Recently I’ve acquired the Cokin filter adapter, two Hi-Tech ND Gradual filters, and s Hi-Tech Star 4 filter from 2filters.com (They’re quite pricey, whole package came to about $200 USD). Actually not until very recently did I get to read about these ND gradual filters and their usages. They turned out to be the missing piece of my photography puzzle! I’ve always been wondering how people take these amazing “surreal” kind of landscape/waterscape pictures and these filters turned out to be the thing that make it all possible. They basically work by darkening the sky (without darkening the ground) so that longer exposure can be used during daytime. So far I’ve tested them out twice, with pretty good result. I’m very stoked about owning them and I’ll make sure to keep them handy wherever I go…

Today I went to the Iona Beach in Richmond to try out the filter with Wendy. I figured that the best time to make the best use of the filters is at around 9:30pm which is about 10 minutes after the sun has fully gone down. The 1.2 ND filter gave me the best result, as it gets darker, the 0.6 ND filter will do the trick.

Did a lot these few days, not sure where to start…I went to Alice’s place to BBQ and I had some best lamp chop I’ve ever eaten, and some really tasty grilled portobello. I sold my Canon SD1000 digicam for $100. I bought a camera bag at London Drugs for my new Panasonic ZS3 digicam, the same bag that I bought for the SD1000 but a bigger version of it since I like how it has a clip at the back and also the magnetic cover. I finished the last demo for my client today, no more demos at least in this month! I bought two SLR cameras and two Olympus OM lenses (did I already talk about it in my last post?) and they were delivered today but I’ll have to drive to Point Roberts to pick them up, maybe tomorrow. I installed a flower basket at the window of the basement and planted some really cool flowers there…

I came across this little utility called CHDK today, which claimed to be able to add extra functionalities to most if not all of the Canon point-and-shoot cameras. One of the super cool feature was to enable optical zoom in video recording mode. I couldn’t wait but grabbed my trusty Canon SD1000 camera, followed the online instructions (which involved loading some files onto the SD card, and then loading a software up in the camera, pretty straight forward), and it WORKED…! I was able to do optical zoom in video recording mode in addition to the standard digital zoom! The drawback was that the built-in mic picked up huge noise from the zoom motor, which I found was super annoying on playback. Well the optical zoom capability was invaluable though, I thought I would keep it set as the default. CHDK also added lots of other cool options to the camera, like saving files in RAW format (I was in shock pretty much when I got to know this), adjusting video file compression rate on-the-fly, displaying an icon that showed the level of remaining battery (super useful)….etc.

A list of CHDK’s cool features:

• RAW - CHDK can record raw files, giving you access to every bit of data the sensor saw, without compression or processing. Raw files can be manipulated on the camera, or processed on your PC. CHDK also has experimental support for the open DNG raw standard.
• Override Camera parameters - Exposures from 64s to 1/60.000s with flash sync. Full manual or priority control over exposure, aperture, ISO and focus.
• Bracketing - Bracketing is supported for exposure, aperture, ISO, and even focus.
• Video Overrides - Control the quality or bitrate of video, or change it on the fly.
• Scripting - Control CHDK and camera features using ubasic and Lua scripts. Enables time lapse, motion detection, advanced bracketing, and much more. Many user-written scripts are available on the forum and wiki.
• Motion detection - Trigger exposure in response to motion, fast enough to catch lightning.
• Edge overlay - Detect the edges in a scene, and display them later. Ideal for timelapses, stop-motion, stereography and much more.
• Live Histogram - CHDK includes a customizable, live histogram display, like those typically found on more expensive cameras.
• Zebra-Mode - Displays under and overexposure areas live on the screen.
• GRIDS - Create custom grids and display whichever one suits your shooting conditions.
• Multi-Lingual Interface - CHDK supports about 13 languages, and adding more languages is simple.
• DOF Calculator - Display detailed DOF information on the screen.
• Customizable OSD - Improved display of battery status, free space, camera parameters, and much more. Fully customizable with an on-screen editor.
• Filebrowser - Manage files without a PC.
• Textreader - Display text files on your camera.
• Games - Play Reversi, Sokoban, Mastermind or 4-in-a-Row on your camera.
• USB remote - Simple DIY remote allows you to control your camera remotely.
• Benchmark - Compare the performance of your SD cards.
• User Menu - Edit your own customizable User-Menu for fast access to often used features.

Today’s the first day..of 2009. Time passes way quicker than I thought…guess I should think positively though on the first day of the year. Anyway, last night I didn’t go countdown or anything related but instead I went for snowboarding again (on Cypress)…lol, with Davinder. We went for the “Night Owl” time frame again and since I bought a “Ski Pass” last time I went up I paid $30 instead of the regular $38 It was snowing very hard, and the visibility was marginal but the snow condition was AWESOME. I tended to stop more frequently on the runs just to sit down and enjoy the powdery, soft snow. Even though I didn’t do a lot of runs (did 14 last time) I enjoyed it a lot not only for the soft snow but I also got to try one or two of the blue runs (intermediate level) that I’ve never done before. They were full of bumps and stuff which caused me to fall down for quite a bit but it was fun and tiring. I picked up some new skills like braking when going down fairly fast and making narrower turns. Overall it was a pretty worthwhile trip.

I hate my fucking BlackBerry cellphone, it kept on dying. I put it in my pocket when I snowboard and maybe some moisture or something got into it, some keys stopped responding. I had to open up the casing, had it in front of my heater fan for like 30 minutes, and it started working again. This is probably my 4th BlackBerry phone and yes, it died 3 times for the exact same reason. This thing sucks (as a comparison I put my Canon SD1000 digital camera into my other pocket and it DIDN’T die)

Today I sold my Olympus E-520 DSLR and also the Zuiko 14-54mm lens that I got free with my Olympus E-3 purchase, for $750 (I love Craigslist) I could have sold it for maybe $50-$100 more but oh well, guess it’s still good. The transaction went pretty smooth and the lady actually owns a E-500 looking to upgrade to the E-520, so while she was testing out the cam, her husband and I started a conversation over diesel cars since he also drives a diesel car (one of those old Mercedes Benz). Now I got some cash to pay for my $5xxx VISA bill for the month….

Got the ultimate zoom lens for my camera today! It was delivered last Friday but I didn’t notice it until Sunday so I went across the border to pick it up today. This $9xx piece of glass has solid build quality and optics so it will probably be the last long range zoom lens that I’ll get. It comes with a really nice bag (see pic) with shoulder straps~ Also for some reason the Ebay seller popped in a F-PRO 67mm UV filter with the package so I got a free filter to use! Even though now I have this long range zoom, I don’t plan to sell my cheap Zuiko 70-300mm F3.5-5.6 though since the 300mm range is still very useful for objects that are really far away.

Here are a couple shots of the lens:

This lens is really bulky! it’s 2.5 pounds on its own and it barely fits in my tiny Lowepro Slingshot AW100 camera bag. I have to put the lens hood in the top storage compartment while storing the lens itself in the lens compartment. Consider its zoom range, I’ve heard that the size and weight of this lens is not really too bad compared to ones from Canons and Nikons which is good~ I think this lens will bring me years of fun~

At Point Roberts today where I picked up the lens, I was lucky enough to see a bald eagle catching this average sized bird and devoured it on top of a wooden post~! I took a couple pictures of it and as I walked closer, it flew away and I took another couple pictures. It was so cold down there so I didn’t really feel like doing too many test shots. I will go out again on a sunny day and I know I will come back with a full memory card~

A couple more shots at the beach:

Was reading some reviews on my camera today and realized I haven’t really done a formal introduction of it like how I did it for my last couple cams like Canon SD1000, Canon G9, Fujifilm F50fd. Bought this camera about a little more than a month ago off Futureshop, with a staff discount from Peter who works at Best Buy, ended up paying just $355+tax for it, including one lens. Super amazing deal. It’s named “World’s Smallest DSLR”, which is one of the reasons getting it as it’s no fun hauling bulky cameras around. And as usual I fell in love with the camera since day one not just because it’s new but it is also my first ever DSLR camera. I’ve been wanting one forever, have been wanting to get the Canon Rebel XTi about a year and half ago, but wasn’t able to afford it back then. This Olympus turned out to be so affordable so I decided to get it without second thought. The pic is the camera itself, with a flash attached that I got free from Peter.

Also there is the $119 tripod (on sale from $149, lol) that I got 2 weeks ago, the Manfrotto 728B made in Italy. I decided to pay a bit more to get a brand name just to make sure I get an OK quality and sturdy one, so I can keep it for a long time. I love this camera, have already taken thousands of pictures with it in the past month, and liking every single one of them. I’m looking forward to bring it with me to the San Diego one-week trip next week, and take tons of pictures at Legoland and the San Diego Zoo

Was wandering around Sears this afternoon, and came cross this $9.99 “mini digital camera”. I bought it without hesitation since my Blackberry phone (got it free from work) doesn’t have a built-in camera (yea I know even the crappiest phone has built-in camera these days ) and I usually don’t carry my Canon G9 camera around me. Turned out to be a not-too-bad camera consider its low price tag, and it’s really “mini”…lol. Comes with USB cable, an AAA battery, CDs, and instructions. It has 16MB of memory which holds 20 pics in the highest resolution mode, and 2xx pictures in the lowest res settings. I think it’s a 0.3 megapixel…lol…but I don’t care as long as it takes *some* sort of picture XD