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Friday 26 March 2010

All the fuss, over 30 centimetre's?

As I opened the door to my house today, I was pleasently greeted by this white package waiting just for me... (especially since the seller only posted it from Canada 4 days ago!)
Just like a little kid on Christmas morning, I could not wait to open up my little present, but of course photo's first.
As I began to unwrap the UPS packaging, I was shocked to see... a speedo box! And if u look closer still you'd notice that it's for women?... Thankfully it was only slippers (or flip flops depending where u come from)... but this was not what I paid for...
so opening the box and hoping for the best, my heart skipped a beat as I beheld the Takumar 300mm f4!
As with the Takumar 135mm, I was pleasently surprised how small but powerful it was...
See that it's barely 3 times the size of mr ducky...

And of course what's the point of the cake if I can't eat it... so I slapped on my M42-EOS adapter and tested a few shots out my room window... (hope the neighbour's don't think I'm a voyeur or something). Spotted and focused on a "flower" outside the window.
and here's a 100% crop
So far so good.... next challenge is to use it on moving objects... perhaps jet ski this weekend or F1 next weekend... hopefully the 1.7x TC comes by then...

Hennessy Artistry


One of the more prominent events of 2009 were the Hennessy Artistry, having featured big names like Flo-Rida, Shayne Ward, Fatman Scoop, The Ying Yang Twins, Boys Like Girls and Lenka. They boast that "Each event features some of the most cutting edge and formidable names in music today"

So to start of 2010 Hennessy Artistry was going to kick off in Opera, Sunway.

According to the info on their fb page "Every trademark Hennessy Artistry event is an evening of pure unification; mixing sound, visual innovation and drinking experiences from around the world."

And they indeed had a bag of mix sounds. From the up and comng local boys, bunkface,


to local beatbox Shawn Lee, son of famous cartoonist Reggie Lee,

and the highlight of the night, DJ Sarasa from Japan. The beauty with a ear for music.

Thanks to King, we managed to get photographer passes for the event... but we had to be there at 5 p.m. when the event was only scheduled to start at 9 p.m.!
so while waiting we went around being trigger happy!

Walk this way...
time of reflection...
face it...
calm before the storm...

This year, there was four new and improved features -
the Hennessy Mix Master, where guest get to make their own mix of music

Hennessy Mixing Bar, where gursts are serve four different Hennessy mixes,
(this time was Henessy citrus)

the Hennessy Digital Light Art Effect, where guests get to draw using light unto the Hennessy bottle
Hennessy Live Twitting Zone, kinda self explainatory, if not here's Shawn to demonstrate
What would a Hennessy event be without the Hennessy girls... and as usual they were a bevy of beauties...




Most important ingredient for any event, the guests...

As the guests came, they were treated as VIP's on the red carpet with their own set of paparazzi's...
and got the chance to pose with a Hennessy...

some of the guests were more well known,

relatively unknowns,

and they came in small or big groups!

And inside the party kicked off

And man was it a full house inside...

All in all it was an interesting experience.. but felt that the avenue was too packed this time round and that decreased the enjoyment of the event... I sadly did not get any party shots cuz most ppl were basically huddled around their tables... but the music was enjoyable and my eyes were full from the eye candy.



Tak 135 test shots

Was excited to test out my second takumar lens... took the 135mm f3.5 out with me to Tropicana City Mall because Canon was offering free cleaning service.

While I was there took the opportunity to take a few shots... First thing to test was the DOF and sharpness wide open...

hmm not that sharp but nice enough bokeh....

and much easier to focus than the Tak 50mm f1.4...

Funniest thing was while I was attaching the lens, a Canon repairman was looking at the lens...He was probably bewildered... "Canon doesn't make such small and long lenses?... ". After closer inspection he just smile and nodded... guess he's seen the Takumars before...

Maybe it's because I have not gotten used to it yet or perhaps it's the focal length but somehow I prefer the 50.... I get nicer bokeh and closer focusing... like these shots (ironically from Nikon centre in BTS)



Monday 15 March 2010

Old things made NeW

As a new decade begins, so does the age of old manual lenses.
With the introduction of the Pen-1 & GF-1, a lot of old MF lenses have come back in popularity...

As for EOS camera's, it has been known to be able to accomodate other mounts. Unfortunately for me I've only just been able to get into the market this year just as the prices of these lenses soar higher... but one of the still good and affordable lenses is Takumar lenses. These lenses come in an old screw on mount known as M42 (42 for the diameter of the mount).

As of date I have purchased 2 such lenses through e-bay and it has been a joy to use even though the use of the M42-EOS adapter makes AF and focus confirm impossible. I could have bought the adapter with the chip but that costs substantially more.

In my collection now is the Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 (credits to steve-digicam for the photo)



















and my newly arrived Takumar 135mm f3.5



























The 135mm f3.5 has quite a story to tell of it's arrival to my doorstep.
I purchased this lens from fleabay from a wonderful seller. In fact this was my first purchase ever from the busy and competitive online auction house.

however the 50mm f1.4 which was purchased 2 days later came in half the time of this lens...
why this is I have no idea but it had me worried for a while as it was more than 3 weeks and I wrote to the seller who promptly replied that it was last tracked past the US customs and would continue to check... and surprisingly the next day it arrived... thankfully in one piece.

The stupock mail people rang the doorbell threw the package into the driveway and drove off just as I opened the door. I was glad to find that even so the bubble wrap was still mostly un-popped. And when I opened the package... I burst out laughing.

Why?

As you can see the lens comes in a casing, And from the photos I had in mind that it was a medium sized lens.

When I opened it I found this dwarf case barely bigger than my fist. and upon opening found a lens just as cute...

It was surprising as my 50mm actually has a bigger diameter but is shorter of course.

I look forward to soon testing this lens out and see whether it suites me or not...

Other BolehBokeh moments

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