23mm Tryout

Finally I managed to take the new lens for a spin this afternoon. And the weather was gorgeous. Venue, as usual around Pavilion, walking towards Berjaya Times Square.

First I took photos of the CNY decorations at Pavilion. Then, across to Fahrenheit before heading towards Times Square. Spent a fair amount of time there - first time I was there in at least a couple of years. The place was packed considering this was CNY eve.

Next, I walked to Low Yat, emerging on the opposite side to walk along Jalan Bukit Bintang. I then doubled back towards Pavilion, stopping at Tours les Jours on the way home.

I finished things off with more snaps at Pavilion before heading home. Total walking time was almost two hours. Bright sunshine and clear blue sky. Couldn't ask for more.

So, I must admit, the lens was razor sharp even wide open in good light. Things got even better stopped down to f4.0, especially when it came to contrast.

I did notice that at f1.4 in low light and high ISO, the photos were soft. Maybe because I was snapping in jpeg, and the sensor over compensated. The contrast were also lost. The 35mm was better at low light resolution wise. It was still an amazing lens however.

With the flower shaped hood, the lens attracted too much attention for my liking. Coupled this with the slow focusing speed of the X-Pro1, there was a couple of shots which I missed. The whole unit also felt heavier than I was used to as I mainly used either the 17mm or the 35mm, but I could do with the weight. The whole setup had some heft to it.

The hood definitely helped with the flare especially in the harsh sunshine.

I must say for indoors, I still prefer the 35mm. Out in the street, the focal length of the 23mm was a winner. Maybe it was a matter of getting used to things. Or the fact that I prefer to take photos of details.

I was planning for another outing this Sunday when I would be meeting up with a few of my KLickr friends. I'll be taking it for another spin then.

Slideshow of the outing here.

Hipster Walk

I finished my afternoon round early yesterday - I don't have afternoon clinics on Tuesdays - and left the hospital early. There were people doing some repairs at the apartment with my maid keeping an eye on things.

I decided to go do some errands and take my camera out as well.

Of all places, I ended up at Pavilion and Low Yat. And there were plenty of people there. But contrast that to weekends, there were not many hipsters and teenagers carrying their oversized DSLR round the place. It was just me....

And the weather was great. Great until ingot a phone call to return to the hospital for an emergency admission.

But I had a couple of hours to burn. Coffee and ice cream at the cafe, and just going around Low Yat checking what was new.

You could tell that there was nothing much going on when the main foyer at Low Yat was showcasing beddings. I knew this was Chinese New Year and all, but this ain't no Parkson! What wer were they thinking?

No new gadget to have a look at, just old stuff. The camera lens I wanted to buy was still not in stock. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Bukit Bintang instead.

Still trying to figure out who's idea it was to turn Low Yat into a bedding store ....The traffic back to Subang was surprisingly reasonable with the traffic police doing their job making sure the flow was good. Took me around 30 minutes to get from Pavilion to SJMC. Hmmm.... I must do this again!

Pavilion CNY Slideshow

The narrative from this visit can be read here.

Across to Fahrenheit

I moved on after doing an initial sweep at taking photos at Pavilion foyer. I crossed the road from the fountain at the Bukit Bintang entrance which naturally took me to Fahrenheit. I thought I might as well have a quick peek.

Nothing fancy, but some cute decor. Animal theme and not just the horses. Neat. And less crowded than Pavilion.

Return to Pavilion

After seeing one of my friend's entry about the decorations at Pavilion, I was suckered in to return. The new additions were hordes of horses - as the coming CNY would be the Year of the Horses.

They had 688 of them at Pavilion. Exactly 688? I didn't actually counted them all.

Visiting Pavilion on a public holiday - today being Maulidur Rasul - was never going to be fun. I got there before noon, straight after my morning ward round, did some quick snaps walked towards Fahrenheit 88 - then drove to Syria Suria KLCC before returning home to get some errands done.

I didn't hang around for too long. By the time I left, the queue coming I to the car park was horrendous. Guess people wanted to get their shopping done before the coming CNY.

As you could see, the hordes were small but many. Two main colours, white and red. The Bukit Bintang entrance by the famous water fountain had the usual trimmings of lantern and sakura. All to good effect.

It soon got crowded that I was getting in the way of those about to have their photos taken. Time to escape...

More photos from this visit can be seen in this slideshow.