Sigma 30mm F/1.4

Read a many good reviews about this lens. This is my first Sigma and so impressed with the built quality. The combination of this lens and my 50D makes it possible to shoot without a flash . IQ is sharp wide open and BOKEH is smooth. The image is taken at f1.4 at ISO1250. View more here, http://picasaweb.google.com/borneoeye/Sigma30mmF14#

Mini Review 50D.

After more than a month with my new 50D I am happy to announced that I am pleased with the upgrade. For a better and longer review please click on the link above. 

I have been very happy with my previous 30D but nevertheless it was time to upgrade and when the 50D was announced,I jump at it. There's a huge debate now going on about noise and IQ of the 50D compared to the 40D. I feel expectations are too high for every replacement model, that newer technology in it have improved by leaps and bounds. They will be disappointed with their new equipment and complain a lot about it if they don't perform to their unrealistic expectations. Personally, I don't care too much about shooting high ISO,I hardly go over 800ISO and at that level of course it beats the 30D and at 15mp I can blow it big or cropped generously. The 3in LCD with increase resolution is great for a quick review. Included is Micro Focus Adjustments for individual lens and I don't have to worry about getting sending lens for calibration. Those few improvements alone is enough reasons for me to upgrade.

Here are some samples, please visit album here

Push E-mail.

My primary means of communication is through sms,e-mail and calls. This is applicable to a majority of us, we'd rather sms,e-mail and lastly resort to calls if we need instantaneous response. I can easily do sms and calls on my mobile phone but usually have to be near my Macbook or any PC terminal at the office or at home to check email. Even though we can check our emails nowadays on our mobile phone it's not as user friendly as sms. You can configure your phone to check your inbox at set intervals from every 5 mins or every hour and pulls e-mails from your inbox into your phone and notify you just like a new sms. Don't we wish we can get our emails straight to our mobile phone as soon as it arrives in our inbox without us checking, like a BlackBerry. Well now we can if you are using a Windows smart phone and subscribe to any of the paid or free push email providers. I have tried mobipush.com whereby I have configured it push email from my Google inbox. Caveat emptor, you have to pay for data every time you get an email push to you, hey nothing is free nowadays. What you have to do is find a data plan that works out to be rates that would be similar to an outgoing sms. So if you have lots of emails and wishes to respond to them on your mobile as well,I'd suggest you go for the data unlimited plan. After trying mobipush I find it to be unreliable, sometimes emails don't get push to my mobile so I switch to mail2web LIVE. the difference is that you have to to subscribe to a new webmail and configure your other emails to forward to this mail2web address. As soon as it goes into your inbox it will push it to your mobile,so far it has been reliable,I get emails faster than my inbox and best of all it's free. It's great because all my mode of communication can be on 1 single mobile device. There a few things lacking because I don't use active sync, MS outlook and I am using a Macbook so I cannot sync my calendar and contacts. Well The iPhone 3G do have similar offerings and that could be ny next Gadjet!

New Lens!

In order to complete my range of lenses, I needed a wide angle lens. So after reading all the reviews I decided to go for this Tokina and I am very happy with it. Great solidly built lens and IQ is better than I expected,will post pictures once I have the time to go out on a full outing with it. Now I have 12-200mm in 3 great lenses. other accessories I have added to my inventory includes a Cleon remote trigger, a remote flash trigger and finally a Dry-Cabinet to store all my precious equipment.

New Gadjet

I am not a big fan of Windows Mobile Devices but what the heck! I needed a PDA but at the same time don't want something big and bulky, and the HTC touch is almost perfect. Yes I got the white one too. There are lots of review on this sleek looking PDA phone and it's one of the smallest in the market. The coolest thing about this is the touch-flo user interface. Almost as good as iphone with lots of software for it. I have Mapking installed and with my BT GPS it's a nifty little gadjet. It has wi-fi but no 3G but so what,I am on the DiGi network and it's not 3G. I have been exploring and hacking it as I go. I am not too fond of softkeys but there are options that makes typing sms just as easy as with hardkeys. So far it'slot sof fun and it's fast with 128 mb of RAM.

Layang Layang Island

Layang Layang Island also known as the Swallow Reef is an isolated atoll in the South China Sea about 300 km or an hour flight NW of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.  It is the Malaysian part of the Spratly Islands chain. The 50 acre island is build through reclamation from the surrounding atoll by the Malaysian government and now has a runway and resort that is open to public besides the initial permanent Royal Malaysian Navy base which began operating prior to that. There is also a Malaysian Fishery Department research center on the island. Due to it's isolation and difficulty in getting there, not many Malaysians are aware of this island let alone been there. The resort is only open 8 months in a year and attracts serious divers. The island has a shallow and protected lagoon and outside depth of 2000m makes it ideal for wall diving. The  area is also great for fishing and a nearby purpose built bird island sanctuary attracts thousands of  migratory seabirds. View album.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wishing everyone  GONG XI FA CHAI! May the year of the RAT brings you prosperity,health and wealth.

Jurong Bird Park, Singapore.

Had a free afternoon while working in Singapore and headed for the Jurong Bird Park. Since my 24-70mm F2.8 is undergoing repair I only had the 70-200mm F4 IS L so it's a good oppurtunity to get some images and it turn out to be a very productive afternoon. Getting there using public transport (MRT to Boon Lay followed by Bus 194) from the CBD was pretty easy. Entrance was SGD18 for adult. The park is a must visit place if you are in Singapore andthe highlight of the visit for me was Bird of Prey show. It was really exciting to see hawks,eagles and vultures swoop overhead the audience! View album here.

Bako National Park

Last weekend I made a day trip to the Bako National Park. Thought I' d be lucky enough to shoot (photograph) the 'orang belanda' (Dutch people) as they are locally known or the Proboscis monkey which can be found only on the island of Borneo. The trip started with a 40 minutes drive from Kuching to the jetty point at Kampung Bako. From there you will take a 30 min boat ride to the park. Round trip boat fare was RM97 for 5 person. There were 2 ladies incidentally  from Holland sharing the boat and they couldn't make out the joke asking if they were visiting relatives. Anyway it was about 8am when we set off the jetty and life jacket were provided and the boat slowed down due to the low tide and navigating through muddy waters. Once that was clear we headed to open choppy waters and can be quite harrowing and make sure you cover your equipment.  Due to the low tide we were let off near the beach and you have take off your shoes and wade through shallow waters to get to Park HQ. Entrance is RM10 per adult and there are lodges if you wish to stay overnight. There are various trails to set off ranging from 30 mins to 7 hours trail. I set off on the Paku Trail to catch a glimpse of the monkeys. There were the Silver leaf langurs and common macaques.  The 'orang belanda' were elusive and I manage to spot them along the trial but were too high up in the trees for good shots. The other types can be aggressive if they think you have food. The trails can be quite hard with lots of steeps inclines. Make sure you have good treking shoes and bring lots of water for you will be drenched in sweat. A broad brimmed jungle hat and trekking stick are recommended items to bring. I only brought my 70-200mm F4 L IS though sufficient longer lengths are recommended for birding or even a macro for other plant and insects shoot. I wished I planned for a longer stay and will bring more equiptment on my next trip to Bako National Park. Visit my album for more images.

My Latest 'L' Lens!

But not just any lens, it's a Canon  EF 24-70 mm F2.8 L USM aka the 'brick'. This is my 2nd 'L' series lens acquisition. I have always wanted this lens from the very beginning and took me a year before justifying this costly purchase, having to sacrifice my beloved EF 28-135mm F3.5-5.6,my almost new EF 85mm F1.8 prime and some more. This lens is big,black and mean looking. It's the lens of choice for photo journalist and bread and butter lens for professional wedding photographers. This is also a very good lens for portraits with a constant aperture of F2.8, produces a beautiful bokeh and built like a tank. This fills the gap nicely for me from 24 mm right up to 200 mm. This is currently enough for my needs and with just this 2 lens I have my angles covered so to speak. The best thing for me other than the IQ of  this lens is the built quality. This gives me the consistency and reliability my previous lens cannot match and going to go the long term. I figured if I try different consumer grade lens and also other 3rd party offering I will spend just as much and at the back of my head still longing for this lens so waht the heck. This lens is worth every penny. There are lots of reviews online but at the end of the day you have to justify your own. View my album.