ROBIN WONG

I spent a rather relaxing Sunday with my friend Jackie having brunch, did a bit of shopping and trying out some audio gear. We went to Ante, a pork specialist restaurant for their famous pork steak and boy oh boy it was such a satisfyingly meal! I don't know any other places in Kuala Lumpur that serves Pork Steak. On the other hand, pork chops or other kinds of pork dishes are plenty available everywhere, but not specifically Pork Steak! After the sinful lunch, we walked around the 1 Utama shopping mall and got some clothes, Jackie needed some new outfits as he was returning to work in office. I needed some more formal looking shirts as I was starting to shoot more in a corporate environment. Then we ended our adventure at one last stop at Starspicker Audio Cafe, trying out various audio gear. I spent at least an hour with the Hifiman Ananda, it was definitely out of my budget at the moment but keeping it in my wishlist. I'd say, a full Sunday well spent! Of course I vlogged about this and you can find it here (vlog link). 

I have been looking for Pentax K-01 for a while now just for the unconventional and unique design of the camera. I finally found a used unit in a near mint condition selling at a price I cannot refuse! It has been a while since I was truly excited about a camera, and this 10 years old Pentax mirrorless got me out shooting a few rounds on the street. While the Pentax K-01 received generally underwhelming reviews everywhere, there are a few things that I do like about the camera, and I am sharing my thoughts and experience shooting with the camera in this entry. 

I have also made a video on Pentax K-01 here (click). 

I borrowed the Sigma 16mm F1.4 lens from my friend Amir Shariff and did some shutter therapy with that lens on my own Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. I have actually shared my thoughts on this lens before, you can check out my previous full review article in Ming Thein's site here (click). I won't repeat what I have written before here, but I can confidently say after shooting with this lens again this round, my findings are consistent with what I have written before, and I shared my thoughts in my latest YouTube video instead (click here). In short, the lens is just too large for a Micro Four Thirds prime and I was disappointed with the uncomfortably soft images shooting wide open at F1.4. I cannot recommend this lens to anyone, there are better options out there. For this entry, I shall just spam the new images I have taken in the past few weeks with this lens. 

I was shooting my friend Bihzhu performing live at Bobo, KL and I thought I can share my experience from that night with you guys here. The last time Bihzhu performed to a live audience was two years ago which I also shot, and was reviewing the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV. No thanks to the pandemic and multiple lockdowns in Malaysia, the local musicians have been deprived from the opportunity to perform live on stage, and I am so glad to finally catch Bihzhu live again after all this time. It was a Friday night and I could not have asked for a better evening with awesome music and some shutter clicking action. 

I also recorded some of the songs Bihzhu performed live and compiled into a vlog, updated on my second channel, you can find the vlog here (click). 

A few days ago I was invited by Bihzhu as her plus one to a launching of a new cafe in town, The Coffee Academics. As a coffee and food lover, I just could not say no. We arrived early and was served a variety of food and drinks to try, and I enjoyed every single dish served that evening. Coffee was really amazing too, and who cares if I can't sleep right? There is always the next video to edit, or more photos to post-process. Jokes aside, if you really are in Bukit Bintang area, do check out the newly opened The Coffee Academics at Pavilion, KL and I am sure you will love their coffee and food too!

I have a vlog of the evening, you can find my video here (click). 

I brought along my Canon 5D classic and 50mm F1.8 lens for some random snapshots, I did not plan to do anything crazy, hence I did not have my full Olympus setup with me. I just wanted a few quick portraits of Bihzhu, and of course a few quick shots of the food and drinks so I can share them here. Since 50mm was not exactly wide enough to cover the environmental shots, I delegated wide angle shooting to my new trusty phone with 1 inch image sensor, the Sharp Aquos R6, which did more than an adequate job in handling some interior low light shots. For close up video footage of the food and drinks, I also used the Sharp R6 (my action camera can't go close up) and the video that came out from the phone was clean despite shooting in low and poor light, and richly detailed with natural looking colors. I must say, getting the Sharp R6 was a great decision! All the close up video shots in the vlog (food and drinks) were taken on the Sharp R6 phone. 

Special thanks to Bihzhu again for having me, I had such a wonderful time and I will definitely visit The Coffee Academics again in near future with my other friends, just for a chill hangout session!

I have mentioned before not too long ago that the only way to achieve a significant jump in camera performance for smartphones is to use the larger image sensor, 1 inch to be precise. This already started happening with the Sharp Aquos R6 being released in the middle of 2021, and I recently acquired a used unit in good condition, because I was curious to see how 1 inch image sensor performs and if this truly is the future for smartphone photography. In this blog article, I will share my experience shooting with the Sharp Aquos R6's camera extensively for weeks, with plenty of fresh photographs. 

I have also shared my opinion on why I think the 1 inch is the future for smartphone cameras in my YouTube video here (click), which I will not repeat in this blog article. A word of caution for those outside of Japan, this Sharp Aquos R6 was released specifically for Japanese market only, so if you import this unit out of Japan, you do not have customer support, no service/repair available and there will be no software updates too. 

To celebrate my freedom from Olympus/OM System, I recently purchased a used Fujifilm X100F for my street photography shooting. I have always been a fan of the Fuji X100 series, I even owned one many moons ago, if you do a quick search on X100 in this blog, you will find a handful of articles and many images I have shared from the original X100. Now that I found an X100F at such a good price, I just could not resist getting it for my shutter therapy sessions. I am sharing my quick impression shooting with the X100F and of course, plenty of fresh images from Kuala Lumpur. 

I have made a video sharing my thoughts on the Fuji X100F here (click).