Saturday 31 December 2011

Panasonic G3 & 14-42mm kit lenses Quick Test at Plaza Singapura


Just got my second Panasonic G3 today. Even though this lenses is out in the market for sometimes, and got some good review in the internet, but i do not have any chance to use it. The feeling that my first time i got this camera is that: wow ... how Panasonic squeeze so many features into one small body, as it's really compact and small after having some many features. I was using G1 previous, handling wise, i would think that G1 is better but the G3 is really convenient to carry around and still manageable for me. One immediate big improvement compare to the G1 is the sensor ISO performance, i can shoot ISO-1600 confidently now without any hesitation. this help me to speed up the shutter speed to reduce the handshake.

I posted a few photos below which are from G3 JPEG but with very minor Lightroom exposure setting.


(f/5.6, 1/40sec, ISO-800,84mm equiv.)




(f/3.5, 1/30sec, ISO-800, 28mm equiv)




(1/5.6, 1/30sec, ISO-800, 84mm equiv.)




(f/3.5, 1/80sec, ISO-1600, 39mm equiv(tele-conv), 14mm(original))


Spotted "colourful" ice cream BUT unfortunately, there is a glass in front of the ice cream, else the result will be even better.

(f/5.6, 1/125sec, ISO-1600, 84mm equiv.)




(f/4.7, 1/60sec, ISO-1600, 52mm equiv)





(f/4, 1/125sec, ISO-1600, 28mm equiv.)


very little luminance noise as seen in the photo below with ISO-1600.


(f/3.5, 1/13sec, ISO-1600, 28mm equiv.)





(f/4.3, 1/30sec, ISO-1600, 42mm equiv.)





(f/3.5, 1/15sec, ISO-1600, 28mm equiv.)


 I read some review from the internet that they claimed that G3 photo performance is on par with the Canon 600D, is it truth? I do not use 600D before,but the from the DPreview, i personally think that the image quality is basically the same up to ISO-1600. Additionally, G3 can record video up to Full HD AVCHD standard plus the features that i mention below, i think it's really a good camera with lot of features but without the size and weight of the bulky big DSLR.

Moreover, the Electronic View Finder (EVF) really done a good job here if i encounter high brightness outdoor as well as when i need to slow down the shutter speed and required the "third point" (the view finder cum my body become the third point) to maintain the stability of the camera to prevent image blur.

Overall, i really like this camera very much, it's compact, good high ISO performance, good EVF, very nice touch to focus feature which i use a lot, and fast auto focus speed (BUT i really missed the eye sensor beside the EVF in G1, which used to switch between the EVF and LCD screen). Because of the size and light weight, i can bring the camera with me everyday now.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Panasonic Lumix G1 and Canon FD 28mm F/2.8 - Quick Macro Test

Running a quick macro test for the Canon FD 28mm F/2.8 lenses. this is a quick test, i'm not using any tripod, just to demonstrate the macro and the depth of field effect of the lenses ...

f2.8, 1/100se, ISO-200


f/4, 1/80sec, ISO-200

f5.6, 1/60sec, ISO-200

f/8, 1/50sec, ISO-200

I should have reduce the shutter speed further, due to the quick test and handholding of the camera, i didn't further reduce the shutter speed to incur handshake .. that the reason why the photo is a bit dim ...

f/11, 1/40sec, ISO-200

Sunday 18 December 2011

Panasonic G1 & Canon FD 28mm - Orchard Christmas Light Up 2011 Part II

Carry on my previous part Orchard Christmas Light Up 2011 photo shooting.. Because of using manual Canon FD 28mm F2.8 lenses, normally i would set the focus point to infinity to reduce the time needed to do manual focusing (unless i found some static object which can let me to speed time to focus and think before the shutter button is pressed). Due to the night shot, majority of the photo taken here have to lower the shutter speed to around 1/60sec, it's very hard for a new photographer like me to handhold it without handshake blur. Maybe i'm still new to the manual focusing, it's take some time for me to really focus the subject, this are the steps i would do normally:

  1. compose the image i want.
  2. use the Lumix G1 manual focus function and locate the focus "box" on the subject. (of course, thru the superb viewfinder to reduce any handshake hence i can stop down the ISO and increase the shutter speed)
  3. Adjust the focus ring on the lenses.

I found that if every scene i have to spend so much time to do all the steps here, i may miss some moment, so i will step down the aperture sometimes and set the focus point to infinity, and of course the trade-off is some photo is not 100% in focus ...

(All the photos shown here are JPEG with Auto WB straight from Panasonic Lumix G1 without any post processing)




Saw 2 of the waiters quarreling, so took their photos immediately. In the time of very busy, people get to angry is very normal...










Slightly out of focus "Hitachi" signboard. (please continue to read, i posted a better in-focus photo at the bottom :-))





I like this shot! bokeh-licious of the 28mm F2.8 lenses. I always found that the mix of bokeh effect and background light make them very attractive. if the "ball" quality is better, we can see more "things" on the ball. If you spend sometimes on the background, the bokeh of this lenses is a "round" shape.


Reflection and Bokeh-licious






Harry Porter Portrait, BUT the focus is actually at the background

Another bokeh-licious shot. My girlfriend asked me, "what are you shooting at?" , i told her, "haha ... just don't care, i'm just trying to get the 'effect' i want ".


This is the in-focus "Hitachi" sign board, the "Hitachi" is "sharp" enough and the background is "blur" enough. Even if the aperture is not fast enough, by appropriate composition, we still can get decent background blur effect :-). Bravo Canon FD and Lumix G1!


A girl selling Christmas hair pin.









Going to toilet and prepare to wrap up my stuff and go back, but saw this special statue and took out my camera to take the last shot! The statue is inside a glass enclosure, the incomplete body make it a special attractive artwork, BUT it seems that nobody bother to look at it!




Overall, the Canon FD 28mm F2.8 lenses is an easy to use lenses. This may not give the best bokeh effect like the Canon FD 50mm F1.4, BUT due to the shorter equivalent focal length and lighter, make it less prone to handshake. If the focusing is done properly, you will be able to get a sharp image.

Pros:
  1. Shorter focal length than Canon 50mm F1.4, less handshake blur. theorectically, as long as shutter speed> 1/50 sec, the blur effect should be minimum.
  2. 170g , lighter than Canon 50mm F1.4 which is 235g. (For detail spec of 
    Canon FD 28mm: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/28mm.htm; Canon FD 50mm: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/50mm.htm)
  3. sharp image from my perpective, if focusing is done properly.
  4. low price (i bought at around SGD110). for anyone who want to try manual focus lenses, this is a suitable lenses due to the cost.

Cons:
1. Bokeh effect is not as good as Canon FD 50mm F1.4.





Thursday 15 December 2011

Panasonic G1 & Canon FD 28mm - orchard christmas light up 2011

Orchard Road Christmas Light Up 2011, Main Road are decorated with blue color light



Went to visit the Christmas Light-Up @ Orchard 2011 few days back, and use my barely use Canon FD 28mm F2.8 to take some photos. I am mesmerized by the Canon FD lenses  after i first tried the Canon FD 50mm F1.4 lenses. The Canon FD 50mm F1.4 lenses really give very good bokeh effect and sharp image at the price of less than SGD200, i think it's really worthwhile to invest in this lenses if you want to shoot great portrait photos.

I bought Canon FD 28mm F2.8 lenses 2 month ago and do not have much time to play around it, so i decided to use in on the Christmas Light-Up @ Orchard 2011. just want to find out how good is this lenses can perform on my Panasonic G1 camera. (All the photos taken here are taken with Lumix G1, Canon FD 28mm F2.8, JPEG straight from camera without post processing)


Oops ... just came out from Orchard MRT station, but the light are all hanging around.




The theme here is yellow light, all the YELLOW light are hanging around, even the Christmas tree also YELLOW color, different from the main road color.



Golden Christmas Tree

I see an old man decorating the lighting on a Rickshaw, no matter how he decorate, the Richshaw still look the same, so i decided he is just a secondary man ...

What can be done?


No matter how, Still look the same !!! BUT the snowman look not bad, huh ..

They are many weird elephants on the Orchard Road, i do not really know their real meaning, BUT they are so special that i take a few shots!




Elephant with flower on body


Another Christmas tree



The Canon FD lenses are all manual lenses, i will miss some shot unintended sometimes. The photo here is out of focus BUT i still like it. This photo is taken at the junction of Orchard road, the whole road is decorated in this way ...

Out of focus BUT still nice shoot to show Orchard Road

Ooops... some of the lighting is using Swarovski Elements, should be quite expensive?!? BUT i can't appreciate them ...







 A decoration by HTC. Christmas becomes HTC - mas ...





Sunday 11 December 2011

Panasonic 14-42mm - Johor Premium Outlet

Happened to have time on 6/12/2011 to go to the new opening Johor Premium Outlets (not officially open yet ..), brought along my Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-42mm lenses to take some shots. All the photos taken here are straight from camera without any post processing. Johor Premium Outlets is a joint venture product from Malaysia Genting Group and US Simon Property Group (http://www.premiumoutlets.com.my/company-profile).


Signboard before reaching Johor Premium Outlets



first time see the couch store ... heard their stuff is super expensive ...

Coach Outlet
trying to take a photos of the Coach price tag, BUT get caught by their staff ... so below is the only photo i have ...





the sleeping boy enjoy more or the father enjoy more??























it's raining outside as seen on the photo below ..




Nike Shoe price tag, i think the price is more or less equivalent to Singapore Nike shoe price















Layout of the Johor Premium Outlet. There only have 2 floors in this shopping outlet.



the sky become "darker" ... it's time to go back home :)