ROBIN WONG

I managed to get my hands on OnePlus 11 5G smartphone, and I was curious about the 3rd generation Hasselblad camera for mobile! I brought the smartphone out for several shutter therapy sessions, snapped plenty of images and I am sharing my thoughts on the camera performance. Spoiler alert: I really, really like the OnePlus 11 and I personally think it is currently the best smartphone camera out there in the market. I have made a video review of OnePlus 11's camera performance, accompanied by POV footage from video screen recording showing the camera in action, while I was composing and capturing the sample images in the field! You can find the video here (click). 

During my recent trip back home to Kuching, Borneo back in December 2022, I followed my friend Kieron Long (Leica Ambassador, Malaysia) to a nearby fishing village for some shutter clicking adventure. I only had one camera with me for that short trip, the Panasonic LX10, and this particular outing was totally unplanned. We walked around the village area, speaking with the friendly locals and of course along the way got some cool portraits of them. It was a fun day out, and I really love the slower pace and relaxing vibes of rural settlements, versus what I normally get from urban city life. I did a POV video for this session, you can watch it here (click). 

For travel and some documentary work, I think a compact camera truly shines. Easy to bring around without adding bulk or weight, and the 1 inch image sensor in the LX10 performed admirably under good light. I also treasure the versatile zoom range of the lens, allowing me to do more with such a small package. I should definitely explore more locations outside of the city!

The latest lens I added into my camera bag is the Panasonic Leica 9mm F1.7. I bought this ultra-compact wide angle prime to replace my Olympus 8-25mm PRO zoom and 12mm F2 simultaneously. I needed an ultra wide for some situations in my paid shoots, though I don't use it (8-25mm PRO) a lot admittedly, and I also need the ultra wide lens for vlogging purposes (I used 12mm F2 previously), especially for my second YouTube channel. I now use the Panasonic 9mm for ultra-wide shooting both for stills and video. 

I also have a full review video for the Panasonic 9mm F1.7, you can watch it here (click). 

When my friend Kieron Long informed me a week ago that he was travelling to Kuala Lumpur to give a talk for Leica, I immediately registered myself a spot. Leica Malaysia organized a week-long exhibition and activities for their "Celebration of Photography" event. The main exhibition and talks are happening at Avenue K Mall, which is directly opposite the KLCC Twin Towers right in the city center. I attended Kieron's talk about "Life in Monochrome" last Friday night. I also shot some images covering the event, and of course vlogged the event. The video will be published a few weeks later (I have other videos that need to go up first), but here are some shots that I have shot from the event!

Leica Malaysia's Celebration of Photography exhibition and week-long activities are still on-going. For event listing and registration, go to their official page here (click). 

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.