OznAsia

Last June, I wrote a few thoughts on buying my next camera. It's taken a while but I have finally bought myself a Panasonic G2. I bought the twin-lens kit and one extra lens, the 20 mm, f1.7 pancake lens.

I already wrote in the earlier blog why I liked the G2 and so far I am not disappointed. I do, however, have a lot to learn as this is my first interchangeable-lens camera. What I didn't mention in that blog was the one shortcoming that is mentioned in any review of this camera, ie it is not equal to an SLR in low-light situations. That's one of the reasons I bought the extra lens. At f1.7, this lens lets in a lot of light. It is also good for getting a bit of background blur happening.

I took it out with me one night recently and took this shot of some fried noodles with chicken and vegetables. This was taken in an outdoor food court with artificial lighting. I used no flash. Photos I took of people on the same evening look just as good. The fz20 made me a fan of zoom. This lens has no zoom. All shots are taken at 20 mm (equal to 40mm on an SLR). And I'm loving it.

Like most cameras this camera has burst mode for when you want to take a sequence of photos of a subject. I tried that on a portrait shot and the photos come so quickly there is almost no difference from one to the next. I've decided that burst mode is almost superfluous. In normal shooting mode this camera will take 3.2 photos per second. Before I got used to this I sometimes took two photos of the subject because I held the shutter button for too long. Now I use this for burst. I can hold the button down and shoot off five or more pics in quick succession.

For some time I've already had a second camera, a Panasonic fx3, which I bought in 2007. I bought it because it is small and I can take it everywhere and I never have to miss a shot. But it has limitations. The zoom is only 3x and it has no manual controls so if I want to get something a little better in quality out of it, it is limited. I've written about this in these blogs some time back, here and here. When I last left Australia I left the fz20 behind knowing that I would eventually buy another camera. For about six months I've been challenged by the limitations of the fx3. So now I've bought another second camera or should I say a fourth camera.

The Panasonic TZ10 is fairly compact but not so compact as the fx3. It has a 3" LCD and 12x optical zoom. It also has most of the manual controls that you would expect in a serious camera. In many ways it does as good a job as my old fz20 but comes in a much smaller package. Technology has improved in the six years between these cameras. Even when I take the Panasonic G2 with me, I still take the TZ10. I'm anticipating a situation when I'm taking a shot of a flower and in the distance I see a bird in a tree. By time I swap to a long-zoom lens it might have flown. But I can grab the TZ10 and get a quick shot. For the cost of the TZ10 I might have bought another lens for the G2. The TZ10 is roughly the size and weight of some lenses and by carrying it I feel I get a lot more flexibility.

With each camera I got an 8GB memory card. That gives me a total of about 3,000 shots on the two cards. The cards are interchangeable between the two cameras. I know some people store all their photos on their memory card. I don't. I download and delete regularly. I can take a lot of shots on whichever camera I wish before I run out of memory.

Photos taken with these cameras are starting to appear on my flickr page. If you compare them with some of what I've taken with the fx3 over the last six months I trust you'll be able to see some improvement.

Labels: "micro four thirds", camera, flickr, fx3, fz20, G2, Lumix, Panasonic, photography, TZ10

After five years of travelling with me, my Panasonic fz20 is showing signs of wear and tear. If you look at the pics attached to this post you'll see that it doesn't look so good anymore. What is left of the plastic grips is now held on by what we in Australia call Blutack. The body isn't holding together well and the viewfinder doesn't work anymore. I posted these pics on a photographic forum and one response I received was 'Boy, you've certainly beaten up your fz20 badly.' But it still takes fairly good pictures. If you're not familiar with them, click some of the links in my sidebar.

I am not a four-star traveller. I move around slowly and I'm more interested in people than monuments. I get down and dirty and mix with the locals. I love to meet people who might be considered 'exotic' to us westerners. (Though I'm sure they don't think they are.) I'm interested in getting to know them and experiencing their lifestyle. Sometimes a camera is a novelty to such people. I've learned not to show the pics I've taken as people want to grab the camera for a closer look and they don't always know how to handle a camera. All this is often done in tropical heat. Does this make me rough on cameras? I don't really think so. I have to wonder if cameras of today are built so well as in the past. I might add that I've found Apple computers are not so strong today as they were five or more years ago.

Most cameras available at less than A$1,000 today are made of plastic. Would any other plastic camera survive better than my fz20? I don't really know but I have my doubts. Therefore I have decided that when I get around to buying a new camera I want it to do two things. First I want it to extend me as a photographer, to give me possibilities to take my photography further, to learn more about photography. Secondly I want it to survive my lifestyle better than the fz20 has. I'm interested in a camera with a metal body.

The last thing I want is to add more weight to my packs. Hey, I'm 62 and I weigh only 57 kilos. I travel with two backpacks—a biggish one for clothes and other necessities and a Crumpler for technology. If I have to walk any distance the Crumpler is mounted over my chest and the big one on my back. The combined weight of the two is about 25 kilos—equal to about 44% of my body weight. I don't really want to add more weight to my packs.

Until recently, to improve on an fz20 one had to upgrade to an SLR camera. The idea of an SLR doesn't excite me so much. The main advantage they have over point-and-shoot cameras is a bigger sensor. This makes a huge difference to the potential image quality. I say 'potential' because the biggest influence on image quality is the photographer. The best SLR in the world is no better in the hands of an incompetent photographer than the cheapest point-and-shoot. I'm tempted, but not too tempted.

The weight of my fz20 is just under 520 grams. That includes a lens that has a zoom range equal to an SLR 36-432 mm lens. If I buy an entry-level smallish plastic SLR, they may be a similar weight—without the lens. How much weight will it add to my pack to include either one or perhaps several lenses that will give me the same zoom range I get with my fz20? Yes, I will get more in terms of picture quality but at a price in terms of weight that I would be reluctant to pay while I continue my travelling lifestyle. And I would still have a plastic camera. How long would I expect it to last?

Pay a little more and I could get a mid-range SLR with a metal body. I've seriously considered this possibility and perhaps have not ruled it out completely. The Nikon D 300 looks promising weighing 825 g without a lens and the Pentax K 7 comes in at about 750 g. This Pentax camera has a good reputation as a rugged camera which I find tempting. It has a weather, dust and cold resistant shell. Interesting that they make them to survive the cold but make no mention of heat. I often find myself in temperatures over 40 degrees c. Can it handle that?

I am interested in a relatively new camera format known as four thirds that, I believe, has been developed jointly by Olympus and Panasonic. The latest version of this is known as Micro four thirds. I first noticed the Olympus models which are quite small and have a metal body. The sensor size is larger than that found on most point-and-shoot cameras but smaller than those on the smallest SLRs. Like SLRs they have interchangeable lenses. The design of the camera is such that unlike SLRs they do not use mirrors to transfer the image to the sensor. It goes directly from the lens to the sensor. By comparison, this reduces both the weight and size of the unit. Overall the lenses are smaller by comparison to an SLR, much more like those found on a point-and-shoot camera but picture quality is very close to that of an SLR. And like an SLR, they give the photographer the opportunity to expand their ability by using different lenses.

I've been aware of these Olympus models for some time. I've observed that they've been a bit slim on features. While they interest me, they don't excite me. I was also aware that Panasonic had some similar models too but they appeared to be more expensive so I did not look too closely.

Recently I was killing time and found myself in a camera store where I saw for the first time one of the Panasonic Micro four thirds models. I took the time to have a look. The guy in the store seemed to know so little about it but I could see that it had features that interested me and most importantly I was impressed by its light weight and compact size. When I got home I looked it up online and discovered that there were currently three models available. One that was very basic, similar to the Olympus ones and two with a few more features. I also saw that there are two new models coming soon with even more features.

At the moment the one that interests me most is the G2. It is scheduled for release this month. It is available with various lens combinations at various prices. I favour the twin lens version which has a list price of A$1,599. Yes, I could replace my fz20 with Panasonic's latest evolution of that type of camera, the fz35, for about a third of that price. But I expect that will give me a camera that will once again last me about five years. That is one way to go—use it for five years and then get another that is updated with the latest technology. However, the Panasonic Micro four thirds cameras, like the Olympus models, have a metal body. I trust it will last longer, though at the moment I have no way of knowing.

Apart from the metal body, here's what else interests me with the G2. The weight of the basic camera is about 371 g. That's about half the weight of the metal-bodied SLRs I mentioned above and theoretically the picture quality is not far behind them. Add the weight of two lenses and it comes to 1,032 g all up. That means I'm looking at carrying around twice the weight of the fz20. I'll get a similar zoom range but have to change lenses from time to time. Not always convenient but hopefully, coupled with the bigger sensor, they'll do a better job. The G2 has a 3" LCD that rotates. A bigger LCD appeals to my ageing eyes and being able to rotate it gives me much more flexibility in seeing the screen when I want to take a picture from an unusual angle. It has many more features such as a touch screen, perhaps some of them are gimmicks, but to me the important ones are those I've mentioned.

I haven't made a decision yet. My mind is open until I put my money down but this camera has a lot of appeal to me.

Labels: "micro four thirds", camera, fz20, Lumix, Panasonic, photography

Dad

You've pretty much got my general needs sussed. What would you buy? I'll have to choose something soon cause I'm getting sick of trying to figure it out.
Love Mel

PS Bub is going great. 30 weeks now.


Hi Mel

I can't say specifically what I would choose because I haven't really been studying the reviews. I would do that pretty thoroughly before I made my decision. I didn't do that when I bought my little camera and not long after I bought it I realised that I should have spent a little more money and got one with a few more features. I saw one I would have preferred (think it was a Pentax) but I'd already parted with my money.

My criteria would depend on my situation. I would only buy an SLR if I was planning to do some professional photography, ie trying to sell my photos in some way. For publishing on the net as I do, it's overkill and way too much to carry when travelling, by time you buy all the extras. And without the extras maybe you're only getting a basic camera, but hopefully a good one.

I'm a bit addicted to zoom so I would look for a camera that gave me a good zoom, with a good quality lens and had as big and high quality a sensor as possible. Whether I got something like my fz20 or something smaller would depend on whether I was planning to do a lot of travelling. And I would consider what would I lose by buying the smaller camera—is it almost as good or is there a big difference. If it's close, maybe I'd go for the smaller one. If the bigger one was way ahead, maybe I'd go for that.

It's also important to consider what features appeal to you. eg. I like a camera with a fold out LCD, the more possible angles the better.

I'd also consider what it is made from although I'm not sure how important that is. My fz20 is all plastic. They specify that it should be used within a specific range of temperatures and Thailand goes over that range. So, some of the bits of attached plastic are falling off these days. The camera still works but it is not as grippable. I'm not sure if an all metal camera is better but I suspect it might be. Then again if the all metal camera still has plastic grip bits on it, it might do the same. In the climate you are in this might not be an issue anyway.

When you get a short list, let me know and I'll make a few comments.

love

Dad

PS. Does that mean you still have 10 weeks to go?

Labels: camera, fz20, Lumix, Panasonic, photography

Hi Dad,
Am thinking that you brought up a few valid points and I figure that I don't really need an SLR. So down to that do you have any advice? What size zoom would you think is useful to have? Basically want good snapshots at the end of the day but a camera that can play around with to get better shots. Sometimes we want to take pictures to use for a poster or flyers for things, otherwise something I can use to take nice photo's.
Love Mel

Hi Mel

First I'll give you two links to my blogs where I wrote about my cameras. This will give you an idea about why I have what I have:

Why two cameras?

Camera comparison

What size zoom depends on what you want to photograph. 3 x zoom is very common and for everyday photography it's usually fine. Sometimes I like to photograph wildlife. If you get too close then it moves away so my 12 x zoom on the fz20 is good. When there was a monkey on the roof of the house next door at Kompong Chhnang I could get a pic of just the monkey. (BTW, I have not cropped this pic.) With 3 x I would get the whole roof and would hardly see the monkey. If you want to take a pic of Iz or Hamad on the other side of the soccer field, you'll need a good zoom to take that pic. However you'll also need a camera good for action pics if you want to get them while they're moving. It can be a challenge to do that especially with full zoom. 5 x to 10 x is somewhere in between. That might suit you depends on how important those soccer shots are to you. You can also get more powerful zooms these days. Panasonic have one that does 18 x. I asked a guy who had one about it and he was pretty happy. Other manufacturers are bringing out cameras to compete with this. Not sure how good they are. The Panasonic Lumix lens has a good reputation. Read the reviews before you make a decision.


Here's an example of the sort of long-distance action you can get with an fz20. I took this at Scarborough back when I was last in Oz. BTW, someone once said to me that to get a lens on an SLR that does what I can do with my fz20, it would have to be about 45cm long. Another BTW, if you click on these pics you'll see a larger version.

OK. Some general info. If you go to my flickr page and take a look at my pics, see if you can see the difference between the pics done on the fx3 and fz20 and which do you prefer. I put that info into the tags at the side of each pic. You have to click on the pic to see it. You might think the fx3 is just as good but consider that in relation to what I have written in the blog—fx3 has its limitations. They may or may not be important to you. But if you want to take better shots you will probably want a camera with more features. BTW, fx3 and fz20 will have been superseded several times. The current models will have different names. Last time I checked the latest version of the fz20 was fz50. Not sure if it still is. It has a few more features and other improvements over mine. I like the way the LCD screen tilts so you don't always have to hold the camera up to your face. You can hold it at waist level or hold it over your head—and still see the LCD.

If somehow I lost both of my cameras I wonder what I would buy now. Rather than buy two cameras I could get a compromise, a camera that is fairly compact but has a lot of features. Canon have one called the G10. The Canon G series have a good reputation but these days other manufacturers are bringing out good cameras like it. Read some reviews and see if it does what you want. Some of the reviews will also mention other cameras to compare it with. Check out their reviews too.

There are two websites that have good reviews that I recommend:

dpreview

Steves Digicams

Read a few reviews and see if you can get more idea of what you want from that. Also on these sites are user forums. I followed the Panasonic forums for about 18 months on Steves before I bought the fz20. People tell you what they like and don't like about their cameras. It is a good way to discover which camera to not buy. You can also join and ask questions yourself. If you have narrowed it down and you are not sure, you can ask people who use the camera, eg. 'Is this a good action camera? Is it good for night shots?'. They'll tell you.

One other thing to remember is that you can have the best camera in the world but if you don't have an artistic eye you'll still take lousy shots. You need to learn a bit about framing your shots. It could be worth visiting the library and borrowing a few photography 'how to' books.

OK, that's it for now. Feel free to send more questions.

BTW, I'll expect to see lots of pics of the new baby on facebook.

love

Dad

Labels: camera, family, flickr, fx3, fz20, Kompong Chhnang, Lumix, Panasonic, photography

I sometimes wonder where fear comes from.

If you've ever looked at my flickr pages you may have noticed that I enjoy having my photo taken handling snakes. Yes, I'm showing off but the only reason it gets attention is that others find snakes—maybe reptiles in general, maybe spiders too—scary. Why? I have a feeling that this fear is learned. My siblings are not quite so comfortable as I am with reptiles so I wonder why I didn't pick up this fear.

One of the good things about my childhood was the environment we grew up in. Our home was on a half-acre block. Most of the houses around us were on similar blocks and on one side were several acres of bush. And it was crawling with reptiles—many species of lizards and quite a few snakes. We were warned to keep clear of the snakes as they could be poisonous—and some were. If Dad ever caught a snake it was killed.

Bearded dragons were extremely common and still are in Brisbane backyards. I realise that in some countries now they keep them as pets. If they are handled regularly from birth they become tame but ours were wild. They grow to about 60 cm long. When they are babies it is OK to pick them up by the body but the big guys will bite. There is a trick. You have to get their feet off the ground quickly. When they see you they puff their 'beard' out to try to scare you but it is mostly bluff. If you grab them by the end of the tail and quickly get their feet off the ground they are almost helpless. They try to reach you but they can't if you hold them at arm's length.

That was the technique I used as a kid. Bear in mind that this lizard might be 2/3 as long as I was tall at that time. My macho brothers were not brave enough to do this. But once I got one off the ground they were happy to take it from me. One day one of my brothers had one that I'd picked up. I'd asked for it back but he wasn't returning it. I reached out to take it from him. The lizard reared up and bit my thumb. I lost some of my enthusiasm for picking them up after that.

Snakes were another matter. I accepted what my parents said but I was probably also reading and learning for myself. Carpet snakes—Australian pythons—were relatively common. I knew they were almost harmless, at least not poisonous, and they were easy to identify by their strong pattern and their size. The bush next to our yard ran down to the Brisbane River and there was a boat shed on the river bank. One day there was a lot of excitement because one of my younger brothers had found a carpet snake hibernating in the rafters of the shed. My two younger brothers were with some friends. They managed to force the snake down with a stick, held it with a forked stick and one of them was returning home victoriously with it across his shoulders. One hand was holding its neck tight the other hand its tail. As I said, the snake was hibernating, but now it started to wake up. As I came on the scene it was starting to wrap itself around his neck and he was calling, 'Get it off! Get it off!' So I helped him to carry it up to our house where they made a pen for it from some pieces of old iron roofing. Many of my brothers' friends would come around to see this snake which was about two metres long. Even though the snake was hibernating and was not going to attack anyone they had a ritual to go through whenever they handled it. First its neck was pinned by the forked stick and only then would one of them grab it behind the head tightly and boldly lift it out of the pen. One day there was quite a crowd there and I was watching this procedure. I could see that the snake was too sleepy to attack anyone. I calmly reached over the side of the pen, picked the snake up and dropped it into the middle of the crowd of kids. They sure ran fast until one of my brothers came back with the forked stick. I just stood there and laughed.

Through my life I've treated snakes based on the following knowledge. A snake will usually only attack you for one of two reasons: 1). It is planning to eat you; or 2). It thinks you might attack it. When you consider this, you realise that at most times we have very little to fear from snakes. Most Australian snakes are too small to consider eating a grown human. However you have to be careful not to put a snake into situation number 2. They will attack to protect themselves. But generally, they will be trying to get away from you faster than you from them. There are exceptions, some species like the Australian taipan are both aggressive and poisonous but they do not live in the area where we lived so they were not an issue for me.

A little north of Sydney at Gosford there is a reptile park that was started by a man named Eric Worrell. When I visited they had a pit which was about 3 x 5 metres. It was literally crawling with tiger snakes. Tigers are one of the world's deadliest snakes. There were so many of them in the pit that if you were brave enough to get in with them you would have had difficulty finding somewhere to put your feet. While we were looking over the wall, Eric Worrell jumped over, into the pit and walked among the tiger snakes. One by one he picked them up and in front of the small crowd that had gathered milked them for venom.

On one of my early visits to Thailand a storytelling camp was held in Mahasarakham. After the camp was over, I was staying one more night at the campsite and some of the students had stayed back to keep me company. We were chatting in a circle when someone came from outside and said, 'There's a snake over there.' I immediately got up and started heading towards my room. 'Where are you going?' I was asked.

'To get my camera.' I came back with the camera and started walking towards the snake.

'Where are you going?' they asked again.

'To take a photo of the snake.'

'No! No! No! It might bight you.'

'That's OK. I won't get close enough.'

'Don't go any closer. You don't know anything about Thai snakes. It could be a cobra.' I was perhaps about 5 metres from it. I stopped. They were right. I didn't know anything about Thai snakes. It might be a cobra.

I followed the advice and took the photos from that distance. This was my old Kodak camera. It doesn't have the zoom I have on my fz20. With the fz20 I wouldn't have needed to get any closer but it wasn't invented at that time. Still I got this photo. I've cropped a lot of background here.





A few days later I was in Bangkok and I paid a visit to the Snake Farm. They had a show which included cobras. The handlers were working very close to the cobras. After the show I asked a few questions. I showed them my picture, told the story and asked if they could identify the snake. He did and said it was harmless. I asked how close it was safe to get to an unidentified Thai snake. He said one or two metres. 'What if it was a cobra?' I asked.

'One or two metres,' he replied.






After that they allowed me to hold one of their Burmese pythons and my friend took a few photos.

When I was in Kuala Lumpur not so long ago my friend, Shuenhuey, took me to Batu Caves. At the entrance to the caves there was a guy with a large python that for a small fee you could handle and take photos. I gave Shuenhuey my camera while I held the python. I wanted to get some photos that I could use to show off to my grandchildren. We got a few good photos and went into the cave.

On the way out Shuenhuey said she was thinking about getting her photo taken with the snake. I was impressed. For me this is no big deal but she had grown up with the same fear of reptiles that most people have. Seeing how casually I had handled it she had decided that perhaps she could face her fears. I encouraged her and as you can see, she did it. (But check out the kid in the background.)

People have all sorts of mistaken beliefs about reptiles. How many people, for example, think that snakes are 'slimy'? They're not. Sadly we also often take on beliefs about other people who we've never met. Just as we do with snakes and lizards we think that people of this race or religion are all .... You fill in the gap. Me, I do my best to travel to exotic countries, meet people and find out first-hand what they are like. Just as I do with reptiles.

Labels: Asia, Australia, DC265, fear, fz20, KL, Kodak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reptile, snake, trust

A couple of years ago I was fairly settled in Mahasarakham. I left at that time to return to Australia for family reasons. I left quite a lot of my stuff in storage. Recently I returned to Mahasarakham and brought a suitcase-full of my things back with me to Bangkok. This included many backup disks of photos from the past. These are photos taken with my first digital camera, a 2MP Kodak DC265. Most are of Australia but also included are photos from my first trip to Thailand in 1999 and trips to England and California.

These photos remind me that memory was more expensive in those days so I was more economical in taking photos. I didn't have the luxury of filling a 1GB card as I occasionally do now. I had to make every shot count or perhaps delete the duds. Now I almost never delete a pic because you never know when it might serve some purpose.

I joined the photo-sharing site flickr not long before I bought my current camera, a Panasonic Lumix FZ20. The first photos I added to flickr were of Angkor Wat and were taken with the DC265. Since then I have added thousands of photos taken with the FZ20.

I've decided to process and upload some of the earlier DC265 photos as I have time. I find it interesting to compare the busy-ness of most of my Asian pics with the emptiness of so many of the Australian shots. I hope you'll take a look soon and come back again as there'll no doubt be more added later. I'll perhaps add some to this blog also when I feel there is a story to go with them.

Labels: Australia, DC265, flickr, fz20, Kodak, Lumix, Mahasarakham, Panasonic, photography, travel

I've always admired people who can photograph butterflies and wonder what the secret is. Butterflies don't often stay still and no matter what I try I rarely get a good shot of one.

Not far from the bird park in Kuala Lumpur is the Butterfly Park. The setup is similar. The whole area is covered in mesh and the butterflies fly free. It costs RM15 for a person to get in and RM1 for a still camera. Video cameras are a little extra. I decided to spend a few hours there and see what I could do.

Spending time in the park is quite pleasant because the environment they have created for the butterflies is a very attractive one for humans too. It's also environmentally friendly. They have to control pests by biological methods so they don't kill the butterflies.





And how did I go with the photos? At first there were quite a few blurred ones. I reminded myself that I had all day if I wanted and there were thousands of butterflies. So I took my time, tried a few different settings and soon I was taking photos like this one.






While I'm a long way from being an expert, I think I have discovered the secret: patience and a plentiful supply of butterflies. A good camera also helps. If you'd like to see more of my butterfly photos, I'll be uploading them to my flickr page in due course. Hang in there; I've been taking a lot of photos lately.

If you are in KL and decide to go to the Butterfly Park you'll get better shots, of the stationary butterflies at least, with a tripod but don't bother, they won't let you bring it in. I don't know why. I forgot to pack mine so it wasn't a problem.

PS: to see a larger version of these pics, click on them.

Labels: Asia, butterfly, camera, flickr, fz20, KL, Kuala Lumpur, Lumix, Malaysia, Panasonic, photography

Recently I visited the KL Bird Park which is promoted as the 'world's largest walk-in free-flight aviary'. I guess I bought what that says and expected all the birds to be flying free so I put down my RM30. I figured it was well worth that even though Malaysians pay around half the foreigners' rate. With the long zoom on my camera I should be able to get some pretty decent shots. I figured I'd be happy.



When I got inside I discovered that probably half, or perhaps more, of the birds are in cages. I realize there are huge logistical problems with having all the birds flying free but that's what the promotion material suggests and it didn't live up to the expectations.



After I'd spent a couple of hours there—it really is big—and worked hard to get a few good shots despite the wires, I discovered that for RM5 more I could take pictures of myself with a tame bird or two. I declined. Considering the promotion I figure it is a bit rich to expect you to pay more for what you expected to get included in the entry price.

Having got that off my chest, I must say that the park is quite well run and has a good range of birds. It is a pity that more Malaysians don't take advantage of what is a very good price (to them) for such a facility. I visited during school holidays but it wasn't crowded and I think the vast majority of visitors were foreigners.

I managed to take quite a few shots. The pick of them will soon be showing on my main photo page (see sidebar).

Labels: "Bird Park", "Kuala Lumpur" KL, Asia, fz20, Malaysia, photography

On Saturday Tzu Chi held its annual Charity Fair. I was asked if I'd like to lend a hand. I agreed and was given the job of collecting garbage. They didn't call it that, they said 'recycling'. And that is what they actually do. The garbage collectors—sorry recyclers—wander around with trolleys. In each trolley are several large heavy-duty garbage bags and any garbage they collect is sorted; paper in one, cans in another, glass in yet another and so on. It seemed my life at Tzu Chi had gone full cycle. When I first offered to volunteer three years ago they asked me to come one evening a week to sort paper for recycling.

Friday afternoon one of the photographers asked if I was coming to the fair. 'Yes', I told her. 'I'm going to be a gar...sorry, recycler.'

'What! Are you sure? Why? Can't you help us? We need an extra photographer.'

'I don't mind. But you'll have to square it up with the recycling people.'

It was arranged. I became a photographer for a day. A bonus was that I didn't have to arrive until 8.30 am. The recyclers were starting at 7.30.

At 8.30 I turned up with my fz20, loaded with a 1 GB memory card, a spare battery and the battery charger. I even wore the Tzu Chi volunteers' uniform (for the second time). When I got there I put the spare battery in the charger while I went off to shoot. My main focus was to get as many shots as possible of busy volunteers. They were good subjects, most of them simply stayed busy which is what was wanted. The odd one would turn and give me a nice smile. Nice for me but not what Tzu Chi wanted.



After a couple of hours the battery was flat. The card wasn't full but I took the lot in and while the photos were downloaded from the card I swapped batteries and then back out to capture more volunteers.












Tzu Chi sure gets a lot of support. I was thinking of how a press photographer would cover such an event. S/he would spend probably half an hour there, take the necessary photos and be off to the next assignment. They have to make each shot a good one. They won't have time to return for another go. On the other hand we had six or more of us, each staying the whole day. I estimate I took between 600 and 1,000 shots. Multiply that by six. I trust Tzu Chi should have one or two good shots out of that lot for their website and monthly journal.

There was a big crowd there. I think it could be said that the fair was a great success. I did have a secondary job to do but that is perhaps interesting enough that I'll save it for another blog.

It was a hot day and by time I'd downloaded the third lot of photos I was worn out. I only kept the ones from the third battery charge. I haven't had time to process many yet. The photos you see here are just the start. Like to see more? Take a look at my flickr page (see sidebar) in a few days.

Labels: Asia, camera, fz20, Lumix, Malacca, Malaysia, Melaka, Panasonic, photography, Tzu Chi

I had been living in my present home in suburban Melaka for about three weeks or more before someone told me there was a night market every Thursday just a few blocks away. I enjoy markets, not that I have a great urge to spend money. I just like the environment of traditional markets. My friends took me to the market that week but I didn't take my camera. I enjoy candid photography and markets create good opportunities to indulge this hobby. It was about two weeks later before I had a chance to return to the market with my Panasonic fz20.

The fz20 is not a small camera. It's a bit hard to hold it up to my face to frame a shot and not be noticed. People either smile, stick their hand up in one gesture or another or run away. The picture on the left will help you see my set up for candid photography. The tripod is fixed to the camera but compacted. It is only there to give me something to hold to keep the camera steady. The camera sits hanging from my neck. The remote shutter button is inserted and the cord for this goes around my back. In this picture I am releasing the shutter with my left hand while I sit looking in the mirror. After a while I get used to taking shots like this and can get a pretty good idea what I'm taking. BTW, I don't usually look directly at my subject. I look to the side of them and frame the picture in my peripheral vision. If I am concerned about shutter noise I either turn that down or off. I want nothing to suggest to people that I am taking photos of them. And of course using a digital camera means I can take as many photos as I want and discard the duds. Surprisingly most of them are quite good. I don't worry too much about settings. I leave the camera in auto mode and let it take care of that.





This was one of the early shots. It was late in the afternoon but there was still plenty of light so the photo is quite sharp. Do you think the girl and the guy in the helmet are on to me? Or are they just staring vaguely while they wait to be served?






The market does attract its share of beggars. This young woman is not one of them. She is blind and is selling small packets of tissues.






I'm not sure if she was onto me but this girl seemed to be trying to figure out what I was doing. Then again, I was probably the only foreigner at the market. She probably didn't realise that while I appeared to be staring at a stall on the other side of the road I was actually taking a photo of her.






The woman on the right is making vegetarian popiah (spring rolls) and there's a queue. I came back later and got a couple for my dinner.









By now it's quite dark so the image is a little blurred but I love the blue colouring in the sky.





This girl is making some kind of coconut confectionary, she inserts the mixture in bamboo tubes and her mother cooks it. It must be good because there's quite a crowd waiting, so much so that I can't get a shot with my usual process. This is the only shot that night for which I held the camera in my hands. I had to, to get it over the shoulders of the people in front of me. But I still didn't use the flash. The EXIF data tells me the exposure was 1/4 second. Between the anti-shake in the fz20 and my steady hands, I was still able to get a reasonable shot.




For this one the camera is back in the dangling position but this stall is so well lit that the camera can get a sharp shot with a 1/10 sec exposure.

You can see these photos a little larger by clicking on them. If you'd like to see one or two more from this night, take a look at my photo page (see sidebar).

Labels: Asia, camera, fz20, Lumix, Malacca, Malaysia, market, Melaka, Panasonic, photography

Further to my recent blog discussing my new camera, I have decided to give some examples to show the difference between the fx3 and fz20.

For the sake of the discussion it might be appropriate to discuss the sort of photographs I was happy with when I was using my Kodak DC265. They were always sharp across the whole picture and at that time I was always happy with that. It could be said the camera gave good depth of field, ie everything near and far was in focus.

As I have progressed as a photographer I've become aware that it is at times desirable to show a subject in its setting but the setting is not as important as the subject. In these instances it is actually preferable to lose a bit of sharpness on the setting and to boost the sharpness on the main subject. This is known as short depth of field or perhaps narrow depth of field.

To do this, one opens the lens up as wide as possible, ie widens the aperture. This is measured in f stops and ironically the wider the aperture the lower the f stop number.

A few afternoons back I was walking home. It was about 5 pm, which means, in Malaysia, that the sun is still very bright, despite the rainy season. There were some nice yellow flowers growing on the side of the road. This is very common here. People in the Melaka suburbs love to grow flowers outside their house on the edge of the road. I wanted to capture this all in one photo, ie I wanted to get a good shot of the flower and show it in its setting. Now the streetscape in the distance is pretty boring. I didn't want to show it in detail. I just wanted to show that the flowers grow right on the edge of the street.

My fx3 was in a pouch on my belt so I simply had to pull it out and take the shot. I'll be honest. I didn't spend a lot of time on it. Just snapped a couple and put the camera back in its pouch. Even though the fx3 has a good LCD screen, I'm not really in the habit of checking them. Probably, to be honest, because the LCD on the fz20 is not all that great and that's how the habit formed. When I got back home and downloaded them I found that I had the street in perfect focus and the flower was blurred. Good one, John.

A few days later I decided that I should spend a bit of time becoming more familiar with what I can do with the manual settings on the fz20. I'm usually lazy. I use the scene modes far too often. This time, I set the aperture to f2.8, the widest possible, left it there and wandered the streets for an hour or more seeing what I could do. Altogether I took 77 shots. (Isn't digital wonderful.) I also went back to the same spot and took this photo of the flower in the street.


(Click on these photos to see a larger version.)

I'm not claiming it's the best photo I've ever taken but it achieves my objective. The flower is sharp; you can see what's in the street but it's not clear enough to take the attention off the flower.

BTW, I shot this in aperture priority, not full manual mode. The camera calculates the appropriate shutter speed. Because f2.8 lets in a lot of light and because it's very sunny, it took a fairly fast shot—1,000th of a second.

A few days later, I was walking past the same spot, about the same time, same lighting conditions and I had the fx3 in my belt pouch. I decided to see if this time I could get a better shot. Neither shutter priority nor full manual are available on the fx3 but there are two modes that will force the camera to widen the aperture: portrait and macro. I took a couple on each.

The photo in portrait mode did not achieve my goal. The street was in focus just as clearly as the flower. I did use a fairly narrow focus point and I thought I had it pointing at the flower but there you go.

Here's the one in macro mode.


As you can see the flower is fairly clear and the street is blurred but the flower looks a bit dark. Why? Well, because it is so sunny the camera has to compensate for all the light coming in. It chose to narrow the aperture to reduce the light coming in through the lens. It chose f5.6 with an exposure of 1/320 second.

I had not allowed the fz20 to do this, therefore it compensated by reducing the speed of the shot, which I believe gave me a better photo. Yes, I could work on the second photo in photo editing software. It would be very easy to use the sliders to lighten it. I do this sort of thing all the time. But the fz20 took a much better shot straight out of the camera. (Neither of these photos have been edited, except to reduce the file size.)

I've uploaded some of the other photos taken on my little excursion to my Flora page on flickr. See the link in the sidebar.

I would like to add that I am not an expert, I welcome any comments and suggestions.

Labels: camera, flickr, fx3, fz20, Lumix, Malacca, Melaka, Panasonic, photography

Last year, in Cambodia, almost every Saturday I would catch a bus from Kompong Chhnang to Phnom Penh. I've written about it here before. (August 2006) The journey took up to 2.5 hours each way, occasionally longer. The bus was not exactly comfortable but I still enjoyed the journey. I never got tired off making the trip. The countryside we passed through was beautiful, interesting and ever-changing.

In my mind I would take many photos but I rarely took my camera with me. The purpose of the trip was to connect to the internet in Phnom Penh. I already had my laptop in my bag and my camera is a handful on its own.

When I arrived in Phnom Penh, once again, there would be many interesting sights and I would think to myself, 'If only I had my camera.'

It was rare to see another Westerner on this bus trip. I was usually the only one, which made me an item of interest and it was very common that someone would start up a conversation. The second-last time I made this trip there were about five young Westerners on the bus. One had a really small camera with a very large LCD monitor. They were looking at pictures on the screen and even from several seats away I could see them quite clearly.

'That's what I want.' I decided.

So, when I came to Kuala Lumpur on this trip I did some comparison shopping. There were lots of promotions. I ended up buying myself a Panasonic Lumix fx3, quite similar to the one I saw on the bus.

I'm not saying this is the best camera for this purpose. I decided that, as it was to be my second camera, I didn't need one that did everything that my other camera, a Panasonic Lumix fz20, can do. When I want to do some serious photography I will take the fz20. But at all other times I carry the fx3 and if I see something that is photogenic then I grab a shot. It might not be the best shot but I've got something.

One of the reasons I chose this particular camera, apart from price, was that it uses an SD memory card which is the same as the fz20 and therefore interchangeable between cameras. The other reason is that I have been pretty happy with the fz20 and therefore feel positive about Panasonic cameras. Had I not had this feeling towards Panasonic I might have gone for a Pentax. They had a few models in the price range that looked pretty good and got good reviews. Some of the other brands were OK but didn't tempt me and a few, including some popular, well-respected brands, simply did not impress me at all. If you plan to buy any camera I highly recommend you read the reviews.

After all that, I guess I'm feeling a little frustrated with the fx3. It really is aimed at the beginner (perhaps not as much as some of the other brands), or someone who can't be bothered working at taking photos. It's great for people who literally want to just point and shoot. And for that purpose it gives a fairly good photo that most people would be happy with. But I can be a little fussy and want something just a little better. The fx3 has lots of features but does not allow me to control it manually. Perhaps if I had spent more money I could have got a camera that went a bit further. It wouldn't have come up to the fz20 but it would have given me a little more flexibility.

I've also become a little more enthusiastic about displaying my photos and I've gone 'pro' with the main one of my flickr accounts. There was another motive in doing this. Flickr pro users can upload as many photos as they like and at any size they want. I usually reduce the file size before I upload to flickr. Now I can upload all my photos in full file size. You won't get to see these. I'm doing this as a way of backing up. The photos are not displayed. The ones I choose to display to the world are edited, and also reduced in file size, before I upload.

The non-pro flickr user is limited to a maximum of 200 photos. When you upload your 201st the first one disappears and so on. They keep them on file but hidden. So now that I've gone pro they've all come back again. That's over 700 photos. They go back to when I first joined flickr in early 2005. In fact, back then I was using an earlier camera, a Kodak DC 265.

If you're interested to see if you can tell the difference in photos from these three cameras, or just interested to see a record of my last few years, you'll find a link to this (and my other flickr pages) in the sidebar.

Labels: Asia, Cambodia, camera, flickr, fx3, fz20, Lumix, Panasonic, photography