Again on Buying Camera

Yesterday I bought a seven month old Samsung NX200 with kit lens for S$400.00 from a young lady. The reason for selling is to get a Canon S110 instead. The reason for me is the APS-C sensor size on the mirrorless small body, the 20.3MegaPixel picture output and most importantly, the price.

I start to understand that as there are individual preferences, there are choices made regardless of specifications and functionality, appearance, availability of lenses, picture quality.

Or is it the easy of use? Like the case of camera phone?

Or training needed to let the user learn to use the camera?

Or is it because manufacturers understand these points and produce many different models to cater for each individual needs?

Default Camera Settings

Yesterday I bought a used Casio Exilim EX-FH100, a similar model which I had for three years from a young man who sold it for just S$75.00 after using it for his project requiring slow motion video. I like the compact size and 10x zoom capability of the little camera, so as soon as I saw the advertisement, I ordered it without negotiation.

As I had all the settings finalised on my camera over the years of using it, I had forgotten about all the settings I set until I took out and started shooting with the newly acquired EX-FH100. I could not get what I used to get on my original Casio. Only after a little while, I realised that the new Casio was not set up in the way I used to have.

The camera has settings for memory which would remember the settings for AF Area, metering, ISO, white balance etc. My preference is using spot metering and also spot for AF area, without memory settings, these settings need to be set every time. That's why I could not get what I want as I could not remember those settings until I digged further on the Menu settings.

The problem with most of the cameras today is too many settings and the settings are not set to be the best practical options. The novice users are left with too many options they would not be able to understand if this is their first camera.

However, after say that, I also start to appreciate the level of control in this camera, the information display on screen as photos are taken. As I learn to look at the histogram, I like the feature of on screen histogram display on the left instead of in the middle as in my Olympus E-P1.

Storage Craft ShadowProtect IT Edition Version 4.1.3

Excited with the newly received IT Edition USB, while reading the pdf document on the USB drive, downloaded and applied the upgrade wizard, the version became 4.1.2.

Contacted StorageCraft on whether I can just copy all the original files back to the USB so have version 4.1.3 back, the answer was 4.1.3 was no longer available and I have to use 4.1.2.

Since it was the result of my mistake reading the document without realising the document was old, and thinking that I could run the wizard again if I copy all the files back to the USB, I took the risk and tried.

I should have done a backup of the USB using the IT Edition before I proceed with the upgrade wizard and restore it back later. Then I would not have to find out whether I can just copy all the original files back.

Uninstalling Avira on Windows 8

Upgrading from Windows 7 to 8 resulted in several programs having compatibility issues. Avira is one of them, unable to update .... Decided to uninstall Avira, however, every attempt to uninstall ended up in system reboot.

After some searching, using MSConfig to set Windows 8 to boot into safe mode (safe boot), uninstalled without automatic system reboot. Set MSConfig back to normal boot.

Shadow and Timing

Reached Seraya hut at around 9am, the bright sunlight casting shadows of the trees on Bukit Timah hill  onto the water of Singapore quarry right infront of the viewing platform.

Aperture and Depth of Field

Although it is very clear the relationship of aperture and depth of field in theory, in practice, we might make mistake when we are in low light condition to open the aperture to the widest so that we can use a higher shutter speed without realising the impact of narrowing the depth of field.

As I come across morning glory on the way to Bukit Timah hill in early morning, I used to take pictures of morning glory with the largest aperture until last Saturday. After reading some article, realising my mistake, reviewed all the old photos taken before, all were taken with very shallow depth of field, I took this picture with smaller aperture.

Exposure Settings

Used to criticise people who told me that they were using manual settings with exposure compensation. Now realised that on manual mode, there is setting of aperture and shutter speed and the camera would show the exposure compensation value on the screen. So it is a miscommunication, as I do not know exactly what they mean. Logically, I was thinking that as they set the aperture and shutter speed, why there was a need to set exposure compensation.

New Router A5520N

When you are able to obtain an IP address using DHCP but not able to ping the default gateway assigned, what would you do?

Suspecting the encryption settings, changing WPA, WPA2 ...., changing all possible settings ....

After replacing my old 2Wire 2700HGV-2 with 5012NV, I was having issue with connecting my Netbook to the WiFi of 5012NV. The netbook is able to obtain an IP address from the router but could not ping to the router.

Other devices has no problem connecting to the Internet using the WiFi connection of the router.

Connecting the netbook to Internet via personal hotspot of iPhone4S has no issues.

Spending many days trying to get the problem resolved, finally decided to call the technician who came. Showing him the problem, requesting him to try out another router. Finally he came back with a Pace A5520N. The problem was solved immediately after replacing the router. Very thankful to Kok Hwa who is willing to help.

Sometime we would never suspect a new replacement router and keep trouble shooting the other device.

Passport Renewal

As my international passport is expiring in October, about 10 days ago, while passing through the immigration at Johor Bahru, I was instructed to see the officer. The officer told me that the passport need to be renewed six months before expiry.

Yesterday I went to Sebarang Jaya to get my international passport renewed, waited around three hours for the queue to run from 1154 till 1259. Lesson learned, be there as early as possible 7:30am or 8:00am, phototaking service is available there for ten ringgits. Also it is possible to renew over internet and upload the photo, and it is possible to take your own photo for better quality, there is a kiosk there too, you only have to be there to collect the passport. I am not sure whether submission via Internet would bypass the queue and how long it would take so I rather use the conventional method.

After submitting the form, two photos, IC and old passport, and payment, there was a time for collection after one hour. However, the passport was released only after around 4:30pm.

I was not aware of transferring of Re-entry permit could be done over Internet too. One just need to log in to the Immigration portal of Singapore with SingPass and have the new passport number submitted and the re-entry permit would be available for printing.

On Camera and Learning Photography

As I have been using my little Casio Exilim EX-FH100 for more than a year after giving my Nikon D60 to my brother, I get so used to the LCD liveview instead of using the optical view finder, especially to get the correct exposure with spot metering which the camera provides an accurate representation unlike my Olympus E-P1. Also I have been using cameras with 10x optical zoom, I have reached the conclusion that for a beginner, a ten time optical zoom lens is a must have in order to explore the effect of compressing the objects and also the impact of size, especially for shy people who prefer not to be too close to the subjects.

A pocket size digital compact camera is also convenient so that you can have it with you any time and able to experiment with it taking photos as and when you like. In this way, you will take more photos and with reviews, improve your composition skill and also the control of the settings on your camera.

However, my recent acquisition of Olympus E-P1, with 14-42mm kit lens and 17mm lens made me to rethink about having a ten time zoom lens. I learn to get close to the subject, learning to live with the limitations of the lenses. Although I bought a used 40-150mm Zuiko lens later, I find myself using the kit lenses most of the time. Of course in certain situation, it is still necessary to have a telephoto lens.

Buying Camera

Recently I went meeting sellers of used cameras for my friends and found that most of them selling off their cameras in order to buy another one.

One young lady was selling away a few weeks old Casio EX-ZR200 at half the purchased price just because she wanted to switch to Panasonic. Another young lady selling away an Olympus E-P2 pancake lens kit due to the fact that it was too difficult to use as the lens is 17mm fixed focal length and unable to zoom, she wanted to buy a Canon G1X instead, claiming that she used it for only five times and wanted to sell at the same price as she paid before.

In the second case, one would wonder why didn't the sales person highlight to the young lady that while the 17mm lens appeals to more experience photographers, it is not suitable for beginners.

When I saw the advertisement, it was advertised for S$450, so I contacted her to buy the camera. She replied that there was an offer of S$480 and whether I would outbid by bidding $490. I thought it was fine and agreed. However, as the advertisement didn't mention the lens, I asked for the details. After a while, she mentioned that someone else was offering S$520. I then got the feeling that she was trying to get me to bid higher while there wasn't really another offer and told her it was okay then. She then asked whether I would take it for S$490 and we agreed on the meeting place, but she would only confirm with me the following day.

She put up two advertisement soon after that, one asking for free bidding, another with start bid of S$700. However, at the late evening of the next day, she confirmed the meeting place and time meaning that no one was offering higher that S$490.

On the day we met, she asked whether it was fine for me to pay S$690 for it. I turned her down as the last transaction on the forum was only S$450. She then asked whether I still wanted it at S$490. However, there were missing items like lens cap, hot shoe cover, neck strap. I could have rejected but since she promised to look for those items and contact me, I paid her. As it was covered with extended warranty, I called to find out from the shop and was told to request a reprint of the sales tax invoice at any outlet of Harvey Norman. That's was how I found out how much she paid.

As I wanted to know how true it was used for five times, I tried to find out the shutter counts. After trying various way, finally I decided to follow Angelin Weng's approach: Google. I found the following procedure:

1. While holding the "Menu" button, press Power button to switch on 

2. Press "Menu" and go to "Monitor brightness adjustment" screen 

3. Press "Info" and "OK" button at same time, you will see the screen showing "Olympus" 

4. Press the following buttons in the sequence: Up, Down, Left, Right and then press the Shutter, followed by Up (dial button in my E-P2)

5. Engineering mode page is seen. Press dial button to Page 1, 2, 3, and "D". 

6. Shutter count is on "Page 2" under "R". 


The other lines on the screen mean:

R: shutter release count 
S: flash use count 
C: CMOS cleaning mode (with mirror lock-up - in E-410 series) 
U: number of ultrasonic dedusting, ~ number of power switch on 
V: number of use of LiveView 
B: number of shot using In-Body Stablization 

And it was around 1200 which is reasonably few.

I then checked on my E-P1, it was less than 5000.

On Olympus, E-P series, there is a Pixel Mapping utility for remapping bright pixel. I found that there was a bright pixel and was able to get rid of it after running the utility.

So when buying camera, one should take a dark picture to check on bright (dead) pixels, and a white picture  to check on dust on sensor.

My recent adventure of buying used cameras also made me realised that one could get a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with a bigger sensor size  at a price not much higher than a mid range point and shoot digital compact camera. 

Learning Photography

It has been four years since I started my journey on photography, after getting a used D60 with twin lens kit. Although I was very enthusiastic, I didn't do it systematically as most hobbyist. Learning and picking up bit and pieces along the way.

Only a few weeks ago, I started borrowing books on the fundamentals then I realized that it could have been easier if I read books in the beginning of my journey.

In conclusion, if I were asked to provide advice to beginners, I would recommend the following approach:

Read the followings books:

Mastering composition by Ian Roberts
Composition by David Prakel
Exposure by David Prakel
Lighting by Chris Weston

Almost any beginner would start with subject oriented approach as we want to capture the beautiful items, scenes, moments, people. However, while focusing on the subject, we could only see the subject and ignore the other items appearing in the view finder. Reading Mastering Composition would give us an idea how painters paint their pictures and focusing on the shapes and distribution of tones and balancing the content within the frame. After reading Ian Roberts, it would be easier to understand Composition by David Prakel.

As photography is both arts and crafts, reading the first two books would cover the arts aspect of photography. Then we would need to have the basic understanding of the crafts aspect of photography. So we need to read the other two books to have the fundamentals covered.

Of course the last thing is to read the boring user guide of your camera. Try reading the basic operations and the function of the buttons and settings. Go back to the manual as you go along. It would be tough to read cover to cover and be able to understand all that in the user guide. However, it is advised to refer to the manual every now and then, as some functions and features are product specific.

It is recommended to start with Aperture priority and spot metering. Today, almost all cameras be it point and shoot compact camera or high end DSLR, you can use spot metering. I think it is faster to control the exposure using spot metering.

It is also recommended to use a zoom lens to see the effect of wide angle and tele. Of course one can always move forward and backward, left or right to get the right size in the picture but you can compress the objects in the picture.

To prevent taking pictures with undesirable extraneous objects on the edges, check the four sides of the frame or view finder/Live View LCD a few times before pressing the shutter.

Line drawing

Years ago, my little friend shown me a piece of paper with lines only as his drawing. I did not understand that and did not praise him for his work. If I had known at that time I would have praised him and encouraged him to draw.

Line

In the visual arts, the use of line is perhaps the single most important element of design. 

It denotes boundaries and can be actual or virtual. It can be real and apparent, or 

an invisible structure that guides our gaze between points on canvas or print.

The use of line can significantly affect the compositional success of photographers’ 

images. Lines are powerful design elements that re-enforce the three-dimensionality of 

the world. It’s a deeply primeval impulse – 

as children, our first scribblings on paper are lines; so were the first cave markings 

recorded by humankind. Lines are always used in artistic terms as the primary tool to 

represent our understanding of the world.

[Basics Creative Photography 01: Design Principles]

[http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=T5T9br39gpUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PT31#v=onepage&q&f=false]

Buying camera

It is always after a new model of camera came out and after reading some articles on the new version of the camera, then I take a serious look at the camera I have. Some of the features of my camera have not been used at all. It might be due to the fact that the new features are overwhelming at the time of purchase, or I could not figure out how to use those features and functions. As I read articles on the new version of the same product line with added features and functions, which also covers the existing features and functions, then I realise I have forgotten about those features.

So most of us keep buying new cameras. Upgrading ...

I have a Casio Exilim EX-FH100. I have never used the high speed continuous shutter mode at all, as I do not know in what situation I would need that. Recently I bought a used Casio Exilim EX-ZR100 as my brother told me that he would like to have a pocket camera similar to mine other than his Fujifilm S2Pro. However, as of today the latest model is Casio Exilim EX-ZR300. Although it is rather old, but for pocket camera, convenience is preferred rather than latest features other than price. As I went browsing the Internet, I found the follow article : http://article.dcview.com/newreadarticle.php?type=1&id=10593 which talks about the digital compact camera in the photographer's pocket EX-ZR200. Most of the features are applicable to the old models, I learned a number of tips and tricks and I dig out the user guide to read how to set up high speed Continuous Shutter on my EX-FH100.

Netbook vs Tablet

Entry level netbooks are selling at S$399 - S$449 with 10.1" display, 1GB of RAM. Today we no longer see netbooks with SSD of 16GB, instead 250GB SATA harddisk. Tablets of the same display size would cost S$499.

It is unlikely for tablets to replace netbooks, but we are seeing lesser netbooks on offer.

When I found that China made Android tablets with 1024x800 7" display, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, are selling at S$225 at Sim Lim Square, I was very excited about that. The price point is a very important factor.

With that price point, I would get one and explore how useful is Android tablet. To use it for casual note taking, writing short memo, reading ebooks, carrying it around as it is less than 400g.

It can be used by students who can't effort a computer to do simple things like searching for information on the web, note taking, reading ebooks and other learning purposes.

With this price point, it is much cheaper than the first netbook ASUS EEEPC with 7" display and 4GB of storage, 512MB RAM which cost S$699 many years ago. If you prefer to use a keyboard on the tablets, you can always attach a normal USB keyboard to it at home to type a full speed.

I still prefer to have a light weight netbook to do most of my things if there isn't cheap tablets available. But with cheap tablets at that price point, I would start to use tablets for non-series things.

Camera on Mobile Phone / Tablet

Although cameras on mobile phone and tablet device have limited functions compared with even compact digital cameras, these cameras are designed with different purposes in mind. These cameras are intended for easy recording of information for documentation or for note taking.

As we grow older, we could no longer remember well. So instead of trying to remember or writing pieces of information on pieces of paper, we use these cameras to capture the information for later use.

For the front camera on mobile phone or tablet, these are built for video call. If you need to use it to capture images for note taking, test out the auto focusing time so that you can use it to capture images without seeing the picture, check the picture to ensure it is properly captured.

User Guide

Having iPhone for almost a year, I have not actually use it other than as a phone replacement, like I used to use my Treo650. Like many people, I never put an effort to find how to get around using the device, like setting up the font size, how to enlarge .... So I blame the device and never use it to search information although I signed up data plan.

Last night, I took out the box and read the finger tips and realised that all my frustration of using the device could have been avoided if I read the user guide on day one.

Two weeks ago while I was at Sim Lim Square meeting a friend, we found that a 7 inch Android tablet with screen resolution of 1024x600 from China is selling at S$225 only. Before that I thought the price of a tablet would be above S$400. With this price, I am considering getting one to use it as a PDA , ebook reader ... etc. As I always consider the screen size of my iPhone too small and the font on it too. So I told another friend on this, and he told me how to change the fonts on iPhone, how to use three finger tapping on the screen ...

Wireless Access Point Router

We would assume all wireless routers are similar and most of the time could not understand why there are so many different model from each manufacturer.

As one customer wanted to block Remote Desktop Access from the wireless router/access point, to any of the machines on the network, I have to find out whether there is such a router with web interface for easy administration. His network vendor supplied him with Linksys Cisco E1200, which does not have any way of configuring. I then setup my ASUS RT-N16, updated the firmware and test out the configuration to do the blocking of remote desktop protocol from the wireless client to the WAN side of the router.

I bought this router years ago at one of the computer show, thinking of testing DD-WRT/Tomato firmware as I had not done that before. But due to some reasons, I never open the box. However, while checking the compatibility, I noticed that ASUS RT-N16 has 128MB RAM, 32MB Flash memory but all Cisco Linksys wireless routers have at the most 16MB of flash memory. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Asus

The device has the 2 USB port and a USB harddisk can be attached to it to share out file as a Media Server. Recently, I have my TV replaced as it was covered under extended warranty from Harvey Norman, the new TV has the function of connecting to media server on the network to place video or music files stored on the media server. As I was testing the port filtering, I also tested the working of media server.