Monday, February 20, 2017

Hongkong in Classic Chrome

This series is shot by FujiFilm XT1 with either 12mm, 27mm or Takuma 55mmf1.8.
All shot with film simulation of classic chrome.

During the few days of walk in Hongkong, my choice of lenses for each day is  2 lenses setup. Either a 27mm +55mm or a 27mm _12mm setup. The Domke f5xc bag was used during this trip.

The Zeiss 12mm is surprising useful for the street shots as the space in Hongkong is tight, the ultra wide view kind of show how the life in the streets lives.

The 27mm is the most used lens as expected. This lens is fun to use and as it looked like a fun camera than a serious piece of equipment. Using it in the street, one one seems to bother with it.
Night view of Victoria Peak. Shot handheld at 1/20s f2.8 ISO3200. I didn't bring my gorilla pod or tripod, so have to compromise the setting. At least it turns out good at iso3200 at a not so good light. XT1 with 27mm.

Aquarium-XT1 with 27mm 

Early morning where the streets are less packed with humans. XT1 w 27mm.

Old and new building of Hongkong- XT w 27mm

Inside a Wet market. XT1 w 27mm

XT1 with 27mm

Drying gloves in the wet market- 27mm

street stall owner - 27mm

27mm 

Breakfast by the street-27mm

reading newspaper-27mm

Tradition Beancurd dessert-27mm

Beancurd shop 

Traditional beancurd making tray

Takuma 55mm lens - At Stanley Market



Takuma 55mm lens - At Stanley Market

27mm- Dragon's back peak

27mm dragon's back peak

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Wet Market setting up-12mm Zeiss

Trash removing and pushing the huge trolley along the tight space-12mm Zeiss

Iconic Tram in HK-12mm Zeiss, slow shutter speed panning

12mm zeiss.Narrow street

12mm zeiss

Quick lunch- 12mm zeiss

One of the many street food stalls in HK- 12mm

12mm zeiss - Tight space between building 

27mm- chill with beer 

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Domke F5XC replacing new design Peak Design Everyday Sling




In November 2016, I received the long-awaited Peak Design new everyday sling. Through their videos and explanation of the bag, it looked like a perfect bag for me. It's sling design make the sliding forward or backward easy , small in look, flexible dividers appealed to me. I ordered it during the Kickstarter project.

It can load up a 9inch Ipad, all my FujiFilm mirrorless gears and looks cool. It is water resistance to heavy rain, easy to adjust sling. It is a promise that delivered.  However, to me, there is a major flaw in the design, the sling belt is too thin, it causes strain on my shoulder when the load is full. I also find it is too thick & hard to look like a sling bag. Comparing to the Lowepro Streetline 140, the Lowepro looked more like an everyday sling.

For their next version of the everyday sling if there is,  I hope the shoulder sling belt should be made thicker.


The shoulder sling is too thin in proportion to the bag size.



One of the best design for the interior

No problem to load up all these gears.

 After using the sling for 2 months, for outings and travelling to Melaka,  I decided to sell it away.
The next shoulder bag I get was the Domke F5XC (large) bag. I had a very old Domke F3x, the velcro on this old bag is worn out & doesn't secure the flap properly, putting in expensive gear seems to be risky as the gear may drop out during rough use.

The F5XC has two levels of storage. Both levels can be zipped up and double protected by the main flap cover. It can store all my camera body and lenses.  My personal belongings like wallet/iphone 6s/passport can be easily stored in any of the available slots. I like the two level storage space as it is highly flexible in configuration.

Some ideas of adjusting the bag for different gears

 The design of this bag is retro and looks like an old canvass bag. Even though it look ordinary, the parts they use are quality stuff. The protection it gave to my gears is top notch.

The only disadvantage is the velcro noise it made when opening the bag. To solve the Velcro noise problem, I bought a $1 Velcro 30cm strip from an army shop. I covered 80% of the bag's velcro leaving 20% effective area to hold the flap together, This greatly reduced to the noise and gave sufficient holding security of the flap.


Top level storage

Bottom storage space, the long lens 55-200mm can be either place here or the top. This space can be used for my wallet/Iphone6s etc. Zipped and secure.




Olympus Em-1 Mark 2 , 7-14mm f2.8 & Sony RX100vi

] In recent months, I have sold the Em-1 mark1 and Lumix G95 body to revamp the equipment setup. The Lumix 12-35mm f2,8 was also sold as it ...