I know the Amazon Kindle 2 ebook reader is not a photographic equipment but I thought readers of this blog might be interested in other electronic gadgets. I always been an avid reader and usually borrow books from the libraries in Singapore.  I  would be quite willing to buy books that are not available in the libraries or books that I would like to keep eg photography books.  Therefore I  was quite interested to know more about the Kindle. The other ebook reader I had tried was a small PDA.  It …

Somehow the Panasonic Lumix LX3 did not come with a hot shoe cover. Not critical as I never had one for my other cameras. Seeing one being sold for almost US$10 made me wonder how could I make one for myself. In the end, I made one using a bottle cap of a 1.5l Coke bottle. The thickness of the cap is just nice for the hot shoe. Just use a sharp penknife (Caution : handle with care) to cut to the shape.   Here we go :

I had been staying put from making camera purchases for the past few years, preferring to shoot with what I already owned. My main camera is a coming to 5 years old Nikon D70 DSLR. Two years ago, I already noticed the Panasonic Lumix DMC LX1 but in the end I did not purchase it as I could not justify the purchase.
Two years down the road, my needs has changed. On many occasions, it is no longer practical for me to use a DSLR such as during family outings. So …

I owned a few vintage Olympus rangefinder like the 35 EC and was pleasantly surprised when I read that Olympus is launching a rangefinder style digital camera – the Olympus PEN EP1.

Olympus PEN EP1

What makes the EP1 different from the other digital cameras is that is interchangeable. From the photos from the Internet, it seems to have a stylish metal finish just like the good old film rangefinders. It  weighs only about 335 grams and has a 12 MB pixels sensor.
Hey but it doesn’t come with a optical viewfinder, you will have to shoot through …

I blogged about the Great Singapore Sale (GSS) last year focusing on D300 prices. Now the GSS is back! How much has the price change? Well for the D300 body , the price is now S$2,688 compared to last year S$2,999 but last year offer came with a 50mm f1.8 lens. So the price for D300 really have not drop a lot.
So what about the D700 body ? It is S$3,888 with a 8GB Compact Flash (CF) card and a Nikon branded Lowepro bag. It is really a good offer? …

This is another classic film camera that I owned and tested. This is a 35mm rangefinder that come with a  Color Yashinon DX 45mm 1:1.7-16 lens. Trust me this lens is sharp. When I collected the scanned CD and developed negatives from the shop, I examined the negatives under a loupe. Boy, the images were sharp!

This is bigger than the Olympus 35 EC and weighs about 700g and is solidly built. I love the feel of it in my hands. This cameras can be obtained cheaply from Ebay at around …

Well just as you has just bought your D300 and think it is the greatest camera, Nikon announced the D700.
Cutting through all the marketing talk, here are the major features of this D700 camera that matters to me (a D70 user).

FX – full frame! I could use my AF 20mm lens now was a wide angle lens!
ISO 200-6400 – useful in certain situation
Live mode
Image sensor cleaning – wow no more dust specks on photos

Price and date of availability is unknown yet.

Olympus 35 EC
Well I can said that this Olympus 35 EC camera, when compared to the plastic compact cameras, it is solidly built. I have the silver chrome one with cool black leatherette covering. There are a few unique features regarding this camera. Firstly, the film advance function. Instead of a lever, there is a thumbwheel which you roll it to advance the film. One hand operation is possible. The film is also loaded at the right hand side of the camera back. So you will wind the film from …