Just got started into biking as part of my fitness revival (from zero to hero). The problem of biking in Malaysia is that there are not that many shops over there. Even in PJ itself Icould only count about 2-3 shops only, ok more if you consider branches. In Singapore I could find just about one everywhere and most of them are well stocked.
Priority here this time is not to replace anythin Ialready have in KL (Basically, the full working bike, my Felt F1X, hand pump, spare tube, saddle bag) but to get the rest of the important accessories.
Continue reading “Accessories for road biking…”
Stocking up in Singapore…
Ahh, my favourite time of the year. Stocking up day! So for christmas this year this is what I managed to get during my end of year in Singapore:- 2 Bottles of 500mL Agfa Rodinal (surprised to be able to find it at all. After all Agfa Film is closing down. Wanted to get another few bottles of 125mL solution but since they probably don’t make it anymroe and the solution keeps for years, Idecided to go for 1L of it! Enough for at least 200 rolls of B&W films at my dilution)
– 5 Rolls of Ilford Pan F
– 10 Rolls of Ilford FP4+
– 20 Rolls of Kodak 400TX (Got it at a good price. and the expiry date is sometime at the end of 2007, so should be enough. Anyways, in France films costs a bomb)
All in all, a good outing but then again.. got to spend mroe time to put the films into use int he next 2 years. Hope in my next stocknig up session most of the stuff up there is still available! Its not an easy time to be shooting film nowadays.
Oh shit…. its already the end of the year!!!
After going thru about 30 of the new year stuff, its beginning to be boring.
Anyways, on new years day I’ll be driving from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and can’t wait to jump on my F1X for a ride around the neighbourhood!!!
Dec 2005 Update…
BEen a long time since I accessed this page. Lazy, not busy. During all these time, I’ve bought a Felt F1X cyclocross bicycle and fitted it with a wireless Polar Speed Sensor, with the Cadence sensor to come next. All linked to the Polar S625X HRM.
Tempted to get a new camera as well (Nikon’s D200 looks nice) but I think I can stretch my Nikon F4s + FM2n combi for at least a few more years. They still feel nice and 5400dpi scans of Provias are just amazing… nothing feels better than looking at a well exposed Provia.
Other than that, nothing interesting is happening. Working on a move to somewhere in Europe, but not really finalized yet.
Continue reading “Dec 2005 Update…”
Film to develop from Shanghai
This should have been posted 2 weeks ago at least but I didn’t have the time. Came back from Shanghai after 4 months with the following to develop:2x Ilford HP5+ at EI400
1x Ilford HP5+ at EI800
6x Kodak 400TX at EI400
1x Kodak 400TX at EI1600
5x Kodak FP4+ at EI125
Going to take some days to get them all developed! That’s on top of all the colour film rolls of course, I’m sure Ive gone thru at least 10 rolls of Provia, Velvia and Kodak 100VS but all developed in Shanghai since its only 15RMB per roll of slides in sleeves.
LPs and MP3
Am back in Kuching for a holiday this week. First thing I did was to transfer some of my favourite records into MP3 so that I can listen back where I am most of the time. Talk about nostalgia! Just digitized Ce Ce Peniston’s Finally, Janet Jackson’s Go Deep in the Thunder Mix, and now I have Cassa De X in Dubfire’s Deep Vocal Mix. FUnny to see BT and Deep Dish in a record, didn’t know that it was them since I never read the record labels! Got another 30 more records to go before I finish, I’m sure there’s not enough time to do them all.
How is it done? From the record it goes via an Ortofon cartridge (the standard for scratching records in the mid 90s) into a Technics SL1200 turntable (the old grandpa of scratch turntables), into a Gemini PMX15A mixer (apparently Portishead’s DJ uses it), into a Griffin Technologies iMic, into a Powerbook G4 and using Final Vinyl to digitize into WAVE file. Will do the conversion into MP3 back in Kuala Lumpur on the PC since its faster.
New Addition to the family… Ballhead and Scanner
This one should be grouped under gadgets, but what the hell? I’m in Singapore right now and just received 2 packages from the US. One of them is a new tripod head, the previous one a Manfrotto 486RC2 has been sold to a nice gentleman here in Singapore over the weekend (seems its quite a hot ballhead on the marketplace). What did I replace it with? Went for an Arca-Swiss type head, and got Kirk Enterprise’s BH3 ballhead. I dont need something like the BH1 or a real Arca Swiss B1 sinc eI dont have a large 300mm f2.8 or larger lens for now. Had to change to a new ballhead becuase the Manfrotto head just doesn’t handle the F4s with the 80-200mm that well. When you compose and lock the head, it moves a little since the whole setup is too heavy. Continue reading “New Addition to the family… Ballhead and Scanner”
iPod battery upgrade
Was out of the country for 3 days and when I came back the iPod battery was already flat. Seems that after a few years, the battery fails to retain charge. If its not used for a few weeks the battery will be flat. Not sure where the charges leaks to, but it just disappears.
Luckily my replacement battery arrived from the US last weekend and so its time to upgrade it. I’ll detail the upgrade later but it was almost painless, but while prying the case open I think I must have dislodged one of the button. Now the play button is integrated in the case. Meaning that all I have to do is to squeeze the bottom of the case to get the play/pause button to work! Will have to operate the case again soon when I have more time to repair this… but I thought its quite cool “feature” to have…
First bid on eBay
Today marks my first time on eBay… I’ve been watching items for a long time already but its the first bid today. Feels good. But you wont know that you have won till the end of the auction.
I was planning to get a new tripod head from Kirk Photo in the US but there’s this guy in Perth that sells a mint condition head (ok, older model, but I dont really care, the only change is the QR platform) and I more or less have the price I’m willing to pay for it. Lets see how it works out. I have the high bid today, but still with 48 hrs more to go.
AIS lenses on Nikon’s F4 SLR
Specs…Lens: 25-50mm f4 AIS
Camera: Nikon F4 with MF23 back
Tested out my new used 25-50mm AIS lens on the F4 when I went on a street shoot today, and noticed that although its an AIS lens, and matrix metering works with it (seriously, I’ve never used the Matrix Meter before, prefering to use Central-weighted or Spot meter), when you’re on “A” (aperture priority) and one of the “P” (programmed) modes, no aperture information shows up on the MF23 back. This also means no aperture info is imprinted on to the film. I usually set the MF23 to print shutter and aperture setting information between frames, but with AIS lenses, it seems that it only prints shutter speed and you get a “–” for aperture.
When you set the F4 to “P” mode, the body doesn’t seem to be able to set the aperture on the camera, even if you stop it down to the smallest aperture setting. In effect the “P” setting works like “A” where you set the aperture using the aperture dial on the lens.
Don’t matter to me too much since I’m mostly on aperture priority or full manual.
nangka.org 