Ending Raya Break Part I

I took a whole week off for the recent Hari Raya and getting back to work was a pain especially with the backlog of patients waiting for me at the clinic. Luckily, I had a couple of days to get my feet back on the ground before starting my calls.

Deciding where to head to ...Looking up ...Making my way across to Avenue KOne of the newer shops in town - RobinsonsA quick stop at the Leica StoreYes, it is big!For the last day of the break, I decided to take my camera out for a spin. Just me and the camera with my Touch and Go card to take me across town using the MRT/LRT.

Alighting at Masjid JamekMasjid IndiaPlease pay hereHello Kitty!Looking good ...Some of the roads undergoing upgradesLuckily the weather turned out to be superb, and it turned out to be an enjoyable day. When I was finally done, I clocked around 300 snaps.

I parked my car to start the journey at Suria KLCC. From there, I walked across to Avenue K, having a few snaps at the Twin Tower as I was passing along. I was tempted to stop at Robinson’s - the new shopping mall at Four Seasons just across Suria but decided against it.

Red shop ...Pertama Complex - one of the oldest mall in KLLooking out from Medan MARAThe SOGO entrance was rather flowery ...Back to Masjid IndiaTime to settle down for lunchI stopped at the Leica Store while at Avenue K before taking the LRT to Masjid Jamek. I walked along Masjid India, then towards Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, before doubling back to Lebuh Ampang for lunch at one fo the banana leaf restaurant there.

Continued here in Part II ...

You Handsome Devil

I attended a product launch the other night. It was for the brand new Leica camera, the CL. A mirrorless interchangeable lens APS-C camera which was compatible with the Leica TL lenses.

Typical Leica, they didn't come cheap.

There used to be a couple of Leica Stores in town, but the one at Starhill had closed a couple of years back. The one left was located at Avenue K, right next to KLCC. That was where the launch was done.

Don't press that!!!!An Executive from Leica Asia Pacific was next giving some corporate spiel Some real-life samples from a local photographer Wong Mun KeatA simple affair mainly to introduce the new camera. The event started off with speeches from the Leica Excutives, both local and regional, followed by a brief talk by a local photographer, Wong Mun Keat telling us his experience of having the new camera along for a week. He shared some sample images as well and gave us a bit of flab our of how it was like with the new kit.

The camera could be bought with a brand new pancake lens kit - and f 2.8 Elmarit - or alternatively with a standard zoom lens. I noticed that most of the better images were taken using a higher-end Summilux. That would mean investing in an extra lens to get the best out of us camera. That combination, plus the trimmings could easily set me back RM 25000, which frankly still be inferior to the setup I have at the moment.

The bottom line is the quality would not be as good as the M system and its lenses. Yes, you do get autofocus but the camera just felt front heavy with the wide lenses. Plus, there was no stabilization on the basic system. And since I preferred a 28mm look anyway, using my Leica Q made more sense if autofocus was needed.

That doesn't mean that the CL system was bad. Far from it. If I didn't have the Q, I would've bought the new kit and gave it a good go. With the pancake lens, it just felt great on the hand. Plus you still get glimpses of famous Leica colour. So far, there are no addition to my camera cabinet ....