Samsung ST550 Compact Digital Camera

I love to use gadgets that are truly innovative, or at least gives me something genuine to talk about and easy for me to blog about. The Samsung ST550 is certainly one such device, which I got my hands on yesterday afternoon. Offering my review within a short use of any device reflects how well the device is designed to work for your lifestyle, not the other way round.

The specs for the ST550 include:
- 4.6x optical zoom: 27 - 124.2mm, f3.5-5.9
- 12.2 megapixels 1/2.33" CCD sensor
- Dual Optical Image Stabilisation
- Focus range from 3cm (super macro)
- 3.5" TFT LCD display with 1,152,000 pixels
- 1280x720 HD HQ recording 30fps
- Internal Memory 55MB
- ISO 80 - 3200

My list of favourite features:

1. 2nd LCD screen in front - why hasn't anyone thought of that? You can preview yourself for self-portraits. The screen shows a clown animation to get the kids attention. There is a countdown for self-timer.

2. Responsive touchscreen - the last time I touched a Samsung digital camera touchscreen, it was rather bad. The ST550 is improved tremendously, in fact, somewhat too sensitive. Actually, it's because my fingers have little space to rest outside the touchscreen. It's a trade-off for compactness.


3. Motion recognition - you can change modes by twitching the ST550. Very convenient for one-handed operation. You can also wave at the camera to invoke the self-timer countdown. You can delete photos by crossing the screen.

To say that a device doesn't have its issues is being naive. The lens at f3.5 to 5.9 is not bright. The ST550 is somewhat laggy when starting the video recording. I often missed out the first few moments. There are no cursors to move around the menu items: once you press, it's considered selected. But you can workaround by holding the item to read the description, and if you don't want that selected, just slide your finger away. The battery capacity is alarmingly small: only 720mAh, and the manual already states that the battery is good for only 180 shots. Price to pay for being compact, and certainly the features cannot satisfy a pro-minded photographer, but that's not the target segment for this camera.

For the next few weeks, the ST550 will be tagging with me to capture images and videos, thanks to Shawn Chung from T3 Magazine Singapore.

Nokia N97

Nuffnang emailed me one day with an offer to "experience a new Nokia product". When I collected it on Wednesday from Nuffnang office, I found out that it was the Nokia N97 that was launched in June. Apparently, it's not the phone they wanted me to test, but rather the Comes with Music (CwM) feature.

Unfortunately, when I returned home in the evening to open up the package, I couldn't find the CwM activation code. Nuffnang is still checking, and in the mean time I am using the N97 with mixed feelings. All the things people say about the N97 is true: it is unfortunate that the N97 cannot perform as stably as my E71, or any Nokia phones, known for their robust and responsive interface. Otherwise, it's a pretty impressive device. Being the first generation of Nokia touchscreen smartphones, bugs are unavoidable. Sony Ericsson has their share when they launched the P-series, and even after several generations, the Symbian UIQ is still nowhere responsive. That's one of the reasons why I decided to let go of the UIQ after many years of remaining faithful.

Ironically, despite owning an E71 that can pretty much get me connected to my online social network sites, I still prefer to use the N97. The biggest reason is its generous and bright LCD screen that makes surfing a joy. The touch capability does facilitate the experience, but not without frustration as the phone struggles to interpret my finger gestures. The camera quality is fantastic, another reason over E71.

Hopefully I get to experience CwM before my trial ends in 4 days time.

Melody: Chimes, a Photo Story

After reviewing dozens of requests and multiple interactions through email and MSN, Melody is the first talent to be featured in my new photo story. She was chosen to be the first not by merit, but by chance. I had a free slot last Saturday, and I asked her if she's available. She said yes, and the fact that she stayed very near me are catalysts to getting the shoot done.

I also finally got to shoot at a location that I've been eyeing for months, and never got a chance to use that location because, as you know, I haven't been shooting photo stories.

Melody braved the sun and her grass allergy without informing me, and delivered the emotions that I wanted. I truly appreciate her dedication and sacrifice.

The words are based on the prose I wrote in my previous blog post about finding candidates for photo stories. Melody contributed her prose and I took the best of both. The soundtrack is based on "Chimes" from my Piano Spa 4 album. I extended the compositions and modified to fit the story better.






If you need a closer look, here's the photo story in still images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chestertan/sets/72157622284578463/show/


I am now planning 3 photo stories of a larger and more controversial nature, stories that bring out the good and evil sides of humanity. I am very excited and hope that the shoots can take place so that I can showcase them. The cast has been shortlisted, and now all I need is to get the scripts finalised and dates planned out.

Flickr on iPhone by Yahoo! Mobile

A new Flickr application for iPhone was recently launched by Yahoo! Mobile. I had a try on my colleague's iPhone, and believe it, this is the first time I touched and used the iPhone 3G.

iPhone's large screen makes the viewing experience great. Be it viewing my own Flickr account images or others, images are first presented in thumbnail view, then when selected, I will get the full-screen view. Flicking my fingers left or right allows me to view the next photos quickly. The iPhone screen displays the Flickr photos nicely, and in most cases, loads quite fast.

I can also use the iPhone camera to take a snapshot and upload. There is a button to go into camera mode, and after the shot is taken, it will bring to the upload page for me to select the keyword tags and privacy. The only drawback is that the iPhone 3G's camera quality is not the best in the market, so it's most likely I will upload the post-processed photos in the iPhone rather than direct from camera. Nevertheless it's a good feature for on-the-go photojournalism. The uploaded images are only in 450x600 pixels, not sure if I can actually set the upload image to a higher resolution.

Logging in is also seamless. It uses Safari browser to authenticate, and so if you already had a Yahoo login saved in the browser, it will auto recognise and log you in. In my case, I was using my colleague's iPhone, so I had to log-out and login with my own account.

If you are not a Flickr user, sign up for a free account that comes with limited storage space, although it's not likely for you to run out of space if the uploaded images are resized to 450x600 pixels. Still, you should, like me, pay US$24.95 for 1 year and get a whole lot of features:

• Unlimited photo uploads (20MB per photo)
• Manage and group your photos into sets and collections. You can add the same photo to multiple sets, unlike folder methods.
  
• Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)
• The ability to show HD Video
• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Archiving of high-resolution original images
• The ability to replace a photo (ed: I only just found out they actually had this feature!!)
• Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
• Ad-free browsing and sharing
• View count and referrer statistics

The Flickr application for iPhone is free, and it allows user to upload, tag, share photos and videos conveniently.

Visit http://sg.mobile.yahoo.com/flickr for download instructions to your iPhone.

The Pentax K-7 Field Test: Jurong Bird Park

The trip to Jurong Bird Park was planned months in advance, because my wifey has to book the family pass from her office. So imagine our disappointment when we woke up to a rainy morning. But we proceeded to prepare for the outing as if the rain didn't matter. Even as I drove along the CTE and to AYE, the rain poured relentless.

Then miraculously, once we reached the Bird Park, the rain simmered to a drizzle, allowing us to still proceed as planned. This is the second time Mayenne visited the Bird Park this year, but this time, she was able to appreciate the animals better.


Using the Pentax K-7 in a real world situation allows me to find the benefits and flaws of the camera. Generally, they align to my earlier review. First, the good:

1. The camera focuses fast and fires at 5.2 fps without mercy.
2. During video recording mode, the high-resolution screen allows me to manually focus accurately. The 18-55mm kit lens' zoom and focus rings are built with the right tension to allow me to zoom and focus with ease.
3. At ISO 1600, there is negligible noise, and I believe if you shoot in RAW, you will be able to handle the noise issue during post-processing.

Then the bad:
1. The exposure mode dial is annoying. I simply detest the lock that slows me down when switching shooting modes. Imagine I had to switch from video mode to TAv mode, that's a 180-degree turn.
2. The interface lag when pressing the buttons took a toll on me. It's impossible to do super-fast navigation. For instance, it takes a few milliseconds for photos to display on screen as I scroll the images.

The images are rather vibrant in the standard settings, but the kit lens exhibit softness under bright conditions when viewed at 100%. The following photos are straight out of the camera without colour adjustments.

Blood Ties - The Movie 還魂

I would like to recommend a film here. It's called 還魂, written and directed by Chai Yee Wei, his debut full-length feature film. This is the first film that is funded by Singapore Film Commission's Feature Film Fund, co-produced by Oak3.

It is not a horror movie, although it has something to do with the supernatural. There is more blood than scare, and there is more love than blood. So I'd classify this film as supernatural romantic drama. Rated M18 for excessive blood.

The film opens in GV theatres on 10 Sep, but they are already showing previews over the weekend. I watched it today with my wife and she enjoyed the movie.

The movie is multi-language with Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, and some English. With stellar cast from Hong Kong, Kenneth Tsang and Cheng Pei Pei. Acting is good and realistic, cinematography is impressive, the production quality surpasses many Hong Kong and Taiwan commercial films. The only thing that I'd nitpick is the scene sequencing. I can understand the intention of using flashbacks to slowly uncover the truth, but I do get a little confused because the idea of the movie taking place in a single night did not get into me. However, once you have that mindset, then you'd be able to follow the movie better.

The storyline is good and it surprises me with several (not just one) twists. So while you were watching and when you thought, aha, I'm so smart I knew it all along, the story unfolds and catches you off-guard.

If there is a compelling reason why you should watch Blood Ties in cinemas, here's one: it's possible for you to catch any Hollywood blockbusters on DVD in future, but if you don't support local films like Blood Ties, then you might never be able to watch it ever again.

To share with you some facts about Singapore films and their box office receipts, here's stats from the Singapore Film Commission website:
http://www.sfc.org.sg/docs/1991to2008.pdf
http://www.sfc.org.sg/docs/1991to2006.pdf

As you can see, other than the usual popular highly-publicised movies, most of the films aren't making money in box offices. I can understand that some of the local films can be rather artistic, but Blood Ties is truly a "commercial-friendly" film. It's visually and emotionally stimulating.

Join the Facebook Page for exclusive production photos and trailers. May I remind you again, this is NOT a horror movie. Go enjoy the movie and be impressed at our local film production quality.

Pentax K-7 DSLR

I was supposed to be out for a photoshoot this morning, but my model got called up for an F1-related event. Fortunately, I got the Pentax K-7 to keep me occupied. I am reviewing for T3 Magazine Singapore, and the review will be published in the following month's (October) edition. But seriously, I can't wait to talk about this camera. And blogging about it gives me more freedom as this is my blog so I don't have to write in a magazine-friendly manner. Quite often, when you receive a review set and tried for a while, you find nothing good to talk about it. Then you had to spend days to find good things to mention. Not for K-7.

This is the first time I am using a Pentax DSLR. Having being used to a Nikon all my life, I can't help but make comparisons, and it's understandable to be biased. But surprisingly, I quite like the new Pentax makeover, and personally I feel it's easier for a freshie to get accustomed to K-7 than to a Canon. On its own, the K-7 doesn't look that small. But when put side-by-side with the competitors, you realise how hard Pentax worked to reduce the footprint without sacrificing handling comfort.

Here are some published specs about the camera:

- 14.6 megapixels CMOS sensor
- 720p/1080i HD video recording
- 3 inch 921,000 pixels LCD monitor
- 5.2 fps
- 100% optical viewfinder coverage

Here's a list of what I like about the K-7:

- Solid build, feels like Nikon. After all, I've been so used to the magnesium alloy body.

- Fantastic grip and button placements. All the controls, including the 2 commander dials that are literally under my fingertips.

- Shutter sound is more muted, especially when in live view, you don't feel that the camera is doing a lot of work to grab that frame. It's less obtrusive to use the K-7 in a quiet environment, something that I wish I could do with my Nikon.

- The LCD monitor is sharp enough for me to achieve manual focus accurately when using live view and when doing video recording.

- The kit lens 18-55mm is weather sealed and feels more solid. The zoom rings and focus rings has the right tension without feeling too loose.

- The shake reduction (SR) is quite well done, but you can only see it working when you shoot in live view mode because it's built in the sensor instead of the lens. Besides horizontal and vertical adjustment, the sensor can also compensate rotational shake (tilt), which, although rare, could happen, for instance, on a boat.

- The additional exposure modes like sensor priority, shutter and apperture priority (ISO will be auto-adjusted) and the USER mode allows user to access then conveniently. The Flash-sync X-mode, however, is really old-school.

There is also a myraid of unique firmware features (some of them I must say are the first ever found on a DSLR) that I'm going to spend some time talking about it here, because I've never seen them on my Nikon (yet). No doubt these features are, to a traditional photographer, gimmicky. But I think that's the trend that allows manufacturers to differentiate from one another, apart from the hardware advancements of faster frame-per-second and low-noise sensors.

- Composition compensation. You can actually tilt and shift the sensor to fine-tune your framing, if your camera is on a tripod, for instance.

- HDR. Having a high dynamic range function in K-7 means no longer do you need to do manual post-processing on your PC. Although that doesn't offer much controls, it's cool to have the DSLR do all the work. Perhaps, you might want to use the HDR function as a draft before doing your own exposure-compensation multi-frame capture.

- Effects preview. Although many DSLRs and compact cameras have software filters or image tone controls, K-7's implementation is more intuitive. Firstly, when you select any filters or tones, the camera will use the last-shot image as a preview, or you can choose to take a new preview snapshot by turning the on/off switch to the right. With the preview image on-screen, you can then make adjustments to each effect/tone until you are satisfied. At that point, you may also choose to save the new effect by pressing the AE-L button. What impresses me is that if you already selected one of the effects for shooting, you can still change your last-shot image to other effects during playback, or even revert to the normal non-filter image losslessly. Obviously the K-7 saves the original image in the buffer for this purpose. The available digital filters are: toy camera, retro, high contrast, extract colour (aka duotone), soft, starburst, fisheye.

During playback, it is also possible to apply multiple filters over an image. Some additional filters are available here, like monochrome, pastel, water colour, slim, miniature, HDR.

Like most DSLRs out there, the K-7 also allows a fair bit of customisation on the buttons and controls. And to keep up with the technology, the K-7 also has the electronic leveling sensor, lens correction for distortion and vignetting.

And here's what I dislike about the K-7:

- The design of the hardware switches are left to be desired. This includes the AF mode switch, AF point selection, metering dial, and the exposure mode dial. Basically, the switches are hard to turn. In particular, I cannot understand why Pentax designs a lock for the mode dial. This practically defeats the purpose of having a quick dial when it cannot be operated quickly with one finger.

- The camera takes considerable time to process buffered images before you can play them back on the monitor. For instance, after a series of continuous-shot images, or images that need to apply filters, the hour glass will appear when you try to playback images. Not to worry, though, for you can still continue taking photos.

- The buttons do not respond to quick sequential presses. It is rather annoying when you want to set some controls quickly when in action.

- To change the 11-point AF sensor, I need to press the OK button to activate first. It's a workflow that one probably could get used to.

I really enjoy using the Pentax K-7 DSLR, especially with the in-camera photo processing functions and the usable video recording. The hardware buttons make sense and do not confuse the user. The only thing that reminds me that it's still a conventional DSLR is the slow auto-focusing during live view. I am also discouraged by the wait time for the camera to do post-processing, say, when I elect to shoot with software filters.

I should be getting busy over the next few months reviewing more digital cameras. Nikon's D300s and D3000 should be out anytime in Singapore. Sony has already announced the latest series of DSLRs to replace their existing. Canon's EOS 7D finally gives Nikon its well-deserved contest. And Panasonic latest Micro Four-Thirds camera, the Lumix's GF1, is a head-on against Olympus E-P1.