GX GARNERINGS

^The echo of the curving lines on the floor and the CTM signboard is an interesting factor to me. Hi, I am Chris Guy and have been staying in this part of the world for quite a long time.  I have been following Nevin's GX GARNERINGS for some months and admire him running the blog with such gusto.  His recent posts about Macau are especially relevant to me as I just visited the once Portuguese colony.  It is a place with character in stark contrast to the hustle and bustle here in HK, in particular around Macau's western tip where villages have probably stayed the same way for some decades. Thanks to Nevin for permitting me to post some photos I took in Macau.  In fact, I have several of my photos posted here before.  And I look forward to other readers to share theirs too. Enjoy! ^Nevin rightly pointed out that motorcyclists were ubiquitous in Macau.  This shot was taken through the bus windows.     ^Tourists (or locals) have fun doing the ritual of rubbing the rings of

This is the second post of the CX1 review series.   Instead of the usual unexciting reviews (a bottle of unduly fermented red wine immediately spring to mind), I will do the review posts in a photographic journal sort of writing.  This is how: I will write about how I used the camera in a real life situation, supplemented with some verdicts on the review items which are focusing, flash and high ISO IQ for this post. ^The signboard dimly lit by a flashlight could be a non-starter for auto focusing, but it obviously posed no problem to the Multi-AF mode of the CX1. On one hot summer night, I tripped to a secondary forest with friends here in Hong Kong.  That was when a serious compact user might prefer taking along a point-and-shooter which suits the rough environment better and offers some manual controls at the same time.  And, more importantly, it is cheaper in case a damage occurs.  This is a reason why I proposed the price factor to be pivotal to serious compact users’ consi

Just as a serious compact to a DSLR, a flexible point-and-shooter can make an indispensible companion to a serious compact , most notably for street photographers to take advantage of the quicker response and longer focal length of the latter. In choosing such a P&S camera, two primary factors must be borne in mind: price and useable manual functions. Surely, good image quality is assumed. Around two months ago, a plan was hatched to to expand and complete my serious compact system in relation to the GX200, in which I as a film SLR user for years was rather circumspect at first. The expansion surely includes such a P&S camera. My choice is the CX1. Why? It is not because I’m a huge fan of Ricoh (close but I’m still primary a huge fan of the now-defunct Minolta camera section) but CX1 is probably the only point-and-shooter in its class with advanced features relevant to the savvy photographers like, well, me. This series of review posts will be written in relation

I'm not being sarcastic but the photo amused me. It is from a Chinese website ePrice on its review of the GRDIII. To show that the camera was light enough, the tester put it on a scale! A link to the Googlish version is here . Not that I prefer Googlish to English but that it is handy as I am too occupied to do a quick translation for you buddies. But visit the Googlish version by all means 'cos I think the tester did quite a good job reviewing the camera. Comprehensive and systemic without the bland technical tests in a laboratory. By the way, the III fares very well at even high ISO and the noise sets in more noticeably at ISO 800 which is not a problem unless you pixel-peep. ISO1600 is useable to me as I have seen films my friends. The vignette control is good. The barrel distortion of the lens is barely visible. The tester has found that since the new sensor has traded in the film like grainy character in black-and-white images for better ISO performance in the III.

Panasonic announced its GF-1 today. Imaging-Resource has a very informative preview with still and video samples here . The built-in flash is a considerate fitting. The EVF looks very like that for the GX200 (Well, has Ricoh got the patent of it?). We are all very tempted indeed. (The photo is from Imaging-Resource)

^Old buildings in Macau combining a taste of continental deco and form and the eyesores of modern fittings Taken from Latin, genius loci literally means the “spirit of a place”, basing on the concept that cities have a deep underlying spirit arising from climatic and cultural aspects.  This is exactly what a street shots photographer can consider represent in their works, not the least when travelling and photographing in another country. I did not consider myself a street shot photographer until I really made my first sortie into digital photography with the Ricoh GX200.  To digress a bit, the upcoming lowest priced ever FF A850 did tickle my fancy at some point of time to revive my Minolta system.  But the sheer weight of the body at 850g, as compared to GX200’s slightly over 200g, was a big non-starter.  Cameras of such a magnitude size- and weight-wise are best suited for people who make money for a living from photography and, I surmise, it’s the marketing which makes them pro

A friend of mine, seeing the studio shots of her and her fiancé, gasped, "Why do the photos seem to have a layer of masking texture on them?" Fact is, she has been so used to the digital-fidelity photos that those film images look almost unacceptable to her. Her remarks struck on me that we have really come a long way in digital photography. Well, there are folks still incessantly pixel-peeping and complaining about the "noisy" digital images. ^Holga is widely available in Hong Kong, notably in Kubrick Cafe of Broadway Cinematheque and the fancy stationery section of CitySuper. However, much like an audiophile will claim that vinyl records still sound better than digitally enhanced CDs and MP3s, many photographers feel a similar partiality for low-fidelity photos. "Digital pictures are almost too clean and too sharp; there's no texture to them," says Norm Yip Wai-sing, 46, a professional photographer in Hong Kong. "But with film, because it

Remember the old posts about imposition as a composition technique?  This photo exemplifies how imposition can accentuate the nitty-gritty of a scene in a photo, which is “we can easily get lost and have to regularly look for our location in an ever-developing city, without exception to any adults or children” for this photo. The photo was taken in an underground station.  The passengers were looking for the what they hoped to know on the information board. This is Sunday.  Enjoy your day!