D-lux 4 Photo Test Update

We originally planned to have a special dinner at El-Paso, a spanish restaurant along City Road tonight to celebrate my wife's nomination as 'most improve staff' award in her work department.  (Congrats to my wife, I am really proud of her)  Unlucky for us, the place had already been filled up with a bunch of Wales blokes celebrating their bachelor party wearing t-shirt 'GAME OVER' when we arrived there. We then decided to have a take away instead. 

My wife with her happy face and her certificate

I always pray that she'll be a successful muslimah, person, wife, mother, daughter and daughter in law. Anyhoo.., here are some recent pictures I took with Leica. Do check out my flickr for more of them!

Using aperture setting

Macro setting

Auto Intelligent setting

D-Lux 4 Photo Test

Here are some pictures I took with my Leica d-lux 4, set to ISO400 , f2.4 and using the AE program. I used the software provided by Leica, known as Capture One. It took me a while to learn how to properly configure the software. All the pictures were taken in RAW format, thus enable me do more enhancement to the images using Leica software utilities, and better size compression for the pictures.

I begin to believe the claims made by some people when they said this camera is the son of M8. It feels really difficult to handle and a lot of stuff need to be set-up before I can press the shutter. I reckon I still need to read the manual a couple of times more and hopefully I would be able to produce some best pictures out of this little version of M8. The pictures I've taken were not great due to my lack of skill, but I did notice the image looked a bit grainy or less sharp when I increased the ISO. So guys do leave any comment hence I can improve my photography skill. I will upload more pictures later at the moment do check out my others review. Cheers! 

Blossomless daffodil flower.

Cushion tassel

Unboxing Leica D-lux 4

Leica D-LUX 4

I just came back from london, attending a short dinner/ meeting with the new MARA KL Director. That's why there hasn't been much progress in my blog. Anyway don't worry, here I would like to share another new gadget that I bought just recently. It's LEICA D-LUX 4, the son of M8. Leica has already produced three different types exclusively for this model; the normal black-in-colour edition, the titanium model limited edition and the safari edition. The target market of this camera is for enthusiastic photographers who are looking for a light weight camera as compared to DSLR, without compromising the full control of the camera itself.

I have purchased the black colour one from Jacobs Cardiff. It certainly costs me a lot of fortune but I do have faith in this brand. Here's the link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkbgC0ubPHY) of the unboxing video of the camera, hope you guys enjoy it.

P/S:I will update about the details and specifications of this camera later!

BEST EVER TRAVEL TIPS

The recent volcano explosion in Iceland has caused a lot of chaos to travellers around the world, especially those in Europe. Most of them stranded at airports for at least 5 days. A friend of mine, Pete, supposed to be on his plane to Sweden to start his new job but unfortunately unable to leave this country for more than a week now. He's still hoping to get onto a plane so that he can avoid a 30-hours train journey instead. My advice to him... get a nice and comfy cushion so your arse wont get harden like rock when arrives in Stockholm ;)

Lucky for me and my wife, we went to Andalusia, Spain during the beginning of the Easter break and not around this time. It was a trip to celebrate our first official honeymoon as husband and wife. We managed to visit 3 capital cities of Andalusia; Malaga, Granada and Cordoba. The journey was great and I gave credit to my lovely wife for planning all the necessary arrangements like buying the flight tickets, booking the accomodations and such. I was only responsible as the trip banker :P... The visit totally worth every penny that we've spent. I enjoy our stay in Granada the most cause apart from a normal holiday trip, our visit to the town also gave me my first hand experience watching the spanish preparation in celebrating Easter week, which are also known as Semana Santa.

Here I want to share with you guys about a cute little travel book, Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips, which I bought from Waterstones just before I went to Spain. The book costs around £5 but I got it at a half-price so it is a bargain. From outside, the book doesn't really looks like it would  contain much information but it is actually a comprehensive book and very light in weight. Altogether it has ten chapters starting from tips about packing & preparation to eco-travel. In my opinion, the best part of this book is Chapter 4; it covers the topic about safety & security which I believe is one of the most important stuff when going for travelling. The book lists the top five scams as:

1-Fake police
2-Gem or carpet deals
3-Airport taxis
4-Bird shit
5-"This is closed"

The bird shit scam is similar to scenario when someone 'accidentally' spill mustard on you, follows by a coincidence swift appearance of a stranger who towels you down.  By taking advantage of your confusion, the guys will try to steal any valuable belongings. The book also includes links to some useful websites, or they called as smart webs. These websites give essential information and price comparisons for travellers such as money-saving expert, tramex travel tips and lots more.

All in all, I recommend this book to those who frequently travels, and even for those who intend to travel in the future.. it is certainly worth checking out this book as this piece is handy for travelling. Do check out my photo streams at Flickr, you can see some of my recent uploaded pictures at the bottom of this blog. Enjoy the pictures guys!

Ps3 Remote Control

There are a lot of Ps3 accessories out there and one of them is Sony Blu-Ray Disc remote control. To be honest, this remote is not really an essential accessory to be considered as a must-have gadget. The only reason I bought it because I got it as a bundle which comes together with an official Ps3 HDMI cable and a Casino Royal Blu-Ray for only £15 altogether. A single purchase of the remote control alone already cost around £15 at amazon, so the bundle price is totally a bargain for me.

Besides gadgets, I also love to watch movies and collect them. I own quite a distinct collection of DVDs and blu-ray for myself. That's why this little gadget certainly helps me control my Ps3 smoothly when I watch movies and it gives me a feeling of having a proper blu-ray player instead of a game console. I could always navigate using the normal game controller but sometimes it just feels odd to me. Some people said why bother to get one but trust me it is handy when you have one.

The remote does not really feel solid, more like a plastic and quite light in weight. It needs two AA batteries and the keypad is easy to press, but you need to register the remote as a bluetooth device to Ps3 console before it can function properly.

Apart from watching movies you can also use it to navigate your console menu and watch BBC iPlayer in a  more interactive way. Overall, I can say the remote does serves its basic purpose but you probably don't really need it unless you use your Ps3 as a blu-ray player rather than as a game console.

P/s: I would like to sell the Ps3 HDMI cable that comes with the bundle. Do let me know if you are interested to buy, price is totally negotiable.

Final Fantasy 13 (FF13)

Since last month, I've been playing FF13, the thirteenth instalment of the Final Fantasy series, on my PS3. I find this game entertaining. This game even got a lot of hype and high expectations before it was released, mostly because it took almost three years to launch into the market. The game developer is SQUARE ENIX. FF13 is a role-playing game (RPG) and it reminds me to Diablo, my first RPG game, which has similar characteristics. The game graphic is amazing, I can see the detail and sharpness of the characters on my Samsung TV screen even though my TV is only a HD-ready.

When I started playing FF13, I was confused with the configuration but after properly read the manual and spent more than an hour exploring it, I begun to grab the nature of this game. People wrote a lot of mix reviews at  Game  website but from my personal point of view, this game is awesome, if you are into RPG. At the moment this game is still at its retail price of £39.99 but if you trade in your existing game like Uncharted you might be able to get it at half price. Try check out these websites for the current price:

Game

HMV

Play

If you willing to spend hours in front of your telly and exploring Cocoon, this game will definitely entertain you. So grab yourself a copy and play the game till you drop :).

My New NetBook "Acer Ferrari One"

I am really excited to start my first technology blog. Just got my self a new netbook, Acer Ferrari One. This netbook is brilliant with glossy red colour and superb ferari logo at the front. Recently, I do need a new laptop to replace my hard working TOSHIBA A100 satellite pro which I had for more than 4 years. After much contemplation, I finally bought the netbook from Argos at the price tag of £399 and to be honest, it is quite expensive when you compare it with the other netbooks or laptops out there.

However, this netbook impressed me with its mobility and performance which I consider as a well-rounder netbook in its class. After using it for more than a month, I personally think it is worth every penny. These are some of the netbook specifications:

Screen Size : 11.6"
OS: Window 7 Home Edition (64bit)

Processor: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor

Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200

HDD: 250GB

RAM: 3GB

The battery life is great, it can stands approximately for 5 hours. This netbook is also awesome in doing day to day works like surfing the internet, word processing and playing games. The only drawbacks with it are the absence of a disc drive and a bit noisy fan. But that's not a big deal for me though cause this netbook is already good enough for me as long as it serves its purpose and look gorgeous. Overall, I definitely recommend it to anyone who are looking for a new netbook, this little tech is a good choice. For more specification details of this netbook you can check at amazon.co.uk or cnet.co.uk for video review and believe me it will not let you down. Enjoy!