KOH KHO KING » 2007 » August

First Impression - ASKA Tripper V

Posted on August 31st, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT, Photography.

This should be the world’s FIRST ASKA Tripper V review in English. I couldn’t find much information about this product in the net…as I have posted in here. So I took the chance to order one unit for myself…as I plan to sell and offer this product to the world at ShaShinKi.com, so must try and test it out myself first.

I just received my ASKA Tripper V this morning! What a surprise! I thought it will never came…thought of dropping an email to the supplier already. The ASKA Tripper V came in an envelope style of packaging. Knowing how Japanese handle their parcels with care, I have no worry. Pierce open the envelope and I saw a big white box inside. Yeah, no printing or marking at all, just plain white box.

Tamron SP 17-50mm F2.8 lens ~ Front / Back focus problem

Posted on August 30th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

I have bought many…yes MANY Tamron SP 17-50mm F2.8 lens. Most are in Canon and Nikon mount, a few in Sony/KM mount.

Every unit I tested them myself for focus accuracy. From my previous experience, I found this lens is seriously having QC issue with focus accuracy. My most recent experience testing 6 units of this lens in Nikon mount that I ordered, 2 of them are having front focus problem. I have spent more than 2 hours in testing them, comparing against my own copy that is sharp with focusing.

What is front focus?

Front focus of a lens is when you focus on subject A, in the photo captured, the sharp focus patch is a few cm or even meters in front of subject A. Back focus simply means in actual photo the sharp focus path is a few cm or meters behind subject A.

When testing for front / back focus issue of a lens, one need to test with far subject as well as near subject. This is to make sure that the focus accuracy is not just for close-up shot but problematic on far/infinity subjects.

I use a few methods in testing focus. I find the focus test chart in the internet is not entirely accurate, especially if your DSLR focus sensor is not exactly in the middle or center of your viewfinder, then you might be in trouble. So, I prefer to use top to bottom or depth of field kind of testing technique. With this I can be sure that what I focus doesn’t get affected by the variation of focus sensor.

I will share with photos in future my testing technique.

Japanese paper fold

Posted on August 29th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Sharing a photo I took some time ago at my English Pastor’s house:

Megumi Koh : 28 August 2007

Posted on August 29th, 2007 by foong.
Categories: Family, Photography.

My wife was very rare today that want to take some photos of Megumi and herself. So I pulled out my D200 and SB-800, tried some CLS shots and normal shots. Below are the outcome:

I should wear a more colourful shirt…

(Just realized today is 29th not 28th…)

Remote Flash CLS on Nikon D200 + SB-800

Posted on August 29th, 2007 by foong.
Categories: Family, Photography.

Today I tried CLS (Creative Lighting System) on my D200 + SB-800. Got to learn on how to set the camera and flash into REMOTE mode.

Here’s the instruction that I thought of sharing and keeping reference for myself:

on D200

Menu
Pencil Menu
e Bracketing/Flash
e3Buil-in Flash
c Commander Mode

on SB-800

Press SEL button for 5 seconds
Flash menu
REMOTE
Press SEL button for 5 seonds

Some tips:

You must have your built in flash pop up, else it will not trigger the SB-800.
You can set to have the built in flash disabled, so all flash power will only be from the SB-800 and no light from built in flash.

Heat Up on Sony?

Posted on August 29th, 2007 by foong.
Categories: Photography.

Another leak photo of the possible Press Release by Sony.

It seems like there will be TWO new DSLRs from Sony. One seems to be the A300 (on the left) and there seems to be another more PRO body on the right. Could it be in the Minolta 9 series range?!

As for lenses, there might be 7~9 new lenses from Sony. Still, Sony lenses are way too expensive in my opinion. Their 70-200mm F2.8 lens is about 15% more than Nikon and Canon equivalent, and that is in the RM8k~9k region!

One must considered deeply before wetting on Sony DSLR…

Found a BIGGER image from the net:

Click to view…

Sony Alpha A300? New Alpha?

Posted on August 29th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

There are rumors that Sony will announce a new Alpha on 5th September 2007, which is next week.

A photo showing possible Alpha A300 is flying in the net…

It is said to have 12MP sensor, possible the same sensor used in Nikon D300. It supposed to be a model higher than the current A100, possible in the Minolta 7 series.

The vertical grip looks great in the photo, Minolta used to make the best vertical grip for their SLR back in the film days, giving the best ergonomic and functionality to users.

Let’s wait for further news in September…

Olympus E-3 (skipped the 2…)

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Olympus has been good to the Korean, showcasing for the first time their professional series DSLR in a Korean show:

The Olympus E-3!

wordpress The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT.

While trying to share two big Nikon D3 files that each contains over 6MB size just now, I have encountered a problem in Wordpress. Not really a wordpress problem but this is the message I received:

wordpress The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.

I tried several times, but still couldn’t get the files uploaded. Did a search via Google and linked to Wordpress site, with suggestion of adding the following commands to php.ini file.

upload_max_filesize = 10M
post_max_size = 10M

I tried locating my php.ini file but not avail. Manually created a php.ini file and save it to my public_html folder but still can’t do, same error at Wordpress.

So, I tried my WebHostManager (I owned a dedicated server with full access to it). Viola! I found the dummy windows style of editing the php.ini file via WHM! Here’s the screenshot of it:

Default was 2MB maximum file size upload allow, and now I have changed it to 50MB.

Problem solved.

Two Nikon D3 ISO3200 images in the internet

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Here’s two photos that have been floating around in the internet that were supposed to be captured by Nikon D3 at ISO3200. I have no idea who is the original photographer, obtained from dpreview Nikon forum.

Each of them are over 6MB file size, so make sure you have high speed internet connection or lots of patient before you attempt to download and view the file in full (Click the file name to download full file fize).

nikon-d3-iso3200-01.JPG

nikon-d3-iso3200-02.JPG

For those who can’t download the full size, here are some of the 100% crop: (more…)

Aska Tripper V = Epson P-5000 Killer?

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by foong.
Categories: Computer / IT, Photography.

Aska Japan has introduced a new PSD (Photo Storage Device) ~ Aska Tripper V. Available in 40GB, 80GB, 120GB and 160GB version. 40GB and 80GB are limited edition only available direct purchase from Aska website, while 120GB and 160GB are available from big stores in Japan.

I tried search for reviews or information online on this product, but couldn’t find any except the “news release”. There is however an interesting comparison of various PSD speed and specs at:

http://www.photozone.de/2Equipment/portableHD.htm

Download speed from memory card is an impressive 10MB/s speed, versus Epson P-5000 of 7MB/s. So, theoretically it is 30% faster than the Epson P-5000. (more…)

Sony Unleashes Possible iMac Killer

Posted on August 28th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT.

Sony has just announced a new personal computer which might be the Apple’s new iMac killer!

Sony VAIO LT19U

The US$2,899 model sports a Blu-ray burner, a pull-out sled for adding another hard drive and a VESA-standard wall mount input. Besides that, it offers an external ATI Digital Cable Tuner.

Key Features:

22-inch widescreen LCD (1,680×1,050)
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
500GB 7,200 rpm hard drive
256MB Nvidia GeForce 8400 GT graphics chip
Windows Vista Ultimate
802.11n wireless networking
Built-in ATSC and NTSC TV tuner
Built-in 1.3 megapixel Web cam
3 watt stereo speakers, and built in 5 watt subwoofer
various USB, Ethernet, removable media, and audio ports

Nikon D300 - Little brother of D3

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

After the D3…another exciting news in the Nikon world or even the whole photography world now is the Nikon D300! Successor to the Nikon D200.

Nikon D300 shares many of the similar features of D3. Here’s what I think worth noting:

12MP CMOS sensor with 1.5X FOV.
3.0? 922,000 pixel LCD monitor.
EXPEED image processor.
UDMA CF support.
51-point Multi-CAM 3500DX.
15 cross-type sensors.
Contrast detect in Live View mode.
100% frame coverage viewfinder.
6 frames per second continuous shooting mode.

Finally, VR on 400mm, 500mm and 600mm Nikon AFS Super-Telephoto!

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Finally…

Many have been waiting for the Vibration Reduction update from Nikon on their Telephoto lenses. Nikon has finally updating them…after many many years Canon has their IS lenses in their 400mm, 500mm and 600mm.

Nikon D3 - First FULL FRAME DSLR!

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Nikon has just announced their first full frame DSLR! Nikon D3!

Some interesting features which I think worth noting:

12MP CMOS full frame sensor.
Dual CF memory slot.
Live View.
51-Point AF
Colour AF tracking.
3.0″ 922,000 pixel LCD monitor.
9 frames per second.

Benefit of Full Frame?

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

The problem of full frame:

Vignetting at corners. When Canon 1Ds was first introduced, there are not many great wide angle lenses in the market for 1.5X crop DSLR, so 1Ds is a good add-on to utilize existing wide-angle lenses, but with the trade-off of vigetting at corners. See:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/CanonEOS1Ds/page16.asp

As of today, I am not sure how much sensor technology has improved in combating vignetting. Most new lenses are now specially design to give vertical light-path directly onto the sensor, giving the most of sharpness and contrast. I believe this will reduce vignetting at corners too.

When comparing D3 with D300, you might get same angle of view but depth of field will be different. A longer focal length will have more shallow DOF, while wider angle lens will have deeper DOF. So, you cannot get the same bokeh from D300 + 50mm lens with D3 + 85mm lens.

Another advantage of full frame when compare to smaller sensor size is that you can make better quality sensor DOT (pixel). A larger dot of each pixel is capable of capturing or receiving the light in a better way, hence give less noise and better contrast. This is why compact P&S camera with 10MP sensor is not comparable to DSLR of 10MP at high ISO. Most P&S Digicam will have bad noise at above ISO400. Just imagine a room will with balloon. A bigger room will be able to fit in BIGGER Balloon of the same quantity than a smaller room.

Again, vignetting remains a great challenge to full frame DSLR. Will need to wait and see how good D3 is.

Nikon Capture NX Version 1.2 Update

Posted on August 18th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Nikon has just released an update to their award winning software:

Nikon Capture NX Version 1.2

Download at:
Mac OS X and Windows

Improvement / Changes:

Speed improvement when opening images.
When any of the operations listed below are performed, “Updating image” is now displayed in the image window title bar. Enhancements and other operations can still be performed while “Updating image” is displayed.
An image is opened.

Nikon and Nikkor

Posted on August 12th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

When I first start up photography in year 2000, before I bought my first film SLR and my first lens, I did some search in the internet on lenses.

I want to get a Nikon SLR and I want to get original Nikon lens.

I searched for Nikon lens…but couldn’t find Nikon lens. What I saw and read was Nikkor. So, what is Nikkor? Is Nikkor = Nikon?

The answer is YES. Nikkor is the lens brand that Nikon use for their lenses. All Nikon lenses are called Nikkor. So, next time when you went to buy a Nikon lens and the shop keeper gave you a Nikkor, don’t be surprised! It is NOT third party brand but official Nikon lens!

Fresh from Bath just an hour ago…

Posted on August 12th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Family.

Paddy field in green…

Posted on August 11th, 2007 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

Japan is a country that have sufficient rice to supply for the whole nation. Japanese are very proud of their rice, which is of very good taste.

You can see paddy field almost everywhere in Japan, even in the city area. When there is a small land, even if it is of a house size, they will make grow paddy field on it.

Here’s a view from the balcony of my 9th floor apartment. All those bright shinny greens are paddy fields.

09 August 2007, Summer.