Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The choice between the Leica M6 and Bessa R2A is driving me nuts. On one hand, I know that deep in my heart, it is the Leica but am not really willing to part with that amount of money for a body. My excuse is of course I want the silver chrome one; somehow, I think even if there is a silver chrome one on sale, I would still hesitate to get it.
What about the R2A? It seems very attractive due to it having aperture priority and all but there is that concern of the supposed shutter issue and turning on on aperture priority. Of course, I know ultimately it is not the Leica that I have always been yearning for.
Even for the Leica, should I go for the M6 or M7? The latter is so much more expensive but has aperture priority which may be helpful once in a while. Maybe it is not worth paying so much for that little bit of convenience.
Another part of me is asking is it even worth getting another system altogether? Getting another body and lens when the Nikon is serving me well? Do I really need a quieter system? Should I be forking out that kind of money? A new system and camera would require more stuff like the case, strap, filter etc. ARGHZ!
he spoke at 7:39 am
Saturday, September 05, 2009
I have been lusting over a Leica since I handled it some seven, eight years ago. During my last trip, I was thinking a lot of my current set-up and felt that I really do not need my professional level gear. It is not that I do not like my D2Hs and 17-55mm; I really like them but they have been too bulky and I have been really underutilising them. I realised that my ultimate photography set up is still film and no DSLR can give me the same satisfaction as seeing the slides or negatives.
Fast forward today and I have sold off most of my digital gear and am left with primarily my film gear. Recently, I have also been back eyeing on rangefinders again. Ok, maybe not recently but I have been giving serious thought on whether I should get into rangefinders. It has not been an easy decision because I am not sure if I should go into two different systems/brands or should concentrate more on one of them.
Regardless of that, I still have been doing some research on the rangefinders and have narrowed my choice down to either the Voigtlander Bessa R2A or the Leica M6. The reason for these choices is simply due to me realising that my preferred focal length is 35mm. I have also rationalised into the pro and cons of both cameras.
The pros for the Bessa includes it being a much cheaper choice (and brand new), M mount and having aperture priority. The cons of it includes it being much louder than the Leica and I am not sure how lasting it really is; it is not that I have not heard about dud Leicas but Leica in generally are known for its durability.
For the Leica, the pros would include its built quality, resale value, probably able to hand down as an heirloom and of course, it is the camera that I have really been wanting for so damn long. The cons would include the much higher cost (two brand new Bessa R2A would cost less than one second hand M6), lack of aperture priority and not being able to get the Leica lenses at this point. I have further rationalised that for the Leica lenses bit, I will probably have to save up for at least a couple more years before I get my holy grail of the 35mm Summicron and in the meantime, get the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4.
Last Saturday, I went to Peninsula to have a look at cameras and was struck by a Leica M6 that was on sale. The price to me is just right and the condition looked really great. I told myself that I would go back and seriously consider it and if it was there on Thursday, I would go back and get it. On Thursday, I did go back and the M6 was still there! I went into the shop and the owner was really nice to allow me to have a feel of the camera with a lens.
I must admit that the feel of the camera was really good. But when I looked into the camera, I thought that the focusing was pretty much harder and I had to get use to the position of the focusing and aperture ring. I really do not know if it was just me getting cold feet or really not liking the camera. In the end, I politely told the owner that I would give it more thought before committing myself to the purchase.
Two days later, I am still thinking of the M6 and was pretty shattered when I thought this guy had bought it. Thankfully, he did not get it but from overseas. I am again thinking of the Bessa and am wondering if I should drop by Chiif's place to have a feel of it before deciding on which camera to get. The problem is that deep inside me, I know that I will not be completely happy with the Bessa and I will ultimately still be yearning for the Leica. At the same time, I am not sure if I can justify forking out such a sum of money for the camera (which is actually not that expensive as it cost much less than a D300).
When I was shooting today, I was just very distracted and was wondering if maybe I should just give up photography altogether. That way, I do not need to make such choices.
he spoke at 9:12 pm
What a rough week it had been. It all started on Sunday with that crappy sale of the lens. I hate being accused of things that I have not done or that I do not know. Yes, I sold the lens but no, I do not know about the dust (or now as I understand, paint in it). I am not a professional lens dealer so I have no fucking idea about the fucking spots. The lens worked well for me and I do not see the reason why it should continue to do so. Bah... do not want to talk about such an unpleasant incident. But it really sucks when no one really believes me when I said that I did not know that the spots were in the lens.
he spoke at 7:52 pm
Saturday, January 31, 2009
I am so waiting to read letters to the forum about the increase in the number of children (in particular girls) under the age of 16 having sex. Let me see whom they will blame, my guess would be the media - the Internet to be precise. Then there will be the letters who will blame the television programmes and movies. There will also be the ones who blame the advertisements in the magazines.
But is the media really to be blamed? If it is, can someone show me credible evidence in the form of research that this is so - this research has to be published in a peer reviewed journal.
Am I surprised that children these days are having sex at a younger age? Not at all. If you look at it this way, the children of today are forced to grow up so quickly and are denied of a childhood. Yes, their birth certificates may state that they are 14 or 15, but their mentality is way above that age.
The 14 to 15 year old of today are certainly more matured than the 14 to 15 year old of yesteryear. If someone is to do a trend study, I will not be at all surprise that compared the mentality of the modern day 16 year old is at least that of a 21 year old in the yesteryear.
So who is to be blamed when we force the children to grow up so quickly mentally? Look my child is so smart. Last time primary one than we learn abc, now three year old can count one to 100 and know the abc.
If that is the case, do not be surprised to find condoms with that kid when he/she is around 14 or 15; be glad that he/she is using protection.
he spoke at 10:50 am
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
The war that is raging between Israel and Palestine is really getting very intriguing and I am enjoying reading the comments about the war. It does seem that there is a number of people who are in the Israel camp and that really proves Sir Winston Churchill's words "history is written by the victors".
I think I shall not dwell too much or say too much about what I think about this war or I may be labelled by the history writers as anti --------.
But what I fear from this war is that it is really pushing putting a wedge into the world. In the continued support for the history writers, we are further marginalising the very people whom we have let down.
Had we treated these people just the very little better, listened to them and understand them, we may not be living in this age of "terror". Rather than treat these people with the respect and dignity, we chose to ignore them and to convert them to follow our way of lives.
I wonder when will we ever learn that the simplest way of undoing a knot is to retrace the loops and undo it. Tying knots after knots is not going to untie it. Cutting the knot is not an option too.
he spoke at 8:23 pm
Monday, June 30, 2008
There have always been a letter every now and then that talks about the ills of gambling and 4D. I mean I really do not know if it is really bad for Singaporeans or humans on the whole. The reason for that is that responsible gambling is no more harmful than eating any food in moderation.
People who condemn gambling tend to raise very extreme examples of compulsive gamblers; their trend of argument is akin to Super Size Me. To me, as long as the gambling is done in moderation, it is fine.
I am in favour that gambling brings hope and even if the hope may at times being minute, it still brings hope. Moreover, is hope not what many of us live and thrive on? I am pretty sure many of us at times do live in our fantasy world and wish that we can be what we are not. Take a look at the people who modify their cars. I am pretty sure that these people know that they will never ever be a race car driver but the mere pasting of race stickers give them that little hope, that little fantasy.
This also applies to photography. I am pretty sure that there are a number of photographers out there who own professional cameras because they wish and hope that they have had the guts to take their passion to a professional level. Since for some reason or other they are unable to follow that passion, the closest thing of them is to own the gear that the professionals use.
Living in hope, fantasy or denial? Well, that is for you to decide. For me, it is both living in that little faint hope and more of in fantasy. Denial? I do not think so. We all need to live in hope and fantasy.
he spoke at 8:32 pm
Sunday, June 29, 2008
An article in yesterday's ST forum struck me. I have always been thinking why there has been such a craze over branded and high end products in Singapore. Take a walk down Orchard Road and to events and you will probably be amazed by the amount of such stuff.
Take photography for instance; it never ceases to amaze me the number of dslr users in Singapore. To be more precise, the number new semi-pro to pro dslrs. I understand that for sometime, there had been a shortage in the Nikon D3; a camera that cost a over $6000! Even the new Nikon D300 is hot property and that cost a mere $2200 and above.
When it comes to IT fairs, Singaporeans flock and spend like the items cost no more than a packet of bean sprouts. It never ceases to amaze me how there can be so many IT fairs a year and yet the demand of IT products can be so great. How is it possible that there are claims of record sale for almost every single IT fair.
As the writer correctly pointed out, Singaporeans seem to have a craze for designer bags. Notice that when boutiques such as Prada, LV, Gucci, Chanel, Coach etc are having a sale, there will be a long queue outside them. When inside, Singaporeans will be grabbing the bags like there is no tomorrow. Yes, they like to grab many bags and look at themselves in the mirror, but there are still a fair number of them that still buy at least one piece. No doubt the bags are cheap; but they still cost several hundreds to thousands.
The second hand market for such items are also thriving very well. For cameras, there are people trying to get rid of them even when they have just owned it for less than a month. Is that the result of impulse buy or what, I will never know.
I guess one of the possibilities for this is that Singaporeans, despite all the whining about higher cost of living, are getting richer. According to the Ministry of Manpower, in 2007, the average Singaporean earns $3773 a month. Moreover, with most of the housing loans borne by the Central Provident Fund, it is little wonder that Singaporeans can splurge more on themselves like buying the latest technology, fashion, cars etc.
Another reason for me is that the craze for such material luxuries go hand in hand with the pace of living. Look at Singaporeans, in any weekday, it is not surprising to come across people who have to reach office by 9am and leave only around 7pm; and that is just a very conservative estimate. So if you take into consideration that Singaporeans take around two hours to get to and from work, that would mean that 12 hours of the weekday is spent getting to, from and at work; that is a whooping half a day! We have still not taken into consideration the time taken to prepare to get to work and the possibility of needing to bring some work home to do.
If we are to take all that into consideration, by very conservative estimates, the average Singaporean will have spend around 14 hours every weekday on work. Say he or she just sleeps for six hours, there is just a pathetic four hours of free time. For that four hours, we have not even taken into consideration the time for breakfast and dinner. No wonder Singaporeans have so little time for children.
This brings me back to the point on the supposed materialism. I guess sometimes, it is really one of the few ways for Singaporeans to pamper themselves. After or before a day of hard work, I think it is fairly normal for anyone to want to indulge a little. Yes, a $2 bag from Daiso works just as well as a $2000 bag from LV, but to the user, the satisfaction it brings is immensely different.
he spoke at 10:55 am
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The age long debate or should I say final revelation or to put it in the faces of dumb ass Singaporeans report on the pricing of cable television for soccer has finally arrived. I am so going to enjoy reading the dumb ass Singaporeans replies to this "revelation". It is really the retarded textbook situation that more competition leads to more choices hence lower price that these dumb asses are stuck in. Oh wait, I forgot, these are Singaporeans we are talking about.
This has really been one of my muses whenever I read that Singaporeans are so keen on having a second cable television provider for our tiny population of four to five million. Would we have more choices? Yes, we would, but does that mean more choices? Yes, it would too. Lower prices? Definitely highly unlikely.
With more competition simply means the bidding of the rights to broadcast anything (for this instance sports) will be more intense. When it is more intense, the price of broadcasting would go up. When it goes up, it means that the price that consumers are going to pay will go up too. How come? That is because the higher price would be divided among the same population. With two providers, it means that the pool for each provider to tap into will be smaller too. As a result, the subscription would naturally go up.
The biggest "horror" for the dumb asses is probably that the broadcasting has been split into the two providers showing one competition each. It means that consumers now would have to subscribe to both providers for what they are currently watching via one.
Though I agree with MDA's theory of voting with your remote, this may lead to problems too. Simply that if people are to subscribe less to the providers, the price will continue to spiral up. If demand for it becomes far too low, it may no longer be viable for the providers to even bid for it and broadcast it. Though I would think that the latter scenario is highly unlikely. At the rate that this is going, it appears that the pricing of watching soccer would only go up. Mainly because soccer is one of the main bread and butter of the providers.
The other situation is for the providers to share content. That means that both StarHub and SingTel will broadcast both the EPL and UCL and it will be up to consumers to decide to whom they would like to subscribe to. Of course, this can in theory work, but how viable it is will be another situation. The bigger concern would be would the providers be even willing to share the pie; especially when they have already signed for an exclusive deal.
While that move is unfair in terms of competition between the providers, it may give the consumers the best of deals. But then, when this happens, we would be back to square one because both providers are likely to be seen as working together and maybe seen as price fixing.
The below retarded argument on comparing with Malaysia's price is so dumb that I shall not even bother talking about it. To me, whoever who makes the comparison is really just showing his/her lack of intellect and ability to grasp even the most basic of economic concepts.
What really amuses me is that ST uses Austar as a comparison. This is because the one that provides in the major cities is Foxtel. Austar's main coverage is in the non-metro regions. The biggest and probably only state capital that they provide to is Darwin. Move into Sydney and you cannot subscribe to Austar. Want Austar, move into Broome or Wollongong. Unless of course Singapore is nowhere near the standards or want to be seen as nowhere near the standards of the main state capitals, I would say, please use Austar as a comparison. And yes, just for information, Foxtel fees for the basic package and sports cost around S$71 a month.
The idea of saying that Australia broadcasts the FIFA World Cup on their FTA and using it as an argument is not totally right too. That is because soccer is a poor cousin to the other major sports there. The staples for the sports providers there are essentially the NRU, NRL, AFL and cricket. Even tennis and horse racing is more valued than soccer in Australia. Yes, the last World Cup saw a big jump in interest in soccer as the Socceroos were in it. But can the interest last? Assuming that it does, it would be extremely interesting to see if SBS can continue broadcasting after the next renewal. And yes, I do take note that several matches of the above core sports are broadcast on the commercial FTA. But truth is that the number of matches screened on FTA is nowhere near the number that are on. And the more important matches are either not screened on FTA or delayed.
he spoke at 10:36 am