ROBIN WONG

I found a cheap used Olympus XZ-1 in great condition so I bought it and I used the XZ-1 as my travel camera on my recent work trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I did not have much time to myself for this trip as most of my time were spent shooting for a job, but I did find an empty morning slot and I decided to roam the streets with no plan, with just one compact camera, the XZ-1 and had some shutter therapy. Boy oh boy it was so, so fun to shoot at Chiang Mai, this was my first time there (I have visited Bangkok before, not Chiang Mai) and I must plan a trip here again soon just purely for my own photography. I have made a video to talk about my experience shooting with the XZ-1 here (click). 

Matti Sulanto was visiting Kuala Lumpur, so we met up with the gang and did some shutter therapy at Kampung Baru during the weekend. It was so good to see Matti after so many years, we did have a lot to catch up on, since we are both YouTube Content Creators discussing photography topics. For that walk, I brought along the Olympus PEN E-P1 and 17mm F2.8 Pancake, and had plenty of fun shooting around the village in the city. Light was bad, since it was cloudy, but I was not complaining because it has been raining on a daily basis for more than a week, interrupting a lot of my plans which required me to shoot outdoors. I did a POV video of course, you can check it out here (click). 

I am sharing fresh photographs taken with the Olympus 17mm F2.8 pancake lens, which is so flawed, but fun to use regardless!

About a month plus ago my friend Kieron, the Leica Ambassador (IG @kieronlong72) was visiting Kuala Lumpur and we did a short casual portrait shooting session with the awesome model friend, Wendy. The location was Tamarind Square, and I brought along the Canon 5D original with a cheap USD20 lens mounted on it, the old 50mm F1.8 II. There was nothing to write home about the lens, the build quality is bad, feels plasticky, the AF hunts, image quality was ok, not super sharp and optically it comes with some flaws like distortion, corner softness and purple fringing. You get what you pay for, and for a cheap lens, the nifty fifty delivered really good results, and I actually enjoyed shooting with it! I won't recommend this for serious professional use, but for a fun casual shoot, why not? I did a POV video here (click) for the session. I am sharing the images in this blog entry!

Many, many years ago I purchased the Panasonic GM1, loved the camera but sold it off to fund for the Olympus PEN E-P5, which was in every way an upgrade, except for compactness in size and weight. I did regret that decision, I genuinely loved having an incredibly small camera that houses full size Micro Four Thirds image sensor and can take all my lenses with no issue. Very recently I found a used unit in the marketplace and at a price I just cannot refuse! Boy oh boy, was I so excited to reacquire the GM1, and I could not wait to do some shutter therapy with it. 

I did a POV street shooting video with the GM1 here (click). 

I recently purchased a cheap Yongnuo 35mm F2 for about USD40. I wanted a 50mm equivalent lens for my Nikon D50, because 50mm is my favourite focal length for street photography. I brought the D50 and Yongnuo 35mm to Malacca streets over one weekend and did some street shooting there. I also recorded a POV video to show you what happened around and in front of me as I clicked the shutter button. You can find the POV video here (click). 

The most common obsession I have observed among photographers is to get clean high ISO shooting, and using Micro Four Thirds system is not exactly giving the best results as we know, full frame systems are superior when it comes to low light shooting. I am here to say this - do not let the limitation stop you or restrict your ability to capture great images. With or without noise, the images are more than just pixels and grains, what truly matters in photography are the subject content in the images, the expression and emotions and ultimately in many situations, the strong decisive moment. If you have all these even though your images are plagued with high ISO noise, you still deliver great results. 

Finally after a long search I found a used Olympus PEN E-P1 and I am loving it! It came with the Panasonic 25mm F1.7, which I did not need but the seller refused to sell the camera and lens separately. I thought this would be a great opportunity to shoot with the E-P1, and then explore the Panasonic 25mm which some of my audience have been asking me to. I brought the E-P1 to the Pudu Market in Kuala Lumpur, which is my favourite street hunting ground and did a POV video to show how I capture my shots. The video has been published, you can find it here (click).