Monday, August 08, 2016

Dim Sum at the Red Star

Red Star Dim Sum Restaurant


An old school feel of an old Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant near Chinatown Singapore, showcases dim sum on pushcart and the old ladies pushing them around the busy and noisy restaurant survives till today.


The Main Entrance of Red Star


Old Lady severing the "Chee Cheong Fun" on her mobile pushcart
 

People of ages coming to eat the old school dim sum



The last few dim sum before she push them to refill



Has lost quite a bit of crowds even though it's a Sunday lunchtime


The next series of picture will be in colors to show the food in the original state, all photos are sooc (Straight Out Of the Camera)



Carrot Cake (3pics per serving)



Fried Glutinous Rice, very old school taste



Dumpling Soup



Preserve Egg with lean meat porridge



Har Gow (4pics per serving)



Chee Cheong Fun with prawns Hong Kong Style



Char Siew Sou (3 pics per serving)



Hong Kong Style Egg Tart (3pics per serving)



Hong Kong Style Siew Mai



The Chicken Feet, My favorite



Char Siew Bao, the soul of the Dim Sum


Char Siew Bao, Har Gow and Siew Mai are the soul of the Dim Sum, if they are not nice and not up to standard, they are not fit sell.

The Char Siew Bao is good, the bao itself is soft and fluffy, first bite into it, the char siew and the bao dough mix it well and not "dry" when swallowing it.

The Har Gow and Siew Mai are so so only, the standard did drop alot after the old chef are no longer there to produce the finest when they are in peak during the 80s and 90s. Red Star opened in 1974 (The year which I was born) had been around for 40+ years and survives till now. For the old school feel, should come for a visit and feel the back to the past in the 70s



Full of Dim Sums on the pushcart trolley


The Aftermath

One Words, still good and the taste is nostalgia. Cannot go wrong with the feel here.




Monday, August 01, 2016

Olympus macro converter MCON-P02

Got myself a cheap "Marco Lens" solution. What I did was bought from Amazon Olympus macro converter MCON-P02, converts your normal Lens to "Marco" capable. It is a little adapter, literally take up no visible space in my bag, can transform any of my 3 tiny holy trinity into "Marco" Lens anytime, anywhere.

The "Marco" converter

With the step up/down ring


It can support 37mm and 46mm, because it comes with a step up/down ring, the converter itself is 46mm, the ring convert its to 37mm.
 

The front element

I own the Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens, It is great for portraits and even general photography. It's minimum focus distance is 50cm. That doesn't let you get close enough to an insect to take a good photo. Add the converter and you can get much closer, about 24cm. The converter makes the 45mm lens even more versatile.

Here are some sample shots I took with my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark 2 with Olympus 45mm f1.8 with the Olympus macro converter MCON-P02.


Olympus 45mm f1.8 with Olympus Macro Converter MCON-P02 focus on Made in Japan

Olympus 45mm f1.8 without Olympus Macro Converter MCON-P02 focus on Made in Japan


Olympus 45mm f1.8 with Olympus Macro Converter MCON-P02 focus on PRO1-D


Olympus 45mm f1.8 without Olympus Macro Converter MCON-P02 focus on PRO1-D


Olympus 45mm f1.8 with Olympus Macro Converter MCON-P02 focus on Lumix


Olympus 45mm f1.8 without Olympus Macro Converter MCON-P02 focus on Lumix


MCONs are fun to have, but it is not for serious Macro Photography, it is for those on budget and hardly take Macro photos.


Monday, July 25, 2016

The Holy Trinity of Micro Four Thirds Lens

The Holy Trinity of Micro Four Thirds Lens

Many photographers have heard of the “Holy Trinity” for various systems, when asked experienced photographer will say that lenses are a better investment than a new camera body.

Holy Trinity usually means a wide angle lens, a standard short portrait focal lens and a long/portraits focal lens which many blog site, many forums had deem are the Olympus 12mm f2.0 wide angle lens, Panasonic/Leica 25mm f1.4 lens and the Olympus 75mm f1.8 lens. As you can see these 3 lens are not cheap, the cheapest among is the Panasonic/Leica 25mm f1.4, Amazon selling USD $597.99, 2nd hand selling around $600 in Singapore Carousell.

My budget "Holy Trinity" lens are as follow:

  • Wide angle 28mm equivalent: Panasonic 14mm f2.5 (Around $150*) Reviews
  • Same viewing angle as the eye 50mm equivalent: Panasonic 25mm f1.7 (Around $200*) Reviews
  • Portrait lens 90mm equivalent: Olympus 45mm f1.8 (Around $200* but I got it @ $180*) Reviews
*Note: All those 2nd hand price quoted can be found in Carousell Singapore.

My "Holy Trinity"


Tower of the Holy Trinity




Monday, July 18, 2016

Angelo Pelle Leather Strap

Hand-make in Italy

How many time when you check the bottom of the items you purchase or going to purchase says Make in China? Almost everything in the world is Make in China, not that they are poor quality or something. My iPhone is make in China, my MacBook Air is also make in China. What happen to all the olden days hand make crafts that are pass down thru generations? Here is something hand make, not machine made, not make in China but Italy.

Angelo Pelle, a handcraft company based in Florence, are all hand work following a tradition lasting from hundreds of years. Hand made by some of the most skilled Italian artisans with more then 30 years of experience in this field, with the best tuscan naturally tanned leather (the same one is used by italian and french high fashion brands). Each half case/strap requires one day of work, all process is carefully handmade, the bottom of the case is stitched by hands (not glued to the upper part).


A small pad at the extremely of the wrist strap protect the camera from any scratch.


The hand made goodness



Comes with a soft porch
 

Vegetable Tanned Leather:
This type of natural tanning proess uses tannin extracted from plants (mimosa, chestnut, quebracho, tara, etc etc). Vegetable tannage is a very old procedure dating back to prehistoric period, a very slow process wich is considered an art. The formulas used by each tuscan tannery is a well kept secret, a result of a careful blending of Tuscan culture and knowledge, passed down through the years from father to son.
Each skin is unique: this uniqueness means that it does not have a uniform appearance, which represents the leather quality. The exclusive material is subject to the same wear as the person who use our half cases, the skin will gradually acquires that worn look who every person get with the life.



tonalities goes from foxy brown to dark brown
 

extra aged brown color
 

A Classic hand made Wrist straps with best vegetable tanned leather.


A beautiful leather strap, which will enhance the look of any camera while keeping it securely tied to your wrist. It's also immensely soft, I like the idea of the protective pad which slips between the camera body and the metal loop, ensuring your camera will never get scratched. That's why I choose to use it on my Olympus OM-D E-M10 mark II.

Purchases can be made directly at www.angelo-pelle.com.


Monday, July 11, 2016

Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8 The Portrait Lens

The Portrait Lens


Mighty tiny lens which many will describe when anyone see it, hold it and shoot with it. The Olympus 45mm f1.8 m.Zuiko looks like a metal lens, but it's made of plastic with a bright silver finish and the mount is made of metal. It is small enough that it can be slipped into a pocket when not in use.

Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8


People who shoot with DSLR would be sucked into the obsession over larger aperture at one point. The lower the F-number, the drooling the lens would be. Fast lenses bring plenty of advantages to general photography situations, and the most important of all is the ability to gather more available ambient light to produce a much more natural, pleasing image. This is evidently useful when shooting under low light conditions, where higher shutter speed can be achieved with larger aperture opening, mainly is to freeze motions and to prevent hand shake blur.

The front view of 37mm

The Olympus 45mm f1.8 m.Zuiko is a very sharp lens, wide open at f1.8, the central region of the image is tack-sharp, there are not much difference in stopping down to f2.0, from f2.8 onwards the lens is as sharp as sharp gets. It is sharp all the way through to f16, where a slight hint of diffraction limiting is present, but it is still very sharp even at this aperture. At f22 there is only very slight softness across the frame. You’ve seen a lot of professional-level photos with sharply rendered subjects and artistic defocused backgrounds. This is the lens that will help you achieve the same kind of shots. It’s especially good for portraits, but also works well for stills, action and video.


The Olympus 45mm f1.8 m.Zuiko is really a mighty tiny lens. The 45mm f1.8 is an affordable fixed focal length prime lens that’s bright enough to excel in low-light interiors, fast enough for pro-quality action shots, and second to none when it comes to creating the lovely defocused background effects you want in your portraits.

The creamy bokeh


The Crop of the above photo


Photographers who shoot a lot of portraits and still-lives are always seeking good bokeh. Lenses with relatively shallow depth of field – like the 45mm – are especially well suited to capture the combination of tack-sharp subject and beautifully soft, defocused background that exemplifies bokeh. One of this lens’s most interesting features is the unique-to-Olympus Movie & Still Compatible mechanism, or MSC. This technology provides amazingly fast – and nearly silent – autofocus operation. You’ll really notice the benefit when you play back your HD video and the only thing you hear is the ambient background noise in the scene you were filming; what you won’t hear is the sound of the lens focusing. This lens is perfect for tracking action. With MSC and the super-bright f1.8 aperture, you can film a school play or indoor sporting event in low light and still get excellent results.


I'm reviewing base on real world hands on, as a tools. There will be no charts or numbers, I find them pointless.


Test Photo shot with Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8 using Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, first we test the sharpest that this lens can be.

45mm @ f1.8, Photo Mode Natural


Crop of the above original photo

See how sharp this lens is, under the right condition, it can give a sharp image. More of the photos as per below.


The liquid green
 
 
The Vegetable green


The Carrot orange

The mixture of colors


The mischievous


45mm @ f1.8

45mm @ f1.8



In short, it’s a great addition to your Olympus photographic system.


Monday, July 04, 2016

Another underrated gem Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 ASPH LUMIX G

Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 ASPH LUMIX G

Some people are disappointed by the aperture because of its only f2.5 which is slow for a prime lens. But the size and weight is number one (1), Japanese made product are well known in the world as reliability and quality. Although it is made mostly from plastic, but the mount is made in metal. The focus ring is smooth and easy to operate, auto focus is fast and accurate.


Panasonic 14mm f2.5


Front View



Panasonic 14mm produce relatively sharp wide open , the sharpness came from the center of the lens whereas the corner are softer. The lens can at times have heavy chromatic aberrations near the corners with back-lit objects The wide angle field of view forces you to get close to your subject and capture the context scene, once you are close enough, it produces a creamy shallow depth of field. 28mm wide angle really great for street shooting.

I'm reviewing base on real world hands on, as a tools. There will be no charts or numbers, I find them pointless.

The test shot for the Panasonic 14mm f2.5 ASPH Lumix G.


14mm @ f2.8, Picture Mode: Natural



Crop from above picture


This lens really not bad, for the price and sharpness. Really small pancake size, drop in your pocket and off you explore the world. With sharp results and only slight issues with CA, the 14mm has produced a very nice walk-around lens because it’s so small and light, you won’t feel like you are carrying a full bag marching with you when you go out shooting. Especially after a long day of walking around, everyone will appreciate the weight they carry.

 Somemore photos from the 14mm.


14mm @ f2.5, Picture Mode Natural


14mm @ f2.5, Picture Mode Natural


Bokeh, nice and round


More bokeh, creamy round


14mm @ f2.8, Picture Mode Natural


14mm @ f2.5, Picture Mode Natural

I'm very satisfy with image quality of the lens, its sharp, be it f2.5 or f2.8, the fast focus although at the max aperture of f2.5, its move fast and lock on quickly. Most importantly, its cheap. Even you lost it, drop it or spoils it, doesn't matter, get another one and replace it without having heart pain. The 14mm is always on my E-M10 Mark II wherever I bring it out. One of my always must have to bring out favorite lens.


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