The SpyderCube

I have always struggled to get the perfect white balance when shooting using my digital camera. I thought shooting RAW would make things better. But all it did was slow down my workflow, and for the last couple of years, I almost exclusively shoot jpeg, even on my 7D. When it came to the X100 and the X-Pro1, jpeg was definitely the choice for me due to the superior on camera Jpeg engine Fuji had developed. The noise level from the camera coming straight off the camera was definitely better than what I could develop manually in Adobe Bridge, not to mention the almost perfect skin colour rendition.

But when it came to still life and studio lighting, getting the perfect colour maybe possible, usually using a grey card. The SpyderCube made this process much easier though. I shot the 7D in RAW, took the first frame with the cube on sight, and just cut and paste the white balance setting on the subsequent frames in my Aperture. Convenient indeed. And I was impressed with the results. Obviously helped by the new lightbox I had just purchased ......

Another worthy investment to be honest. I actually bought a studio set from Datacolor which contained the SpyderCube, Spyder4Elite and well as printer print colour analyser. I have yet to use the print analyser as yet. Indeed to investor a proper printer first however ......

KL Photo Festival 2012

So, was it worth the trip to attend the KL Photography Festival last weekend? It was for me. For the longest time, I had been looking to get hold of a computer screen colour calibrator. I had been searching around Low Yat for the last few years, but nobody really knew what I was talking about. The KLPF a couple of years back was right disappointing. So, when I set off, I made a list of things I was looking for.

Those were, a decent printing service, a decent portable flash system, and maybe a camera bag. But I couldn't believe my luck when I came across a Datacolor booth, the maker of the Spyder products. Nice! They make the Spyder4 screen calibrator, the SpyderCube camera grey point calibrator and many other stuff. Before long, I was lugging up the stuff from there. I got he Spyder4Elite system, and well as the cube, all with a 25% discount. But I wasn't done yet.

Yes, there were plenty of modelsI was quite surprised to see the number of people carrying heavy camera gear with them to shows like this. Yes, there would be models at the booths for them to get photos off, but plan to browse. I only carried my iPhone. That was enough.

The show this year was much better than the previous, much to do with the recent announcements of products at Photokina. The market for compact system cameras were definitely expanding. I spent some time at the Olympus booth, taking a close look the the OM-D EM5. A neat little camera. Very capable despite the small size. Gat autofocus, but I suspect that the colour reproduction as well as low light performance would be found wanting compared to my X-Pro1. I was also disappointed with the choices of lens for the micro 4/3rd system still. The best of the bunch would be the Leica 25 f1.4. But I have already have the 35 f1.4 on my Fuji. The zoom may be a bit better but I would rather use my 7D and my L lens for that.

They had a separate area for photography tourism packages..... as well as photography talks .....I should stick to what I have at the moment and slowly expand. I was sure that all systems have their strength and weaknesses. It all depended on how you use them.

The next stop would be to look at the flash system. The Elichrome system was mighty cool, but the system - complete with remote trigger - would only be available in Malaysia in the next couple of months. Got the contacts of the dealers and I might give them a visit later in the year.

He next item I bought was a camera tripod. My old one had been a bit wonky and I needed a second stand for my Speedlight. I picked up a nice Manfrotto carbon fibre unit with a ball head at half the price! Bargain!

Last items was light box, for still life photography. A nice portable unit which fold neatly into a bag, with its own light source. It also came with diffusers and multiple backgrounds. A bit expansive but I thought I got what I paid for, judging from the results I was getting. More on the photos on that in my later post.

I left the show with my hands full, with plenty of explaining needed to be given to Puan Anita when I reached home ....

I Need Speed

When I bought the X-pro1, it came with a Sandisk 8Gb card. But it was of a rather sluggish variety. It took time for the camera to write if I was taking RAW snaps. Annoying.

Time to get a proper card. So, I plumped some good money for a better 16Gb number. It worked really well on the test so far. Let's see how it hold up the next time I go about town taking snaps.

The New Camera

Guilty. I couldn't resist it. A camera with better lens and sensor than the lovely X100. I would go insane to say no. So, last Friday, after work, I went out to ask around and at Boeing in Sungai Wang, I got the best offer.

I bought the body with the 35mm f1.4, a delicious lens and had been trying it out ever since. I also got the dedicated case for it, but the annoying thing about that case was the battery and the memory card, bring located at the base of the body, necessitate me to remove the casing every time I needed to charge or download photos. A bit of a pain.

Another gripe was, I have yet to update to OSX Lion on the iMac since the software for my wiggy Internet dock is not compatible with it. The latest version of Aperture requires upgrade to OSX Lion, and that version could process the x-Pro1's RAW files. Since I was not able to upgrade, I was stuck with the jpeg. But when the jpeg appeared this good, I couldn't really complaint. Yet.

With Idlan having his exams next week, and Puan Anita occupied, I would have time to have a walk about town. The camera sounded perfect for street photography, although like the X100, the focusing can be rather quirky.

The Final Journey

While my Grandmother's jenazah was being prepared for burial, I took the opportunity to mingle around and catch the atmosphere through my camera.

Since I didn't want to appear too distracting, I used my iPhone instead and processed the captures into black and white for dramatic effect. The camera nearly ran out of juice as all together I took close to 150 snaps.

Now that I had the chance to look through the snaps, I decided to put in some narrative hole the memory was still fresh. I have therefore dedicated a whole page for the slideshow. I would put up choices of either to go through the pictures sequentially with some narration, or breeze through them randomly through a flash slideshow.

Most of the stuffs are up and running now. Just press here to get to the page, I called "Dadi's Final Journey". Enjoy.