses, both are well constructed, small and light, and are capable of shooting sharp images! They both embody what a Micro Four Thirds lens should be, and I only hope both OM Digital Solutions and Panasonic would update their respective lenses with full weather-sealing!

I made a short trip to Ipoh, a small town about 3 hours' drive north from Kuala Lumpur in last December for a quick relaxing photography outing with some friends. One of the main attractions in Ipoh is Pasar Karat which happens every Sunday morning. Basically, it is a flea market, or a local buy sell location, where you can find some really cool, old stuff. I chanced upon an "Olymbus" camera. I did not take the camera out of the box, and did not ask if it still works, or how much it costs. My mind was set on hunting street photographs that morning, and had I slowed down my pace a little I could have actually decided to buy the "Olymbus" camera, just because it is "Olymbus". It was really strange to see pirated, or cloned copies of cameras being made and sold even back in the film era. Obviously, I had zero knowledge about this back in the day as I started photography in the digital age. I am aware of counterfeit and fake electronic products, especially popular headphones (Sennheiser particularly) being circulated rampantly. I just did not realize this problem had started much, much earlier. 

Nokia released the Lumia 1020 in 2013, and I thought this 41MP smartphone camera can still outperform many greatest and most expensive smartphones today. I found one at a good price in good condition in used market and brought it out for some street shooting. Based on the images I obtained from the session, the 41MP 2/3-inch image sensor coupled with 26mm F2.2 equivalent lens produced excellent per pixel sharpness and plenty of contrast and details, rendering natural, highly realistic looking images. This camera was launched before the advent of aggressive computational AI software with heavy processing; hence the colors were not oversaturated, and it lacks the over sharpening and crazy noise reduction happening in most newer smartphones that smeared away many useful fine details and contrast. Modern smartphone makers can learn a thing or two from Nokia, the hardware is important, and you can only go so far pushing the imaging boundaries with your software. I cannot help but wonder if Nokia is still around, we would get really interesting and capable smartphone cameras from them today! After all, they were the first to push the sensor size and megapixel count in the smartphone industry. I made a video to talk about this here (click). 

Gong Xi Fa Cai to those who celebrate Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year! 

May this year bring you abundant prosperity, overflowing joy and great health. I am currently away from Kuala Lumpur, and am back in my hometown Kuching in Borneo, celebrating the Chinese New Year with my family. This is a much needed break, probably I will eat too much sinful food, but let's worry about the consequences later. I am compiling a series of images in bold red, mainly because red is the primary auspicious color for Chinese New Year! Enjoy the oversaturated reds in the images!

I am revisiting the ISO200 challenge which I did a while ago, but this time with the OM System OM-1 paired with the excellent Panasonic Leica 9mm F1.7 lens. I was attacking the central area in Kuala Lumpur, capturing the vibrant highway with streaks of lights from the passing traffic with the backdrop of the metropolitan city. I stayed at ISO200 throughout the entire session, trusting the 5-Axis Image Stabilization in camera to steady my hand-held shots without using the tripod. The advantage of this technique - I get completely clean results free of high ISO noise, and the best possible image quality that I can squeeze out of the 20MP Micro Four Thirds sensor, as ISO200 is the native, base ISO. Many people wrongly assumed that to shoot in low light you need either to use a tripod or to bump up the ISO numbers much higher. In this case, if you do not intend to freeze motion, or have fast moving subjects, then you can lower you ISO number to get better results. If you have not done the ISO200 challenge before, I highly recommend you to try it, it is very fun, I promise, and you will be surprised by the results you can get hand-held with your Olympus or OM System camera, at low ISO shooting in low light. I also made a video about this topic here (click). 

With all the buzz surrounding the latest launch from OM Digital Solutions, the OM-1 Mark II, I am taking a step backward to look into a camera Olympus launched in 2013, the original OM-D E-M1. Even after more than 10 years, I thought this camera is still a capable machine, and I will not hesitate to use it to grab some important shots. Back in November 2023 I went to the eve of Deepavali celebration in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur to shoot some activities there, I used the E-M1 original with M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO lens throughout the entire session. I quite enjoyed this combination, and I shared plenty of fresh images with my thoughts on using the original E-M1 on present day. You can find the video here (click). 

When someone adds the title "expert" to what they do, that places that person in a higher regard, and an almost dangerous position to be scrutinized more closely. That also leaves less room for error. It is interesting to observe how many "experts" popping up out of nowhere, and when the information that they share are nothing more than just half-truths and twisted facts that were modified so meticulously to serve their own agenda or push their own narrative, I just have this itch to write something down here. Strangely, I have more and more things to say recently, the up surge of blog articles certainly proves that. In this entry, I want to talk about a person whom I will not name (and shame), and how I find his sharing misleading and can be to a certain degree, damaging to the community.

Less than a week ago, OM Digital Solution released their latest flagship camera - the OM System OM-1 Mark II, which effectively superseded the original OM-1 which was launched just about 2 years ago. I am not here to comment much about the product, a lot has been said already online everywhere, whether positive or negative reaction, I believe most of them are valid, it depends on which camp you belong to, and your reasons for supporting or going against the OM-1 Mark II's product strategy. I am less interested to explore this divisive topic, but I do want to share an interesting observation about the launch of the OM-1 Mark II itself with the lack of online coverage, both from the usual mainstream photography media and independent content creators. This I believe, points to a larger issue that the company, OM Digital Solutions is facing, and not working with the media and independent photographers was a huge, huge mistake. 

Last weekend, I was out and about with some friends, on my last street photography outing before I take a long break for the Chinese New Year holidays. I am flying home to Kuching, Borneo for about two weeks, and I won't be doing much photography there, it will be prioritized for family and friends, especially for dear mum. In this final outing, I brought out a cheap old compact camera I got from the local buy-sell marketplace, and there is always that risk of the camera dying, and it just did! The camera can turn on and all, but every image it took was over-exposed. It could be due to faulty shutter mechanism, or aperture blades being stuck, I had no idea what happened, but the bottom-line was - the camera was no use. I put the camera back in its bag and whipped out my smartphone instead. And I continued snapping away. 

The main YouTube Channel has just surpassed 75,000 subscribers count, and this is a good reason for celebration! When I started the channel 4 years ago, it seemed like reaching big numbers like 100k was almost impossible. Now that we are three quarters along the way, suddenly 100k seems like an attainable number! It is amazing to look back, as I started writing about my adventures in photography here in this blog more than 10 years ago, which transitioned to me making YouTube videos in 2019, and now the channel is growing steadily, with consistent influx of audience coming in watching every single week, I would never have imagined myself having such a platform to engage with an audience. 

So thank you so much, whoever you are, reading this blog, watching my videos on YouTube, you have just made my day! 

Nothing much will change moving forward. I am still a full time photographer first, and content creator second. I earn a living by shooting paid jobs for my clients, and with my spare time I make videos to share about my passion on all things photography, and also I write here whenever I can. As long as I am passionate about shooting, and doing my shutter therapy, I will continue to speak and share as much as I can!

I recently swapped 50mm lenses with my friend Jackie - he took my Nikon 50mm F1.8 D, and I took his Nikon 50mm F1.4 D. When I saw the 50mm F1.4, I was actually surprised at how small it was, the size was about the same as the F1.8 version. If they can make such small lenses back then, why are the newer 50mm lenses on modern mirrorless cameras, such as Panasonic S 50mm F1.8 and Nikon Z 50mm F1.8 so monstrous in size? I thought they could have been at least half in size and weight! Some may argue that we need better, sharper optics for modern image sensor higher demands, but that is just crazy, 50mm is supposed to be a small and fun lens to carry around! Anyways, I went to Pudu, KL with the 50mm F1.4 on my Nikon D600 and did some POV street shooting. This was the last POV video I recorded on my DJI Action 2, before I sold it off. Any future POV videos will be shot on my new DJI Pocket 3. You can check out the POV video here (click). In this blog, I am just sharing some fun street images from the Nikon 50mm F1.4, which I think is the right size for a 50mm lens!

My birthday was on 26 December, but everyone was crazy busy so the celebration with friends got delayed by almost a month. To me, I am so thankful that my friends so still remember, care and to take some of their time to celebrate with me. The older I get, the more I realize that the most valuable thing you can give someone is your time. We went to a BBQ Korean restaurant and had a feast, which consisted of what Jason called it "meat, meat and MORE meat". I have turned 39, it s the end of one decade for me, and honestly I am not sure how to feel when I turn 40 in less than a year! Whatever that has happened, I am truly thankful to be alive, and I am excited to continue on this journey of discovering myself, and growing to be a better person. I have so much more to do, and I felt like my life has just begun. Special thanks to Spencer, Jason and Gan for the awesome, sinful dinner. I have probably gained 10kg from that one seating alone. Time to hit the gym harder, maybe next week. I have also vlogged about this partcular celebration outing, you can check out the video here (click). 

I recently acquired the Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm F4-5.6 lens for a specific job that required me to shoot from quite a distance. The lens performed well and I got some satisfactory shots which I have delivered to my client. I thought I'd take this opportunity to do a little more with the lens and share some thoughts I had about the budget super telephoto zoom lens from Panasonic. Obviously I cannot share the shots from my job, it would be unethical for me to do so, this is a situation where the client does appreciate some privacy. So I went to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, as usual with any long lenses and grabbed some cute bird shots with the lens. I also did a video to share some quick thoughts, you can find the video here (click). 

About half a year ago I decided to try something new (at least to me) on my YouTube channel - Live Streaming. This was not a new concept, many people have been live streaming on different social media platforms, more popularly on gaming channels, but I thought it would be a fun way to engage my existing audience, allowing them to interact with me in real time. I have talked about my initial challenges of doing live streams here (click). It has been more than half a year, and I have done dozens of weekly sessions now, and I want to pen down some thoughts on the experience I have encountered so far. 

I am privileged to be invited to join the Annual General Meeting/New Year Party/Get-together this coming 28 January 2024. The Live Stream will be hosted by the ever-awesome Rob Trek, and with incredible Micro Four Thirds content creator as guests - including Matti Sulanto, Peter Forsgard, Benjamin Chappell and Brian James. I honestly don't know what will happen or what to expect from this stream, but I am super excited to be a part of it, and I look forward to seeing everyone together and to start the year with a bang! So, mark your calendar folks, the exact time for Live Stream is in the link (click). Do come in and say hi! 

Recently I got super curious about using older compact cameras for street photography, so I scoured the used market place and found this Fujifilm XF1 at such a good condition with a price tag that I just cannot say no to. I brought the XF1 to Ipoh for some shutter therapy actions with my friends. The camera worked well and I got some beautiful shots but it stopped working on day 2. There was the "lens control error" which was a common issue that happened to all XF1 cameras after some time of use, some as soon as a few months after newly purchased. I thought the camera looked beautiful, I love the minimalist design yet having functional buttons and control dials layout, truly slim and pocketable size and the camera is capable of delivering good results. However, the deal breaker for me was the effort required to turn on the camera - you have to twist the lens, push it out, then rotate it again to fully turn the camera on. I think that was too many steps and I risk losing shots if I need to react reflexively on the streets, which usually is the case. If the XF1 has the traditional on-off button or switch and no lens twisting is required, I think it is one of the best compacts available for street shooting! I made a video about the XF1 too, you can find it here (click). 

The year started with a flurry of shoots, and this particular session was my friend Bihzhu performing at a rather interesting setup - a restaurant lit only by table lamps. I have been following Bihzhu for many of her live shows and performance, and I have to say this was by far the most challenging one I have ever faced. It was dim, and the available light was not easy to work with. I brought along my usual workhorse, the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and a plethora of bright, prime lenses for this particular shoot. I found myself shooting at ISO6400 on average, and at times needing to go higher. They say you can't shoot low light with Micro Four Thirds. I say, screw you, here are some shots! Special thanks to Bihzhu for allowing me to share these images. 

Perks of having cool friends, they have cool cameras! Special thanks to Raja Indra Putra, a long time friend who has also taught me and inspired me to be a better photographer, he owned the Sigma DP2 Quattro, quite an unusual camera which was released about 10 years ago. The camera features Foveon X3 image sensor that has 3 different layers of pixels to capture more information, all combined into ultra-high resolution, more optimized image output, according to Sigma. The unusual sensor design, which was different from the normal Bayer pattern also meant that the processing took much longer than needed, with frustrating black out times, and the APS-C sized sensor has less dynamic range and high ISO noise control in comparison to even smaller sensors from Micro Four Thirds format. Nonetheless, used in the right scenario, in very limited range, the Foveon X3 sensor in Sigma DP2 Quattro shines, producing mind-blowingly sharp images with resolution only medium format cameras can match. It is indeed, a class of its own. I personally believe Sigma should revisit this Foveon concept, and with modern processing power (10 years later now) and advancement of sensor tech, I think they can make the whole operation time faster and more efficient, improve dynamic range/high ISO and at the same time, maintaining what made them so good in the first place - a medium format quality in a pocket sized camera! I talked about this and more in my latest video here (click). 

Following the recent portrait shoot in my previous blog post, I also took the Panasonic Lumix LX100 out for some usual shutter therapy sessions in my hometown, Kuching in Borneo! I needed more shots for my video talking about the LX100, that has been published as the first video of the year 2024. I wish the LX100 had a tilt screen for low angle compositions, and also touch screen for quicker navigations, but I guess I managed fine. Something I tell myself to do more for the new year 2024 - go out and shoot more! I keep telling people to do that, and I should be doing that myself too. Practice what I preach.