Pembelian kamera belasahan.

Sehari ni aku berangan beli kamera DSLR. Last2 aku amat berkenan ngan Sony NEX-5 yang berharga rm2.8k yang datang dengan dual lens for wide and macro (pancake? entahla). Itu pun pasal brader kedai was kind enough to guide me through DSLR cameras for noobs (and he was a Sony salesperson, so...).

Kenapa aku tak pasal2 nak beli natang ni adalah disebabkan beberapa faktor:

1) Brader yang aku lepak sejak kebelakangan ni (Mr. Lin), bagi aku main ngan Sony A55 dia. Aku suka how the camera behaves pasal rasanya lain daripada kamera2 DSLR lain yang aku main2 selama ni (like canon, nikon dan sebagainya. Maaf, tak ingat model). Plus you can camwhore with the A55.

2) Sempai sorang ni (Mr. To) banyak ajar pasal photography walaupun around 50% je yang masuk kepala aku. Senang cerita lighting penting. Abis cerita haha (mesti dia marah aku sum-up camnih).

3) Bebudak yang aku join ni semua tau basics of photography. So masuk kandang pedobear, kena la ikut pedobear.

4) Figma2 yang aku beli dari jepun (hiku daro!??) tu nak dibuatkan sebagai photography subjects.

5) Dan paling pentingnya, disebabkan oleh kamera fujifilm Z80 yang aku beli secara mendadak (衝動買い) masa kat akiba masa lepak ngan En. Az, Ms. E ngan Ms Lin pasal harganya 8000yen (equivalent to around RM300? but secara appreciation duitnya rasa cam RM80. Mana nak carik kamera digital RM80 beb!?). Secara kebetulan dapat shopping bag limited edition finepix tsukumo-tan ngan yamada-tan. Maa ii.

At first, I thought it was a bargain, since my original perception of digital cameras were that, camera models which were released last year would be "respectable" enough to take more or less standard pictures.

Which turned out to be wrong.

By the way, I bought this camera purely because it was 8000yen. Not because of its 14MPixel sensor or because of the limited edition shopping bag nor because of the cute color that came with it (picked lavender, btw). Didn't even test it before I bought it.

The first thing I noticed about the camera was that it had the same problem as my previous compact cameras (both canon IXY series) where the pictures tend to blur (bure) under low light conditions. Adding to the fact that I don't like using flash when I'm taking pictures (I prefer natural lighting), this camera makes no difference compared to my 4-5 year old IXYs.

The second thing I noticed was the OH MY GOD WHY U SO SLOW processing when displaying saved images. I mean, its kinda absurd. At that point, I finally understood why this camera was sold at 8000yen.

Btw, the fujifilm finepix Z80 was launched in august 2010, and its original price was 22,000yen.

In any case, I tried to make the best of it to do what I originally planned to do with it, which was taking pictures of puchinendos and figmas and whatnot (お前らが引かなかったら結婚してやるｗ). Results are:

化物語シリーズ(Z80)

*Pictures were heavily developed using Lightroom 3. exposure >+0.3, brightness/contrast +30/+20, luminance 80-100... blablablabla

For one thing, even with bright lighting, the camera fared badly. I had my light source like 10 centimeters away and it still won't take bright pictures. I had the camera on full auto btw (didn't know what settings to change, anyway).

And because of that, the focus was wayyyyy off. All subjects were either too soft or blurred.

And then there's this white dash of light (?) in just about every picture that I take, causing all my macro pictures to be white-balance-imbalanced. Whatever that means.

So from a noob perspective, this camera doesn't fare well with macro shots under simulated lighting. And I highly doubt that this would also be usable for night scenery as well.

Or maybe its just because I haven't gotten used to it and had some grease on the camera lens, so... who knows?

But frankly, I'd say that my iFong could take better pictures that this.

So I'll just give this little guy a little more time before I really move on onto something much more expensive. Provided that I still have the funds and the motivation to do so in the first place.