ROBIN WONG

I believe if a camera was good many years ago, it is still a good camera today. As a photographer I am also infinitely curious about any camera, whether old or new. It is no secret that my small photography business does not allow me the luxury to buy all the latest, greatest and most expensive gear. I do need a consistent stream of content for my YouTube to grow the channel, hence the viable option is to look for older gear in the used marketplace. Using these older gears not only provided me with more content to be made for my socials but also, they are incredibly fun to use! This way, I do not need to break the bank to acquire new (old) gear, and after I am done with my review, there is always an option to resell this used gear to recover some cost. 

I found a Panasonic Lumix GF2 by crazy luck at the used market for about USD10/RM50 only. I tell you, this kind of fortune does not happen a lot, and boy oh boy was I excited to try the GF2. This earlier generation entry level Micro Four Thirds body can still hold its own today, delivering really good results. There are many things Panasonic did right with the Lumix GF2 which I wish they continued on with their newer modern cameras. Sadly, some of the changes they did were not necessarily for the better. I brought the GF2 out for some street shooting and I am actually impressed with the color output from a Panasonic camera, finally! I made a video to talk about this and more here (click). 

We cannot predict the weather here in Malaysia, forecasts can often be inaccurate, and for street photography sometimes weather is everything. I prefer sunny days, with harsh light for creative shadow and light play, and even my portraits of strangers look better with brighter days. However, that was not the case for last Sunday out with a few friends, we ventured into my favorite part of town for shutter therapy, Chow Kit, and it was gloomy, with very flat lighting. We decided to spend more time inside the wet market, which was not affected by the outdoor conditions, and the light inside the market was never good to begin with, but the shoot went on. I had my Nikon Z5 with the small-ish 40mm F2 prime, and here are some images from this session. 

Every single time I posted a topic about other formats than Micro Four Thirds, I get such loud backlash that it was almost a crime to just look at anything other than Olympus/OM System or Panasonic Micro Four Thirds product. Case in point - I posted an upcoming weekly Live Stream with the topic on Nikon Z6 III, which was quite an interesting camera and worth taking a closer look, I'd say. Before even the stream started (at this time of writing, one day before the stream) I have received dozens of comments bashing my choice of topic - some said "wow Robin you are a traitor", "Robin this is such a clickbait", "now Micro Four Thirds is not good enough? What crazy talk" "so now you are backtracking your words Robin?" "Robin, since you left Olympus, your opinion is no longer objective". Just by posting a Nikon Z6 III topic, I did not say I jump ship, I did not say I am leaving Micro Four Thirds, I did not say anything about giving up on my Olympus OM-D System, just by posting Nikon's latest camera topic, I get all these jabs. 

Yesterday was a public holiday in Malaysia (Hari Raya Korban) and I took his opportunity to catch up with my friends, whom I have not seen in a few months. Everyone is busy with their own lives, and only on weekends on public holidays we can meet and hang out. Usually, we would go to a comfortable restaurant or cafe and had many hours long session of conversations. This time we went to a Botanica & Co. Seriously, nothing beats great food with awesome company of friends, and having even better conversations. I know I need this more, and I should make more time out of my filled timetable to allocate for my friends. It was my first time being to Bamboo Hills, such a cool name in a nest of restaurants and cafes somewhere not too far from Mon't Kiara. I initially wanted to take portraits of my friends at the location after our meal and conversations, but it rained so heavily, so that had to be put on hold. Maybe next visit to Bamboo Hills again, we shall have some shutter action. 

I believe the Nikon Z5 and Viltrox 85mm F1.8 is the best budget full frame setup for shooting portraits. The Z5 brings some modern tech in a low price tag - large, bright high resolution EVF, 5-Axis IS, mini DSLR like handling and operations, effective human face & eye tracking AF and a full sized full frame image sensor that renders great dynamic range and shallow depth of field (compared to smaller cropped formats). The Viltrox 85mm F1.8 is capable of producing very sharp images with beautiful looking bokeh, and I was impressed with what the lens can do with such low asking price. Both Nikon Z5 and Viltrox 85mm I bought from the used market for around RM3500 (less than USD700) and you just can't get anything better with the set of features and performance at similar price. I made a POV shooting video on the portrait session, you can watch the video here (click). 

We often strive to get the most extra-ordinary images; hence we go great lengths in hopes of obtaining the award winning, Nat-Geo worthy results. Many would travel to exotic locations for photo safaris and plan an elaborate photoshoot that would take a crew of dozens and weeks to execute. There is nothing wrong in doing the best you can to produce imagery beyond the normal expectations, but I also believe in finding beautiful things in the ordinary setting. Photography is storytelling, it is a medium to communicate your ideas, it is a way to express your emotions. You don't need to travel all the way to Iceland to do that. Sometimes, your best shots are right in front of you, you just have to see it.