Setting Up

After laying low this morning, I went over to the apartment for some lunch, while waiting for the afternoon admissions to arrive. In the meantime, I had the chance to open up the printer package and sorted out the wireless setting. It seemed to be behaving itself at the moment. I was able to print and scan wirelessly. It didn't have AirPrint installed at the minute, but I can download a software to be able to print from tablet. I decided against it though.

The major problem was I didn't buy any stock of printing paper. Basic mistake. Well, I had some spare papers lying around. That should do for the time being …….

Next, the iMac …..

Printer Ahoy

After the scouting yesterday, I returned to Low Yat, this time to buy the network printer which I eyed yesterday. I needed somebody to drive the MPV as I would need help with the 32 kg printer. Anita actually finalised the purchased as I actually short-listed a couple of units. She preferred the Canon unit as it was fully wireless. No cable needed, well, at least that was what it was claimed.

Low Yat was really packed on the Sunday afternoon, complete with a long queue at the lift, and at the front drive where we load up the MPV. Off we went straight after to the apartment to deposit the printer on the desk of my study. Hard work, but hopefully it would be worth it ......

I'm Back

It has been a good few days since I updated my blog. I was all down to work. And plenty of it. Being on call a couple of times in one week does take its toll, and I was really looking forward to the weekend.

Anita and the boys were in Port Dickson earlier today, enjoying the beach. I was left behind, and took the time to settle some bills and had some me time at Bukit Bintang.

Nothing much to see at Low Yat since all the new products - the new line of Samsung phones and the new Canon dSLR, the 5D mark III and 1D X - had only just been announced. It would be at least another couple of months before they were available. And that's not to mention the iPad 3 announcement due next week. Looking forward to that.

So, I was content at exploring Pavilion. Got myself a brand new pair of trainers for the gym. Gonna start going there soon. Need to shed some weight ....

Quick Tryout

Usually I only go out for a shoot on Saturday afternoons. Mainly either at the bird, butterfly or orchid park - all very near each other. I was not able to go out yesterday afternoon, so I went today - Sunday - instead, right after the aqiqah event.

I decided to head to the butterfly park to test out the shutter speed and how rapid the focusing respond was. I don’t think my 70-200mm was really cut out for butterfly work. To get a reasonable depth of field, I needed the close the aperture somewhat to f8.0. Therefore, I had to increase the ISO and even then, with the rather dimmed lighting inside the park, the shutter speed was shorter than I expected, leaving some of the pics rather blurred. The one that I was able to use were amazingly clear and sharp.

The high ISO performance was better than I expected. Yes, there were grains, but I was sure it was manageable with a bit of Photoshop ninja work. The 8 fps shutter speed worked as expected. I was snapping away, in RAW quite happily. The balance with the long lens was perfect. The focusing was how ever found wanting at times. The autofocus searched for more than a few moments, sometimes causing me to miss my shot. On a few occasion, it settled on a point which was out of focus. Maybe this were due to wrong point selection or, a wrong mode was used - I used single shot focus rather than servo.

Looking back, I may need to change my strategy somewhat for butterfly work. I may need a flash to allow me to use smaller aperture and lower ISO. That may be in a couple of weeks time then, after some research work of course!

The slideshow for the outing can be seen here.

7D First Spin

I can finally afford the EOS 7D and have been trying it out for the last week. Unfortunately I was not able to take it out for a really good spin yet but tryout in the house has been great so far. I am still familiarising myself with the settings and have not got my head around the remote flash triggering system as yet.

I was also rather occupied with booting up my system as well, so I have yet to really manipulate the output on the Photoshop so far. Maybe during the weekend I will be able to go out for a photoshoot, but it will all depend on the weather - so watch this space.

All the photos from this were taken in my back garden using the Canon EF-S 60mm Macro lens. I will only attempt to review the camera after at least taken it for a proper walk about.