A Blast Autofocus System of The Panasonic Lumix LX-7

The Panasonic Lumix LX-7 is a very small & light compact camera with a wide lens of 24mm equivalent in 35 format. The body doesn't give a feel of solidness as it is made by hard plastic. But it gives advantage to its weight. The things I like from this wide maximum aperture of f/1.4 camera is the very fast autofocus and pleasant color JPEG rendering. The saturation boost so smooth so it is nice to stare at without neccesity to do the post proccess. The autofocus is very quick for still images even in dim light and so convincing in almost every situation. 

As you can see from the picture above, the blue sky is rendered so nicely even it is high saturated. And the 24mm of the wide end give advantage to this shot so I can take a full shot of the mosque tower and leaves framing.

And final note, the distortion is quite nice so you can use it for an architectural shot without hesitation.

The Awesomeness of The Olympus XZ-2

There are already many reviews about The Olympus XZ-2. It's a very powerful compact camera with a standard zoom lens with a bright maximum aperture of f/1.8-2.8 and metal body. It is a very great choices for traveller as the size is so compact and light while it has a very solid body and bright maximum aperture for shooting in dim light. But many competitors also have the same products which share the same specifications.

I'm not a reviewer who have adequate knowledge or tools to judge products. But i just want to share what I have experienced with. What to be underlined is this camera has a very great resolution and detail compared to its competitors in the same price range. Canon Powershot G12, Panasonic Lumix LX-7, Fujifilm X10, or the Nikon Coolpix P7000. It is only my subjective kind of taste, of course.

The photo above was taken with my Olympus XZ-2 at base ISO and tele end. The amazing thing was I used the 2x digital tele converter and crop it about 30% afterward. See that the detail still looks so convincing and the sharpness is adequate enough.

The weak side of this camera, at my copy, is the autofocus is sometimes difficult too lock focus at tele end indoor. 

Cityscape From Pedestrian Bridge at Metro Margahayu Bandung

Bandung city offers many cityscape spots as almost none for landscapes. From Twilight evening sky as a backdrop for vehicles lamp on the street to vintage buildings on Asia Afrika & Braga Street. Or Great Sunset and blue sky on Pasupati Bridge downtown. But I still can't manage to capture those. And just "satisfy" to get the view near home. And the favorit spot is the pedestrian bridge above Soekarno Hatta Street on Metro Margahayu, Bandung. View from about two stories above the street allow me to capture the flow of the traffic while sunrise or sunset become the sweetener. It is hard to find a clear view in Bandung morning nowadays. March and April still in rainy season. Usually we can get a very beautiful sky in a sunny morning after a rainy night. But not always. I just count on my luck, as I can only go for a photo hunt on weekend. If the magnificent clear view sky occurs on weekdays, then farewell to great photo. :). 

This is one of the capture. I manage to take this shot using an Olympus E-PL5 and a Micro Zuiko Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6, taken at about 10mm to avoid vignetting caused by the filter holder in front of the lens. As usual, a "5 stops" (2 and 3 stop) gradual ND filter used in this scene to balance the exposure of the highlight in the sky and shadow in the ground.

To use the gradual ND filter, actually we have to do the centerweighted metering to the sky and to the ground to measure the different exposures between them so we know how many "stops" we need for the gradual ND filters. But as I always only can manage to get the shot after sun is high in the sky, I convincingly always put the 5 stops in front of the lens. Exposure sets in manual mode and we use the ground metering measurement, with a little positive or negative tweaks according to condition occurs in the field.

But sometimes I used the aperture priority mode. I shut the aperture to make the speed slow enough to capture motion effect at vehicles on the street. And I override the exposure compensation to positive or negative until I get the desire effects. As I can't use a tripod, I always be careful to get a speed that won't result in blurry pictures. In my Olympus E-PL5, I still can manage to get clear shot at a speed of 1/2 seconds handheld at 10mm. Not a proffesional kind of techniques at all :).

The 3 photos above are using the tobacco gradual filter behind the 3 stops ordinary gradual ND filter. The tobacco itself behaves as an about 1.5 to 2 stops gradual filter with heavily "sunset color".

These are view to the west:

The last photo was taken at sunset with an Olympus OM-D EM-5 and Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 lens handheld.

And last but not least is the photo of the bridge itself :). 

My Favorit Landscape Spot in Bandung

Even Indonesia is an agriculture country, but It's hardly to find a large paddy field in the city of Bandung. Bandung is already transformed into metropolitant that everything seem to be crammed into one little case, so almost no room for open greenie space like paddy fields. You have to go a little out of the city to find ones. But as long as I noticed, there's one that quite large enough in Sekejati Street. The panorama quite nice in a good weather or if drama is performed in the sky. Because of this place only need 25 minutes walk from home, so I dedicate it as my favorite landscape spot. :)

Not bad for a paddy field lies in the city. See, that the picture can be interesting if drama is performed in the sky. So to make sure the drama is exposed properly, I used two gradual ND filters, that are 3 stops and 2 stops. I have to get advantage of 5 stops gradual ND filters because I always have to wait the sun out of the clouds hours after sunrise. Near sunrise, there is only blue or grey flat overcast sky.

Panorama shot using an Iphone 4S:

pictures are captured using my lovely little tiny but powerful camera. The Olympus E-PL5 and the Micro Zuiko Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6.

For the pictures above, I did heavily post process in Photoshop to "create" water and make reflections, as it is a lake not a paddy field :)