The Bridal & Photography Exhibition 2009 will be held in PISA from 10-12 April 2009 11am to 9pm.

It is a big exhibition with well planned schedule and highlights. The Good news is photographers can register to participate in this event. Photograph the 3 days exhibition and stand a chance to win RM2000 cash and digital camera!

So do you how to shoot an indoor event? Remember two of my previous write ups?
1. How to Photograph Outdoor Event like Auto Show?
2. How to Photograph a Fashion Show?

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Olympus just announced its “new” E-450 four thirds DSLR.  I would call it E-420.1 really.  It shares same design with E-420. Same size of 5.1″ x 3.6″ 2.1″, same weight 13.4lbs, same 10mpx Live MOS sensor with live view, same speed at 3.5fps continuous shooting, same 2.7″ LCD, same 1600 max sensitivity, and same four thirds lens mount.  The differences are merely:

- TruePic III+ image processor (it’s a four third, who cares?)
- 30-minute exposure (as if I would use this tiny DSLR to shoot astronomy?)
- Improved flash control (ok, whatever)
- Several new “art filter” mode (mobile phone kind of kiddy stuff)

Scratch off the “2″ in E-420 and repaint it to “5″ and nobody can tell the difference.
It will be available from May 2009.  I expect the price is around RM1800.

With that price, I rather get a decent DSLR like the Nikon D40.

If you think you missed the Canon Warehouse Clearance Sales in Anson Road on 28 and 29 March 2009, no you didn’t.

Imagine it is like a mini PC Fair, but organised by Canon instead of Pikon, and each counter sell nothing but Canon camera.

I was there on the first day about lunch time.  First impression was good as I drove pass while looking for a parking spot.  Outside of the Canon Service Center has a few canopies with Canon red and white corporate colour with some counters inside.  It looks really promising actually.  I parked my car along the busy road which already parked with lots of cars.  As I walk from my car towards the Canon Service Center, I noticed most of visitors came out empty handed, a bad sign.

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We saw some interesting USB thumb drive lately. Like this robot USB thumb drive with a removable helmet. “Bite my shiny metal ass!”

This would even make non-Canon fans yell “I want one of those!” It is a USB thumb drive, also a miniature of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II / 450D. The thumb drive has two parts. The lens part is the USB thumb drive and the body is the cover. Both are designed to be attached together just like a DSLR camera. Awesome isn’t it?

According to the pictures I gathered in eBay, it even comes with a special designed gift box with a price tagged $39.90 (about RM150).  Not too bad actually.

Not sure it is official merchandise or not, but it is definitely in my Wish List. How about make us a Nikon D3x miniature thumb drive too?

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Imagine what could have happened if one day you are enjoying yourself on a photography trip, you slipped and dropped your camera on the ground, and happened that you did not put on a filter on the lens.
 
So you decided to get a protective filter for your precious lens. You have absolutely no idea how to choose and asked the shop owner for recommendation. You are given a choice of filter range from RM20 all the way to RM200.  You asked the shop owner what are the differences, and he give you the ultimate answer to all questions you can possibly throw to him “Better Quality lor”.

But what exactly is the quality difference?  Are all filters made with equal quality?  Is the filter worth the investment? Does it affect the photo taken? I will show you a simple experiment with a few tricks and tips to choose the right protective filter for your lens.

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What is in between the Canon 450D and a Nikon D90?

If you are thinking of venture into the world of DSLR, here are some good news to you.

Canon just announced a new Canon 500D as an updated version of Canon 450D, and catch up with Nikon D90.  Canon 450 was released not too long ago, end of January to be exact, and only a short 14 months later, it came out a replacement model , the 500D also known as Rebel X1 T1i, and Canon EOS Kiss Digital X3.

Here are some of the main features compared with Canon 450D and Nikon D90:

The rests of the features are pretty much expected, not important, too little or no difference, or not even worth mentioning.

For the price of Canon 500D in Malaysia, I would expect somethere around RM2600 for the body itself. Kit version with the Canon EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens forAvailable is expected RM2900. The system will be available from May 2009.

Press Release available at: http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20090325_t1i.html

The myth of Battle of the LSD NiMH Battery. Eneloop vs Imedion is busted. So did my faithful Nikon Speedlight SB-800 due to the stress test in my experiment.  The damage is found after the second round of test on Imedion.   As when does it happened, I am seriously have no idea, but I suspect it happens on the second round due to the large amount of heat trapped inside the diffuser dome. 

Look at how beautiful the bubble formed in the plastic plate.

The good news is, everything else is ok, including the speedlight and unit body.  The plastic plate to be replaced with a very minimum cost I am sure.

Lesson learnt, you should remove the diffuser dome before conduct the experiment.

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What is the most critical thing you should check in your camera gear bag before you go into event photography?  Failure to do so may result unthinkable consequences.

Picture this; you are so excited when you reach Auto City for the grand event of the year - GT Roadshow with GT Girls lining up waiting to be photographed.  You approached one of the charming Sweet Young Things in a tight fit bikini with an umbrella standing next to a not-so-important GT race car, and she responses to you with a killer pose and a sexy smile.  You aim at her with your new and shiny Nikon D90 but you just noticed that your one and only battery is completely flat out.

 NiMH Battery is well known for bad self-discharge, in another word, it leaks very fast. It will lose 5-10% power on the first day, and 0.5-1% per day. In another word, the battery will dried up completely in about 3 to 6 months time even it is unused, which makes it a poor choice for ad-hoc devices such as camera, torch light, flash, remote controls, wireless devices, electronic gadgets or toys, etc. Ironically due to the high capacity, it is also ideal choice for heavy power consumption device such as digital camera, flash gun, RC toys, which are unlikely used on daily basis.

A new breed of NiMH Battery is introduced in recent years which claim to be Low Self-Discharge (LSD). It will remain 90% of the capacity after stored for 6 months, and remains 85% of the capacity after stored for 12 months. It is the ideal choice for high power consumption devices that you may not use it on a regular basis.

Two companies made good reputable LSD NiMH Battery are Imedion by PowerEx / Maha and Eneloop by Sanyo. Both of the respective company claims that their LSD NiMH battery capacity will remain 90% after stored for 6 months, and remains 85% of the capacity after stored for 12 months.

If you google the Internet and Forums, you will find mixed result, some people claims Eneloop performs better, and some claims otherwise. There isn’t many convincing information therefore I decided to do an experiment on both of these batteries Mythbusters style! Since both are advertised has the same LSD rate, no problem with that, and I am not interested to prove that either.  Why would you buy a battery to keep it 12 months on shelves anyway?  This is plain stupid way of advertising with some useless facts.  I am sure you are more interested to know the performance within short period of shelf life 1-3 months rather than 6-12 months.   

This experiment is to find out which one performs better and worth the investment.  This review does cost hard earn money, time, lots of hours to conduct the experiment, and write this review, I hope this will benefit you as the consumers especially if you are a photographer.

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Pretty straight forward.  Canon having a warehouse clearance sales on this coming Saturday and Sunday. Details as below:

Event: Canon Warehouse Clearance Sales
Date: 28 & 29 March 2009
Address: 46 Jalan Anson, 10400 Penang
Tel (Genenal): 04-2383838

You can expect lots things to grab like expiring photo papers, calculators, obsolete printers, old digital cameras, display unit of video camera etc… at extreme low price.  Maybe if you camp outside the office you may have lucky to get some L lenses or 5D for special rate.

I just came back from my regular camera shop to buy some photo equipment supplies, and at the same time check out some of the latest price.  The latest price list seriously made my jaw dropped.  the Nikon 105mm F/2.8 VR now costs RM3030!  I bought that used for RM1900 (10/10 condition, RM2600 for new unit that time) about a year ago.  I can easily make RM600 if I would sell it now.

Added:
Nikon 105mm F/2.8 VR = RM3030
Nikon 50mm F/1.8D = RM390
Nikon 50mm F/1.4G = RM1780
Maha PowerEx 2700 NiMH Rechargable Battery (4pcs AA) = RM45
Maha PowerEx Travel Charger (with 4pcs 2700 AA) = RM150

Get full price list of items at http://www.calvinstudio.net/?page_id=5