Green Thumbs and Green Hands

I have walked to some gardens with the EX1, seeing the plants meticulously cultivated by the caretakers with their green thumbs, and taken shots of the mind-smoothing green setting. As evidenced in the images, the Schneider lens of the EX1 manages to reproduce the images with good tonal transition from brightness to grey areas (crop at left). Certainly it is no high-grade lens costing thousands of bucks. Corner softness is noticeable. It was taken at about 50mm. But it is not any worse than its competitors.

Some green hands in photography have asked whether the F1.8 capability of EX1 has an advantage in giving bokeh to the shots. The answer is yes... if you shot in macro mode like the close-up shot of the flower below.

The answer is no otherwise for normal shots since the sensor is tiny and the focal length of 24mm to 72mm is only a conversion of the actual length of 5.2mm to 15.6mm. The following shot shows how the F1.8 will give out in normal shots. But the extensive DOF has many advantages. Of course, any veterans know that.

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New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness. Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre. Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Ricoh Camera Giveaways and the New GRD Bet

The recent months have seen Ricoh’s heavy-handed promotional efforts. Apart from the photo contest in collaboration with Greenpeace concluded some weeks ago in Hong Kong, there are three more chances for aspiring photographers to get free Ricoh cameras. There are lots of Ricoh's cameras to be given away. (A poster about the photo contest co-organised by Ricoh, Greenpeace and Jurlique for Hong Kong only, which was concluded in May. Winners are to be awarded with airtickets plus hotel accommodation, several fully-geared GX200 and CX1 cameras) Ninth Ricoh Photo Contest The first one is open to contestants from around the world, namely, the Ninth Ricoh Photo Contest to close on 21 August 2009. The theme of the contest is easy on the surface, but actually requires some effort to ponder on and express in the final image. The prizes are: Main Award: GR DIGITAL II + optional lenses and accessories (one person) Special Award: GR DIGITAL II (5 person...

Eye Contact

(Leica D-lux 5) The digital era may make it easier to end up with fave shots. Even lousy photos may be turned likable after a few clicks in the post-processing workflow. But if digital advancement or amendments have any bearing on the cultivation of personal style, no photographers will need to discover his or her own photographer’s eye. Undoutedly, this is out of the question. Only with a trained photographer’s eye can we give a thinking gaze and capture an eternal moment, in our unique style. Style is the soul of a great photo. A few posts have been written in GXG to touch on the topic of photographer’s eye. Instead of finding an answer, which would require academic discussions, the posts are intended to give my general reflections and spark interests in moving towards further exploration of the topic. The posts can be viewed after the links: 1) Photographer's Eye: Storytelling 2) Photographer's Eye: Little Show of Observing 3) Photographer's Eye: Sight-Worthy 4...

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