huzaifayamin

give way to the abandoned

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:32:00 +0000

In the last few months, I've been thinking of selling quite a few cameras from my collection. Most are manual focus cameras. So far only two had been sold, Yashica T4 and Yashica Mat 124G. What a coincidence that both are made by Yashica.

Only the Yashica T4D is the auto-focus camera and the reason why I sold it because of its tricky shutter button. Sold it to a girl who also owns a Fuji Tiara. Hopefully the camera will be given a good care and use.

The other Yashica which is a medium format 120 film camera, is still in progress of selling. Only waiting to be taken by the buyer. I'm quite sad to let go this camera especially after looking back at the photos produced by it. All I can say is the square format is unique. And this doesn't apply to my Holga 120CFN. The main reason must be the sharpness of the Yashinon lens. The only things that set me back from using this camera are the manual focus using those big viewfinder which is quite difficult to use under bright sun. Then of course it's heavier than compacts and the broken exposure meter which made me bring another digital camera as a reliable meter than sunny 16 rule.

the best of Yashica Mat 124G

The other cameras that I had considered to sell was Olympus Trip 35 and Nikon FE2. The latter was kept for its being my first SLR and of course the quality of an old Nikon. Meanwhile, the Olympus Trip 35 never got a buyer for quite some times already.

a visit to National Art Gallery (Balai Seni Lukis Negara)

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:30:00 +0000

This sculpture can be seen from the main road

Art cabin along the road to/from Istana Budaya

Sculpture on the rear entrance

The front entrance to National Art Gallery

This is my first visit to National Art Gallery at Jln Temerloh in Kuala Lumpur. Known in Bahasa Malaysia as Balai Seni Lukis Negara, it sits just next to Istana Budaya or National Theatre where it functions as a venue for performance arts especially theater, orchestras and etc.

I'm eager to visit because at that time, there's an event ongoing which is the the Art Book Festival. From 1st to 15th December 2011. I've visited on 11th. Nothing much to say about the event, there's a booth for books, a live painters, and some seminars.

What I'm attracted most is the interior designs of the building and the arts on show. Almost every staircase was decorated with art. Where most people will use the centre spiral walkway to floors, I doubt many people will know about the arts on the staircases.

On this visit, I mainly use my Olympus mju II with Fujifilm Pro400H.

One thing to note, this building seems like old building and not maintained properly on the outside.

on my way back home, typical crawl traffic jam in Kuala Lumpur in weekends

eid-fitr @hometown

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:55:00 +0000

Eid-Fitr Holiday - hometown - Holga 120CFN - Kodak Ektacolor 160

Holga July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:41:00 +0000

My latest photo from Holga 120CFN. Shooting past afternoon gave underexposed photos, and how do I forgot that mine have color flash (CF)? Next time I'll use the color flash esp indoors.

Over-thinking!

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:58:00 +0000

image from http://uhohdisco.com/blog/2010/07/23/stop-thinking/

Most recently, I'm very much curious about my surroundings and foreign matters, histories and conflicts. All fueled by the recent natural disaster (for the case of reading local NZ and JP news) and based on article posted in the internet thru my feeds (RSS on my Google Reader).

However knowing something doesn't always good for us. It is good to know about something but not putting the knowledge into something practical in our life will become useless. Somehow it will help us to be more open minded and contribute to problem solving skills.

As I search in the internet about this, I believe the term to be used is over-thinking. Worst is that you wondering around much of your time thinking about something that is meaningless. This article is very interesting and helps me a lot in understanding the situation. -> 9 Ways To Stop Overthinking Everything

Some of the points discussing about time. If I'm accompanied with other things such as watching movies, television, meeting people or any other activities, the possibilities that I will over-thinking will be low. That's how my habit stops about a year ago when I'm busy with jobs.

And taking advantage of your over-thinking habits into a project will benefit you a lot.

PJ (Petaling Jaya) Walk around

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:06:00 +0000

This is my first time walking inside Petaling Jaya (PJ) New Town Centre. Been there before once but hardly know where it is at that time. Also drove thru this town but never intended to stop. This time I just want to walk around the town knowing it existence and to sees what it's look alike in the weekend's morning (not that early morning but still before noon).

In the centre of the town is the MBPJ Tower built in 1987. From the look of the buildings around, the design is somewhat from the early modernization/urbanization of Kuala Lumpur. I'm quite like the way they built this tower, it sits one floor lower than the surrounding buildings. It's like an exposed underground floor.

Another big office building, PKNS Tower next to PJ Police Station

Evidence of an old spelling on signboard. Kelinik means clinic in English. Modern Malay language spelling is klinik, 'c' in English is spelled as 'k'.

Jabatan Kimia Malaysia (Chemistry Department of Malaysia). Forensic sign also visible on the building.

Rounded corner of Standard Chartered Bank building

Yashica Mat 124G and Yashica T4D

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:05:00 +0000

Some readers might be aware that my love for my recently purchased camera was not as much as my other cameras. I want to state here that IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OPTICS, but more on functionality, ergonomics and user friendliness. Those recently purchased camera namely Yashica Mat 124G and Yashica T4D, have great image quality if everything is perfect from focusing, lighting and exposure. I’ll explain one by one.

Yashica Mat 124G

It’s a TLR camera. Being a TLR camera means bigger than point and shoot (p&s) camera and of course heavier. However it’s still small and lighter than Rolleicord. Image quality was great and mentioned almost everywhere you can found on the internet. I did say that there’s nothing special about the image, I WAS TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT IT. When I examine the image carefully, it was very sharp. However some of the photos were ~~seems to~~ overexposed ~~and bleeding (I’m not sure how or why, but it seems like some of the sharp line is bleeding)~~. Overall the image quality is great. On the ergonomics, this thing is heavier than ordinary compact camera or SLR. Composing a picture with this will require a bit more time and effort than compact camera or SLR. It will also be difficult to look into the viewfinder under bring sun. Mine got a broken meter so at first I did use my SLR to meter first. Then I found a DIY light meter and try to only use it, although the photos came out not pretty much accurate.

My suggestion for this camera is to use it under a controlled environment. Be it in a studio, indoor with enough lights or shaded outdoor portraits. Use it with a tripod and timer or shutter release to make it more stable thus reducing shaking. So far I only use it to capture landscapes and street photos. I never tried portrait which is more suited to the lens range.

Yashica T4D

Marketed as “Fast, sharp and deadly accurate – The Eagle Eye”, this camera never short or surprise. From the tag line, I only agreed with ‘sharp’. Is it deadly accurate? Might be true for the lens but not for the AF system. Being fast is not enough if it’s not focusing correctly. On my first roll, 9 out of 36 photos are usable. Others just focused where it should not be. Even if the centre point got object in it, out of nowhere it was focused at back. Seem like the shutter button late at activating the focus mechanism. Luckily my second roll of film did a bit better with more than half of the photos are usable. Mostly because of far focusing distance, landscape photos. On the bright side, I believe that is the best I can get from T4D. So real, and looks like it came out from a SLR. Other comments include hard-to-press button and loud mechanical-alike noise when pressing any button including the shutter button.

I can only suggest to myself to sell this camera. Learning to get the most out of this camera will take some times. I’ve read on the internet that the shutter button is tricky and you need to half pressed it several times just to make sure it remember the focus point, resulting in better photos of my second roll of film. Taking into account of the bad photos will just add more frustration to me.

2nd outing with Yashica Mat

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:08:00 +0000

This may be the last outing with my Yashica Mat 124G TLR camera. I will not bring it out on an outing again for certain reasons. The first reason is the physical of the camera. Being big and heavy compared to Holga for instance (since both are medium format camera), it’s tiring and a bit messy when used together with some other cameras which I like to do. Second reason is depends on individuals and the condition of the camera, it’s the image from the camera. I found nothing special about the image other than square format. Maybe I’ve favoured the vignette of the Holga a lot.

So I’ve decided not to use it for fast paced street non-tripod photography. Using it demands patience and perfection. Or maybe I’ll just sell it because I’ll not use it often.

On this outing about a month ago, I’ve walk from Dayabumi Complex – Agro Bank - Textile Museum – Restoran Warisan - Kuala Lumpur Library – Merdeka Square – City Theatre - Masjid Jamek.

Other than Yashica Mat, I also brought Olympus Trip 35 and Holga. 1 rolls of film each on Trip 35 and Holga and 2 rolls on Yashica Mat. This walking route was suggested in DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Malaysia and Singapore. The route as follows: from cyan dot to red dot (Copyright © 2008 Dorling Kindersley Limited, London)

the rest of the photos

The Historic Mercedes-Benz Concours 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Wed, 18 May 2011 07:39:00 +0000

This gathering of classic and new Mercedes-Benz held on May 8 at Palace of The Golden Horses, Seri Kembangan Selangor. Each cars was categorized based on their era. It started from 10am to 5pm.

Several cars caught my attention includes SLS AMG, SLR McLaren, 190SL, 220S, W120W/121 and 170

You can read a more detailed reporting from Malaysian most popular car blog Paultan here:
Historic Mercedes-Benz Concourse 2011 – a great display
and photos from my flickr set:
The Historic Mercedes-Benz Concourse 2011

Ilford XP2 Super 400 on Nikon L35AF

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sat, 07 May 2011 17:41:00 +0000

I had used only two black and white film; Ilford FP4 and Ilford HP5. FP4 rated at 125 while HP5 rated at 400. I always use at the recommended speed. Though for this Ilford XP2, I guess the first 10 exposure was stepped down to 200 just because I forgot to change the ASA on the camera. It’s Nikon L35AF, so you need to change the ASA manually and it’s located around the lens. Furthermore I got UV filter attached so it’s even easier to miss out the ASA setting.

Compared to my previous bw film, this Ilford XP2 is not a traditional bw film. A traditional bw film use a different processing than color film. The Ilford XP2 need to be develops with color process (C-41). It really looks like a color film converted to B&W. Smooth grain and nice tone.

I did some basic editing on color, contrast, level and some applied with medium contrast. All was done in adobe photoshop.

more photos here: Ilford XP2 Super 400 set on my flickr

Camera-wise, I will always be surprised with the results. Previously when I did my 1st roll on Olympus mju II, I’d say that Nikon might be slightly better with L35AF. Both were sharp but my eyes still prefer Nikon L35AF for a satisfying result. Overall Olympus is the one to choose for its smaller size and a bit better on features as well as being newer than Nikon.

Location: Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Jln Bukit Bintang, Carrefour Kota Damansara, IPC (Ikano Power Centre) and Damansara Perdana

test roll on Yashica Mat 124G TLR

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:47:00 +0000

This month was a shopping spree for me. Previously I bought Holga 120CFN, then Olympus mju II and now Yashica Mat 124G. It's a medium format camera, like the Holga. TLR means twin lens reflexes. It got two lens in front, the upper for viewing the subject and lower lens for taking pictures. The viewfinder is big and but shows a mirrored image which is confusing at first.

This model come with a exposure meter, but on mine, it's broken. So I did bring my slr to assist on the exposure. However it bother me a lot because my slr is big (Nikon D90), so as the Mat. So I searched for an alternative and found a DIY printed exposure meter. Here's the link:

Exposure-Mat - Free Light Meter
Universal Pocket Exposure Calculator
Squit Photo Exposure Calc

And here's the photos from my 1st outing with Yashica Mat 124G. The best four photos. It actually shot on the same outing with my Holga with its 2nd roll of film.

The image was very sharp and very much different compared to Holga.

If you can cope with reversed image in viewfinder and shooting from the hip this will be the camera for you. Plus all people will look at the camera because it's very unique.

If you want medium format but not comfortable with shooting from the hip, you can try some medium format SLR like Pentacon Six, Pentax 67, Hasselblad or Mamiya and other few models.

2nd roll on Holga 120CFN

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:24:00 +0000

You might wonder why I skipped the 1st roll. My first roll was not interesting. I did some mistakes, and very bad subject selections. The camera itself is wonderful, sharp at the center and dreamy towards the edge and of course vignette. Here’s my best shot from the 1st roll. Around Damansara Perdana, just further up a bit from Mutiara Damansara, Selangor, Malaysia.

I’m pretty sad at first with the result. The 2nd roll was quite a surprise for me. I’m amazed and fell in love with it. Summing up all the easy handling with common sense focusing and furthermore the Holga got very limited choice of shutter speed made a perfect unpredictable photos.

Here's the mosaic of my 2nd roll on Holga. Location: around Pavilion, Jln Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor.

1. _CNV000001, 2. _CNV000002, 3. _CNV000004, 4. _CNV000005, 5. _CNV000006,

6. _CNV000007, 7. _CNV000008, 8. _CNV000009, 9. _CNV000010, 10. _CNV000011

Till now I only shot medium format with Kodak Ektacolor Pro160. I heard that Fuji Pro 160S is might even better and it’s available at my favorite shop for extra MYR1.50 than Ektacolor. I need to test the Fuji Pro 160S, this might be the only film I need. And probably Fuji Superia 200 for budget film on my 35mm.

1st roll on Olympus mju II

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:59:00 +0000

Last Saturday I did my 1st roll on my newly bought Olympus mju II. I'm thinking of going out to Kuala Lumpur city in the morning. Not that early around 10-11am. My target is along Jln Tun Perak all the way to Pudu Plaza.

Accidentally I found this great spot to view KL Tower. It is from Jln Bukit Ceylon. A small hill right next to Bukit Nenas of KL Tower.

I park next to Maybank Tower and walk all the way along Jln Tun Perak till Jln Tuanku Abdul Rahman, then walk till the Jln Bunus junction into Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jln Melayu and back into Jln Tun Perak to the starting point.

Here you can see a lot of old buildings and stalls along Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jln Melayu.

1. KL Tower, 2. Maybank Tower, 3. Leboh Ampang, 4. Jln Tun HS Lee

futurama figurines

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:04:00 +0000

I found this using stumbleupon. by immiketran. here i combined his best shot to a mosaic using bighugelabs mosaic maker

1. Futurama Crew, 2. Fry, 3. Bender and Zoidburg, 4. LeelaNibbler

it's been a while

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 09:44:00 +0000

It's almost 9 months since my last post here dated 4th July 2010.

So what have changed so far? We skip anything that was openly discussed in the net. I'm working with a new company now since end of January 2011. Not much different from my previous job but this one is less stressful.

For my photography life, I've added some accessories (flash gun: Nikon SB600) and two more cameras namely Holga 120CFN medium format and Olympus mju II a.k.a Stylus Epic in some region

Both were great, actually less for the Holga because I'm still yet to find a good picture out of it. If things go smoothly I'll be having another camera, a TLR, Yashica Mat 124G.

Tamron 17-50 VC

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:32:00 +0000

My 2nd new lens. 1st is Nikon 50mm f1.8d. This Tamron has constant aperture of f2.8 which is fast enough for outdoor and indoor though not as fast as prime lenses. Coupled with VC (vibration compensation) aka VR (Nikon) or IS (Canon). The mount on this lens is metal, considering its price and performance. Build quality also top notch. This is actually my first fixed aperture zoom lens, perviously all my lenses is kit and a couple of 50mm (Nikon E series and AF-D). So far I'm quite happy with this lens. I'm yet to fully test it. Just I thing you might take note is that the VC is not as quite as we hope, which is for me its OK because more or less I'm not gonna concentrate on that noise when taking photos.

Attached here is the lens, also compared to 70-300 non-VR and 28-80. And the last one is the sample shot from this Tamron 17-50 VC.

new photos, civic eg

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:21:00 +0000

Some new photos of Honda Civic EG, 2 more at my flickr

eyes over here!!

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:16:00 +0000

nice one! :D

money in photography?

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:27:00 +0000

there's money in cameras but there's even more money on the photos taken with a camera by a good photographer

A month with Nikon 50mm f1.8d

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:10:00 +0000

Now I've owned my 50mm f1.8d lens for about a month. I think I love it more than my other lens except the other 50mm that I have. Which is AI-S 50mm Series E. Some important point I got after using this lens:

50mm on DX was not bad - But I would love to accompany it with a 35mm or other wider prime lens
Using fast lens is addictive - It makes me feel slow zoom lens was very slooowwww
Prime lens is good - I mean really good. But I'm yet to experience pro zoom lens, which might change my point.
Wide is useless unless for you use it for architecture, group shots or landscape.
If things going pretty good, for now 50mm is enough for me.

office or hill of happiness?

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:57:00 +0000

what i can conclude from above comic is

"going to office was easy but there's no fun in it, but going to the hill of happiness (life maybe) was hard but worth it"

but I think there's another description of that comic strip.

at last

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:09:00 +0000

after some busy weekends, almost a month I didn't really serious in taking photos. and this weekend i try to bring my camera during my weekend at office. and it paid me well though. with only 50mm on the d90 body.

this week ends peacefully

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:24:00 +0000

This week was so tough on me. The first day of the week, Monday, while I'm on my way to my office, I involved in an accident. I'm on my bike and riding in the middle lane, suddenly one car instantly changed lane to make a u-turn and I was right behind that car. Even if I brake harder, it won't stopping me from crashing into the car and all I can do is just hit the car at the back. All I remember is my face is on the car's rear bonnet. The result, a terribly damaged motorcycle, broken tooth, and other common sickness after a car-bike accident. The joint on my hand still not fully healed. The same with my motorcycle, it's still in the workshop.

Just now I've change my Civic license plate garnish. Here's the photo before and after. It would be better if the color is the same as body color. Maybe later I'll spray this one.

thank the photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:21:00 +0000

I am 100% agree with that. But we operate that too. Not auto apply.

another film camera please

noreply@blogger.com (Huzaifa Yamin) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Even though I'm haven't shoot with my film cameras for more than one month, I'm still in the mood to buy some more film cameras. But the budget is small enough, less than 150MYR. Here I got two candidates, one can be bought new and another one can be found as second-hand item and very rare as new though I've found one but cost almost doubled at 300-400MYR.

Superheadz Ultra Wide and Slim

The lens is 22mm wide lens, shutter speed: 1/100 and fixed aperture of f8. The info is from theclickshop. I've read about Vivitar UWS (ultra wide slim) which has a slightly smaller aperture at f11 and faster shutter speed of 1/125th second. The UWS is super cheap at 110MYR. Available in 7 colors as you can see above. (black, white, blue, pink, yellow, silver and gold)

Olympus mju II

Fully automatic film camera with auto winder, auto load, auto focus and flash. 35mm f2.8 lens. Also featuring spot metering, flash and self timer. Priced from 150MYR - 300MYR new and used. Available in black and silver.

photos from here, here and here.
more info uws and olympus mju II