New Gift - Intuos 5

Would like to thanks my wife for giving me such a big present for my work!

It really help me a lot on the photoshop I am using now. Just turn on the review, you will know why Intuos 5 rocks.

I cannot imagine using graphire before, and to mouse. It is pretty pain in da ass because my wrist ache after a long period of usage.

Oh yes, this Intuos 5 size is medium, and I am happy that my wife bought the wireless kit for me too! No more cabling!

The next step is to get myself a new USB hub, there are too many cables dangling around, and it is pretty annoying.

I shall update more on other stuff real soon, stay tuned.


Last but not least, thanks my darling baby for the gift. Love you always.

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Posted in: interesting,review

The new X...

I think...
I think it will be interesting to see this on market soon...

Via Petalpixel

I really hope... but I really hope to own this... apart from X100 and X10 recent release by Fujifilm.

Anyway, I was browsing my Google reader earlier on, and I saw this article from Petapixel and I was overwhelming upon seeing this cam. Mirrorless cam from Fujifilm - X1. I cannot wait for more information in the later date tho!

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Posted in: article,camera,photography,photoshoot,review

X'mas present for us

I am very happy getting myself and my wife a X'mas present from Amazon!

I had it purchased few days ago via Amazon, had it send to ComGateWay and took 4 days to reach my doorstep (yesterday night)! The total cost: nearly $200.

Simply love ComGateWay because it allow free upgrade to express shipping with discount if using DBS Credit Card. I also been tracking since day one when it had been shipped out.

Since I like to read, and my wife really love it, I decided to get it for both of us. End up, I have no further regret because it very useful! Light, small and less tiring on eyes.

I was so happy when I received the packages from DHL deliveryman. Jumping up with joy, I almost behave like a kid while opening it up.

My lovely red cover for Kindle Touch, I have no regrets getting this. Light, inexpensive and beautiful!


How the Kindle is stored. Funny, I thought the initial look on it contain a piece of transparent paper. I tried taking it out if I can. But, it is a screen saver! Look so unreal!


The beautiful Belkin clip on light that I bought. Something to read without irritate the person beside you.

So far, I am getting used to it. Buying the eBooks is pretty easy, just go to Basket Store and buy now! It will purchase it and load to your Kindle. If you bought from it wrongly, click on cancel and wait for the refund!

That's how it is! Simple?

Nevertheless, enjoy reading!

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Posted in: review,technology

My fiber!

It's here! After waiting for 1-2 weeks, it is finally here.
I gotta thanks the installers who did a great job from linking the modem all the way to my room! The trunking and LAN connection.

They also help to mount the ONT device onto the wall instead, because the fiber cable is not allow to bend 90 degree as it will break.

These cannot be place on table because of my daughter, who might be interested with the lights blinking non stop!


ONT


2Wire box

I tested the speed and it is lovely at 51mbps with 20+mbps for DL and UL respectively.
For overseas, it is range from 30 - 20mbps DL, depending on the period.

The top up of $8 mthly for this fiber is worth it. I had my house analog phone line changed to MIO Voice, thus the system must run 24hrs 7 days. That also mean, I do not need to pay the phone bills at all. Every 3 months, I have to pay $20 odd for the subscription, adding on the mthly usage, I think it will be more than $8.

Of course, the modem does not come free. It cost $128, either by full cash or installment.
I rather get the new technology device along with the fiber, lest of certain issue that might not work 100% well. Anyway, time for a change too.

Love it!

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Posted in: computer,review,technology

Fuji new camera - it is a vintage beauty

According to Canon Rumors which I had subscribed to my RSS, and then link to here, Fuji is going to launch one of the most loving camera!



Presenting you:

FinePix X100

Just how wonderful is this camera?

Let's look at the spec first:

Model Name	FinePix X100
Number of effective pixels	12.3 million pixels
CCD Sensor	APS-C CMOS Sensor
Storage Media	SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card
Lens	High-performance FUJINON lens with Super EBC Coating
Focal Length	23mm, equivalent to 35mm
Aperture Range	F2 to F16
Exposure Mode	Programmed auto mode, Aperture priority mode, Shutter priority mode and Manual mode
Exposure Compensation	-2.0EV-+2.0EV
Shutter Speed	Bulb, 30 sec. to 1/4000 sec.
Focus	High-speed contrast AF
Optical Viewfinder	0.5X magnification with approx. 90% frame coverage
Electronic Viewfinder	Ultrafine 1,440,000-dot LCD
LCD Monitor	2.8-inch, Colour LCD monitor, approx 460,000 dots
Movie Recording	1280×720 HD with stereo sound
Dimensions	126.5(W) x 74.4(H) x 53.9(D) mm including lens

And the image!

Oh man... don't you find it that it resemble the older days of the camera? The old Yashica and Nikon! Apparently, I bet this look even nicer than Leica M9.

In terms of look, definitely I will choose this. But for image wise, I have yet to see it. But from the news written, it is made by Fujinon to perfectly match the APS-C custom sensor. There is a newly-developed EXR Processor, which combines all the latest image processing technology Fujifilm has technology built up over the years.

I am very anxious toward this camera which will be commercial release early next year (2011).

Guess the price?

I bet 1K odd! Do not forget, they are using prime F2 lens at 23mm which is equivalent to 35mm. So there is a 1.5 crop factor.

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Posted in: beautiful,camera,photo,review

It's a beauty for Sigma 50mm

Oh man, I really love the lens of Sigma 50mm! Look at the overall look of this image.
Beautiful, sharp and nice bokeh at the background. Seriously, it is really bang for big bucks to get this awesome lens and I really have no regret at all!

Seriously, I really love this photo a lot!



Here's another take of the beautiful sky and building!


Of course, you will be there arguing that I post processed a lot! But seriously, I did it minimalistic using Adobe Lightroom 3! Look at what this lens, with the power of Canon 5D MK 2 provide you.

I seen the the Canon 50mm online and find that the color may be there, but the sharpness does not win over this Sigma 50mm. Of course, again, debating on which is better. Juxtaposition both of them, which are your liking? Remember, you can always tweak the color tho.

Right now, I usually shoot in RAW rather than jpegs and why? Well, all I can say, more control during post processing and losing the quality is pretty low.



I am looking forward to this Saturday photography job which is for the 1 year old kid Birthday celebration! Pretty much to say, I will be arming this 50mm and started snapping around!

I am a freelance photography who do any events. If you have enquiries, do drop me an email soon! 

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Posted in: information,photography,review,thoughts

Selling Torco Racing Engine Oil - For the Ultimate!

I am proud to present everyone:

Torco Racing Engine Oil


Your truly had been tasked by reseller to sell this great engine oil to anyone who is interested.

Such racing engine oil does not mean "only for performance car", even family car like mine is suitable as well! Do not hold yourself back when the word racing appear in front of you. This is suitable for all cars.

If you are interested, take a look at this article.


What are the difference of SR1 and SR5?
In short, SR5 have higher temperature tolerance than SR1. It is much suitable for people who drive around a lot during noon time or park under the hot sun. This is where the engine absorb the heat.

And why Torco?
Start your engine and listen. It is much silent than before.
It will run smoother when the EO get heated up in the engine after you drive longer on road. Great for driving indeed.
It will increase your hp by 4%.
It does protect your engine as well.



Torco Racing Range of Products
- SR1 5w-40 engine oil
- SR5 5w-40 engine oil
- MPZ Magnetic Friction Reducer


For more information on the respective products, please refer to the following weblinks:

SR1 : http://www.torco-oil.com/torco_product/sr-1.html
SR5 : http://www.torco-oil.com/torco_product/sr-5.html
MPZ : http://www.torco-oil.com/torco_product/mpz_mag.html

Price

Torco Racing SR1 5w-40 engine oil : S$23.00/1 litre (1.056 qts) bottle 
==> 4 bottles for S$90 (4 litres)
==> 5 bottles for S$110 (5 litres)

Torco Racing SR5 5w-40 engine oil : S$28.00/1 litre (1.056 qts) bottle 
==> 4 bottles for S$110 (4 litres)
==> 5 bottles for S$135 (5 litres)

Torco Racing MPZ Magnetic Friction Reducer : S$35.00/12oz (355 ml) bottle 


Package Deal : Torco Racing Engine Oil + MPZ

(SR1 x 4) + (MPZ x 1) = S$120
(SR1 x 5) + (MPZ x 1) = S$140

(SR5 x 4) + (MPZ x 1) = S$140
(SR5 x 5) + (MPZ x 1) = S$165



Collection point:

1) Seng Kang (almost anytime)
2) Jurong West (0900hrs to 2100hrs)
3) Choa Chu Kang (after 2000hrs)

Prior arrangement is needed to ensure someone is available to meet you at the 2nd and 3rd location.

For each order amount above S$240, delivery to a single location in Singapore can be arranged FOC. 


Interested parties can drop me an email djosho[at]gmail[dot]com.
I am confident that you will like this EO.

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Posted in: car,review,sale

Communic / Broadcast Asia

Nothing much for Communic Asia. I know I am late to talk about these but at least I put in some effort. I have no idea what to snap photos. Do I want to do a review for the whole event? nah.. Why make myself so stress when I have no idea. Anyway, here you go.

Some of the stuff are interesting and my fav place: Broadcast Asia.

Really, I wanted to get myself a 5Dmk2 and start some video filming for leisure. There are more things to see and do than just making it so simple. How? Wait for lottery lor...


Seriously, I have not approach and ask , or really understand this. Why a dance? What are they trying to show? I'm sorry, I am just being very curious about it.


Cboss


Photography of the dancers


Interactive golf game. Like Wii? No way, for this, you got to use the club instead of the remote controller.


For this Broadcast Asia, 5Dmk2 kinda rule out for the video corner. I can see lots of equipments which is rather interesting.

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Posted in: review,technology,thoughts

PC Show 2010

I am very happy that I purchased 2 important things during PC Show 2010 at Suntec City after so many months!

So, what did I got?
A 2TB external hard disk and a GPS!

I had been thinking of getting a GPS since I started driving to Malaysia recently. Glad that my friend introduced me Marbella GPS. Even on forum discussion about GPS, quite a number of people are opting for this brand because it is affordable and reliable.

All in all, a GPS is mainly for navigation. We should not be too bias towards the brand although it is the leader in the market.
After consideration and researching, I settled on this GPS costing me $169 when the initial GPS I wanted is around $400+!

The different of M660++ and M880 Silm Deluxe are not big. Just bigger screen, car reverse camera view and bluetooth function. In fact, M660++ is better because of the resolution and graphic. I am glad that the manager intro this M660++ rather than M880 slim deluxe and I saved $100! As for the rest who are promoting the GPS, the young chaps will push for M880 slim deluxe instead... of course, sales commission!

In addition, I also paid $25 more to upsize the package. This include, screen protector, leather case, world map and household charger. 3 out of 4 items are not available at the booth, so I have to make a trip down to Delta house to collect it. The only available item is the screen protector.

Consider myself been lucky getting this GPS, because they went out of stock very soon. A lot of people have to wait until next Monday to have it delivered to their house. I bet they are surprise by the overwhelming sale on this GPS!

Truly happy with it and the usage is very simple. Should you have any question and troubleshooting, call them up! They are open 24hrs and the contact number is 62707123.

Same as EastGear, they will send out maps to you every quarterly. Right now, the latest map is June.

They have a very good customer service because any user having any problem or issue, they will post on forum to ensure everything goes well. Should there be any disagreement and unhappy encounter, you advised to contact them.


Purchased from PC Show 2010!

Buying hard disk is one of the top priority for me. I have absolutely no idea that I will get it from PC show after buying my GPS. It is funny, I did not check out other brand and price before committing to this. Instead, without any longer hesitation, I bought this at $199! Yummy 2TB!

I almost wanted to get the 2nd 2TB the next day I went back to PC Show. Yes, I went back for the second time! This time, without my daughter, just my wife and I.

The next purchase that I want to get is a NAS with Raid. I need a lot of backup and seriously, such money cannot save!


Buffalo 2TB External Hdd


Marbella M660+ PLus GPS with a screen protector


Marbella GPS side view


Back view of marbella M660+ plus


Top view of marbella M660+ plus. Power button

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Posted in: review,technology,thoughts

Lightroom 3 is out

Adobe Lightroom 3 is no only Beta after months of testing. I love the program so much because of it easy handling. Best of all, it is capable of reading Raw format from any camera.

Something I like is I can import the photos and park there for days even I close the program. The setting and photos will still be there when I open it again.

Yes, Photoshop allows that as well, but remember, you got to drag the photos in Ps first. It will create a .xml for you to save the setting.

Being an event and wedding photographer, this LR really helps a lot because you are talking about few hundred over photos that you import it in. I bet Ps will get choke if your system is not fast enough.

Of course, like the review mentioned below, if you do not do lots of photos at one go, stick to Ps. =)

Usually, I prefer to do on LR and export out as .jpg.
Rarely I will have it export as .TIFF and do more on Ps unless necessary.

It's time to burn my pocket!

This is an interesting review I had it in my feeds about LR3 and AP3.

Here's the review about Lightroom 3 and Aperture 3 from Photofocus by scottbourne

Adobe has shipped Lightroom 3. After many months in BETA the program is locked into gold and available from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

There are lots of new features in both programs. Lightroom 3 has new improved noise reduction, support for tethered shooting, importing, super cool lens and perspective correction, limited DSLR video support, and more flexible print packages.

After playing with the beta my initial reaction is that Lightroom 3 is certainly faster, less clunky and less bulky than earlier versions. It seems to have come of age, as has Aperture.

Both programs are vastly improved and photographers can’t really go wrong picking either one. If you’re a Windows person the choice is easy. You have no choice. You get to use Lightroom 3. Aperture 3 is not available to you. Mac folks can use either program.

To figure out which program is best, most photographers on a Mac should simply download both programs (they are available from their manufacturers for free trial. Aperture is available at http://www.apple.com/aperture.)

Here are some of the big differences…

1. Aperture 3 is $100 cheaper than Lightroom 3.

2. Lightroom 3 has much better native noise reduction and sharpening than Aperture 3.

3. While both programs now support video from DSLRs, Aperture 3 allows more video interaction, including the opportunity to edit and playback video inside the application.

4. Both Aperture 3 and Lightroom 3 have seen significant speed and performance upgrades, but Lightroom 3 seems to work better on underpowered machines than Aperture.

5. Aperture 3 has the advantage when it comes to face recognition and geo-tagging. Lightroom 3 doesn’t support either. Aperture 3′s implementation of FACES needs work, but at least it’s available. Places (the geo-tagging portion of Aperture 3) has stabilized in recent maintenance updates to Aperture 3.

6. Aperture 3 has the advantage when it comes to printing photo books right from the application.

7. Both programs allow you to use referenced libraries, i.e., you can keep your images anywhere and link them to the program. But only Aperture allows you to use managed libraries where the images are actually stored inside Aperture. This leads to the flexibility of using Aperture’s onboard backup system called the Vault.

I am very impressed with both programs. I think Lightroom 3 stole some of Aperture’s thunder due to the extra long product improvement cycle at Apple, and Apple’s odd marketing and PR strategies when it comes to products under development. But now that both programs are out and in the wild, my own personal nod is to Aperture 3. It seems to offer the features that are most important to me personally. Your mileage may vary. I do strongly suggest that you try both programs before committing to either one. That way you can decide for yourself which is best for your needs.

___

This post sponsored by X-Rite Color and the ColorChecker Passport

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Posted in: information,photography,review,technology

Browser comparison

Finally, I decided to do this browser comparison which I had been thinking of it.

For a start, I compared 5 browsers in total. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Flock, Chrome and Safari. Below shown how it look when I start the browser.

Which is your favourite look?

My view-

Firefox: Straight forward to Google
IE : MSN
Chrome: Last viewed appeared on the screen in thumbnails
Flock: Network updates with News feed
Safari: Top sites

I love them all, so I decided not to rate them.


Firefox look when you first launch the application


IE look when you first launch the application


Google Chrome look when you first launch the application


Flock look when you first launch the application


Safari look when you first launch the application

Another I did will be opening up Task Manager.
Look at the photo below.


Just look at the mem usage among the 5 browser.

I set all of them to Google.com and did this print screen.

Chrome is one of the lowest Mem Usage eater! That also explain that why it have bigger viewing space. Simple and easy to use.

Let's be frank for my Firefox, I did have plugin installed before.
They are ScribeFire (blog), IE tab, Delicious bookmarks, Download embedded, Google Gears, Multiply and Nzbmatrix toolbars.

But it is still too high for FF since I seldom use those plugins.

Now, let's jump to Flock.


Flock is one of the best social network browser ever!

Click on it for bigger view.

Look at the left, these are my social network. One click and it goes to the site right away. Though having a lot of network related in Flock, it is still much less CPU eater than FF.

You can even Facebook chat on the bottom of your browser. Not necessary for you to stay in Facebook page to chat. This feature make the Flock even friendlier.

The only down side for Flock is the login issue. You can get sign out easily, which you might have to Forget the Acc before you sign in again to let Flock remember again.

Another issue will be flickr login issue. They are still fixing it.

So, after my simple review, which is your favourite browser?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

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Posted in: browser,information,interesting,review,technology