A New Tone

Since moving my studies into my bedroom and converting my old personal space for a spare bedroom, I found the lighting rather dull. Something needed to be done.

I decided to change the bulb and synchronize their colours and tone. In came a few more Hue bulbs.

I still had a couple in the main living area where I sometime used to watch Netflix at. I bought a few more with a separate base station specifically for the bedrooms. After arranging everything, I realised that a couple of the wall mounted lights used a smaller bulb. I would need to replace the sockets in order to get my whole room on the same tone. At this moment I time, I was content with my desk lamp and the couple of bedside lamps using the Hue system. More modifications needed I should think ...

The iPhone X Camera

I take my phone everywhere and being an avid photographer, the most accessible phone I had most often were my mobile phone. Over the years I had been carrying many phones and the decision on which phone I chose to buy had how good the camera was being one of the top point of consideration.

The original iPhone did not have a good camera. Back then, the best camera phone I had used was the Nokia N73. Despite only having a 3.2MP camera, the Zeiss optics it carried made for some really great photographs. That sort of crystallised on me the idea that a camera phone may be enough for everyday snapping.

Then came the iPhone 4. For the iOS platform, it showed that Apple was taking photography seriously. A few Android phones then entered the picture with the HTC One being one of my early favourites. In early 2015, I discovered the Nokia 930. It had on it the best camera I had ever seen. And till this day, I could argue that it was still a capable shooter despite being almost 4 years old.

Now, my second phone was the Huawei P10 Plus. With its Leica optics, the photos especially the monochrome were just amazing. I still took it around during weekends as I shot around town. But now, I have a new contender for the best camera phone. The iPhone X.

Right off the bat, there was something natural about the photos. There were some element of over processing from the camera but they weren't as obvious as the Samsung. The photos did not over saturated and at low ISO, they appeared realistic. The focusing was
snappy and there were plenty of third-party apps for post-production of our snaps.

Last weekend, I took the phone out for a spin around Bukit Bintang to capture the Xmas decorations. I was practically blown away. The photos were much better than I expected. Coupled with its capability to capture 4K videos at 60fps, the camera feature is a winner.

In terms of monochrome snaps, it still lacked behind the Huawei. But for sheer overall joy, Apple clearly had the right formula here. Just for the camera alone, it was definitely an upgrade from my iPhone 7 Plus, although I do understand that the iPhone 8 use the same camera module as the X although with a narrower telephoto second sensor.

I'm definitely looking forward to more snaps from the phone...

Taking a Peek

Finally I get to hold it in my hands. Huawei had just opened their flagship shop at Pavilion Elite this morning and later in the afternoon I gave it a visit. Had a few minutes with the P10 Plus and the camera looked promising. Very slick, especially the monochrome shots. All 20 MP of them.

My experience with the P9 had been a mixed bag as the camera function lacked the finesse of the iPhone. It didn’t capture the geolocation as readily - in fact most of the time that data was missing and I had to enter the locations manually - and the name of the camera when uploaded onto Flickr was rather confusing. Again, I used an app to alter the metadata before uploading.

The jpg coming from the camera was amazing though and I was able to do a lot more alteration with aperture once uploaded onto my Mac Pro. The exposure latitude was wider and the lens was definitely very sharp - and I dare say sharper than the iPhone.

Hopefully the upcoming iteration would have addressed those issues. Let’s see what brings when the actual unit was released ...

iOS Update

So, this would be the first of series software updates to tag along the launch if both the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2. First the iOS 10, next would be the Watch OS 3 and next week, the new Mac OS Sierra.

The download was bigger than I expected. 1.1 Gb. Luckily it was a doddle with my bandwidth but I would imagine that it would've taken ages on my old speed.

The update process was smooth. It did render my Squarespace app useless. From now on in would have to update the blog only from the computer. No more mobile upload, at least for my main blog. Harisrahman.com was still running the legacy Squarespace version 5 engine and I liked to leave it that way. They were more predictable and stable.

My phones, I pads and watch had had their update. Time to wait for the Sierra.

For a Different View

A few years back, I was in awe of a series on Discovery called "The World from Above". I was guilty of recording the episodes and watching them again and again. It was basically aerial footage on famous landmarks with narratives in the background for colour. It was both eye-catching and educational. Especially when it features the UK, on landmarks which I knew but taken for granted. The particular episode featuring New York was my favourite. And don't get me started about San Francisco!

And then I read about the availability of drones for aerial footage. I always thought them as cumbersome, difficult to fly while getting decent footage would take some training. I was wrong!

The more I read into it, and looking at the videos on YouTube, I realised that it was quite simple. All you need is a bit of time and passion.

My interest peaked when I read about the Phantom 4. It was a drone which was easy to fly and had a decent camera attached to it, for both video and snaps. Did some homework and find out a bit more about the pricing. So, last weekend, I bought one.

Getting the blades in orderTrying to understand the parts ...The remote was still in the plastic coveringIt was not exactly cheap, but to be honest, it was cheaper than a decent dSLR. And I started flying them the next day. All you needed extra was a smartphone, or in my case an iPad which would act at the display. The flying was done via a remote plus touchscreen. And to take photos and video, you just press the screen. The camera was a 12MP affair, of a decent point-and-click quality - with an f2.8 aperture - and it was capable of capturing 4K footage straight into it's memory card.

Flight time was also rather decent with a battery unit lasting about 25 minutes - my set came with 3 batteries for an hour of flight. It came in a slick portable case, which meant carrying the drone around a piece of cake. The whole package weighed less than a couple of kilo trams.

Going through the instructionsReady to fly!I should have bought one earlier as the footage from Langkawi would have been amazing! But never mind. I would still have to get proficient with it and with every flight I was learning something new. Definitely a keeper! Now, I would have to get some free time to fly the damn thing!