The Pasar Ramadan Shoot

Finally I managed to try the X-Pro1 on its street photography prowess when I took it out for a spin at Pasar Ramadan in Taman Melawati. Being black, it looked discreet enough not to attract much attention. Certainly, people were not as wary at it as much as if I was carrying along a DSLR.

The focusing could be much faster, but not too bad. I could've stopped down the aperture for wider focusing depth, but that would be at the expense of the gorgeous bokeh the lens offered. I set it at f2.0 instead.

The place was still packed as I was about to leaveAbout 85% of my snaps were in focus, which was more than I expected. I was basically snapping away. With a bit more attention, I could've nailed more. The percentage could also be higher if I switched it into electronic viewfinder instead. But that would take away much of the camera's charm.

I also noticed that the camera tended to underexposed a bit. Maybe by about 1/3 stop. It could easily be remedied either on the camera during the snapping or later on Aperture. No biggies really.

The queue for this popiah was easily 40 people longThere was another half with "SELAMAT"A rather novel one, ala tandoori chicken, minus the skewersRows of chicken riceThe famous Khan Cendol in MelawatiLong queue obviouslyAnd how did the snaps looked like? It was amazing. It was sharp even wide open at f1.4, but the problem then would be depth of field. f2.8 should be just about right .....

More photo from this shoot can be seen here.

Sunday Stroll

It was an unexpected free Sunday afternoon. I was meant to be on call, but due to a last minute swap, I was on call on Friday instead. And it was a busy one. It took me the whole morning to sort out the patients, and after taking Irfan out for his treat during lunch, I had the whole afternoon to myself.

So, I took a stroll to Low Yat to get myself more memory cards for the upcoming trip to Fraser's Hill. As expected, the place was full and traffic was bad. I instead parked at KLCC and took the covered walkway all the way to Pavilion. A nice relaxing stroll, stopping at a couple of cafe for snacks. It looked like Samsung was pushing the Galaxy S III as there we're promotions everywhere around Bukit Bintang. To e honest, I was not really sure if I could trust the dealers there as some of the unit I suspect were not for the local market. The warranty may not be honored.

Making my way across from KLCC to Pavilion and then Low YatArrived at the fountain and crossing acrossHALT!That is a curious one. Fried steak!Every road lead to Bukit BintangIn front of PavilionI guess they do this every Sunday afternoon maybe .....The Sandisk memory card at Low Yat was much cheaper than the one I bought in Bangsar the other day. For the same price, I got a faster unit instead. Other things I looked at was the new retina display MacBook Pro. There we units on display, but if you wanted to buy it, one had to put an order in as they were mostly about a couple of weeks away. Size-wise, it would be a drag to carry one around as I was so used to my 11-inch Mac Air.

X-Pro1 First Impressions

I wished that I had a few more outings with the new camera, but unfortunately, the weather wasn't very kind and it rained this afternoon. I also had to run errands as well as get some rest, not to mention having a peek at the BMW Shorties on the Sunday, as well as taking the boys for a run around.

So far, the jpg coming out of the camera had been amazing. The lens was sharp as advertised. I was still getting used to the focusing system. But the white balance, the tone and the overall feel of the image was astounding. Mind you, I have yet to push the camera to the limit. Maybe I would do so on the coming trip up Fraser's Hill in mid July.

Buddy Bears Reunited

As mentioned last weekend, during my walk at Pavilion, I spent some time taking close-up of the United Buddy Bear by the famous fountain. There we certainly plenty to discover as the effort were much more intricate up close.

A bit of inside info on the project

At the end, I must say that my favorite was the Spanish one. It was pretty simple, mainly pattern of colorful tiles painted onto the bear. But they were colorful and ultimately joyful. That got my vote.

This is my favourite, from Spain

The African bears we not too bad either. Most of them depicted local arts and paintings. They also tended to be colorful with plenty of animal motif. The same cant be said about the European bears as they tended to be simple and bland. Oh well! Have a look and see what you think.

Pavilion Slideshow