Start with the Breakfast

The Gang of Four - myself, Ripi, Robin and Azul did Kampung Baru last Sunday. I was the last one to arrive and stood between them and our breakfast. Crowded but efficient. Despite the long queue, everybody was happy. With the tummy full, we then set off to explore the kampung, blessed by the great weather.

This is something we try to do at least once a month. For the next trip, we planned to hit Kajang, but unfortunately, I had plans for Langkawi that weekend.

You might also notice that I now prefer a square format to my photos. I find this format more flexible and reminiscent of the square medium format film snaps which I am keen to emulate with my Fuji GFX-100S.

That Certain Something

When it comes to shooting with a Leica, there was always that particular something with the snaps. That almost magical separation of background and foreground was just difficult to describe. People called this bokeh, but with a Leica lens, there is an ethereal quality to that.

Modern cameras and smartphones had algorithms to recreate this, but it almost looked fake. Nothing could replace the real thing. And having an afternoon in town with Leica rangefinder and a summilux lens gives you that great buzz.

Despite been using my medium format in the last few outings, I returned to the rangefinder set up on the previous few outings. I must say that the experience was completely different since I bought an electronic viewfinder - the EVF-2. It gave a different dimension to my snaps, allowing me to not worry about focusing since my eyesight is not perfect.

The electronic viewfinder also allowed me to be in control with the depth of field, the exposure and the white balance. Before this, I tended to bracket my shots at different exposure compensation since the camera tended to underexpose. Not anymore with my new setup. I was able to get better snaps, and the setup time was also sorter and the snaps more controlled.

All in all, I can never go back to the rangefinder without the viewfinder attached. It was not just for the focusing, but to get more control of the snaps. And for those who wanted to invest in one, it was well worth the upgrade ...

The New GR

I have always been a fan of the Ricoh GR series of camera. Unfortunately, they are on the fragile side - or at least when left in my hands. The first GR II suffered a malfunction on the lens mount after 3 years. So I bought a second unit.

Last a couple of Ramadhan back, I accidentally dropped the camera, damaging the kens cover. I was not able to completely close the lens, exposing the lens glasses to the elements. So, I could not take it out much longer. Then came the announcement that Ricoh would be launching a mark III of the Digital GR. 

The new update retained much of the old specs, with sensible improvements. It also shrunk in size, making the already small GR II even smaller, despite retaining the APS-C size sensor. But now, the resolution is bumped up to 24 MP. The lens also had some improvement, reportedly sharper. And now, it has a sensor-based image stabilising system. The lens remains 28mm equivalent with a maximum aperture of f2.8.

That however meant battery life suffered - hence the need for an extra battery pack, which I bought as part of the package. The new iteration also dd away with the built-in flash. This was a shame since I used plenty of them before for fill-ins.

I had only managed to use the camera twice so far, still undecided if processing the RAW file would be worth the hassle. The camera definitely is capable of capturing amazing images despite the tiny package. It needed getting used to as I tended to put it near my face expecting it to have a viewfinder. 

The colours seemed to be muted on the RAW captures, needing plenty of tweaking. Using Lightroom, the jpeg photos really have the richness which the RAW files appear to be missing. 

More experimentation and hopefully some chance to take the camera out in the next few days ...

GFX Blue Hour

Reading the forums, plenty of people were lamenting the fact that medium format photography exaggerates the flaws in your photography technique.  Plenty suggesting that street photography was a no no! But I went the other way. Since acquiring the GFX 50R, 90% of my shooting had been handheld in the streets.

There were a couple of occasions where the tripod was used - the shoot at KLCC and Masjid Jamek to be exact. But the great majority of the time, I treated the beast just like my other setup, just point and click. 

Of course on occasions the snaps may be soft with movement artefacts from unsteady hands. But in the middle of the day, things were pretty straightforward. As long as I can get shutter speeds fast than 1/125 sec, I am pretty happy with what I had most of the time.

So, I took the GFX on a couple of occasions during blue hour and by taking things slowly, I managed to get decent shots. The relatively small size of the camera helped a lot I was sure. So was bumping up the ISO, accepting some degree of graining and noise. 

The main challenge I have at the moment was sorting out my technique when taking photos indoors. I don’t really fancy using a strobe system - never been good at that. Forums pointed out how good the GFX system were at still life and portrait of course, but doing those tend to take a lot of setup and effort. 

I am going to stick to what I normally do, and slowly expand first into low-light tripod-based photography, snapping landmarks around KL. So, plenty of things to explore in the coming months ...

The Dancing Fountain

Last weekend, as I brought Anita out to shop, I decided to take my camera along with a tripod. I just wanted to see how the GFX 50R performed in low lights. Does the sensor measure up?

The results were delightful. I could have scouted a better vantage point but the combination of being ill-prepared as well as time constraint meant that I had to improvise with what I had.

I brought along the GF 32-64 mm zoom and at the widest end, it was equivalent to 25 mm in full frame. That was clearly not wide enough. I had the 23 mm on order and won’t be available for another month. That would have made my life a lot simpler.

But despite that, I was able to capture the rich colours of the fountains and with some change of setting, able to get a clear photos while not losing the colours of the fountain. The camera and the tripod performed remarkably well. Disappointingly, when pointing upwards, I was not able to capture the full majesty of the Petronas Twin Tower as much as I liked!

In rainbow of colours

Just could not resist looking up …

When the wide-angle lens is available next month, I would definitely give the place another visit while taking a slightly different vantage point as well ...

Carcosa Seri Negara

More details on my visit to Carcosa here.

Super-Vario-Elmar

I had always been fond of wide-angle photography. It gave a different perspective and captures the essence of what was going on surrounding you better than just a standard lens. That also explained my preference to 35 mm to 50 mm as my standard prime lens.

I had a few selections of other lens for my Sony - the Batis 18mm f2.8 -, Fuji - the 10-22mm - and the GoPro.

The famous crossing opposite Pavilion

Fancy a ride?

The contrast

A couple of months ago, I acquired this wide-angle zoom for my CL - the Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-TL. The range was 11 mm to 23 mm on the crop factor sensor, delivering the equivalence of 16 to 35 mm on full frame. Not exactly the fastest lens with aperture ranging from f3.5 to f4.5. But you were supposed to use this lens at f8 anyway. So that would do.

How good is this lens? It was amazing! I reckon that it had easily out-resolutioned the CL sensor at f8. At wide open, it gave this lovely distortion which screamed wide-angle. At to that the secret sauce which only Leica could deliver in terms of colour rendition. And you have a winner.

The top floor of Pavilion

Loving Lot 10

The KLCC Fountain

By Masjid Jamek

It was not the most compact of lenses but attached the CL, it gave a nice balance. Leica managed to cut the weight down by not having any image stabilisation on the lens. Autofocus was snappy and accurate. The zoom ring was typical Leica with enough give.

Unfortunately I felt that the construction should be better. This lens was made in Japan rather than Germany. The hood which came with the lens also felt cheap and plasticky. The focusing manually was also done by wire rather than mechanical. I therefore use this lens on autofocus most of the time.

Bangunan Sultan ABdul Samad

The River of Life

The Bukit Bintang intersection

I can't fault the results however. And certainly with the amount of money I invested in this lens, it certainly brought back in the value.

Ramadhan Walk

Since I was off for the first day of Ramadhan, I decided to take a ride into time en route to pick Anita up from Gombak. It allowed me to stop at the bank to settle some bills and took my camera with me.

That famous monorel bridge at NU Sentral

Waiting for my ride

Decorations at NU Sentral

Packing them in ...

I just got myself a new lens and was eager to give that a go. Ramadhan and the hot sunshine did not stop me.

One of the many arches around Central Market

Medan Pasar

Still too early for Aidil Fitri

Walking around Medan Pasar and Central Market at that hour was not really my idea of a photowalk, but there were quite a few subjects to aim at.

The ever-familiar KL Tower

The number to call

Masjid Jamek

Making my way back ...

The new setup I tried - the Leica CL with Summicron-TL 23 - was a dream to use, especially as I usually use a manual setup. Focussing on this combo was fast and usually accurate despite the lens wide open. Contrast may not be as great as the Summilux-M 35 which I normally use, but the convenience of autofocus made up for it. Time to get more mileage on the lens and get use to the renderings ...