They immediately told me they’ll ship a replacement one for me and soon the postman dropped a little parcel with the replacement mount and this morning I did the little ‘operation’ to replace it.

Red arrow pointing to the reflective surface that caused the ‘fogging’ problem.

The new mount that has the matt black ring.

Here’s a tip in case you ever have the need to replace yours yourself. All you need is a screwdriver to remove the 3 screws and you just need to be careful when removing the mount. There are 3 little springs which you do not want to lose … or let them bounce into your mouth.

Just remove the old mount and place the new one in position … replace the screws and you now have a perfect mount ready for action!

Those guys from Lensbaby also sent me some awesome stickers which I have now plastered some of them all over my gadgets. I can’t find a suitable spot on any camera for them though.

There’s one at the back of my phone!

One behind my tablet (on top of the beer!)

One on my computer!

… and three of them on my laptop to cover the irritating bright apple.

Gotta run now. Gonna bring my family to join some friends at Owl’s Brew for an awesome Mothers’ Day dinner and … ermm … beer!

We found out about Leofoo Resort during our previous Taiwan trip a couple of years back and we knew that will be definitely a place to bring Fitzand to for a short trip. We got a room facing the area where the animals were and this is definitely a trip that Fitzand loves lots. He was complaining a lot when we left the resort for Taipei after 4 days because he wanted to stay longer.

The awesome thing about this resort is that apart from staying ‘close to the animals’ … there is a Leofoo Theme Park right next to it. That’s a pretty fun place for kiddos as there were lots of things for them to see, learn and play.

My little big boss!

The room as big! It has 2 large beds upstairs which ended up as Fitzand’s play area sometimes.

He asked for his ‘white camera’ and I thought he wanted to take photos of the (fake) lion. Instead … he went for self-portraits with it. Too bad I don’t have a wide angle lens on the cam.

Outside the room were giraffes, zebras, rhinos, giant turtles, lemurs and a couple of other animals!

The most exciting and unforgettable activity … feeding lemurs!

Fitzand was a little afraid at first … as the crazy lemurs were climbing onto our shoulders, pulling us and jumping onto our heads.

Apart from the fun with animals … there were lots of activities for the kiddos. Fitzand patiently ‘designed’ his own bag while I sip coffee and took photos of him.

With a little help from Mommy to hold down the template.

Concentrating …

He insisted on 3 giraffes … ‘daddy, mommy & me!’

He got to make his own popcorn too!

It was pretty sunny that morning and we had fun play ‘wooden ball’. Not sure what you actually call it though. Fitzand played it like golf/hockey but luckily I didn’t get killed (by him). The wooden ball did hit my foot once though.

At the Theme Park, we took a train ride to check out the animals and then a safari bus to check out the tigers, bears and lions. It was fun!

Goat feeding time.

Kiddy rides!

Clowning around …

When were moved to the hotel in Taipei … Fitzand did miss the fun at the Leofoo Resort. I had to make sure I keep him happy and busy … with candies and lots of other fun. There was this place at a mall where we spent a couple of hours watching magic shows and playing games … while his mommy went shopping.

Fitzand had a blast playing games with other kids there. See how happy he was when he scored. Lol.

Clowns!

His first jacuzzi experience. He had so much fun watching Disney Channel! I was in there with him once … but on the 2nd day … he said ‘Daddy … it is better when you are not in here … because when you do … the water goes up’. Argh!!! I need to lose weight!

Slacking beside his bed. We stayed at The Tango in the executive suite which we paid about half the price for. Awesome room with lots of space for the little one to have fun.

I might still have some other photos … but maybe I’ll go through them when I have the time this weekend.

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My favorite shot (above) … the only one in color. I walked back to the scene 3 minutes after walking past to take this shot … right in front of them. Strangely none of them seem to be bothered. Lol.

It has been lots of fun during these 8 days and I can’t wait to go on another vacation! Now if only I have the money to go on a permanent vacation. If all else go well, we might make another trip to Japan come 3rd quarter of the year to visit some friends there.

These photos were all taken with the X-Pro1 with the 35mm lens. Once I land in Singapore … I have to make the decision to either keep it … or return it. I am in a dilemma now! It is superb performer in low light (the noise handling … not the AF!), it looks sexy (though a big bulky compared to X-100) and it is quite a joy to use. Should I or should I not?!! If I do … I might have to let go my X-100 to raise some fund for the wide lens. Should I or should I not??!!

I think I might have fired one too many street photos this time.

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I did have my Diana F+ with me but didn’t use it for shooting pinhole as it will take looooooooong exposures and I don’t have much time to spare.

Luckily it was a pretty sunny day (despite slight drizzle)!

That’s all folks! My contribution to the World Pinhole Day 2012. I’ll go get myself some beer and get ready to fly back to reality tomorrow.

I really don’t know how to explain this … but each and every time I touch the Lensbaby … I simply go crazy! It is always big fun using the Lensbaby (any version of it) and I’ve never got bored using them. A friend once asked me why on earth would I bother using such a ‘troublesome’ lens when I can easily get something that auto-focuses. Hmm … I couldn’t really find the right words to answer that question but I told him that he needs to have a feel of how Lensbaby lenses work and find out for himself. I passed him my Lensbaby 2.0 for a week and soon … he came nodding his head … telling me now he knows the fun of using one. This is a true story! Well … some will ask why not add the ‘effect’ in Photoshop. Right? That’s just the same when someone asks why not use Photoshop to create the cross processing/Lomo effects instead of using film.

Ermm … camwhoring.

Wifey just reminded me that we are leaving Taipei on Monday … and not on Sunday! Yay! This means I still have Saturday and Sunday to torture my camera shutters, get even fatter and have more fun with Fitzand!

I’ll swap the Edge 80 with the Sweet 35 tomorrow and see if I can whip up another set of photos. My poor film cam (Diana & LCA+) are screaming in loneliness in my bag! Weather ain’t good and I guess I’ll have to load the LCA+ with a roll of fast film tomorrow if I wanna bring home some analogue photos.

Gotta go get Fitzand to sleep now. Stay tuned for more photos tomorrow.

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I switched the camera to the black & white (with red filter) film simulation mode and took some test shots while we were making a dash to a late lunch. Dialed -1 on the exposure compensation and fired away …

The very silent shutter makes street shooting pretty easy (and safe!). These were all shot in f5.6 … if I remember correctly … ISO800. Ran them thru Photoshop to give them more contrast but I’ll try post some original out of camera black & white tomorrow.

I tend to compare the X-Pro1 with my X-100 … especially for street shooting. Somehow I prefer the lighter and smaller X-100 for such photography. Well … that’s just my opinion.

Wanting to give the X-Pro1 some test run has caused me to neglect the other 2 cameras I have with me. One is the K-01 paired with the Lensbaby (I did take some shots with it though) and a Diana F+ which ermm … I think I exposed 5 shots so far.

Anyway … back to the X-Pro1 … the auto focusing seems pretty good now after the firmware update. All the lens chattering problem is gone and focusing seems smooth enough (for me).

While my LC-A+ gently weeps in my bag … unloaded … I will find some time and mood to burn a couple of rolls on it … maybe tomorrow or the day after. What? Did someone say street photography is best done on film?

That’s all for another rush entry. Gotta go get some rest before heading out to stuff my face again.

Pumping ISO to either 6400 or 12,800 sometimes … it seems that the X-Pro1 is capable to produce pretty decent looking IR photos. As I usually prefer black & white IR … I just did a custom white balance on some patch of grass and then converted the photos to black & white in post processing. Not sure if it will give the same result if I had not do the custom white balance though (I’m too lazy to try).

Most of these were taken during a short ‘safari’ train ride here in Leofoo Resort here. The moving train made handholding the camera even more challenging as the shutter speeds were pretty low. Most of the time, shutter speed ranged from about 1/50 to 1/80. Thank God I didn’t touch too much beer last night! As for the aperture … I was shooting in a range of f2 to f5.6. Any smaller aperture will cause even longer speeds.

Sorry of the exposures are a little off. It is always darn difficult trying to do post processing in hotel rooms with this little Macbook Air. If only I am much younger and stronger … I’ll lug along some laptops with big screens!

That’s all for now. 10 IR shots for now and I’ll dig my SD card to see if there are any more of them tonight.

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No … not that it isn’t fun … but I find myself not liking the way we are suppose to hold the camera. Hahaha! I just find holding the long piece of thing … a camera … and shooting with it very awkward! To make things worse, zooming with it is quite a pain the my old butt too! For those who haven’t already know, you actually ‘swipe’ on the top of the camera (the grey rubbery part) like you would do on an iPhone … left to right and right to left … to zoom in and out. Maybe it is just this old man that’s not used to holding a camera of that shape.

I’ve found a buyer and we’ll deal when I’m back on the 1st May since the buyer is busy and asked me to reserved it for him/her. I received at least 5 calls and messages … offering higher prices if I could let the callers have the camera instead. Too bad for those guys … I ain’t one who back out on an agreement despite the fact that some extra money could buy me more beer.

Maybe … someday when there are other variations of the camera … I might just buy one to play with again. For now … I’m happy to have a feel of how this new technology thingie works. The camera is sure lots of fun! I’ve only had time to take a few photos … so here they are …

Feel free to click on them to play with the focus. One thing I realize … if you zoom all the way in (or almost all the way in), you don’t actually get well focused subjects at the back even if you click on them.

I’ll be packing my stuffs tonight and unfortunately the Lytro will not be joining me for a week trip to Taiwan. As a consolation, I have another toy to bring along … the … *drum roll* … Fujifilm X-Pro1!!! No … it’s not mine! It is on a ‘try for a week and if you like it, let’s see if you want to buy it from me’ deal. Well … I sort of swapped a camera with a friend and the sexy X-Pro1 (with the 35mm f1.4) lens will be my travel companion this trip.

After messing with it for a day, I still find that the body feels a little light and doesn’t feel that solid. Maybe that’s because I was expecting something like those ol’ school heavy solid rangefinders or ermm … a Leica! No … I don’t own a Leica.

Anyway … after some very brief tests and getting familiar with the camera … I think it is a super performer! No … not in every department though. The auto focus … sucks a little. Not sure if it is just my fuzzy eyeballs … but I find my X100 focusing much faster than this big brother. I shall not write more about the cam as you can probably find tons and tons of reviews and opinions out there on the web. What I’ll do is try have as much fun with it as possible during the week and see if I can bring back any decent photos from it.

# Update : After the recent firmware update … the autofocus has improved lots!

]]> http://www.fuzzyeyeballs.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=5629 0 http://www.fuzzyeyeballs.com/blog/?p=5624 http://www.fuzzyeyeballs.com/blog/?p=5624#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2012 11:03:24 +0000 ndroo http://www.fuzzyeyeballs.com/blog/?p=5624 Finally Saturday is here and I can give the Pentax Q a test run. Unfortunately … while I was holding it without a wrist strap (duh!), Fitzand knocked it off my hand and now the cute little Q has some scars. Thank God it still functions well.

I did some low light shots to test how the little sensor performs but I’ll post them later. So far I find the … [ read more ]

Finally Saturday is here and I can give the Pentax Q a test run. Unfortunately … while I was holding it without a wrist strap (duh!), Fitzand knocked it off my hand and now the cute little Q has some scars. Thank God it still functions well.

I did some low light shots to test how the little sensor performs but I’ll post them later. So far I find the low light performance is pretty good despite the tiny sensor but if you wanna know more accurate info about it … I suggest you check out those reviews out there on the web instead. I suck at such details. What I’ve got today is a bunch of street photos taken not long before it started to drizzle.

Autofocus speed is one thing the Q ain’t good at. Still the speed is pretty acceptable for street shooting and the tiny camera doesn’t attract much attention when you point it right at strangers.

The other thing I find about this little Q … is that it is a little too … ermm … little. I don’t really have big hands (but rather fat ones) and I keep finding trying to get a firm grip on it a little difficult. I could be I’ve phobia about dropping it after the earlier incident but I’m definitely going to get a hand strap for it real soon.

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I actually wasn’t eyeing the ‘Collector’s Kit’ set (of the Sahara) with the special white case etc as I knew it will definitely cost much more than just the camera alone and I didn’t really need the cases. Maybe I’ll sell the cases and use the money to buy Jimmy more beer.

What I got for buying Jimmy a beer on my birthday (actual amount of beer consumed is withheld for his safety).

I’ll just pray (again) that Lomography will take it easy and go slow on churning out more versions of the Diana F+.

Here’s a better image of the contents in that ‘Collector’s Kit’ … leeched from Lomography’s website.

That’s not the only (gulp!) white camera that came into my life recently. There’s also this Pentax Q (CUTE!!!) that I picked up for a good bargain (prices have fallen quite a lot since it was launched).

I didn’t really fancy it when I first saw it online (from pictures) until I actually held one in my hands when I was in the stores some months back. This little fella is … TINY! Unlike many tiny cameras, the Q is very solidly built. Don’t let the cuteness fool you … this ain’t a toy camera at all (unless you are getting one of their cute and affordble toy lenses). Nevermind the tons of people who harp about wanting big big big sensors. Check out the reviews online and you’ll find some pretty positive reviews on the Q.

I’ll stick to the 47mm f1.9 kit lens only … to keep the overall size small.

Here’s a roll of 35mm film posing beside the Q. See how small the camera is?

Let me see if I can give it a test run this coming weekend but the Q will definitely be in my bag during my coming vacation.

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