Itsy Bitsy Nikon SB-N5 Speedlight for V1

Unlike the J1, the more "pro" V1 do not come with a built in flash; to provide extra illumination you have to purchase the tiny SB-N5 Speedlight.

At NZ$328.00 a pop, that is a lot of money for very little light! You have no other alternative either, because the "hot shoe" on this camera only accept this itsy bitsy flash! Not that it is all bad... the combo look really neat!

A handsome match, the made for V1 SB-N5 Speedlight mounted on the left side of the camera.

Nikon 1 V1 @ Wellington Rose Garden

♬♫♪♬♫♪  I Beg Your Pardon, I Never Promise You Rose Garden... ♬♫♪♬♫♪

The second day (29 December) after I received the Nikon 1 V1, the sky opened up and we had none stop rain for five solid days!  As if Wellington need a good cleansing to welcome 2012!

Today (Tuesday 3rd) the sun came out full broom, the air was crystal clear and snappily cool on this public holiday :)

What better time to test the Nikon 1 V1 at our Wellington Botanic Garden! I knew that roses are in full bloom at the Lady Norwood Rose Garden which is on the left end of the garden.

Beside the V1 with the 10-30 kit zoom, I also took with me the E-P2 with the 14-42 for comparison; the other two lenses are the 1Nikkor 30-110 and the Panasonic 7-14 ultra wide zoom.

The award-winning rose garden has 110 formal beds, each representing a different variety of rose.

It includes newly released roses and traditional favourites.

If you want to test the colour fidelity of your lenses, this is the best place to go; when the roses are in season that is.

10 Most Popular MBL Posts Of 2011

As 2011 came to an end, here’s a look back at 10 of our most popular articles from the past year:

1.    My Leica E-P2

2.   Funny Royal Wedding Pix Not!

3.   Canon G12, Best Of The G?

4.   Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 7-14 mm F4.0 ASPH

5.   Remembering The Highland Towers Tragedy 

6.   Ultra Wide WC-E75 Canon Power Shot G12!

7.   Brian Me That Brake Was Good!

8.   Nikon E2 DSLR - Redux

9.   Bounce Flash For G12

10. My Lancer VRX Sportback

We started with a 23,000 page views in January 1911, today we are at the verge of breaking the 80,000 mark.

Thank you for all the support and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers :)

Encounter Of The Nikon 1 Kind!

♬♫♪♬♫♪  On the third day of Christmas my friend Meng brought to me...

One Nikon 1 V1 mirrorless camera,

Two Nikon 1 zoom lenses;

And a toy size Nikon Speedlight...  ♬♫♪♬♫♪

After three long years of intense research, on September 2011 Nikon Inc.
announced a revolutionary new digital imaging system built from the ground up to empower users with new ways to tell stories through photography, driven by imaginative next-generation technology.

A Nikon Fanboy's Confession !?

Fanboy is a term used to describe a male who is highly devoted and biased in opinion towards a single subject or hobby within a given field. Fanboy-ism is often prevalent in a field of products, brands or universe of characters where very few competitors (or enemies in fiction, such as comics) exist.  -Wikipedia -

So am I a Nikon fanboy? I will not call myself as such but I do like Nikon cameras a lot, in my long career with different newspapers; my camera of choice has always been Nikon.

I started photography in 1966 with a used Zeiss Super Ikonta 120 range-finder camera, through the years I have used many other medium format cameras.

The variety of 120 medium format cameras that I have used.

NOSTALGIA - Picture Without Permission!!

nos·tal·gia, noun - a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life...

Going through some of my "junk" recently, found a box of old black and white post-card size prints taken during my schooling years in Melbourne; Australia.

Ahh... those were some of the best days of my life :) And like the famous Kodak Eastman slogan, "We (pictures) capture your memories forever!"

This photo for instant...

A single shot taken with a film camera hidden inside a plastic lunch box, while I was attending our biology class in Oakleigh High School in Victoria, Australia; FORTY FIVE YEARS ago!

Buying a SAFER House In New Zealand

Saturday 7.19pm, I was preparing dinner in the kitchen; my wife was at her PC in the lounge yelled, "EARTHQUAKE!" One second later our house was shaking violently, it was like 5 full second... my wife was screaming and I was marveling how powerful that quake was! GeoNet inform me later it was of magnitude 5.7, 30 km east of Picton and 60 km deep. It was the second strongest one we felt since we are in NZ.

Le General do not understand why with all the rock & roll, I remained "so calm"! I did not tell her it was because I know our house can take lots more pounding before I started screaming ;)

That is the main point of my story, how to buy a safer house in New Zealand! A question I have been asked many times by new immigrants and friends.

The advice I am giving in this story are my personal experience and my own research, so please take it with a pinch of salt ;)

The Ring Of Fire...

All of you who intended to migrate and to make New Zealand your home, ought to realise this beautiful Land Of The Long White Cloud is sitting right smack on top of "The Ring Of Fire". And it got nothing to do with Johnny Cash ;)