Tag: 50mm

A little bit of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)

Posted on by eddietay in Monochrome

So … I’m back from Shanghai, having tasted the power of a 50mm lens (80mm with a 1.6 crop factor).

What would that 40mm pancake lens I’ve been reading about do? Hmm…

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That 600D has been hiding away in my closet for a long time, and now I’m beginning to think that with a small-sized lens, it might be a good street camera.

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A 40mm would be a bit extravagant if you already have a 50mm lens.

Just zoom with your feet, I’d say.

But given the crop factor, it would mean 64 mm, a justifiable difference from 80mm.

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So, yes, I headed off to Tsim Sha Tsui with the intention of not buying that Canon 40mm F2.8 pancake lens.

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According to the Canon HK site, it goes for HK$1480.

I inquired about the price at Suning and the staff whispered HK$1380 conspiratorially.

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I crossed the road and went into a small shop called Echo Audio and it’s HK$1100.

Yes! I made some money! A yummy pancake!

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Roland Lim has a lot to say about buying cameras in Hong Kong.

Beware of those shops with “Tax Free” signs. Consumer goods are tax free everywhere in Hong Kong.

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I’ve always been mindful of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

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Every time something fascinating appears, I remind myself it’ll be old news a year later.

First there’s Sony RX100, followed by RX100 MII, and now it’s RX100 MIII.

Ditto Fuji X100 and X100S. You can’t keep up.

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I’m mindful of planned obsolescence when it comes to digital cameras – that’s partly why I’m into film cameras.

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A Leica M6 would still be majestic 10 years later and hold its value at least on EBay.

You can’t quite say the same with digital cameras.

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So anyway, a 64mm would fit between my Leica 50mm Summicron and that 80mm (50mm Canon nifty fifty).

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I could be indoors and still be unnoticed despite the loud flipping of the slr mirror, given the distance.

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This person spotted me but carried on as before.

The pancake is not as intimidating, compared to if I had my 18-135mm lens.

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The fact is, no one noticed me.

The 600D with the pancake looks really small. (Though it is a bit loud).

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He didn’t even look up.

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Maybe I look like a tourist with a camera, in a tourist area.

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He spotted me, but went on walking past me.

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I’m in the MTR (subway) and no one stopped me.

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I am invisible…

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My camera looks like a toy.

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Do I exist?

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If I take a picture and no one sees me … do I exist?

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People are too immersed in themselves…

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Too immersed in their phones…

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Finally – someone noticed!

Thanks for reading!

And if you like this post, you’ll like my portfolio.

 

 

 

 

 

My Singapore

Posted on by eddietay in About Singapore, Monochrome

I was in Singapore recently and of course, I brought along my Leica M6 fixed with a 50mm Summicron.

I was paranoid at first about the film going through airport x-rays. But I could see no fogging to my beloved Ilford XP2 films on a previous trip despite them having gone through 4 x-ray cabin baggage scanners at the airport at HK airport, then at Dubai where I transited, and back again.

I took a walk around my neighbourhood and walked past him, circled around, and took this:

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This was at the National Library. I simply love this particular angle of the architecture:

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This was in Hans, the café at the library. I like the rectangular grid:

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And yes, the kacang puteh man:

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You might say there’s a statement here waiting to be made about the life of a kacang puteh seller, as our attention is drawn to the newspaper headline the seller has put up.

And then I had my Singapore-style chicken rice here. They do it very differently in Hong Kong…

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The photograph below sums up my ambivalent attitude towards my country of birth, in which I’ve spent 3/4 of my life before moving to Hong Kong. About 80-85% of the people live in public housing, and the facades of these HDB flats are often used as symbols of conformity, depicting the cookie-cutter and pigeonholed lifestyle and aspirations of middle-class Singaporeans. I have in mind those haunting images at the beginning of Eric Khoo’s 12 Storeys.

I think of the photograph below as saying something opposite.

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I like the tree here because it symbolizes something else, that perhaps there is life, rejuvenation and fresh insights that might arise. I sense a poem coming …

Finally, since some of my friends have been asking about my street photography and the point of it all, here’s an essay by Nick Turpin that says it.

I especially like this quote from Nick’s essay:

“As a Street Photographer you are different, you are not like the others, you are an oddity both in society and in photography. In society you are odd because you are just standing their [sic] looking whilst everyone rushes past to their next shopping experience or intake of salty, sugary, fatty food. In photography you are odd because your motivation is not financial and you don’t go to photo trade shows unless it’s to people watch. You are really not part of either world, it can be lonely not talking about equipment and bags and not oiling the wheels of retail….if it weren’t for online street photography forums you could feel isolated like some lonely eccentric.”

Sometimes I stop and look around and wonder where everyone is rushing off to…