Gadget Finder

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Farewell dear father


Dato' Ho Koh Chye
Born- November 5, 1942. Departed- December 3, 2008
Patriot, Legendary National Sporstman, My Hero

Farewell dearest dad, my buddy, I will miss you dearly

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Titanium D-Lux 4

Leica D-Lux4 Titanium
Found this big picture of the Limited Edition Titanium Leica D-Lux4 on the net at last. Heard about it before but the pictures were all so small. Boy oh boy, is it beeeeeeeeeautiful or what? It just looks absolutely awesome in that titanium color. It also comes with that leather case. I wonder if the leather case will be available separately for current D-Lux 4 users. If only I hadn't bought my D-Lux4 yet. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

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Monday, December 1, 2008

LX3 vs DLux4 lens





Lotsa people have claimed that my previous picture showing the difference between LX3 n DL4 lenses are inaccurate, different apertures were used, LC1 cap on the DL4 blocked off the reflections n so on. I'm just too tired to explain anymore so I just took more pics of them. I swapped them round between left n right sides, top n bottom. I also made sure both lenses were without the threaded ring or LC1, both cameras were switched off too. Any which way I look at them, they are different. Anyway, here's the pics.

LX3 vs DL4 lens

LX3 vs DL4 lens


LX3 vs DL4 lens

LX3 vs DL4 lens

See how the DL4 exhibits a darker blue tint in every single position? Am I the only person seeing this or am I in need of eye surgery? LOL. What do you guys see?


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Sunday, November 30, 2008

LX3 vs DLux4 Part 2

Ok here comes part 2 of LX3 vs DLux4. I've actually had these photos for about a week. I've been pretty busy as my dad was in hospital n I've been busy attending to his needs.

Anyway, I woke up to a nice sunny day with bright blue skies n puffy white clouds on the 21st of November. It's been pouring down cats n dogs everyday in Malaysia ever since I got back from the trip to Shanghai. It was a brilliant day n I seized the opportunity for a nice day out with my cameras. So I headed out to Kuala Lumpur City Center where the World's Tallest buildings(Petronas Twin Towers) are located. I don't know how many of you guys have seen it so here goes.

Greetings from the Petronas Twin Towers, the World's Tallest Buildings.




The following pics were all taken with the same exact shutter speed, aperture n ISO. Also, no tweaks were done to the JPEGs. Only thing I set was Standard film mode with +1 sharpening for both cameras. Part 1 of LX3 vs Dlux4 was done in a gloomy shopping mall so I made sure Part 2 will be done outdoors with lotsa bright reds, blues n greens. I'll just leave it up to you guys to look at the pictures n see if you can tell the differences or make your decision on which to buy. So buckle up........... here we goooooooooooo.

DLux4, 1/125, f2.5, ISO80


LX3, 1/125, f2.5, ISO80







DLux4, 1/200, f2.8, ISO80


LX3, 1/200, f2.8, ISO80







DLux4, 1/640, f2, ISO200


LX3, 1/640, f2, ISO200









DLux4, 1/160, f2.8, ISO80


LX3, 1/160, f2.8, ISO80




DLux4, 1/400, f2.8, ISO125


LX3, 1/400, f2.8, ISO125




DLux4, 1/250, f2, ISO80


LX3, 1/250, f2, ISO80




DLux4, 1/320, f2.8, ISO80


LX3, 1/320, f2.8, ISO80


That's it for Part 2.

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Photobucket down..

Sry guys. I just came home from dinner n saw that my Photobucket bandwith has been exceeded. I'm in the process of upgrading my account to Photobucket Pro now. The demand is just too high from all around the world n my old account has been blocked. Thanks for the viewings guys. Keep it coming. Hopefully u guys keep supporting me so I can pay for the Photobucket Pro account. So please check out the advertisements here ya? Your support is much much much appreciated. :)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

James Bond in Shanghai

Since I'm on the subject of movies today. Here's an experience I'd like to share. The Quantum of Solace Premier on the 3rd of November in Shanghai. We were visiting this place called Xintiandi in Shanghai, a fantastic place I must say. It's my favorite place in Shanghai. It's built to look like the olden days when the French occupied that part of Shanghai. Feels like a time machine being in there. You really feel as if you're in a part of old Europe. Everything in there is just so European with the sidewalk cafes n all.

Here's how Xintiandi looks like in the day.
james bond





As we walked further down into the next area, the workers were setting up all the crowd barriers, red carpet, stage, lights n stuff.
james bond

james bond

james bond





Some of the sponsors like Aston Martin, Omega, Heineken n visit Britain were there too.
james bond

james bond

james bond

james bond


Anyway, I'm a long time Bond fan, so I was pretty excited. I went over to the Box Office to enquire what it was all about. The counter girl told us the price of the premier tickets n gave us the itinerary for the night. We went ahead n bought 2 tickets. I was planning to watch it after the Shanghai trip when I got back to Malaysia. Instead I get to see this grand premier night in my favorite place in Shanghai, China. I was pumped!

The itinerary said the action only starts at about 7pm so we went off for some shopping. We got back to Xintiandi early at about 6pm so we could get a nice spot at the sidewalk cafe facing the stage. I wanted a nice table where we can wine, dine n watch the show on stage. Managed to get a really nice table with a view of the stage. Here's the table with the view. Hehe.
james bond


We ordered some lovely Japanese noodles n just chilled while the show went on. Here's some pics of the crowds n stage just before the celebrities from China n Hong Kong started walking down the red carpet.
james bond

james bond

It was craaaaaaaaaaaaazy. The whole place erupted when the celebrities showed up. I didn't even bother to get amongst the crowd to get some pics of the celebrities. I'm not interested in the China n Hong Kong celebs anyway. I was just there to soak up the atmosphere of being at a grand premier. Besides, I was too busy with the deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious Japanese noodles. Haha. I'll end the pictorial with this really cool signboard. My favorite drink sponsoring my favorite legendary spy. Hehe.
james bond



Everything ended at about 9.30pm. So I paid the restaurant bill n proceeded to the cinema. We were given Coke Zero goodie bags at the entrance. Coke Zero........ yum yum, my favorite drink to go with the popcorn we bought.

The show was brilliant! I've read n also heard lotsa people complaining that Quantum of Solace sucks n all. I guess they're not real fans of James Bond. They complain that it's too violent, too much action n Bond is not his usual suave n sexy self. They don't even know anything about Bond! The funniest thing is when I hear people complaining that the car chase at the start of the show was stupid n unrealistic. Saying things like how come a "lowly" Alfa Romeo can keep up with an Aston Martin supercar. They obviously don't know anything about cars or they don't drive or have never driven sports cars. Just because your car has 500 horsepower doesn't mean you can just pull away from the chasing car in heavy traffic. Just look at the traffic on the road n how Bond had to resort to desperate measures while trying to lose the chasing car.

Anyway, Casino Royale n Quantum of Solace is not a continuation of previous episodes but more about how Bond's character came about. Casino was explaining how he was betrayed by the woman he truly loved. Quantum is about his rage n revenge. Now tell me, how's he supposed to be all sexy n suave when he's enraged like a bleeding bull? LOL. It is only after these episodes that he learns never to trust another woman n became a swashbuckling, suave n sexy playboy. I had lotsa fun at the premier, lotsa fun watching the show n I say James Bond ROX!!!!!!!!!!!

Leica Leica Leica

Phew, it's been hectic the past few days. My dad's in the hospital for some surgery n I've been at the hospital visiting. I needed something to do in between the waiting n all, so I loaded some movies into my iPhone. I just watched this really funny movie n guess what? It's practically a Leica advertisement. Almost everyone uses a Leica in the show. The movie is called Euro Trip n it's pretty funny for some mindless entertainment. Hehehe. Here's a few pics of Leica starring in it.

Here's a short clip I took from the movie where the guy is showing off his M7. The best part is right at the end. Listen to what the guy with long hair says right at the end. hahaha.


Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!
Leica



I can take off everything but the Leica........... Hehehe
Leica




Leica M7 in the sand!!!!!! NOOOooooooooooooooooo...............
Leica




This is what we call a Leica moment. LOL.
Leica



If you're a Leica fan, watch this movie just coz of the Leica content. If you're not a Leica fan, watch it anyway coz it is pretty funny. Just dont watch it in a place that's supposed to be quiet like the hospital. You'll find it difficult to contain yourself. Haha.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Apacer AM500 memory card reader

I've been using this so called USB2.0 All in 1 Card Reader. It's an absolute nightmare.



I thought all card readers rated as USB2.0 should have the same performance. How wrong. I never realised how slow this card reader is coz I always upload the pics after taking a few shots for my PC Modding worklogs. I only realised it's dog slow when I came back from the trip to Shanghai when I had 2 full 4gb CF cards n a full 2gb SD card. It took an eternity to upload the pics to my PC. So I went n bought a proper card reader yesterday. I had my eye on the Buffalo n Sandisk brands coz I've read their pretty fast. Couldn't find Buffalo so I looked at the Sandisk Imagemate which came with some freebies like Photoshop Album. It looks pretty good too with a docking station.

Then I saw a really stylish looking reader called Apacer AM500. I whipped out my iPhone n did a quick Google search on it. Seems it's a just released high performance product from Apacer so I bought it immediately. It's a sexy beast. The casing is sandblasted aluminum with black chrome trim. Looooooooovely just fantabulously looovely. I like all my things in black. It supports all major memory card formats. Here's how it looks like.
Apacer AM500 card reader

Apacer AM500 card reader

Apacer Am500 card reader

Apacer AM500 card reader


Looks nice eh? Howzabout the performance? Well, I ripped it out of the box as soon as I got home n did a quick test. I had a 2gb SD card with 920mb worth of pics in it so I used that for the tranfer test. I tested by transferring the 920mb to my PC using Windows Vista n timed how long it would take to completely transfer over to the PC.

Vitac All in 1- took 15 minutes and 26 seconds.
Apacer AM500- took 1 minute and 18 seconds!!!!!

Incredible results I would say. The Apacer AM500 did it at more than ten times the speed of that generic piece of $#!7. LOL. This Apacer AM500 card reader gets 10 thumbs up from me. Awesome performance n svelte sexy look with superb build quality.

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

DiGi fair at 1 Utama

I received a text message from DiGi yesterday. It said 1st 300 people to turn up at the registration counter will receive a free gift. I was wondering what gift it was. Since I live about 5 minutes away, I decided to take a drive there to pick up my free gift.

They took up the whole Oval concourse area. Looooooove my Leica D-Lux4 24mm wide angle in this shot. hehe.
Photobucket






The only cool thing I saw at the fair was this Interactive Wall thingy. Anyone remeber the show Minority Report? It was kinda like that display wall Tom Cruise was drawing n working on. The DiGi guy was using his hands to draw n paint on that big screen. Cool Stuff.
Photobucket






I went up to the top floor to try n see if I could get an unusual wide angle shot of the whole concourse area n got a pretty interesting perspective with the 4:3 mode switched on. Kinda looks like a fisheye lens eh?
Photobucket






Now, to the free gift. Pretty dissapointing I'd say. Come on DiGi, I've been a loyal customer since you arrived n set up shop in Malaysia n this is all I get? A lousy looking neoprene CD bag. :( Please give us something a lil more useful next time eh? In this day n age of MP3, how useful is a CD bag? LOL.
Photobucket

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Flash for D-Lux4 n LX3

I recently read that Olympus flashes will work in Panasonic cameras n vice versa. I also own an Olympus SP350 which could use it. Soooo............. off I went in search of a nice n cheap Olympus flash. I wanted something cheap n compact as I already have a big flash for my Sony Alpha DSLR. I really like the Leica CF22 flash but it's not available yet. The Panasonic FL360 costs about $300, is so big n ugly on top of our sexy lil LX3/DL4. It's just waaaaaaaaaaay too ugly for my tastes.

I went looking for the Olympus FL20 which is small, light, compact n cheap. It costs only about $100. Found it at a local camera shop called Photo Trillion at Mid Valley Mall n proceeded to try it out. I'll just add that Photo Trillion provides top notch customer service. Here's how the FL20 looks like. It's very small n compact, looks perfect sitting on top of the LX3/DL4. Sry, forgot to take a pic of it sitting on top of my camera.
Olympus FL20




Here's a reference pic taken by the DL4 without flash.
Photobucket



DL4 with pop up flash.
Photobucket



DL4 with the Olympus FL20 on Auto mode. It doesn't do TTL. I tried, it doesn't fire.
Photobucket


Argggggggggghhhhhh, as u can see, the auto mode doesn't work too well. TTL doesn't work at all. The only way to get proper pics would be to set it manually. Getting a manual flash for the LX3/DL4 is gonna be kinda silly so I didn't. I want a full auto flash that complements the instant point n shoot capability of the cam. Looks like I'll hafta wait for the Leica CF22 then. :(

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