Just came back from shooting the city with the Samsung. We’ve been getting great lighting so I thought I’ll shoot cityscapes as part of the Samsung series. This week, my fireworks images will go up on Samsung Camera’s facebook.

Perhaps in a couple of weeks, this cityscape series will be featured. Anyway, here’s an image from this series.

Stay tuned for more images to come!

Tested the Samsung NX-11 at my friends’ wedding last weekend. I was shooting the type of shots I normally shoot at weddings with the 30mm F2 pancake lens and the 50-200mm F4-F5.6. The bright F2 lens performed beautifully and good thing for me, the area where the ceremony took place was bathed in beautiful warm light. So I could use the 50-200mm despite the small aperture. I kept my ISO to 800.

The verdict. I shot aperture priority throughout with a -2/3 EV at some point and the exposure was pretty spot on despite the tricky spot lights. Image quality was quite good. I’ve been pampered by my 5D Mk2s so I had to get used to the higher noise but compared to a lot of other cameras in the same range, I’m very happy with it. Because of its compact size, it’s not a problem holding the camera at low shutter speeds. The above image was taken at a focal length of 137mm (35mm camera equivalent) at F5 and 1/20s. I could easily hold this rig at even lower shutter speeds with its OIS (image stabilizer on). Colour reproduction was good. I shot mostly with AWB and looking at the images in Aperture, I’m seeing quite accurate colour. In the picture above, I only added a bit of sharpening and reduced the saturation a little. Just a preference since I don’t like overly saturated images. But straight out of the camera, it looks good.

More images will be available in the Samsung facebook page at a later stage.

So far, I’m quite happy with this camera indoors. I didn’t use the flash at all though since I work a lot with available light. Will have to find an opportunity to test that out one day.
My next shoot will probably be fireworks over at Marina Bay. I think I’ll be there this weekend. If you like to join me, please let me know.

I was shooting mostly with the electronic viewfinder to conserve batteries and that didn’t disappoint me either.

For a couple of months I’ll be using this new mirror-less interchangeable lens camera from Samsung. This is a loan unit from Samsung and I’ll be subjecting this camera to my type of photography: people, action, street, etc. I’ll blog about my experience and sometime next month, I’ll post images on Samsung Cameras Facebook page Feel free to comment on images, ask anything and I’ll give tips and advice to help you with your photography.

At first glance, I’m impressed. The 14.6 Mpix NX11 kinda sits in between the DSLR and the micro-four thirds of the Panasonic and Olympus. It looks like a small DSLR and size-wise, the body is slightly larger than my Canon G9. I’m a sucker for well-built. well-balanced and ergonomic cameras so the NX11 feels perfect in my hands.

The images below are taken with the 30mm f2 pancake lens.

Focusing is fast and silent. Actually I was a bit surprised at how fast it is. This should be quite useful in taking action shots. I’ll see how true that is when I start shooting moving objects. Shutter is triggered almost instantaneously. Everything works like a DSLR does.

With the pancake 30mm f2 lens, it is probably the size of the micro-four third cameras but once you fit the kit 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and the 50-200mm f/4.0-5.6, it tends to be bulkier than the MFT. This is also because of the APS-C sensor which is physically the same size of sensors used in entry-level DSLR. I love the layout of the buttons. Very easily accessible and I really think the i-Function on the lens is god sent. It’s a button on the lens that allows you to change settings like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, EV and WB without lifting your eye off the viewfinder. The focus ring changes the variables. Of course, like any SLR user, I tend to use the viewfinder instead of the bright AMOLED screen behind. It’s just habit. Like any other mirrorless system, the viewfinder will be electronic since, well, you don’t have the mirror. As for the electronic viewfinder, there’s a slight lag when sweeping the camera fast but I have yet to see if it bothers me later.

My first impression is definitely positive. I think I’ll be using the 30mm pancake lens a lot. It really suits my style – shooting with prime lens with large aperture.

Read more about my experience here.

Finally the day has arrived when I retire my Canon 1D Mark 2. This camera has served me for 6 years! I get nostalgic when I think of the time I got ‘her’. She was one of a handful in the shipment to arrive in Singapore. The rest were routed to Athens for the 2004 Olympics. For 6 years she endured the hardest abuse and came out unscathed. Two of the most memorable experiences I had were:

1. Shooting a triathlon in Bintan in heavy rain. Mid-way through the race, a thunderstorm developed. What started as a light drizzle turned into a fierce tropical thunderstorm which blew my makeshift shelter, made of black trash bags, away. I was in the middle of nowhere and my 1D had a 70-200mm lens coupled to it. Together they formed a completely weather-sealed system. So here I was in a thunderstorm, with my camera exposed to the elements, still shooting away. Onlookers would’ve been amazed at this sight. I was strangely confident that the rain would not get into the camera and lens and I was right. I wiped them dry in the hotel room and went on shooting the next day.

Continue reading 'PUTTING MY CANON 1D TO REST'»

I had a discussion with a friend this afternoon who blogs at NikonD90Lab.blogspot.com and the issue about lenses cropped up. He wanted to know what’s the most versatile lens to get. I have 6 lenses and if I were to go shoot street photography, I’d pick the 35mm F1.4. I use a Canon 5D MkII, so on the full frame without FOV (Field of View), I get the full 35mm. For street photography, Continue reading 'The Versatile Lens'»

A few days ago I was asked to give some advice on someone else’s photography assignment relating to architectural photography. The theme was ‘Extraordinary out of the Ordinary’, using compositional techniques such as two thirds rule, diagonal approach, balance of negative and positive space, and colour. Here’s the content of the email I sent out (with more explanation here). Continue reading 'Composition'»

You’ve been there before. You shoot an image on a bright sunny day and then you realise there’s no detail in another part of the image in the shadows. The basic thing photographers know is that the film/slides/sensor of the camera cannot capture all the exposure values you see with your eye. The eye has a wider latitude to exposure values compared to the camera. So how do you increase the latitude or the dynamic range of the camera? Enter HDR, or High Dynamic Range. This is a fancy term for something photographers have been doing all the time, since the darkroom days. We burn (darken) and dodge (lighten) areas of the picture to pull out the details and to even out the lighting. With the digital camera, our lives are made easier. Continue reading 'What is HDR?'»

I was approached to contribute a few tips to shooting with a compact camera to JetStar’s inflight magazine recently. I shoot so much with heavy equipment that on a vacation, I’d love to just bring a compact camera or a film rangefinder. I find that, sometimes, stripping away all the equipment allows me to have a new approach to shooting. Very refreshing. Well, my favourite compact camera is the Canon G9. I would have a G10 had I waited a few more months. Nevertheless, the G9 is a beauty, both to hold and to shoot. Continue reading '5 Tips to Shooting with a Compact Camera'»

I’ve been asked frequently what I would pack for an overseas shoot. Of course a lot depends on the shoot itself ie, duration, location, complexity, client, etc. However, since I’m now overseas for a wedding shoot and had to go through some packing last night, I’ve listed these few items: Continue reading 'Packing for an Overseas Shoot'»