Flashing, not always a bad thing

I opened it

with all the finesse and delicacy

of a teenage virgin about to get some...

 to reveal her undergarment

and as I peeked under the hood,

my excitement rose to new heights...

as I ripped through the last line of defense

just as quickly and clumsily...

 to reveal her naked body laying before my very eyes...

On a Roll

First time using film after 10 years..
and this is what I take

I.S. On a Shoestring

Isn't this guy cool? who needs IS or VR when you have a string!

Avoiding work...

Last day of work til the hols....
feeling restless...so here's something to keep me busy

Sexy Deee...

hmmm the 60D is out....
not sure why many people are excited about it...
to me it looks like a step down.... looks more like the XX0D series than a X0D camera to me...
hoping I get the chance to test it out the camera to prove me wrong tho...
You'll know as soon as September 19 comes around...

What a letdown

Finally it arrived!

The thing I've been waiting 2 weeks for...

and as expected the package was huge! 

(note the dustbin as a comparison)

and as I eagerly tore apart the box

(there didn't seem to be any seams to open)

I was a little disappointed at the packaging...

not so much the appearance as the amount of padding used..

I'm not surprised that these things happened

That of course spoils my plans to sell off these accesories to reduce my cost

Worse of all is the fact that the lens I especially bought has problem with its AF

I'm super cheesed off that I don't even know how to react.

The only thing of the lot that seems to work is the light meter, and the 3 manual lenses 

(which I cannot use on my EF mount)

*sigh*

and I cannot complain to the ebay seller as it is already stated that there is no returns

and no guarentee on condition of equipment...

ARGH!

I broke my foot

Fourty-Five Ringgit

a hundred kilometres

six hours

all because of a broken foot..

and it's not even my foot!

If you remember the Tar College Orientation Odessey,

the klutz in me came out. and most embarassingly behind and very close behind

Weena Marcus & Soo Wincci, the judges for the Orientation....

after tripping over my camera strap and sprawling on the floor,

I picked myself up and my flash which had separated itself from my camera

Sadly this was the result of my two left feet dance

who knew finding spare parts was such a difficult endeavour?

I searched three locations...had a few communications with the manufacturers

but in the end was where I managed to purchase this little piece of plastic

and in order to save a few Ringgit, I decided that replacing it should be an easy task,

after doing the necessary research, and the necessary leg work,

I finally bought the replacement hotshoe casing from Canon Malaysia

I think that their after service is the biggest reason to stick to Canon

I've heard enough horror stories from Nikon users to stay away from the dark side as long as I can

Anyway, after gleefully carrying the plastic piece back home, I prepared to dismantle the part and easily replace the part.. Of course it was not as straightforward as that...

I soon realised that the flash had more parts to dismantle than I had been initially led to believe

but after many different sized screwdrivers, 2 hours of dismantling, and fiddling with springs

the foot was on... the only problem was I had nothing to test the flash out on..

oh well... the weekend is coming :)

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...

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)

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...

It begins NOW!

I walk around the world with only one eye open... that eye is fixed and never blinking...
And that eye is ever fixed on to my camera... I've been shooting using a dSLR for 2 years... and I've experienced joy, loss and paradigm shifts along the way.

This year is a new chapter and hopefully a new phase in my life of "painting light".
This painted light brings meaning, memories and more!

Usually in my bag I carry around my trusty EOS 40D, (this image from dpreview and I definitely don't have that lens *drool*)

















with my trusty Tamron 28-75mm f2.8



















with a EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS

















and my favourite EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5