Suanie Reviews Archives - As Suanie Sees It

Olympus OMD E-M10 – shooting in Automatic

September 11, 2014 By Suanie Leave a Comment

After my old Panasonic Lumix (with the unbeatable 10x optical zoom) died, I borrowed a Canon G10 from Horng, then a first edition Sony Nex-5N from KY. They come with free photography tips and advice, can’t get better than that!

The loaned cameras, while free and fantastic are older technologies. They could not produce the photos I think I can take. My next camera need to accommodate my severe limitations and requirements, which are:

I unabashedly shoot mostly in ‘Auto’ mode. Go right ahead, laugh at me, I don’t mind. I will learn manual settings in my own time, but meanwhile I still need to take the photos.
I want to be able to shoot people and food. Maybe some action shots.

That’s it. So I just want to point and shoot, right? Why dump a few thousand ringgit on a bridge camera just to shoot using one button all the way, when a compact digital camera is sufficient?

Simple. If the base technology is good, it can help me to take the photos I want to take. If you shoot simply with a bridge camera, the photos WILL turn out better than if you shoot simply with a compact digicam.

Plus knowing that I CAN take decent photos on auto mode will inspire me to learn the manual settings and hopefully take BETTER photographs.

I told all these to Jason, who hooked me up with Robin. Yeap, THE Robin Wong who has a REALLY fantastic story of how he, a geotechnical engineer ended up working with Olympus. Go ask him if you want, tl;dr passion pays.

After listening to what I wanted to achieve, Robin generously loaned me a Olympus OMD E-M10 with a separate Olympus 25mm f1.8 prime lens.

Photo credit: The Phoblographer’s review of the OMD EM10

The new Olympus OMD E-M10 is a 16.1MP Micro Four Thirds with 3″ tilting touchscreen LCD. The touchscreen ended up SUPER useful for noobs like me, who sometimes fumbles and cannot focus in time.

The camera records full HD 1080p video. It has image stabilisation and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s more, but you can read the full specs elsewehere. This post is all about photos taken using the Automatic mode.

I think it’s a FANTASTIC camera: brilliant JPEG colours, fast focusing, fast shooting speed, fast everything! Depending on lighting, some photos ended up with over-the-top yellow tones. The camera built is slightly clanky for me, less sleek than other cameras that I’ve used. But it’s a matter of getting used to.

It is a bit expensive. The current retail price for the camera with standard kit lens is slightly below RM3,000. The fixed Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens is maybe… RM 1,500? As Ringo said, “That’s the price of a return flight to Japan… for two!”

Here, have a look at some photos that I took with the Olympus OMD E-M10, all but two using the Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens. The last two were taken with the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 lens, which possibly costs more than my monthly salary.

All these were taken in Automatic, JPEG. Post-processing was only cropping (if necessary) and exporting to smaller size. No other touching up was used.

Two peas in a pod.

My grandfather at his favourite breakfast place.

My grandfather didn’t say it, but he was like, “Yo why you keep taking photos of me..

But my grandfather is cool. He gives no two f-s.

A casually shot photo with friggin’ sharp details.

Super fast focusing and speed. Great for shots involving people moving about.

I swear this photo is better than those taken by some amateur ‘photographers’ snobs. F- them.

Back to my cool grandfather. My sister and cousin dancing in the background. But he gives no care.

Portrait shot of my cousin. She’s hot, smart and successful. Introduction fee applies.

Portrait shot of my cousin. He has since grown out his funky hair.

I don’t want to blow my own horn. But I think this is nice /blows horn

If you can take this in auto/JPEG, imagine the wonders you could produce with manual shooting in RAW!

I want to bokeh everything!

Bootcampers running up hills in the morning.

I could tell them to get a hobby, but I have a nagging suspicion that this is it.

Robin lent me the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 lens for this. It was possibly the most impressive tool I’ve held in my hands.

I was going to nick the camera and the lenses, but Robin knows where I live.

Not bad, eh? If I could take these with ZERO effort, imagine what you could do with full on manual control!

Buy. Now.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Suanie Reviews Tagged With: best camera automatic

death note 2: so awesome, i nearly wet myself!

January 25, 2007 By Suanie 29 Comments

Death Note: The Last Name I have never been that that interested in cartoons, anime, manga and the likes — the only two Japanese cartoons I read regularly were Doraemon and Slam Dunk. So when KY ajak-ed me to watch Death Note 2 (thanks lovely Reta for the tix), I said yes because it was free. Again let me remind everyone that I am a slut for freebies. Got freebie, remember Suanie.

Kelvin said it would best that I watch Death Note 1 before watching #2, and he kindly lent me his DVD. Unfortunately I did not have the time to watch it over the weekend, so 20 minutes before #2 Kerol filled me in with details of what who how why of #1.

A plot summary blatantly c&p-ed from IMDB.com:

Light Yagami finds the “Death Note,” a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to create a Utopia by killing the world’s criminals, and soon the world’s greatest detective, “L,” is hired to find the perpetrator. An all out battle between the greatest minds on earth begins, the winner controlling the world.

The tag line for Death Note is “The person whose name is written here shall die”. Not only the grammar is incorrect (cewah, as if I am the grammar queen), it is also one of the worst tag lines ever, because it makes you think of cheesy sucky awful Japanese horror movies. And Death Note is so NOT a horror movie, but a brilliant psychological twist-ful drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat (especially if you are like me, who didn’t really know the story beforehand).

The main actors were very good, and because I am biased, I am going to say that Ken’ichi Matsuyama was the best of the lot 😛

Ken’ichi Matsuyama is so hot and young that I feel like a paedo just looking at him

Well I won’t spoil the rest for ya. Death Note: The Last Name opens in cinemas today, you all should go watch it!! Take note that it’s a 2 hour 20 mins long movie, remember to pee before you enter the cinema hall and try not to drink too much Coke ya.

p/s: check out who else is in the movie!!!!!

Takeshi Kaga

AWESOME BALLZ!!!!!!!!!

Others blogged about it too: KY, Kelvin, Kim

how to turn an awful japanese horror movie into a brilliant comedy (2)

January 17, 2007 By Suanie 16 Comments

Continuing from my previous guide on how to turn an awful japanese horror movie into a brilliant comedy…

Let’s face it — horror movies don’t make much sense. Personally I adore watching horror movies especially with my eyes closed, but as time goes by it seems that the producers/writers/directors don’t make much of an effort anymore. The perception, and rightly so is that Japanese/Korean ghost movies = instant hit. The last two good horror movies I watched were Ju-On (the original Japanese version) and Shutter, the awesome Thai movie. Coming in at third was The Eye. As for the rest, even though I enjoy scaring the crap out of myself, I wish that the people behind the movie would make the extra effort to make me wet my pants. Like ~~Ju-On~~ The Ring, where the girl climbed out of the tv screen and the well. That freaked me out for weeks.

Enough with the thesis. Where was I?

Oh yeah, The Plot. It’s shit. So let’s move on with three things often found in J-horror (or any kinds of pop horror movies) because recycling ideas is the new Britney Spears’ crotch.

1. Cause of Horror
2. Pointless Bits
3. Is This Stupidity?

1. Cause of Horror
ClichÃƒÂ© of all clichÃƒÂ© — there is a cause for everything, and this is painfully true in every awful Japanese horror movies. Even if the cause is not explained (maybe because they expect you to play the popular video game prior to watching the movie), there is a reason why this and why that. Why do parents dress their daughter’s corpse in red? Why the residents of an apartment block should not go out after 12? Why kok-staring villagers turn to killing machines when the siren is heard?

Sometimes the fallible reason could be as easy as this:

immortality

It doesn’t really explain why that turns them into zombies, but there you go.

2. Pointless Bits
Actually this is not limited to J-horror; in fact too many movies have pointless bits in them. Try as you might to seek answers (logical or otherwise) you just can’t solve the mystery of why the director choose to have those scenes in the movie. They are not explained, they don’t give the plot any credit, they just exist to draw your attention from whatever is happening, and sometimes they are in the form of semordnilap!

semordnilap

I don’t understand either.

3. Is This Stupidity?

dialogue

‘Nuff said.

Forbidden Siren opens in Malaysia cinemas tomorrow. Go watch, if you are so inclined 😉

p/s: exercising my right to mock J-horror does not mean I will stop watching them 😛

More: ShaolinTiger

16 Comments Filed Under: Suanie Reviews Tagged With: forbidden_siren, sairen

how to turn an awful japanese horror movie into a brilliant comedy (1)

January 16, 2007 By Suanie 14 Comments

The most important thing when making a B-grade J-horror is to plan a movie loosely based on a popular video game. The looser, the loser, the better. Make the plot as unoriginal as you can, and with the investors’ approval because J-horror always sells, wield your imagination! Go wild, no holds barred.

But in any J-horror we always have the same characters, maybe different roles but since they all look the same to me, allow me to introduce the key characters:

The Father. He is the one who makes all the decisions in the household, including migrating his family to an isolated island where the people behave weirdly and stare kok at you at all time. Still he finds nothing wrong with it even though modern culture denotes that it is a recipe for impending disaster.

father

The Daughter. She is the one who actually takes care of the household because for some reason or the other, Japanese mothers have ~~low~~ high mortality rate. She has eyes straight out of Final Fantasy, she is usually of average height and slim build, and she is the one who just HAS to check out the source of weird creaks and screeches originating from various dark corners of a house/jungle. Almost needless to say, she is the heroine of the movie. Well, as heroine as a J-horror could produce.

daughter

The Mysterious Son. He who never speaks, stands like a timber, always manages to disappear even after being explicitly told to ‘don’t go too far away’, gazes and points his finger into empty space, basically the child you wish you never had. Why? Because if you have a child like that, be prepared to encounter a vengeful spirit at some point of your life. Why? Because J-horror says so.

son

So this is how your plot works:

plot

So easy like grazing grass in a field of cows.

Next: The Mystery Unsolved.

14 Comments Filed Under: Suanie Reviews Tagged With: forbidden_siren, sairen

The Red Kebaya – a sentimental, contemporary Malaysian story

November 20, 2006 By Suanie 24 Comments

During Ramadhan, we were invited to dinner with the cast and crew of The Red Kebaya. Along with that came an invitation to the premiere at MidValley, for which I took the day off from my day job to attend.

Before the movie started, Sandra Sodhy (TRK’s PR and publicist) said a few words, with a few lines reminding viewers to switch their mobile phones to silent mode. Well obviously Malaysians are going deaf. No matter how many times we are reminded to put our phones on silent mode, or NOT to answer phone calls during the movie, or NOT to constantly kick the back of the seat in front of you, we NEVER listen. And this was a preview screening, by invitation only, with the producers, directors, actors in the cinema hall. But some dumb fucks just cannot show respect by NOT giving road directions to his geographically-challenged friend in the middle of the movie. Twice. Very smart. If this were my movie, I’d fucking tie you up and feed you to the Sarlacci.

/rant over

With Samantha Schubert:

And so the story begins…

Latiff (RAMLI HASSAN). Photographer. City dweller, successful fella. Orphaned. Blocked memories from childhood. Went ahead to take photos of abandoned buildings around Malaysia as part of his next project. Saw visions of two kids, one of them who was also…

Latiff (MOHD. AFIF), a little boy whose mother was…

Azizah (VANIDAH IMRAN), a hot divorced/widowed joget girl who encountered and fell in love with…

John (BOB MERCER), an English expat who loved everything about Malaysia (the food, the people, the culture, the heat etc) and of course, loved Azizah. John was unfortunately married to…

Davinia (SAMANTHA SCHUBERT), who hated everything John loved about Malaysia, including Azizah. When she found out about the her husband’s feelings for Azizah, ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ pretty much described Davinia.

Other notable names in the movie are: Patrick Teoh, Zahim Al Bakri, Elaine Daly, Paula Malai Ali, Sabera Shaik, Jo Kukuthas and Fauziah Nawi (who had a very short but most memorable role, that is if you could recognise her in the movie 😉 ).

Because everyone likes lists, here’s one:

The Red Kebaya producers are Andre Berly and Ramli Hassan, and the director is Oliver Knott
The Red Kebaya was shot entirely in Malaysia. They did the dolby-dolby stuff and show prints in Australia. Post-production stuff were completed at ADDAudio, a Malaysian studio
Bob Mercer had just 3 weeks to learn all his lines in Bahasa Malaysia
Principal photography took 35 days
Initially the owners of the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion were reluctant to have their premise used for filming. But after a series of meetings and much persuasion that lead them to better understand the concept of the movie, they finally allowed it
Oliver Knott did not know what a ‘kebaya’ was prior to the movie
The budget for TRK is RM 1.5 million. RM1.5 million can buy you 202702 packs of fags, 150000 large Big Mac meals, 3000 sets of 21″ TVs.
RM 1,500,000 is also around USD$ 410,778. You need to top up that amount by 486 times to be able to make Spiderman 2.
I am guessing this is a privately-funded movie, as deliverance was mostly in English. But I didn’t ask for sure.
The producers/director set this movie around the 50s/60s, no specific time line, so they tried to create a suitable environment — visual and sound to suit that era. Was still pretty funny to see a bouncer in a black jacket outside a joget club though. Some things never change.
The nice folks at Rising Above will be hosting a dinner charity night on Monday night at BSC… hey, that’s tonight! Plus they will also get lots of underprivileged kids to go watch TRK on Wednesday, courtesy of kind people who donate to them, so yeah it’s nice of them to do that.

My thoughts on TRK

Great poster. Excellent score/soundtrack. Beautiful cinematography. Beautiful use of locations. Some sound glitches but I understood that to be the cinema’s technical problem. Some performances were overly theatrical, don’t translate well to movies. Storyline is different from other local movies so far, which is a good thing. A couple scenes in the movie tak masuk akal; either continuity problem or just too plain odd to comprehend. Costumes were beautiful.

Suanie: You should have worn the red kebaya lah..
Vanidah: Kenot, too sexy, later you all nosebleed.

Vanidah Imran was damn hot. Samantha Schubert was rather good as someone you would love to hate. Bob Mercer’s character was a bit of useless lembik bugger, he did it rather well. Sometimes you just want to shout at him, BE A MAN! Patrick Teoh’s role was nice, one that you would not really appreciate until the end of the movie. Some scenes just broke my heart. Some scenes weren’t supposed to be funny, but the audience laughed anyway. Some parts a bit too corny, slow and long. Some parts scared the shit out of me. Well, I am easily freaked out what…

OVERALL, The Red Kebaya unashamedly tags itself as a love story, and it is really rather different from other Malaysian movies — the concept, the execution, the delivery and so on till the end of Kudat. I quite enjoyed myself, it was a day off well-spent, and I urge you movie-goers to go catch this movie and make up your own minds on it so we could have a discussion (before the cinemas take them off the screens much earlier, as they often do with local movies). It’s a struggle for me not wanting to reveal more of the plot as not to spoil it for those who will watch it, but so dying to talk about the content!

I posed a question during the press conference, something about why did they choose the ending they chose instead of another version, which I’d thought would be much better for closure. Oliver Knott (the director) and Ramli Hassan (co-producer and lead actor) replied that they went through several endings, but decided that the closure that I thought was good would be too predictable. Besides that angle had been played to death in other movies (literally). I guess it was a nice decision to end the movie in hope and gladness.

Samantha: Are we done with the fake dialogue yet?
Suanie: Why? Do they suck so bad? 🙁

So if you want to know what the heck I’m talking about, go watch The Red Kebaya when it opens in Malaysian cinemas (GSC) on 23 November 2006. Be sure to catch it early, for reasons I have stated above.

Kate James (film editor and post-production supervisor) helped me to ask Andre Berly (co-producer) for permission to upload a couple of song clips from the soundtrack onto my blog. He said yes (thanks Andre and Kate!) and here they are, two songs that I really love. Very P-Ramlee Malaysian.

Joget Selendang Sayang – 0.55 mins
Mengharap Sinar Kasih – 0.34 mins

Music by S. Atan, lyrics by Nurul Asyikin, vocals by Sheila Abdul and Arifin Tioh.

If you would check out TRK’s site, you’ll hear a nice piano tune in the background. I absolutely love the melancholy composition, and sometimes I just leave the window open so I could listen to the tune while doing other stuff.

So, The Red Kebaya… 23 November 2006… GSC… go watch!

Other reviews (aka people who make more sense than me): Reta (and awaiting!!!)

So after the preview screening/ press conference/ excellent lunch, I was chilling at Starbucks to get something from J, and some of the cast and crew of TRK walked in, including Ramli Hassan. Our eyes met and he exclaimed, “I think I know this person!” and he came over and we hugged. We talked a little, then J helped us to take this shot.

Ramli: How much you wanna pay me for the photo?
Suanie: How much are you worth?
Ramli: For you, free lah, as long as you write about TRK!
Suanie: Wah, you so cheap!!!
Ramli: Yah I memang cheap what!
Suanie: It’s ok lah, I also cheap one.