Zuiko and Sports Day

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Friends in arms.

35mm, f/4.0, 1/160s, ISO800

A few weeks back, my daughter's kindy held a sports day at the MPSJ sports complex.

It was drizzling with rain when we arrived there, and the event was delayed by up to nearly half an hour. Knowing that I had to shoot this in the open, I opted for the Olympus E-3 with the Zuiko Digital ED35-100mm f2.0 lens. The lens gave me the distance coverage I needed as there was a large crowd of parents and friends encircling the telematches. I couldn't get close enough!

Boys Brigade provided the marching tempo

The old Zuiko motor was able to track the fast marching

On your marks!!

Hard at work collecting the bumper crop.

A medal for the effort!

There's nothing much to say, except that shooting in an uncontrolled crowded situation is very tough. Gotta be fast to get the best location. In this type of shooting, location, location & location is very important!!

Also, notice the compression effect in the pictures. Thanks to the sole usage of the telephoto lens, the effect of people bunching up together within the frame is further magnified.

And my son had a blast too playing with the umbrella!

Byee......

Zuiko and the Sony Experia X10

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For the past few weeks, I was busy with a new toy. Regrettably, I was left with little or no time to spend time with my Zuikos or even the nimble Canon S90. The Sony Experia X10, equipped with Android Donut 1.6, loaded with applications and features, was my focus of attention.

One of the nifty applications is the Retro Cam. I downloaded it last week, and got a good time playing with its 4 different camera effects. With the ability to hook the pictures directly with Facebook and Flickr makes my usage of this little contraption ever more worthwhile. The X10's 8MP sensor, with the right photographic situation, delivers enough resolution to rival the Canon S90.

Let's look at what the Retro Cam can do...

Effect with Xolaroid 2000 camera

High X-processing, blue/green cast, high contrast, glossy instant frame

Effect with pinhOle camera

Low saturation, multi-color swirl, medium-high contrast, full-bleed film

Effect with Little Orange Box camera

High X-processing, red/purple cast, high contrast, square damaged frame

Effect with The Barbl camera

Low saturation, red/purple cast, high contrast, square damaged frame

Well, the SE X10 won't be able to match the S90 overall output quality, or so much to challenge the Zuikos top notch optical performance. Nevertheless, the complete package offered by this smartphone is more than enough to not let me spend some time with other cameras. Nothing beats the instant capabilities to upload the pictures to Facebook and Flickr via high speed HSPA connection!

No worries, I will continue blogging away with regards to my Zuikos; but this new toy is so time absorbing!!