Medium Format As The “One” perfect camera for hobbyist, feat 645Z and GFX50s

November 7, 2020November 7, 2020 ~ Marcus Low ~ Leave a comment

I must admit, I have been flirting with this idea for a very long time for my digital preferences. It has been around 2 months now ever since I started my One Camera One Lens restriction on using the film camera for a year. The idea is not entirely new as other people including the popular blogger Eric Kim advocated similar discipline.

You can check out some of the videos here, released on a weekly and bi-weekly interval, ads free and non-sponsored.

Covid-19 threw a big spanner on my plans as travelling even between district is now prohibited in Malaysia as part of the conditional movement restriction order. So with not much opportunity to finish up the 36 shots a week and while immensely enjoying the peace of mind with this approach I looked at my existing digital gears and wondered whats the point of keeping all the gears. If anything after a year, I am probably so sold on this restrictive approach that I wouldn’t ever need them.

medium format fujifilm GFX and Pentax 645Z portratis — Medium format 45 f2.8 / IG : sashaxuan / IG : changelivesimages

I took this discipline one step further and of today, I sold off my favourite EOS-R, Panasonic G9 and dozen of native lenses that worked on them. I kept the films few bodies that can work with exceptional lenses still in my dry box like the Otus 55 and several M mount lenses.

The result? A massive decluttering. Not only is the dry box having spare space, I realize all the spare items that was needed to support the existence of those items are not needed too. I ended up with 4 extra bags, 8 filters no longer needed (should have given it free with the lenses) and the same detoxifying effect on my mind.

I don’t need to think which camera to bring out when I need to shoot. When I need the film experience, 50F2 planar + Contarex. When I need the digital, BAM, here take this medium format camera and this lens.

Medium format 45 F2.8. I am a big fan of candid and realistic representation.

Photography, in terms of its role in our lives can be categorized into (3) three categories. You are either a professional photographers and makes a living in photography 100% (you would need whatever number of bodies and lenses needed for your job and this article would be moot), semi-commercial work of which you could de-clutter and like me, you could be someone who just enjoys photography passionately.

For us, hobbyists that enjoy photography and not so much about collecting gears, having a discipline of going out and producing amazing images while connecting with the community is the ultimate objective. It is what feed our addiction, shutter therapy and the sense of being part of something much bigger in purpose than the routine lives we see daily that are deeply driven by commercial motivation.

medium format fujfilm gfx for hobbyist — Medium format 45 F2.8. Beautiful gradation of a simple indoor scene of a hipster cafe in KL.

Now, here is the thing. I brought those lenses and gears to a contact of mine, Jeff Speaker and told him, “Here i am taking my 1 camera 1 lens further, take these and give me an evaluation” . Having a conversation with Jeff and the difficult situation the camera industry is in (Nikon Malaysia just closed its door), I am am prepared to a reasonable value and have no illusion about their worth being used. This means I would convert all these gears and lenses in my digital inventory into 1 Camera 1 lens.

Jeff came back with a trade in proposal instead. The big but in this trade-in scenario is that I was prepared to just use my existing Pentax 645Z as I still have 2 good lenses with it and it would be contradictory to my goal and direction to acquire more gears. The 645Z I had is the one tool that I would bring out when I need absolute quality and assurance in getting the images I want. I even brought it out to two overseas trip and no regrets on the weight. You can see some of my japan images, a friend I met-up in Tokyo and my wife in Khao Yai sunflowers farm.

Jeff’s proposal however make sense and I brooded over it for 2 days and agreed to it. He has a pristine used Fujifilm GFX50s and a 45mm F2.8 lens traded in by a customer for Leica or something. Bottom line, two bodies, dozen of lenses including some manual ones that I used with the EOS-R gone, a GFX + 45mm in. It dawned upon me, I am now left with just medium format cameras, the 645Z and the GFX50s and in a few months I might reduce them to One altogether when the 52 weeks is over or treat the other as a backup camera given that the sensor is the same Sony 50mp.

Would I have been happy having downsized to just the 645Z?, you bet. The GFX50s brings me closer to my current habit of packing 1 Cam 1 Lens and having no subscription to Photoshop I was eager to just use the Film simulation (cringe worthy but a lot of joy on the similar approach in my film camera experience)

fuji gfx medium format portrait — GFX50s 45 F2.8 – Classic Negative Simulation / IG : sashaxuan (Forbes 30 under 30)

medium format portraiture fujifilm gfx50s — GFX50s 45 F2.8 – Classic Negative Simulation / IG : missjoycelish

Look, I understand Medium format is expensive. I am totally advocating that anyone reading my blog here, if you have a decent camera since 2015, it is probably sufficient for all your use. The entire idea behind #jointherestriction is to move away from reading reviews of new camera gears, click baits in youtubes by influencers that peddles “this camera is the best camera yet”, instead go out and shoot. Spend on experience.

We are in the Era of disposable images and where lifecycle of digital cameras is just 1.5 years and that shiniest object you have in your hands that is worth 10k today is worth 2k tomorrow. Any investor would tell you, that is the worst investment ever. Buy used cameras for your upgrades and spend the extra funds on education, travel and props setup. If you are looking into Medium format digital, the 645D, 645Z and Fujifilm 50s is now available in the used market at prices lower than the latest Full Frame.

digital medium format photography using fujifilm gfx and 645z — GFX50s 45 F2.8 – Classic Negative Simulation, Realistic Skin Textures

Medium format totally works for me. If you are looking for reasons on settling for one, here are my reasons.

Depth Rendition

I love the tonality and quality it produces. The current sensor is just 0.79 bigger than the FF sensor but the results are significant. Images shot have better depth rendition, this is an overused term that can easily be explained. Just take a picture with your phone and at the largest aperture take a picture of say a cup. Notice the background blurring just 2-3 meters away compared to 10 meters are the same, the is absolutely no “transition” of depth between those distances. This is something IPhone’s fake rendition will never solve, neither will Huawai or any of those simulated depth regardless of who sold their soul and publish misleading youtubes on such features, they look absolutely fake and almost like a cut-out board.

Larger sensors allows much smoother transitions between distances. I am not referring to bokeh here but the depth rendition. This is also where i feel that plenty of test images you read on dpreview are totally missing the point by shooting on objects in similar focal plane.

digital medium format photography on gfx and 645z — GFX50s 45 F2.8 – Depth rendition

It is actually harder to produce high quality lenses for m43 like Olympus and Panasonic than to produce one for the Full Frame cameras. If you put in a FF lens into a m43 camera you will notice it does not produce the same excellent results you see on the FF camera when you pixel peep, unless the lens is of exceptional quality. This is why M43 system is at a huge disadvantage. They need to produce exceptionally high resolution resolving lenses while keeping the price low because consumers always compare them to FF. When you view mobile phone photos at 100%, you see the pixel quality are mostly junk but when you view m43 images, they look similar to those you see on FF, this is by no means an easy achievement by the m43 to appease the consumer’s expectations. You can check out the LPM measurements on micro four third lenses like those pro series, they often have to resolve “double” what is expected of a FF.

Now what has that got to do with Medium format? The opposite is true, you don’t really need a very high quality lens to fit the needs of the large sensor to produce very high image quality. The 645Z 75 F2.8 is crazy sharp and beautiful contrast yet it only cost USD 700, the results easily rivals a Summilux costing USD 7000 or more.

645Z 55mm 2.8 / ig : changelivesimages / sashaxuan

Image Pop Quality

This is an observable quality that is closely related to Depth rendition. Often we hear magical stories on how lenses produces images that just pops. Its pretty hilarious if you try to nail down the reasons behind them, personally I feel often it’s just the use of wide aperture and the contrasting colors between the subject and the background but some of my own images, I could not fit that narrative while still being awed by the results.

645z medium format portrait — 645Z 55mm 2.8 / mandaa.cme

Ergonomics

As an asian, my hands are not as large as my western friends, but holding a medium format camera just works for me. The 645Z in particular has such wonderful grip and buttons placed perfectly that I don’t need to spend any time looking at menus. The Fujifilm GFX50s grip is superb and I love the simple physical buttons that I could find and use quickly. In a way I am a sucker for ergonomics, that is also the reason why my other 2 late cameras that I sold was the EOS-R and the G9, both are the best in its class for ergonomics in my opinion.

Bigger absolutely works for me, but not when it is as big as say a 67 Mamiya Rz or Pentax 67 both which i once owned and I felt had terrible ergonomics.

What if you don’t need a medium format camera?

I have done some of my best albums on both film and digital on FF and proud of some that I did on the m43. Did I mentioned I used to have tons of gears and been cutting down ever since until now. So you won’t miss anything, whatever you have now whether it is FF, m43, APSC, digital or film you could go out there and produce amazing images and you should be doing just that.

Street Photography, Bukit Bintang {digital}

February 17, 2018February 17, 2018 ~ Marcus Low ~ 4 Comments

Streets, one of the unlimited source for shutter therapy. Bukit Bintang is a major commercial square in Kuala Lumpur. I come here nearly every week to either chill in a cafe or just to be surrounded with vibes of life.

Here, we have Pavilion, an upper end shopping mall very much like Giza in Tokyo and the flow of tourists goes from Pavilion -> Fahrenheit -> Isetan Japan KL.

(* All the images here are shot on 23 f1.4, Fujifilm with Acros film simulation)

street photography in malaysia — just do it, smoking

On that short stretch of walking pathway, you can find all sorts of cafe’s and side shops. Recently i noticed the following shops, a new bakery shop, taiwanese ice tea shop, two new ice-cream shops and a money exchange.

There are a lot of middle east people here too, in fact one could easily tell that two bigger cafes here are owned by them. A walk further from Pavilion and it becomes obvious that the locals no longer have a prominent presence here. Shishas, kebabs and massage services occupy the right side of the rows of shops, while the more hipster setups of shops are on the left.

street photography malaysia — A man and his phone

There are free buses that travel thru the main attraction in Kuala Lumpur between the commercial centres. From Bukit Bintang here, one can hop on to such buses and alight in KLCC (The Petronas Twin Towers).

I saw this man riding his bike to the side and took a few seconds to adjust his helmet. Usually these streets are packed like sardines, but because this week in Chinese New Year, a large percentage of the local chinese in KL have returned to the other states for family reunion and celebration.

This was taken just outside H&M near to Lot10, a much smaller mall that have lost its former glory and surviving due to its superb location. You will find plenty of tourists here taking selfies.

I often visits the hawker food at the lower ground level of Lot10 for some mouth watering local food. The basement of Lot10 only holds reputable hawkers stalls and is the brainchild of YTL (a strong developer company in Malaysia that flourished during Dr.Mahathir’s era). He even gave it a name “Hutong” and interconnects with Isetan Japan KL.

There are some peddlers hawking their wares along this walkway. The common items are bubble guns, umbrellas, fidgets and today i saw these led lighted balloons. They often cost just around RM10-20 (USD3-4) and the main clients are the kids tugging at their parents.

There is a MRT station here for Bukit Bintang and i usually take it to reach Pasar Seni (China town). As in anywhere else in Asia nowadays, you will see a lot of chinese tourists in Bukit Bintang buying original branded items here that are cheaper than almost any other country.

The structure on the left that in the picture above is the MRT station.

How do you like these images? Are these simulated film on fujifilm cameras good enough?

Medium format fun with RZ67 {portraiture|film}

August 6, 2017 ~ Marcus Low ~ 2 Comments

When the world first herald the end of film, film gears prices went downhill very quickly. Today, we no longer talk about “film is not dead” as a topic but rather whether one chooses “film” or digital as a choice of medium. The recent Rollei “Vario-chrome” was sold out all most as fast as it reaches the shelves, even if those are virtual shelves sold online.

If you wanted to try film, you should go ahead and try Medium format as those gears are just a fraction of its original cost and being medium format, you get huge “sensors” hahaha. These huge negative size produces really amazing and beautiful results even when scanned by the same scanner that scans the normal 135 film.

For medium format portraiture, i would recommend the Mamiya RZ67 and its legendary 110mm f2.8. So as per the style of my blogging, lets see some of the images i done for the last 2 months using the Mamiya RZ67 and films like pro160NS or kodak porta400.

This image barely got any editing, the model is a stranger i bumped into an offered her a makeup with an album. Her name is Kiwami and she is a local chinese in malaysia. Look at those faithful rendering of her hair and the skin tones on her, see how those highlight behind just falls in beautifully into the bokeh.

This is Amanda, a popular makeup artist in Malaysia, aka Mak3upQueen. This scene was shot at a rooftop around 630 pm and some of the sunset light are coming in. Just love those tones!

Notice that in the portraits above, Amanda wore red, a color that is often problematic to digital sensors even today. For film, its just a walk in the park. I must say, i wished the sunset golden light was better.

Blue are gorgeous on film too, even though its indoor. You can find out more about Mamiya RZ67 pro cameras from google and checkout its pricing in ebay/etsy or other online used marketplace. I personally went for the version 1, instead of the more expensive RZ67 proII. Hope you enjoyed the medium format portraiture samples that i took.

fujifilm GA645 review thru portraiture {review}

April 9, 2017April 9, 2017 ~ Marcus Low ~ 5 Comments

I was visiting a film lab in Publika KL last week and the owner offered to loan me a Fuji GA645 for my portrait works. I took the camera and did some googling. After reading a few reviews i was totally disappointed. Most reviews talk so much about the authors’ feeling on the camera but failed to show any interesting portraits or even images.

Here are some example of sites : filmshootercollective.com, dantestella.com , while they do contain some useful info about the camera and some nice photos of the camera itself, i came out feeling empty and hungry. Maybe its because i am into portraiture and the lack of such examples just doesn’t show the camera any justice.

Without any materials to draw inspiration from, i took the camera, a roll of kodak Porta400 220 and went shooting with Irene near bangsar at Plant Cartridge.

There is this idea that have been in the air for sometime about what kind of imagery can we create that would hit the mass appeal for “the perfect girlfriend impression”, to the asians. Reading up on some articles and some sharing of ideas with makeup artists like Megan, the suggestion is that guys prefer girls that are just simple, wears basic clothing that are comfortable, long hair (what?), slim and with a pleasant personality. Sexy elements such as showing strong curves and cleavages didn’t make it to the list. #pfibyM

Enjoy the images and do leave me a comment or two. All the images are shot wide open at 60mm f4, Aperture priority mode.

fuij ga645 portratis — beauty and flowers

fujiga645 medium format film — its summer

fuji GA645 full body portraiture — floral balcony

fujifilm ga645 outdoor solo portraiture review — hello

fujifilm 645 medium format GA645 portraiture — serendipity

fujifilm camera review medium format 645 — joy

fujifilm medium format camera gear view ga645 portraits — yellow bokeh

Film + Digital and why LCA120 should be avoided {glance review| sharing}

May 1, 2016July 10, 2016 ~ Marcus Low ~ 1 Comment

I going to be real blunt here even if that includes shooting myself on my feet. Having been thru several sessions and shooting both films and digital, it gives me the pleasure of filtering out the gems from the garbage.

First off let’s talk about LOMO LCA120. This is a medium format film camera that i bought after using the LCA+ for few weeks. My opinion was that if i had so much fun with LCA+, LCA120 would be worth the purchase. My opinion now is that it is a camera that should be avoided. Like many others i read phoblographer’s raving review on LCA120 but here are some reasons why i am find it off my recommendation list.

4.5 is a slow for the LCA120, the problem is the shutter button, unlike the LCA+, the button on LCA120 is challenging to press. Makes me wonders what got into Phoblographer for even recommending this camera. While the LCA+ have an aperture of f2.8, its usability was decent. On a light plastic camera like the LCA120, its horrible. Don’t expect to use it anywhere except bright outdoor or tripod.

LCA120 auto exposure (note the distortion pillar)

At f4.5 the autoexposure is crap when used on a medium format LCA120. Vignetting on a medium format is just silly when you have to pay over USD 400. When phoblograher says this is best for street shoot, i think what he means is this is only usable for bright, outdoor street. period.
Distortion everywhere. See the picture above, notice how distorted the pillar is. Unless you are shooting infinite all the time, expect all kinds of distortion on this Minigon 38 f4.5 lens.

So get yourself the LCA+ from the same LOMO company and ditch any idea to buy the LCA120. I have a LCA120 totally like new now with all the original box and packaging if you want to give it a go, make me an offer. But my conclusion is that LCA120 is best used as a prop not as a photographic tool, its defnitely nowhere as fun or as useful as the LCA+ .

When you own and major in shooting film, sometimes the digital itch rears its head and i digged out whatever digital camera that is left with me to bring to a shoot along with my film gears. The picture above is taken with FZ1000, took me like 2 seconds to take it and 10 minutes to post process it with a barrage of mix presets from VSCO. You know that saying “Once you go film you can’t go back” …it’s true (though i made up this quote). I find digital output a bit too clean and not a single picture i took ever since was released without post processing them with grain. If you like film grains, use the Color EfexPro, its not just adding grain blindly, its adding them like how a film would have them.

Film gears comes in two flavours. The Autofocus and the manual ones. The F100 that i use for this picture is autofocus and it works with any lens created for Nikon F mount as well as older autofocus lenses such as the “d” lenses. While i do enjoy shooting film manually, sometimes its a joy using autofocus when you want to lean your thoughts more towards results and yet enjoy the beautiful tones from professional grade films like Porta or Fuji Pro.

nikon D610, sigma 50 1.4 — nikon D610, Nikon 50 1.4 D.

I have sold off my Nikon D610 too to a good friend, at a huge discount. During my ownership of the camera, i often spend way too much time processing the output into film hence i rather use F100 for my projects. Example above is a result of processing with VSCO AGFA preset .

These last 2 pictures are taken on the Fuji XA2 and 16 f1.4 fujinon lenses using in camera film simulation of FujiChrome. The still look digital to me, but the film simulation provides a closer gap between film and digital.

I will be going on a trip to Croatia soon and after much pondering, i will bring the fuji with f1.4 over. It is a family trip and travelling light is the priority. I do find myself mulling over this decision and thinking of ways to fit in one of my film gears with me, perhaps the Leica M7 with 35mm zeiss.

Elaine + Eilein {Portraiture|Fujichrome}

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016 ~ Marcus Low ~ Leave a comment

12419141_1036290019751903_6008699854051813097_o — Elaine. 16mm f1.4. Fujichrome.

I gave in to the alluring temptation of trying out the FujiChrome film simulation. How did this happened? Ever since i sold off all my full frame digital cameras like the leica ME and Nikon D610, i had only the d3000 nikon, F100 nikon film camera, a FZ1000 bridging digital 1″ sensor and two M7’s, a Bessa R3m and a Hexar for my M mount lenses. So you can see its 90% film cameras.

Shooting film been great and i truly enjoy photography and slowing down so much. However there are some films that are no longer in production and as i scoured through the internet looking at the tones and feel of some of these bygones film, i came across discussions about Fujifilm’s simulation of FujiChrome.

12973332_1035711023143136_7922377686190040153_o — 16mm f1.4

Fujichrome only exist in digital today, to be exact, it exist only as a jpg output on a digital Fuji camera. I resisted the idea of buying another camera since the whole exercise been done with and i could finally have “peace” 😉 but days of looking at the FujiChrome samples got the better of me. I went out and acquire a Fuji X-A2, the entry level Fuji, a M to Fuji adapter to use my M mount lenses and a 16mm f1.4.

12957584_1035711043143134_1593504534350072355_o — 16mm f1.4. Shot at around less than 1 meter away. FujiChrome

It happened that two of my friends are coming down to Kuala Lumpur, two very attractive friends that is. So i took the opportunity to use the FujiChrome simulation and 3 lenses to produce some new albums. The lenses are 40mm 1.4 Voigtlander M(60mm on fuji), 28mm F2 Ultron (42mm on fuji) and 16mm f1.4 Fuji native lens.

The 16 f1.4 is an amazing lens. It could focus as close as 5 cm away and have shallow DOF for full body portraiture at a close distance.

12671878_1035076243206614_2802173355267589020_o — 28mm f2.0 (42mm) Astia film simulation. Eilein.

I switched to Astia film simulation while using the manual 28 mm f2 (42mm) to see if it gets me what i want. I would say the results are good but i still prefer the FujiChrome tones. On the Fujifilm X-A2, i am unable to have the other film simulation like Acros but since the X-A2 is using a conventional CMOS sensor instead of the Xtrans II, i didnt need to waste time on my LightRoom, almost all the pictures you see here are cleaned up from its JPG instead of raw.

12795014_1035070719873833_5661151109437052069_o — 28mm f2 (42mm) Astia film simulation

12900974_1035093299871575_1239138289526073145_o — 40 mm f1.4 (60mm) FujiChrome

Just look at those beautiful FujiChrome tones. I can only wonder what if the film still exist today, how much more different can it be apart from actual film grains. Using 40mm f1.4 mostly for the rest of the images here, I realized that focusing on Fuji is easy and you can magnify a moveable focus point to aid in the focusing.

12916963_1035090546538517_5190336752251645578_o — 40 mm f1.4 (60mm) FujiChrome

Eilein have a beautiful visage and a taller than normal asian nose bridge. Shooting her portrait from the side angle highlights her features while the interesting light at 8 am brings in some drama to the image.

12961219_1035093129871592_8468186931039378497_o — 40 mm f1.4 (60mm) FujiChrome

12967278_1035093426538229_5480706258524138788_o — 40 mm f1.4 (60mm) FujiChrome

12970917_1035094043204834_82436813513083820_o — 40 mm f1.4 (60mm) FujiChrome

12901141_1035068506540721_7976313371188924358_o — 28 mm f2 (42mm Fuji) Astia film simulation

I hope you enjoyed this series of mine. Overall i feel that Fuji did a very good job bringing FujiChrome film simulation to the public though i believe it still looks very digital in comparison to my other actual film albums.

Analogue vs Digital, a glance reading {film|portraiture}

February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 ~ Marcus Low ~ 5 Comments

Which one is digital and which one is film? You have 5 seconds.

There is 80% chances you will guess right. While this comparison makes no sense given the different dof and the variation of expression, I would like to draw your attention to the “feel” that you get when looking at the images on the left and the right.

There is just more “life” on the image on the left. The whiteness of the dress, the shadows and tones on the face and the overall mix lighting being captured. The one on the right was taken instantly, immediate gratification of image making. The one of the left took me 4 days to get it back. When i look at these pictures, i could feel that i recognize in a very natural way, Rachel Liu in her posed smile (she is not a model btw, just a friend joining me for a cup of coffee). While the picture on the right, though taken with a better angle for a sharper face and looking pretty, lacks that “life” that is often in digital images.

Here are more images taken casually on this “cafe moment”.

I remember setting the speed at 1/250 for this shot, knowing that i would not get her face lighted up but preserving the natural shadows and tones as it is. A candid pose taken on film might seems to be a waste of cost and film but if photography taught me anything so far, its often that the candid shots are the best and most deserving whatever cost needed to capture it.

This image portrays Rachel in a relaxed pose. I waited for some seconds and when i noticed that she exhale and begin to be less “posed” i took the shot. The dull stare of her eyes, not fixated or rigid is exactly what how anyone would looked like if a camera is not pointing at the face.

The last image for today’s sharing. A candid smile, awkward but real.

Chinese Vintage Story {film}

February 14, 2016 ~ Marcus Low ~ Leave a comment

It’s been an exciting week for me. Each roll that was uploaded to my Google Drive by the film lab never fails to surprise me.

On the 13th Feb decided to try doing a roll on fuji superia 200, a relatively budget film that works very well on Asian skin tones.

I went to the same temple and did the shots with miss woh yon, a pharmacist friend I met few years back when she did freelancing modeling.

The joy of shooting film is in the sum of its experience. The uncertainty of each exposure I took given the limitation of 1/1000 max shutter on broad daylight and the challenging indoor ambiance.

I shot everything manual.

The analogue tones are just so beautiful. I actually tried duplicating these tones on vsco two months back by selecting Superia, utterly time consuming and disappointing. There is just no way to get the same feel.

The shot above is a bonus to me. It was pretty dim inside and I shot it at 1/15 and expected the results to be blurred or shaky. Maybe the cloth shutter on Leica M7 is more than meet the eye.

Feel free to ask me anything if you would like to try film. It’s not a superior medium by any means and I totally don’t recommend it for product or commercial studio works.

But… if ur feeling an artist block and you need inspiration. There is no better route. Trust me.

The temple {street photography | film}

February 11, 2016 ~ Marcus Low ~ Leave a comment

So i had this chance of visiting a temple near Petaling Street during this festive Chinese New Year. Brought some Fuji superia 200 with me and was curious as to how the images would turn out given that the ambiance is challenging and its background layered with vintage feel.

I am very happy with the results. It feels so analogue, so natural. All these images are taken on a 35 mm Zeiss f2.0. In the temple there are many other photographers, all trying to bring back some nice scenes. It was nearly impossible to frame any shot without capturing another fellow shutter bug in it.

All these images are unedited as is straight from the lab, with just some cropping done on this “canon” picture. I noticed most of the photogs here are just waiting for someone to pray at the altar so that the smoke from the incense will rise up and meet the sunlight that crept thru the side windows.

This young man happened to be wearing yellow and i got my shot taken.

As i left the temple, i noticed many beggars are sitting near an old concrete stairs almost in a line. It is not a sight i am proud off and its hard to think of the kind of lives they lived on a daily basis. These people comes from all walks of lives and some are just odd jobb workers that hope to get some “ang pao” red packet, some are hardcore beggars, no one is proud to be begging.

Hope u enjoyed my photos, no models this round.

Bicycles, Pretties and Vintage Cameras

August 21, 2014August 21, 2014 ~ Marcus Low ~ Leave a comment

Fujifilm Superia 200, 1/500s f2 Kodak RetinaII (type 011) — Fujifilm Superia 200, 1/500 f2 Kodak RetinaII

Using the old kodak camera, i noticed most of my photos are over cropped at the bottom, this is one example of accommodation that you need to get used and mentally fix it during composition.
Its bound to happen, putting bicycles and babes together given that society nowadays are more health conscious and going green than ever. I went to this event to show support for a fellow model friend and brought along just One (1) fujifilm superia 200.

Focusing a moving object is not easy at all, but fun and a great way to master the rangefinders. Due to the limitation of the shutter speed on this vintage camera, the maximum i had is 1/500 on the iso 200 film (ouch). I was kinda surprised that film held so well in overexposure.

I must admit, shooting film slows down “tremendously” my style and speed. If the Leica folks thinks that using an digital M slows down the process and is a good thing, they should seriously consider film, probably comes out from 100 session with some cash savings than splurging on the digital bodies.

I currently have in my possession the Mamiya 645E Rapid camera. If that sounds like greek to you, its just a Medium Format camera for film. Digital MF costs around USD 10k for the cheapest one in town (Pentax 645z), film ones cost you a fraction of that. In my first two(2) attempt to use it however, i kinda screw up the roll. I am quite baffled by the following facts that i encountered while using it :
1. Tons of videos on how to “load”, but nearly zero on how to “unload” film from it.
2. Almost none mentioned that you need to crank up the film until “1” after loading the 120 film (120 film is the format for Medium Format 645)
3. The saying that “you will always screw up the first roll” is true.
4. Mr.Khoon of Bang Bang Geng in Publika is actually quite a nice and helpful person. This shop btw is where is sent my negatives for processing in KL,Malaysia.

There it goes, my first roll of film on an event. As i wrap up this post, my thoughts goes to Lee Lit Min’s parents and family, he is my best friend during my early days of school in both primary and secondary in St.John, an avid Nikon photographer and true genius. I will always remember u, dear friend.

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Depth Rendition

Image Pop Quality

Ergonomics

What if you don’t need a medium format camera?

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