Hot Chili

Revisiting some old pictures taken with the Ricoh.

If you like fiery stuff and have the stomach for it, you can try XiaoLaJiao.

The Chicken Feet salad looks innocent, but it can be quite fiery compared to the local/Thai version.

Fried Rice is like a balm for sore tongue or the weak stomached.

This fish soup is tangy, can be spicy if requested, definitely stimulate your appetite.

Anticipation

Rain

It was a wet morning, with winds creating strange patterns. Nice weather to have when tucked away safely at home.

Eyes W I D E open

New addition to the gang. Sadly, while trying to take this picture, the 50mm is starting to show more problems, mainly intermittent contact with the body. Boo Hoo.

Voigtlander Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm F5.6.

Gives the GXR an equivalent of 18mm. Not quite easy to focus using Mode 2 focus assist, as everything appears to be in focus. Throw the image up on the computer screen and you start to notice blurry areas.

It has the shortest minimum shooting distance of 0.5m among the M Voigtlanders, so coupled with the incredibly deep depth of field, close up shots should be quite interesting, though light would be a problem as the apertures would be quite small.

There is a fair bit of vignetting which you can diminish or enhance to taste using the M Module built in compensation.

Ricoh GXR Mount A12

Yes, it is the "Poor Man's Leica". Getting the module and a lens is definitely enough to make you poor! The module's street price is almost SGD$900 and the Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.4 sets you back another $700. Ouch. Thankfully I have been saving up since they launched the module. The Mount module is very easy to use, although it takes some time getting used to going all manual for focusing.

Ricoh A16 24-85 mm

This should have been the first module to launch with the GXR. It has been a long wait, but perhaps it is a good thing. Armed with a new sensor and experience from the previous modules, Ricoh has released a "budget" lens to take advantage of the GXR platform.

It costs around SGD $650 on the streets, so the term budget is in relative to the GXR world. Essentially a kit lens, it is obviously made of plastic which makes it light. The build is clearly less robust compared to the previous prime modules, and feels plastic with a rough texture. The lightness and rough feel actually helps as it the largest lens module so far, very comfortable handling it.

This lens module is all electronic for zoom and focusing. So far the auto focusing seems accurate, and slightly faster than previous modules.

One key difference in this module, Ricoh copied from the M mount module and removed the anti-aliasing  filter, which makes the image potentially sharper. Most images online so far seems to prove it, now I have to figure out why mine are not as sharp.

One new function in this module is Dynamic Range Compensation. I don't know how it works but it seems to work. Below is an example, left is normal mode, right is compensated. The compensation mode automatically sets the iso level at a minimum of 500.

HCM Fried Rice

Ah, the privilege  of good home cook meals.

And yes, that was all mine. How do you think I have the ring around my middle earth?

Canton Paradise

This is a new offering from the ever expanding Paradise Group, concentrating on Cantonese / Hong Kong flavours. As with most Chinese restaurants here, the culinary distinction is however not so clear cut, bits of other regions slip in, but the Cantonese style of cooking and flavouring is prominent. It is also located at one of the latest shopping malls 112 Katong.

The star of the meal is the Char Siew with Honey Glaze. This is made with Pork Belly and is tender without being overly fatty. The Chinese name for the dish literally translates as Fat Lady Char Siew, but the smallish portions is not likely to make you one, if you share!

Char Siew with Honey Glaze

Light Art

Eggs and Oysters

蚝煎

This is just one of the many variations of fried egg with oysters. The egg is undiluted, pure in egg-y goodness, a little crispy in parts, tender in others. Providing heat is not the usual sambal chilli, but chinese style chilli with a hint of sze-chuan pepper. The oysters are just a touch  before being overdone, so it is still soft with the flavour of the sea, but purist would probably scream murder.

Xi Men Ding Taiwan Cuisine. 

Ricoh GXR Mount A12

Ever since the GXR system came into being, people have been wanting a Mount unit. The lens-sensor concept proved to be foreign and jarring to the conventional notion of interchangeable system. Within this group, there was also no consensus to what type of mount, though most leaning to the Leica M mount.

Personally I thought they would have licensed the E mount from Sony since they were the providers of the sensors. Then again, Sony is Sony. Guess Canon and Nikon would not play this game either. Finally on the 5th of August 2011, Ricoh announced the M - Mount unit, with a 12 megapixel (Sony?) sensor.

Since then I have been searching ie goggling about the mysterious M mount. Of course I drool over the new unit, the words Ricoh GXR is my Pavlov's Bell. That is until I fully realised what it means to own anything branded or related to Leica. Owning the Mount A12 module is not the problem, but it would open up a rabbit hole that could possibly empty my bank account faster than Lehman Brothers stocks plunging that fateful day.

Bit by bit the "reviews" appeared in photography websites and they all chimed in one thing, Ricoh is now the "Poor man's Leica".

Really?

Holy bovine posterior output.

No "poor man" can afford Leica, or perhaps it is only me who is below the poverty line.

Jokes aside, to get that elusive Leica look, you have to get a Leica lens, period. Well, equivalent, but there are only so few quality lens from what I read. They all basically start from SGD$5000. Pre-Owned.

Pretty steep in this time of economic uncertainty and to be used by an amateur.

Strangely it is about this time that I somehow begin to understand what is the Leica look. The danger of knowing what you did not know.

Ignorance is bliss and lighter on the wallet.

Coffee Art

Well this is hot chocolate rather than coffee, but the effort is commendable. Little details can make big difference.

Ricoh Firmware update 1.40

Ricoh has been busy shopping, bagging themselves Pentax. How will the purchase pan out is still pretty uncertain as the process will only be completed in October 2011. In the meantime, the engineers have not sat idle, despite a devastating earthquake / tsunami that is also still reverberating throughout the Japanese society.

The biggest news is of course the official announcement of the M-Mount module. That is discussion for another time. For now they are tempting users, or rewarding early adopters for their patience.

I think the biggest highlight  is the following

1. Greater focusing precision now possible.
   • In order to increase the precision of manual focusing, the focus assist function has been added. Two modes can be selected, with the focus being checked by strengthening outlines or contrast.
   • It is possible to magnify the image while shooting to make it easier to focus. In addition to magnifying the central part of the image, it is possible to display the magnified area across the entire screen. The image quality for 4x and 8x magnification has also been further enhanced, and the area to be magnified can be moved with the directional pad.
   • A setting can be made to automatically eliminate the display magnification after the picture is taken.

The dismal focusing ability the GXR APS-C modules had in the early stages are virtually gone since the last few firmware updates. But it still cannot compare with dSLR in terms of speed and precision.

While the LCD screen is brilliant, focusing is still a bit of hit and miss at times especially with closeups. It is quite difficult to assess the point of focus accurately and I always hated the magnified view which only shows a small rectangle of highly pixelated image.

Now it comes with FULL screen magnification at full resolution. It is really much much clearer. The only problem is I lose track of the composition. Something easily solved with practice.

Catching up with video cameras, now they have focus peaking in 2 modes. In Mode 1, you see the full color image with the focused portion showing a glimmering outline. Mode 2 the image turns into a grey monochrome with glimmering edges in the focused zone.

It is an amazing tool in view of the relatively large apertures of the APS-C modules. The fly-by wire manual focusing is not precise or fast, but it is enough to get as close as possible. The limit to the focus assist function is in low contrast situation, especially with the A12 28mm. I still get some out of focus pictures when I thought it looked ok on screen.

This is of course a prelude to the long awaited M-Mount module where manual focusing is the only option. Still it is amazing that they updated for ALL the modules.

Ricoh Firmware 1.33 for GXR

It is nice to receive firmware updates for your toy that upgrade rather than cripple. Ricoh has been consistently doing that and for the GXR, it has been pleasantly surprising.

This firmware is not a big improvement compared to when the focusing speed was improved tremendously, but one might prove an asset for people who take pictures of their children or pets.
Just tested the Target Follow function and it seems to be working, but would need a real moving target to  fully test it out.
The extra scene modes are just bling bling for the camera, but hey, the GXR can be a little fun too.

Rolling

Rice flour. Water. Roll it.

That the basic premise of Chee Cheong Fun. This is the Ipoh interpretation. Mr Makansutra likes it and talked about it. I revisited this forgotten (by me) area of the Katong-Geylang Gastronomic District recently and "discovered" this.

Unpretentious street snacks are the offerings, Chee Cheong Fun the star, but they have things like Yam Cake, Ngo Hiong (5 spice rolls) actually in 2 versions. To wash it all down, Soya Bean drinks are the main choice.

I had the Yam cake which is tender and not mushy, no danger of your jaws being stuck. But once the first dishes arrive and eating started, I totally forgot the camera. So what you see is the Anson Special Chee Chong Fun and the Curry Pig Skin Chee Cheong Fun. Feel your arteries clogging yet?

Empty Seats

Ricoh GXR A12 Firmware 1.29

The biggest issue with the GXR A12 unit in the beginning was the focusing function. A few have totally no problem but most who use it complained about it. It wasn't about blurry pictures, it was a little trying when you watch the GXR hunting for focus on the beautiful high resolution view screen and your subject disappear out of sight.

Kudos to Ricoh engineers that they did not stop looking for a solution, but they were merely band-aid on a leaky wound. Then Firmware 1.29 arrived, it is a god-send. (But so very late for my last trip, arrgh!). It also made the beautiful view screen even better.

Running through the update, I came upon something interesting. This is strictly for the A12 50mm unit. Spot focusing now comes in 2 flavours: Normal and Pinpoint.

Normal is just normal. Pinpoint actually reduces the area of focus even further. This however slows focusing down, especially in non-macro mode. I think the purpose of this setting allows for very precise focusing in macro mode at the expense of speed. Coupled with adjustable targeting this would definitely help with macro work on tripod.

Top is Normal mode and lower is Pinpoint.

How do you carry your GXR?

Apparently the decision to buy a new toy can simply be determined by how you are going to carry it around. What about a camera then? With cheap DSLRs, there seem to be a trend of simply hanging it around the neck like a fashion accessory, but my neck would strongly disagree. Also the thought of swinging the camera around and getting knocked about really scares me.

The obvious answer is to get a bag, but which bag? Most camera bags are just either bulky or almost single purpose. I needed something all purpose to lug around the rest of my toys and things from real life, you know, like bills! When I am off work, I hate to carry a bag that screams LAPTOP INSIDE, or STEAL ME EXPENSIVE CAMERA.

I found an all purpose casual bag that suits me except it doesn't protect the GXR, fortunately salvation came in the form of a video camera bag from Case Logic. Actually I have 2 versions of it, the latest acquisition was due to the new 28mm camera unit. It comfortably carries the camera with one unit attached and the other unit free. However with the EVF attached, it gets really tight and I do worry about the stress on the hot-shoe, so no EVF. With the GXR safely cocooned, I can carry it in my man-bag (Don't call it a murse, please!).

Sorry I can't show you my main bag, but to give an idea of the size, I can just squeeze in an 11 inch MacBook Air broad side first. Of course when I do really own the 11 incher, I can report if it plays nice with this video bag.

Miscellaneous Ricoh GXR A12 28mm

When I first saw the 28mm unit, I wondered why they changed the lens cap design. It is actually an improvement but I still could not understand why this particular design until I had the one accessory for this unit. The LH1 lens hood looks cool attached and the rationale for the lens cap design becomes evident. Pretty ingenious and the bonus it can be used on the 50mm.
However it is not cheap to look cool, I got the hood for SGD 32 and not altogether sure if it makes a real difference to photos.

Peranakan Food

I simply love this snack/appetiser. Calling it a snack, doesn't do justice to the amount of work needed to prepare this. Perhaps that is why it is difficult to find a pretty decent version that is not going to empty your wallet as fast as you can eat it.

This latest offering I found is at the "Integrated Cafe" at the Le Peranakan Hotel, yes the one with the terribly addictive and sinful Lorong 29 Hokkien Prawn Mee. The owner looks and sounds like a Katong boy (we know who we are) and wields the wok as well as his iPad.

Kueh Pie Tee by Makan@Peranakan

They serve a portion of 4 for $3 in a plastic bowl. The bowl is definitely useful when assembling and frankly it's really not easy to carry this without toppling in a crowded food court.
I usually eat this in a single mouthful. Now before you start screaming, this is really the only way I know how to eat this delicate art work. Nibbling it I end up dripping all over my face, a really horrible sight.
I enjoyed this version, the shell is still crunchy, filling is not too salty topped off with the chili sauce that gives a hint of fire without overpowering the rest.
Definitely looking forward to savour their Nonya Mee Siam and Laksa, Nasi Ulam and Nasi Kunyit the next time.