Sydney Taronga Zoo - 1

We are going to the zoo zoo zoo~ 

This cool looking train came while we were waiting for our ferry to Taronga Zoo, too bad this was not the one that we were supposed to take.

 

 
Taking a shot of Yenling.. while Mr Poser wanted to get into the shot too..

 

 
Sydney Opera House from the front. =)

 

 
Sydney City

 

 
Jetty of Taronga Zoo.

 

 
This way pleaseeeeeee

 

 

 
A little Rainbow along the way…

 

 
I think this is a diamond back python.. or something like that. Her addiction to touching wildlife.

 

 

 
See.. she is touching it again.. =) Haha

 

 
Too bad this is in an enclosure, She would have touched it if given a chance.

 

 

 
Komodo Dragon… This is damn huge..

 

 

 

 
Sailfin lizard

 

 
Jackson’s Chameleon

 

 

 
This eagle is damn cool.. oh ya.. anyway, its eating pigeon’s meat.

Road Trip – Port Stephen (Part 2)

Port Stephen – Sand boarding~!

Great fun. We went there early in the morning after taking photos at One Mile Beach and eating our Self-prepared breakfast.

 
Some other Korean tourists.

 

 
Met this girl called Samantha. Very very cute and nice girl… she gave us tips on sand boarding too.. cool. Not to mention Kok Ngee fell in love with her..

 

 
A look of how steep the dunes were… We had to climb all the way back up after each try.. freaking shag.

 

 
Samantha demonstrating to us..

 

 
Go. Go. Go.

 

 
Mahader with the magnificent view.

 

 
Samantha and her brother took a ride on the same board.. looks fun, too bad, our butts are too huge to try that now.

 

 
Kok Ngee posing for me.. hahaha.

 

 
Guo dong… ohhohohhh all the way..

 

 
Peiyun and Yenling.. too cold and tired to have any more rides.

 

 
The pit on the left is the steepest that we can try.. Its fun..

 
The 4WD that drove us from the beach to the sand boarding site.

 

 
Yenling and Guodong.. windy windy.

 

 
The beach is so far away.

 

 
Hiding away from the wind chill..~

 

After our sand boarding session, we headed off to look for the “BEST” Fish and Chips in NSW.

verdict: not too bad, but fish and co serves good fish and chips too..

 

Was walking around while waiting for my fish and chips to be prepared.. And took a few shots of birds.

 
Pelican – nice bird.

 

 
A pelican landing on water.

 

 

 

  
I like the reflection of the pelican.

 

 
Seagull resting and waiting for food.

 

Tomaree Hill

Hiking~!!!

 

 
A tiring climb up~!

 
The view was worth the effort.

 

 

 
Looking happy caused we are reaching the peak.

 

 
View from the peak.. AWeSome~! you have to be there to see it for yourself.

 

 
Mahader and Guodong

 

Too hot.. to put on our jacket.

 

 
You can try to find the lighthouse in this shot..Initially we planned to head there and try out luck to find some whales migrating.. but we don’t have enough time to do it.. Will definitely give it a try next time.

 

 
Boondelbah Island.

 

 
Nature’s Beacons.. interesting.

 

Went back to the beach for some sunset.

 

 

 
Lonely rocks.

 

 
The sun rays on the rocks and sand are magnificent.

A pano shot of the sunset that we saw to give you all a better view.

 

 
Setting sun

 

 
Yenling was slightly below me… Find this shot interesting cause it kind of show how vast this whole area was.. oh well..  nice~

Why Nikon?

People have been asking me why did I chose Nikon instead of Canon. To be frank, when I wanted a DSLR about 2 years ago, I wan thinking about the same question too.. Nikon or Canon?
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PnS (point and shoot), Prosumer, Hybrid, DSLR.. which should I get?

Which brand/model is better?

Which set up is cheaper?

Why are there so many people in Singapore using Canon? Are they really that good?

Which model feels better?

Is it hard to use?

and the list goes on…..

 

Oh well…. I am no guru in DSLR, but I will (with my own views) will share my thoughts with all of you out there who are interested.

Okay… Before I start, my lawyer (Mr Victor Wong) had drafted a disclaimer for me.
”All opinions and views expressed in this post are purely my own and are not meant to reflect the views of others.”

YEah..~! its my BLog~!

 

Types of Camera

PnS (Point and Shoot) or some called it Digital Compact Camera

Nikon Coolpix S8000 (Click for more info)

Of course there are other brands.. ( I put Nikon’s on purpose) So, what is so good about PnS/Compact Camera. For obvious reason, it is small, easy to smuggle into concerts and easy to bring around, some can take reasonably nice videos too.. However, if you have shaky hands, there is nothing much the sensor can do for you. =) Just bear with the blurry photos ok. =) ISO control in PnS is errr… crappy too.. Don’t expect too much from the sensor. There are lots of different add-ons from different brands and models. To me, this are just marketing strategy, cause most of the time you don’t use those functions and they don’t always turn out well.

Conclusion: Quality of photos are generally good what it is bright and sunny. Good for people who just wan to capture the moment and quality is not important to them.

 

Prosumer

Nikon Coolpix L110 (Click here for more info)

Okay.. So some people notice that they wanted something better, more zoom, more control, more bokeh effect, but think that DSLR is still too big. So they start to look at cameras in this area. Prosumer cameras generally give me better control, comes with aperture priority, shuttle priority and things like that. Personally, I tried a few models from Fujifilm and Canon, results are.. er.. so so? Until now I don’t understand how bokeh is done in such camera when there is no physical aperture ring in the lens (maybe there is which I don’t know). Can ask me if you are interested in how bokeh is achieved in DSLR but I won’t be mentioning here caused it would bring most people to sleep, too geeky. SSsooooooooo.. Bokeh is crap in prosumer. ISO control.. slightly better than PnS.. Zoom is far(reaching 600mm) for some.. but VR is lousy.. what’s the point of having a lot of zoom when the photos that come out are blurry right. =)

Conclusion: Acceptable photos when light condition is good. Aperture and shuttle priority mode doesn’t make good decision, so having more control doesn’t always give goo results.

 

Hybrid

 
Samsung NX10 (left) and Olympus E-PL1 (right)

Okay.. Better stuff. Hybrid.. Designers remove the Penta mirror/prism so as to reduce the size of a DSLR. So this is the “closest” to a DSLR. Its focusing and quality(varies with models and brands just like a DSLR) are good.

I tried the Nx10 before, it’s a really good camera. the only problem is its white balance goes abit crazy in low light. Other than that, users should also consider the type of lens that are available for hybrid cameras. Some are able to use DSLR lens with an adapter, some can’t. So, don’t be lazy and do some research. You probably have to spend the same as a DSLR. =)

Conclusion: It’s more compact as compared to DSLR. Quality are definitely better than a those mention above. However,  its choice of lens are very limited to my liking and I don’t really know how it will perform with an external flash is mounted on.

 

DSLR

Nikon D700 

Even better stuff~! DSLR

Extremely lots of control over your camera and the photos. DSLR ranges from less than a thousand to 13 thousands and more. The more you pay, the more you get.

More controls, more customization, better ISO control, better white balance, better image quality, crispy photos.

 

Ergonomics

Nikon and Canon are both good in my opinion. Each has their own ergonomics, different location of buttons and different ways my adjusting. So I feel you should always go down to a dealer and try out the different models and brands. Nikon’s knobs and controls are generally the same throughout, but canons varies a little. An example is the location of the on/off button on the camera. Nikon has it located by the shuttle button, but canon’s on/off button varies with different models. I am quite particular about the ergonomics of a camera as it’s important to make fast adjustment during shoot.. So, go out there, try it out and see which one feels good. For me, Nikon’s body feels good and I like the ergonomics very much. Some say its just a matter of getting us to it. I say.. I just love NIKON.

 

Image Quality

Image quality comes with the price of the body. So you get a better image sensor when you pay more. ISO control depends on the sensor, so do your own comparison between different model (shall not comment on it cause it really depend on yourself). The better the ISO control the lesser the noise. as you can see from my previous post, taken with a D700 with ISO 3200, a D90 with ISO 3200 definitely can’t give you that quality. Both Nikon and Canon are able to provide good image quality. But still~~~ To me, Nikon has a better ISO control =)

 

Price

Canon has cheaper lens as compared to Nikon. But, to me.. its not important cause the difference is not a lot. Body wise canon is a little more expensive I feel~ haha

 

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Having said all this… I hope it give everyone a better idea of the difference between different types of cameras. You may see that there are more canon users in Singapore. This could be due to better marketing, cheaper setup or even better cameras? hahaha.. I met a guy in Australia, he was from Melbourne and he told me that Nikon is a bigger brand there. So i guess it depend on where you live~  Depending on what you want, how much you are willing to spend and which you like….. GO try it out yourself and make a decision.

 

Okay.. that’s all for now…