Interesting day today. I actually see clouds and blue skies over Shanghai! =Usually its covered in a cloud of strange air, strange because its either =
pollution or a geographically specific phenom, but usually grey and misty =
coloured and difficult to breathe in. Today its actually a fine day by any =
standards!
Ricoh GRD Nightshot
Shot this tonight at Xintiandi. The original uncropped picture has a lotmore coverage than the one below. Shot at ISO800, B&W mode to maximise
the grain like luminance noise, f2.4 and at the most 1/20s. Focus is
preset at infinity in order to be able to shoot stealthily like a
rangefinder. An optical viewfinder on this thing would be ideal!
Photoshops at Shanghai Railway Station
Some months back the famed huang loong bai huo camera place near the main railway station was closed for renovation. its still in the same location, with some new granite floors and what looks like a new layout, and larger looking shops. The first floor is still littered with counters selling tidbits and nothing of interest. Not sure of the point of it all.
Camera gears still start from the second floor onwards.
2nd & 3rd floor now has run of mill shops selling standard photo crap from major marques. There are a couple of medium and large format shops, but surprisingly only 1 used photo equipment shop.
4th floor sells only wedding dresses and make up kits. 5th floor nothing yet, all empty.
Overall impression was lukewarm. This place starts to look like a typical photo shop carrying the major brands, thus not too exciting. No voigtlander, no cosina. Unless they start stocking the 5th floor with used equipment shops, I’ll stick to the store at xietu lu/luban lu.
Beefing up flash system – part 2
Ok, managed to get a SU800 here in Tokyo, so my flash system is now up to 1 SU800, 2 SB800s and an R1 system. Hmm… plenty of fire power, not just have to get it to work properly. Too bad this week in Tokyo I only have the SU800, so no time to test out everything.
Ricoh GR Digital
Spent this Japanese weekend going to Hakone to look for Mount Fuji. The last trip was raining when we went to Kamakura, so no Mount Fuji. The last weekend, it was foggy the whole day in the mountains so we didn’t see Mount Fuji again!
But what I got this time as a discreet shooter was a Ricoh GR Digital. Heard about this little camera for sometime already, and there’s a niche market here in Japan for that kind of camera. Went over to MAP camera at Shinjuku and saw at least 10 samples for sale in the second hand shop. Got one nice quality one (realised later that the mode selector is a little finicky between A and M mode, but its a small problem). Accessories for this GR is just expensive as hell. There’s an optical viewfinder that goes for 150USD! Does nothing other than letting you shoot without using the LCD viewfinder.
Compared the GR to the new GX100, but eventually went for the GR even if its just 28mm fixed lens without a zoom. The GR just feels better with the twin dial control like on DSLRs. THe GX100 has 2 as well, but the horizontal scroll wheel is more like a rocker dial rather than a full spinning dial. Anyway, beginning to love the GR in B&W mode and high ISO… reminds me of film and a little of Kodak 400TX. Will be testing this little camera to see what its capable of. Great when I dont have the chance to whip out the D2H.
Palm OS and Graffiti 2…
I hate graffiti 2 that comes with the new Palm OS machines. After using Graffiti 1 for the last 7 years, and now having to use 2 strokes for some characters, plus some problems entering t’s and o’s I decided to bite the bullet and replace it back with Graffiti 1 using utilities I have found online. Unfortunately on my Japanese Clie TH55, it crashed the thing and I can’t restart it anymore until I do a hard reset!!
Blog from a phone (Nokia e61)…
Got myself a used Nokia e61 while in Kuala Lumpur a couple of weeks back. Original idea was to get a second phone that supports UMTS for use in Japan. This thing comes with that, quadband GSM and also wifi, and I’ve found the keypad to be absolutely comfy enough to type long emails or to email to my blog engine. That bypasses the censorship the chinese govt has put onto my website.
What I would do is to type out my email, with the subject as the blog title and keep it in the outbox till a wifi access point is near, and send it off to be posted. And the best thing about it is i can do it anywhere!
Beefing up flash system
In order to expand my creative options, started to expand my nikon flash system with the purchase of a second SB800 in singapore from a guy through an advertisement on Clubsnap forums.
Then, to complement the macro system I have been building up, i got myself an R1 system when passing through Kuala Lumpur. Was told its the last unit in Nikon Malaysia. Funny thing is that when you look at whats inside the big R1 or R1C1 box, there’s nothing much inside. Most of the space is taken up by a large storage box/bag. The SB-R200 unit themselves look a little less convincingly built than the 800s, but works.
Wish i could say I’ve spent a lot of time with whats available to now, but was down with flu once I got back to Shanghai, so thats a story for a future post.
Vaja Cases (www.vajacases.com)
Vaja cases make some of the best leather PDA cases out there. I was using one for my Sony Clie NR70V, and just recently I ordered another custom case for my “new” Clie TH55 which I bought from Akiba in Tokyo. I did find a case in one of the BIC cameras in Tokyo, but after getting used to a previous vaja, it was difficult to use anything else. Most cases don’t fit well, leather smells of petrol, and looks bulky.
This current order from vaja will take 10 days to ship, since its custom made, and probably another week or two to reach me here in Shanghai. I have done the same shipment to Shanghai 7 years ago for my first Clie, so there shouldn’t be a problem. Shipping adds another 20% to the total price.
Can’t wait for it to arrive in a month’s time!
Site still blocked by the chinese government
I’m still having problem accessing my own website, FTP, HTTP, anything so have been finding it quite difficult to keep it updated. The only way I can blog now is to either use my office connection (uses an overseas proxy) or blogging by email. Will sort that part out. A trace of the path to the server shows the packet getting blocked after 1-2 hops and nothing comes back after that. I doubt an email or phone call to whoever is blocking this connection will help. Only way is to get a fixed IP address from my ISP or to switch ISP. Anyways…
nangka.org 