GX GARNERINGS

Human brains are formed to be allured by rhythm.  It can be a rhythm afforded by symmetry, balance or repetition.  The form can be music, calligraphy or photography, you name it. In photography, generally speaking, rhythm is a sense of dynamics conjured up by the disposition of objects in its own orderly way or the different degrees of contrast in colours and tonality.   In a stricter visual sense, rhythm is the interlacing of regular elements in an image, namely, the dots, lines and planes. By saying dots, lines and sections, we don't take the literal meaning.  Take the photos here for example.  The dots can be the heads of the passers-by as seen from an aerial angle.  The lines can be the  taxi or van queues.  And each picture of the model on the billboard can be taken as the planes. Rhythm exists in everyday scenes.  Go to the street and take notice of the vehicles whizzing past and passers-by going up or down the road in diff...

^Two old shaving brushes and a plastic container holding the shaving cream. Almost a year ago GX GARNERINGS featured a series about an old housing estate to be demolished, in which a post was written on an old Shanghainese barbershop to be closed down there.  The post tells of some history about such shops and hairstyling in Hong Kong Recently I have paid a visit to some local old shops of which one was a similar Shanghainese barbershop. ^The pricelist sets out the wide array of services and charges. These shops are vanishing and doing a business which is understandably not good.   They are mostly situated on the lower floors of the what we called Chinese tenement buildings built before the WWII.  The clues of their existence are the pricelist boxes and signboards put right at the entrance of the buildings. ^The barbershop is called New East Asia Barber's, which was a trendy word in the earlier days of the British colonial history as the word ...

^It says, "Super Digital Mall". I leapt from the film era, leaving the Minolta Dynax 7 and the pricey photographic paraphernalia, to the digital era embracing the 1/1.7"-sensor (hereinafter 1.7) GX200, without owning any DSLR. The reason is obvious: the unbearable heaviness of the regular photographic gear. The GX200 is still a joy in my hand. In fact, digital cameras have lots of strengths over their film cousins...well...grandpas. But I still have one problem adjusting to this digital camera era: the short life cycle of a product generation. The 1.7 serious compacts with a wide-angle-focal-length capability seem to soon become a phenomenon of the past, be them the GRD III, GX200, LX3, P6000, G11.... The Good and Bad of GF1 Combining the advantages of small size and better image quality, the downsized ASP-C and MFT newbies become the vogue. The GF1 is a joy exceeding that of my GX200 in absolute magnitude. To users of regularly sized cameras...

^Taken with the Samsung NX10 at F2.0, 1/350s, ISO 100. Check out the link below to see the original picture. Photos taken with the NX10 has been coming out on the Internet. Apart from the images offered by dpreview, see if some most updated resized photos here look razor-sharp to you. The IQ is ace as far as I'm concerned. Taken together with the comparison photos linked in the previous post, the NX10 seemingly beats the MFT sensors in IQ. Some ISO 3200 shots can be viewed here . If you are curious more than that about the NX10, here is the translation of a Korean's report at the CES with pictures showing its various aspects.

Can it be a worthy rival to the MFT system? If you haven't checked out the comparison shots made by a Korean photographer with the NX10 and GF-1, click on the following picture to visit his page. See how you'd make your own conclusion (roll to the middle once you're there for the English translation): I like the design with the integrated viewfinder.

Having reviewed and mused upon the photos taken with the GF1 in preparing this post, I have the following impressions on its two lenses, namely, the Lumix G Vario 14-45mm/ F3.5-5.6 ASPH (with MEGO O.I.S) and the Lumix G 20mm/ F1.7 ASPH. ^Check out this 100% crop of the above photo taken with the 20mm lens to see how sharp and crisp the image is. For easy reference, I set them out in a table: Lumix G Vario 14-45mm Lumix G 20mm Aperture starting at 5.6 at the long end is restrictive.  I was forced to push up the ISO to attend a higher shutter speed in less brightly lit situations Aperture starting at 1.7 is superb.  Makes nice bokeh effect too. Barrel distortion at the widest end is mild. Barrel distortion is mild. For sharpness of images, 3.5 stars out of five.  The lens fares just okay in areas being too contrasty. For...

The photo was done by dragging the shutter speed and firing the flash at 2nd curtain, with the GF1 mounted on a mini-tripod for steadying's sake.  The first girl was asked to stand still and the second walked towards the camera from farther away in rocking movement. Have a good break on Sunday!