Great Old Glass - Nikkor 35-70 f3.5 zoom

I told you about my Nikkor 80-200 f4 zoom lens that I used to capture the famous Dr Mahathir and his three little words, this "great old glass" have a little brother which I used in "Paparazzi Tale" and captured a decisive shot that was used all over the world!

The lens I am talking about is the Nikkor 35-70 f3.5 AI-s zoom.
I have this lens since 1988, prior to this I had the none "s" version which look similar but had a totally optical and mechanical system.

This twenty two year old lens is still working faultlessly, for an early zoom lens it is SHARP! The picture of the G12 and E-P2 in my last post was shot with this lens on my Nikon D300 and a bounced flash.

Take a look at the detail of that picture!Goodness, you can even see all the dust on the G12! It is that sharp!

But how good is it on the D300, shooting in the real world; not just bounced flash table top shots ;)

Sunday, July 17, 2011.

I decided to take the 35-70 to our Sunday open market for a spin.The Nikon D300 with my 22 year old 35-70 zoom, this full of detail; back lit picture was shot with my Canon G12! Mind boggles!

On Sunday there are three "open vege market" around Wellington area. The one we go to is at Victoria Street, right smack in the CBD.

WC-E75 G12 V 7-14 E-P2

In my post on my G12 with the Nikon WC-E75 I raved how good this set up is! As good as it is; can it ever come near to the quality of my favorite ultra-wide zoom, the incredible Lumix 7-14?

Time for a face-off!

Saturday, 9 July 2011; Wellington...

Weeks of cold, damp and depressing weather disappeared overnight! A cool and sunny weather beckon!

I packed the two cameras with their test lenses and head for our Civic Square in town.

Left, the Olympus E-P2 with the Panasonic LUMIX
G VARIO 7-14 mm F4.0 ASPH and the Canon G12
with the add-on lens, the Nikon WC-E75.

It is a real pain trying to find a week end parking lot in town! The free two hours week end parking allowance seems ineffective!

Took me twenty minutes of city strolling in my VRX Sportback to find a park near our Central Library. Yippee :)

A quick glance at my GMT-Master tell me that I have an hour of free time before picking up Le General, not a lot of time for a lens test but I came prepared ;)

Since I have preset both of my test cameras in their aperture priority (A) mode, I am able to shoot both lens at f5.6 and because I was prepared; I was able to start shooting immediately after I parked!

Déjà vu, Anti Racism Rally 2004

Why the Déjà vu? How did this came about?

At the moment, Malaysia's talk of the country is about the "Bersih 2.0 Rally". I read today that their Prime Minister said the government would not object if the organiser would assemble in a stadium from morning to night and later leave peacefully.

After viewing my post on Kiwis taking part in "SlutWalk", a Malaysian reader comment...

Fair play said...

Yo Leow, can you send this to our Home Minister and show him that not all Rally will end up in chaos. July 3, 2011 5:07 AM

Yo "Fair play", I am a photojournalist; an observer of history in the making. I try and record them if I can. I do not make judgement :)

My Malaysian friends asked me if I have been to a rally in Wellington, I remember the last one I went to was in 2004!

I recall what I wrote...

23 October 2004, Wellington.

Racism in "Godzone"? You better believe it! So much so that the huge ethics groups said "Enough Is Enough!" and they held an anti racism march through the streets of Wellington today.

To understand how all this came about, go and read March against racism in Scoop.

I thought to myself that this will be a good chance to practice my documentary photography, after all; the last time I attended a news event was YEARS ago!

My wife and me reached the "Beehive" (our parliamentary building) ground at noon.

The National Front members are already there.

Surprisingly they are orderly and quite, there is another group who the police called "radical, anarchist, punk-rocker type group" are there trying their best to stir up the National Front members ;)

The National Front members on the Parliament steps.

Kiwis Joins SlutWalk

More than 500 people attended the SlutWalk anti-rape demonstration in Wellington this afternoon.

What is this "SlutWalk"? According to Wikipedia...

The SlutWalk protest marches began on April 3, 2011 in Toronto, Canada and have since become an international movement of rallies across the world.
They are a protest against the belief that any aspect of a woman's appearance might explain or excuse rape.

Elle Moment!

Saturday, gloomy winter weather; cold and wet... what better time to tidy up my pictures archive :)

Found this old post that is worth posting again.

Elle is Elle McPherson, according to Wikipedia:

Elle Macpherson ( /ˈɛl məkˈfɜrsən/; born 29 March 1963) is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record six cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s.

She is also known as the founder and primary model for a series of business ventures including Elle Macpherson Intimates, a lingerie line, and "The Body", a line of skin care products. According to Forbes, Macpherson possesses assets around $60 million. In 2010, she became the host and executive producer of Britain's Next Top Model.

My picture of super model Elle appeared in the Dominion feature story, written by Raybon Kan.

NZ School With Phallic Symbols!!

The world famous Nazca Lines in Peru.

According to Wikipedia:

The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, llamas, and lizards.

The Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England is also well known!

MonZoom in Bangkok!

No, that is NOT a typo ;)

Recently one of my friend, a die-hard "film fan" asked me to give him one situation that a digital camera is BETTER than his trusty film camera.

After I showed him "MonZoom" he contest defeat and reckoned he will look into buying a DSLR! Ha ha ha....

So what is "MonZoom"?