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 have been using the LX3 for the past 3 weeks and pretty happy with its performance. Its small form factor allow me to have it on me all the time during my recent trip to Japan.
I experimented with the various mode like the iA, Scene, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. I found the ISO3200 settings useful in low night environment which I encountered a few times in my trip.
Here are just a few photos taken during my trip. (Post processing done includes a Level adjustments and image resizing)

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 …

This trip to Malacca was made together with a few friends and I had earlier bought the coach tickets at $18 for a seat on  Super VIP 26 seaters coach and one bottle mineral bottle free.
I stayed at BaBa House the 2 previous times  at Malacca and this time I decided to stay at Hotel Puri which is at the same street as BaBa House this time round. A quick call to the reservation line and 2 standard rooms were reserved. It costs a bit more than Baba House.
We met …

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 …

Have you wonder what to do with the thousands of photos sitting in your harddisk or DVDs? I often do that and recently I decided to do something to one of my favorite photos – a close up of a lotus. I felt that I need to display it in my dinning  room. In this case, I need to print it big for a maximum impact. When I said big, I meant REALLY BIG, not really billboard size but at least 80 by 60 cm.
Recently I print my lotus photograph …

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? …

Visiting parks in Singapore been a regular activity for me after I took up photography. Despite visiting them regularly I do not find a lack of subjects to shoot.  Places like Pulau Ubin, Labrador Parks and Singapore Botanic Gardens are worth visiting often, especially in terms of economic crisis. Go there , breathe in deep and have a good day !