Photography in the new age of mirrorless and apps

Posted on 18 September, 2011 by Ian Tan

Till today, I still can’t believe I took this photo with my phone.

The writing on the wall has been there for two years. Mirrorless cameras are the next wave and yet the two big camera makers have not stepped into the arena. Just read this Bloomberg article:

Canon Inc. (7751) and Nikon Corp. (7731), the world’s two biggest makers of high-end cameras, may be missing out on the industry’s biggest technology shift since film rolls became obsolete. The two Tokyo-based companies use mirrors in all cameras with interchangeable lenses, a technique Sony Corp. (6758) is shifting away from. As a result, Canon and Nikon’s combined share of the Japanese market has fallen by 35 percent, while Sony’s share has doubled, according to estimates at research firm BCN Inc.

- Canon Hanging on to Mirrors Means Opportunity for Sony, Panasonic Cameras, Bloomberg, 7 Sep 2011

Since I got my lightweight Olympus Pen in 2009, I’ve largely stopped using my Canon EOS 5D except for sessions when I need to do macro shots or shoot the sky outside of my window. Honestly, it grieves me that my Canons don’t get used so much now, given their way superior image quality and shooting capabilities, but I no longer need the professional quality they provide, nor can I tolerate the weight of the gear during family outings.

It’s not just about my need to carry a lighter camera that can do a “good enough” job. The way we share photos has changed dramatically in the last decade, and that in turn has changed the quality of photos that we need, as well as the type of cameras we prefer to carry around.

In the early 2000s, when digital photography was still in puberty, it was a race to get more megapixels out so that printed photos wouldn’t look pixelated. The original (and much disliked among SPH photogs) Nikon D1 sported only 2.1 megapixels, and yet this was considered cutting edge in 1999. Today, the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III gives you 21.1MP and really, only pros need that kind of resolution.

If I ever return to professional photography, I’d be happy with all the megapixels I can get, but I still remain a non-pro currently. My 13MP EOS 5D turns six years old this year, and it’s an amazing camera for my needs.

The mirrorless (or hybrid) dSLRs will continue to gain ground over traditional dSLRs in the consumer space, and it is inevitable that Canon and Nikon will release their own models once the market data finally convinces them that their legacy business is not optimized for today’s consumer audience. Perhaps they are already working on it but it will take time to get to market, as well as develop new, smaller lenses for the new lineup. Lenses make or break a camera system, and that could further delay Canon and Nikon’s engagement with the mirrorless audience.

Despite my fondness of the Olympus Pen (and I think the new EP3 is awesome despite the small advances), I am still a Canon faithful at heart and will return to the fold once they produce the “good enough” mirrorless camera for me. After all, it was a Canon that accompanied my professional growth and a Canon that took my wedding photos.

Now back to megapixels – Many consumer compact cams offer 16MP today, when what most people need is not more than 10MP. Why?

Most of us have stopped printing photos – at least those of us living in developed countries. I feel sorry for the film processing shops, and puzzled when companies try to sell us 4R-sized photo printers.

C’mon, just about everyone is on Facebook, and that is what we use on a constant basis to share our images. To make uploads faster, I usually downsize my photos to 1.5MP (1500 pixels by 1000 pixels) because most of the time, people are going to be viewing them on a smartphone or tablet. Even on a huge 24″ screen, Facebook doesn’t allow full-screen views currently (but that could change any time).

I remember when I was conducting photography workshops about 5 years ago. I would tell the audience to shoot images in the highest possible resolution available in their camera because we are entering into a HD world. Perhaps one day we could plaster our walls with cheap LCD screens and fill it with high-res family images.

That advice still holds true, but none of us could have imaged how social networks like Facebook and Twitter would add another perspective to how we store and share stuff. I’ve never bothered with the likes of Flickr to share my photos, but since FB came online, I’ve shared thousands of images happily.

Back in the last decade, I used to scoff at camera phones too. They produced really awful images with high grain, fuzzy details and wrong colors all the time. But check out the phones of today – Android, iPhone and Windows Phones can produce really stunning images (as long as you don’t intend to print them on A4 sized paper!) with good contrast, details and color balance. They will only get better and faster at sharing images.

Another image that I took with my phone. These days you can do some metering on the phone by selecting the exposure spot on the screen, making it possible to capture difficult scenes like this.

What really makes smartphones great cameras are the apps (do you remember a time when phones apps did not exist?). If you’ve used Instagram or Hipstamatic, they can really transform ordinary photos into amazing Polaroid-style visuals. Whether you like them retro or pop-art, these apps have built in filters that hit the emotional buttons perfectly when you decide to show them off.

The Goblins at Thomson, taken with the Hipstamatic app that does fantastic color toning for a 1980s feel.

The new Canon S100 (as well as other high-end compacts) has a GPS built in to help record the location of photos, but this is essentially a feature that will go largely unused. What would be really useful in a camera are WiFi/3G modules and a built-in app to downsize images and upload to social networks immediately. Growth in the compact camera market has been slowing down and that’s because smartphones do a better job of sharing images despite their lower image capturing capabilities.

Photography for consumers has always been about sharing and showing off their latest images. The problem is that today, compact cams and dSLRs (including the mirrorless guys) remain unplugged from our social lives while trying to offer incremental new features that most people don’t need. Until camera makers figure out the new paradigm and how to leverage it better, the phone makers are going to be having a field day.

PS: Another endangered species is the dedicated camcorder. Prices have plummeted dramatically for HD camcorders in the past few years, but they’re up against phones and cameras which can do a “good enough” job of HD video. For now, camcorders still provide superior autofocus tracking, color balance and image stabilization over other products, but the writing is on the wall for them too.

And I always thought I was being objective

Posted on 11 September, 2011 by Ian Tan

I was at our neighborhood watch shop today and checking out a Seiko model. I noticed that the second hand was not pointing directly north, and was aligned a little to the left, by a mere fraction of a millimeter.

The shopkeeper looked puzzled and took a good look at the watch. He said: “No, it’s pointing straight up! If it is misaligned, I’ll have to send it back to the distributor but it looks ok to me.”. His father also took a quick check and affirmed there was no issue.

I took another close look again and it was just a bit off. And as an ex-photographer, I do pride myself on noticing the smallest details, especially when something minute is misaligned.

Both of us were puzzled for a while, then I took a look at my own Seiko wrapped around my wrist. To my horror, the second hand was misaligned in the same way as the shop’s Seiko!

I realized that it could be related to my lazy (left) eye, so I closed my right eye and voila, the second hand was aligned correctly on both watches. I took off my glasses and peered closely at the watches, and there was no more apparent parallax error. But when I put on the glasses again and looked at the watches at arm’s length, there, it seemed a little misaligned once again. The stereo image my mind was forming was misaligned, not the watch.

Just so you know, I’m very short-sighted in my right eye (about 400 degrees) and just mildly myopic in the other (about 150 degrees). This was because as a child, I used to read lying down on my side and put too much strain on my right eye. Over time, the right eye became the dominant one while the left eye became the “lazy eye”.

So as I thought about it, it could have been two reasons:

1. The glass curvature in my right spectacle lens was causing light to bend more than it should. Rather unlikely but you’d never know.

2. My brain is so used to processing information from my right eye in priority to the left over the years, that now when I see a stereo image, it is actually an image with a bias towards the data coming in from the right eye.

It dawned upon me that this was a demonstration of the brain’s wiring that leads to our lack of objectivity and personal bias. No matter how balanced we think we are, our brains may be processing information in different channels and mixtures.

So before I tell someone that “I’m objective about this matter! I can see both sides of the story”, I’ll take a step back and think hard: “What am I seeing wrong about the picture here? Or what am I not seeing though it is right in front of me?”

Frightening isn’t it, when what you always thought was a fair and balanced worldview, turns out to be otherwise.

Ian’s Opinionated Guide To Buying Gadgets and Other Stuff

Posted on 10 September, 2011 by Ian Tan

This is it – my guide to buying (nearly) anything that you, my faithful reader, will probably find as interesting because we share the same brain wavelengths. The burning hallmark of every journalist is that he thinks his opinion is pretty important, whether it is true or not. Four years after leaving journalism, my ego still eggs me to tell people what they shouldn’t buy. I’ll be continuously adding fresh stuff after this line. Hopefully I won’t give up after a few entries. The whole idea is to provide simple answers to interesting purchases. Click on to follow me.

Continue reading →

I’m still here

Posted on 6 September, 2011 by Ian Tan

I haven’t updated this blog in over a month, which is pretty long considering that I’ve always tried to write at least one post every few weeks to keep the blog alive.

It’s been a busy period at work, with new product launches, corporate reorganization and I’ve also been spending more time with Isaac with his schoolwork. Another new distraction is my new Ninja 250R motorcycle, which requires hours of running in, so I’ve spent some early Saturday mornings taking a spin to Lim Chu Kang and back.

I’ve also been pondering on more things which I don’t necessarily want to share online (here or Facebook) regarding work, people, and the things I want out of my life.

Some of my friends claim that by getting a bike, I’m going through a mid-life crisis. From their perspective, perhaps, but I don’t think there’s any crisis at all. The bike is merely a fulfillment of a long-time desire since I received my army bike licence at the age of 19. What I’m facing is more like I’m approaching a major fork in the road, and that the decisions I make today may set the stage for the rest of my life.

What I also feel is that I may be inadvertently walking in the footsteps of my ancestors. With little career guidance in my youth, I had made some career moves (eg. taking a scholarship) that had unintended repercussions over a long period. And my gut feeling is that I’m not the only Tan in my family to feel this way through the years.

As one gets older and receives good advice from seniors and friends, broadening one’s perspective greatly, it’s hard not to look back and wonder what if we had gotten those advice much earlier. How different would things be today?

Full Armor Gundam

Posted on 29 July, 2011 by Ian Tan

I purchased this Full Armor Gundam FA-78-1 Master Grade set because Hobby Link Japan was selling it at 40% off at 3000 yen (S$45). I regretted it soon after because it became obvious why this relatively new release (2010) was being discounted so heavily both online and at local retail – the original color scheme of dark green, bright orange and white was not aesthetic and this Gundam was based on the retro RX-78 instead of the more modern/aggressive One Year War version.

But I saw that there was potential in the base design – it had a very rugged heavy armored vehicle design philosophy like my Votoms Scopedog and the decals had a good military feel to them. This Gundam just needed a better color scheme.

So after many days of mulling and color testing, I gave it the Iron Man War Machine treatment – gunmetal grey, copper, dull chrome and some champagne gold on the cannons just to make it a bit more “rich”.

I glued down all the detachable armor parts because they kept coming off anyway (thanks to Bandai’s useless gel sticker approach) and also because I don’t really like the retro RX-78 design underneath all the armor parts. I ordered the waterslide decals from HLJ and spent a long time (over 6 hours) pasting as many as I could – I like decals and you can also call this the Full Decal Gundam hur-hur.

In closing, I’m pretty happy with the end result! If you’re not going to paint this set, I don’t recommend the purchase due to the poor base color scheme. If you are, I think there are many opportunities to make it a really cool Gundam based on your personal color preferences.

As I was taking photos this morning, there was an opportunity to do these mood shots as the morning sun blasted into the living room.

The only downside to using the champagne gold (chrome silver + gold leaf paint) is that the white decals don’t come out so prominently.

Some history on the Full Armor Gundam from the Gundam Wikia.

As the RX-78-2 Gundam continued to score victory after victory against the Zeon forces in the One Year War, the Earth Federation Forces engineers began to devise several different upgrades to supplement and further increase the combat capabilities of the Gundam. The upgrade program, called the Full-Armor System and Weapon System (FSWS), developed several options packs to increase the Gundam’s already considerable power. One of these designs was the Gundam Full Armor Type, which vastly increased the Gundam’s firepower and armor.

However, due to the Full Armor Gundam’s massive increase in weight, it suffered a sharp drop in mobility which the new thrusters could not sufficiently compensate for. It was deemed that the loss in speed and maneuverability would be unacceptable and the Gundam Full Armor Type never left the development stages. The Gundam Full Armor Type would never be built, and only existed on paper. Although the FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type was deemed to be a design failure while it was still in the planning phases, the Earth Federation continued to design new upgrades to for the RX-78-2 Gundam under Full-Armor System and Weapon System (FSWS) program.However the plans for the unit would later be used as the basis of creating the FA-78-2 Heavy Gundam.

The death of the Transformers

Posted on 11 July, 2011 by Ian Tan

I had little choice but to watch Transformers 3 : Dark Of The Moon. The kids wanted to watch it, and I wanted to watch it.

For them, it was part of the essential pop culture ritual of their childhood. It’s the Star Wars of their generation.

For me, it was to see if Michael Bay would redeem himself from the mess that was Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

Sadly, Michael Bay proved that a leopard cannot change its spots – TF3 was a rehash (albeit energetic one) of all the major action scenes from the first two movies, as well as all his other blockbuster movies. And for me, it was a final nail in the coffin for a great franchise that we’ve known and loved since the early 1980s. Here’s why:

The Transformers is not just about Optimus Prime and Bumblebee

I’ve never understood the heavy weightage placed upon Bumblebee in the Bay movies. In the cartoon, he was always one of the weakest Autobots, and his only role was to be Spike Witwicky’s friend. For goodness sake, he was a obsolete VW Beetle.

Ok, so perhaps in the first movie, the major theme was about A Boy and His Robot (ala Harlon Ellison’s A Boy And His Dog). By the third movie, there was no real relationship left between the yellow bot and the perpetually annoying Shia LeBeouf. Yet the emphasis on Bumblebee continued, even though no fan really gives a hoot about him. Meanwhile, other great characters like Jazz and Ironhide with way more personality are killed off flippantly in the movies.

And to add to that, the Bumblebee toys are awfully difficult to transform. More on that in a while.

The same goes for Optimus as well. The kids of today don’t realize it, but Optimus was killed off in the very first Transformers cartoon movie. I suspect the cartoon writers felt that Optimus was too one-dimensional and needed to be replaced with new leadership (ie. Rodimus Prime). It was a shocking development for us kids then, but man, everyone remembers the death of Optimus till today. When they resurrected him time and time again, it got boring – let the dead lie dead please.

Nevertheless Optimus is always a big fan favorite and has been featured in just about every Transformers spin-off or series.

My point is that these two Autobots do not an entire series make.

There are so many great Transformer characters and storylines on either side of the battle lines. The Bay movies have avoided any focus on the relationships between the Transformers, both within and between the factions. The love-hate relationship between Optimus and Megatron was hardly explored, what more the tension between Optimus and Ultra Magnus, the competition between Blaster and Soundwave (and their respective cassette tape minions), the dumb anger of the Dinobots, the constant quarrels between the Constructicons…the list goes on about the many dynamics from just the very first cartoon alone.

Instead Bay chose to focus on the humans, perhaps to save some CGI budget. Unfortunately, the humans in the Transformer movies have never been impressive or endearing. And when gigantic robots are hitting the hell out of each other, what contributions could puny humans possibly make?

What was sad to see in TF2 and TF3 was how Megatron was written as a “by-the-way” character, or used as a deux ex machina to close a plot loophole. How can you treat the biggest schemer on Cybertron as a cameo? Why would Megatron even bow to the Fallen, given that his ego cannot take the damage?

Less Is More, Especially With Robot Design

What upsets a lot of fans till today is the overly complicated and ugly designs of Bay’s Transformers. Very organic in nature, the bots come off looking more like insects than majestic robots.

And the transformations are now way too complex. One great part about the early cartoons was how gracefully the bots would transform from one form to another. I’m pretty sure they designed the toys before the cartoon characters, and the simplicity shows.

In the movies, the characters were designed to be as difficult to transform as possible, and that also led to an entire series of poorly designed Hasbro toys. The irony is that the Transformers has always been a glorified commercial to sell more toys but the movies have just turned me off the toys instead. I told Isaac that we won’t be buying any more Transformer toys until they get easier to manipulate. I usually struggle up to 30min just to transform a simple Level 3 Transformer figurine.

If you don’t believe me, just head to any OG store these days and you’ll see the big Starscream toy being cleared at bargain prices. The original Starscream was a beautiful copy of the F-15 eagle, in primary American colors no less. The Bay Starscream is an ugly grey Raptor that transforms to an even uglier and dull-looking robot.

The awesome Starscream Masterpiece edition of the original 1980s design.

The Bay version of Starscream. The design ugliness is obvious to any human.

Even today, adults get excited over original Transformer designs such as Soundwave, Devastator, the Aerialbots, Bruticus Maximus and so on. They were simple, but they were always impactful.

There Is No Kindness In This Movie

Call it 1980s simplicity, but the Autobots hardly set out to kill anyone. In the movies, the good guys have become so brutal and unforgiving – Optimus stabs, rips out heads and spinal columns, dismantles faces and so on, with no remorse at all. He is even willing to do in his teacher Sentinel Prime without a pause. Optimus is no hero here, he has simply become an angry robot.

When the good guys do not forgive, what are we teaching our kids?

Isaac’s Gundam Avalanche Exia

Posted on 9 July, 2011 by Ian Tan

This is the second High-Grade Gundam set that Isaac and I worked together on. The Gundam Avalanche Exia 1/144 is a recent release by Bandai from the Gundam 00 series and for a small model, has a magnificently complicated design. I do wish I could have painted it for better aesthetic effect, but I’m saving the airbrush for bigger models with more details and decals.

As I continue to assemble more Gundams, I have increasing admiration for the artists who come up with these designs that mesh together art and robot mechanics.

Of course, you could say that all the Gundams look the same (I thought the same just a year ago), but take a closer look and you will be able to appreciate how the designs have evolved over the years from the very first RX-78. Essentially all Gundams are based on a samurai design, which is always cool Open-mouthed smile .

Now if only the guys who designed the atrociously ugly, insectoid Transformer movie robots understood it like the Gundam designers.

Maid In Singapore

Posted on 24 June, 2011 by Ian Tan

The news topic of this week appears to be whether maids should get a legislated day of rest every week. Now I’ll make it clear that I’ve never employed a full-time maid (for my own household), and deliberately so. For the past few years, we’ve relied on a part-time maid who comes in once a week and now that she’s gone home, I’m still mopping the floor like I did when I was 10 years old. I simply don’t want another stranger staying in my house nor deal with her various issues.

That said, a lot of other Singaporean families do employ maids for various reasons. There’s nothing wrong with that, even though it does lead to various side effects like an over-reliance on maids, kids who grow up ordering their maids around, and army boys who can’t carry their own bags. I can sympathize with families with sick elderly folks who need the help of a maid for daily hygiene or exercise, and that is where an extra pair of hands really help.

It is inevitable that the huge population of maids in Singapore will lead to cases where maids get pregnant, work illegally or get into other sorts of trouble. Often, the employer has to bear the frustration of sending the maid home and paying additional money to hire a replacement.

And at the same time, there are many employers who simply don’t know how to manage another person in the house. Too often, we read about maid abuse cases in our media, and despite all the gasps and looks of horror from the audience, the abuse continues to happen whether it is in rich educated households or needy ones.

And you don’t really know if you’ve hired a good or bad worker. We had plenty of trouble with a maid who was hired to look after my mum in her final years, and we were so glad to be rid of her. But I’ve also seen friends who have hired really good people as maids, and saw strong relationships built up over the years.

No matter what, I fully back the proposal for a rest day for maids. As employers, we need to treat our employees the way we want to be treated ourselves. Do unto others, you know.

What strengthened my belief even more are the following letters written to ST Forum in the past few days, arguing why maids shouldn’t be given a day off. I’ve highlighted the sentences that made me seethe, and if you’re an intelligent, un-self-centred, gracious person, you’d immediately understand why. I don’t need to go on a rant with the obvious.

The letter writers have their own perspective on things, but I have only this to say to them – put yourself in the shoes of your own maid before you pen these words down. And no, the pathetic fertility rate has nothing to do with whether your maid has a day off or not.

Who says domestic helpers are overworked?

IT IS true that maids should not be treated differently from other workers, and they need rest (‘Consider law to give maids a day off every week: Halimah’; Monday). But do they really need one weekly day off for that? Do they not rest in the course of their work every day?

My current maid has a day off once a month. Every time she comes back from her outings, she appears even more tired and listless, and needs to recuperate from her outing. When she is not around, both my husband and I, who are teachers, have to juggle with the care of our toddlers (two and three years old), besides catching up with whatever work we have not completed in the week.

Singaporeans work very long hours too and while we do not work officially on weekends, many of us catch up with work on weekday evenings and weekends.

My maid has more than enough time to rest daily, when the kids are napping or when my older one is in kindergarten. My maid is the one who goes to bed by nine every night and my husband and I are the ones who are still up way beyond nine to tuck in our children and catch up with school work.

Are maids really that overworked? The many maids congregating and chatting away happily at my condominium on weekdays present a different picture.

My previous maid met her boyfriend on her day off and even while we were at work. I have also heard of other maids doing part-time work on their days off.

The slew of social problems that will result from a weekly day off is unthinkable.

And think of those taking care of old and disabled people. It will not be easy for someone else to take over their duties when they take their day off.

I urge the Government to consider carefully the many factors at play and the consequences of legislating a day off for maids.

Low Ai Choo (Madam)

More days off may not be in maids’ interest

I REFER to the proposal by Madam Halimah Yacob, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, to make it mandatory to give maids a day off every week (‘Consider law to give maids a day off every week: Halimah’; Monday).

As much as employers like myself will like to give our maids a day off per week, we are concerned that it may actually not be in their interest. With four days off a month, they will incur more expenses. Many maids who have a day off a week end up not only sending less money home, and having little or no savings, but also incur debts by borrowing from other maids to cover expenses.

They may also become resentful that their pay is not able to pay for their entertainment on these days off.

Some maids may also work illegally on their days off. This puts them at risk of abuse from those who employ them illegally and also put their legal employers at risk with the law.

Sng Choon Kwee

Spare a thought for working mums

I REFER to Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Halimah Yacob’s call for legislating a weekly day off for domestic helpers (‘Consider law to give maids a day off every week: Halimah’; Monday).

I urge Madam Halimah to look at the issue from the perspective of an ordinary, Singaporean working mother.

As a mother of a preschooler and an infant, having a domestic helper is probably the best solution for me as I would like to make full use of my hard-earned degree, remain in the competitive workforce and contribute to the nation’s economic growth while supporting the Government’s call to have more babies. Without a domestic helper to look after the children, one of the parents will have to stay at home.

Amid soaring inflation, rocketing housing prices and a dipping total fertility rate, is it appropriate to consider a weekly day off for domestic helpers at this juncture? If the Government would like to hear more babies cry, the answer is a clear no.

Moreover, does having a weekly day off ease the stress and overworking problems faced by domestic helpers? They may have to complete their chores before or after their day off. Essentially, they are left with less time to do the same chores. In this case, a weekly day off seems to worsen the problem.

Instead, inculcating a different mindset that looks at domestic helpers as part of the family may help. When the domestic helper is regarded as part of the family, she feels more comfortable and less likely to be stressed. Do we overwork our family members? No.

With many Singaporean households relying on domestic helpers to keep the house running, any change in the existing legislation is going to affect a large number of people.

It is not assumptive to conclude that a weekly day off for domestic helpers will have a negative impact on the fertility rate and the number of mothers in the workforce.

Fu Sze Sze (Madam)