Snaps: Sekinchan Road Trip(s) with the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7

If you noticed the extra “s” in the title above, it is because I actually went on two road trips to Sekinchan. The first are with the shutter-loving photographer guys, and the second was with my family. And of course, in both trips I brought the Olympus EPL7 with different set of lenses. The first trip was intended to head to Sekinchan to shoot the paddy fields and Sekinchan town. So, I brought along with me the following lenses; Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 M. Zuiko Digital ED Zoom Lens, Olympus 25 mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital, Olympus 45mm f/1.8 ED M.Zuiko Digital and Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 macro lens.

That means that I had with me, the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 and four different lenses in my bag with me that I managed to fit into my sling camera bag (the one pictured above). One of the biggest advantage being on the Micro Four Thirds system had always been the fact that the cameras and the lenses are compact sized, and are able to deliver quality images. Recently, I had a friend who asked for my opinion on recommending a camera which is suitable for travelling and selfies. There is no better camera that came to mind other than the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7.

I posted previously on all the functionality of the camera, and based on that, it is easy to see why the EPL7 comes to mind first. It’s compact size makes it easier to carry it around, without feeling burdened by it. With the 14-42mm lens is attached to the EPL7, the pancake lenses made it look even tinier. A lot of times, I have heard comments that goes something like this, “Oh, I don’t think the kit lens (14-42mm lens in this case of the EPL7) is good enough. Better to get xxx lens.”

These pictures above are taken with the Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 M. Zuiko Digital ED Zoom Lens,  which is the lens that comes with the EPL7. Some would call it the kit lens. A good friend once told me that there is a reason why the kit lens is the kit lens. It is a lens which is capable of many things; from shooting wide to zooming it closer. Granted that it will not be as sharp as primes are but I would say that the kit would generally cover most of your shooting needs.

This would bring me back to the one recommendations that I tell friends who just got the camera, “Always shoot with the kit lens first before anything else. Shoot extensively with it, know what it can and what it cannot do. It is only from that, that you’ll know what the kit lens lack in and only then do you get another lens to which can do it instead.”

It is no surprise why the EPL7 is an amazing camera for travelling, simply because it is such a handy camera to take selfies with. I won’t need to run you through why, I already wrote two posts about the functionality of the camera which allows you to do so. The first would be flipped-down LCD screen and the second would be the WiFi connectivity. If you haven’t read my posts yet, do check them out here; Snaps: Selfies with the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 & Review: Why I love the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7.

So, back to Sekinchan… I honestly didn’t get much pictures that I like enough to post it up. This was rather disappointing for me, but I was rather distracted to shoot. It happens whenever I’m shooting something that I’m not familiar with, like in this case landscape. But I always tell myself I need to push myself to try the different things. And this is why I keep shooting, because there is no shortcut to getting better at something. You do it more, you do it better each time.

* * * * * * * * * *

The rest of the pictures below are taken in fishing village of Sekinchan and around Pantai Redang. If you’re planning to visit the fishing village, do make sure you’re there early because by noon, there is nothing left to see. Most of the fishermen would have already sold their local catch and returned back home. So, what we did see was ladies working on the squids.

Then, we headed next to Pantai Redang which was a carefully hidden beach. However, it was rather commercialised with quite a number amount of tourist on the beach. You’ll also find tonnes of stalls selling all kinds of knicks knacks; from soapy water with strings to make giant bubbles to stalls whipping out seafood dishes, to souvenirs as well. What I love about the beach was these tiny tree houses along the beach. There was hammocks inside these tree houses and it is oh-so-comfortable to just chill in it.

Another tourist attraction on the beach would be the wishing tree, where you can get these strings from the temple nearby and write down your wishes on the strings. You can get the strings for free, and donations are welcomed. There is a trick to tossing the strings, you hold them by the middle of it and with the weights on both ends downwards. It’ll be easier for the strings to be hooked on the branches.

It wouldn’t be a complete road trip to Sekinchan without having some local seafood dishes, and for this, we headed to a place which was recommended by the locals called Cha Po Tion (Jalan Besar Bagan, Bagan Sekinchan, 45400 Sekinchan, Selangor). We had some of the dishes that the restaurant was well known for like the porridge soup, sweet sour spicy noodle soup, and steamed clams. Do note that these are not the actual names, my parents ordered them in Chinese and I had no idea what they are called.

For my second trip with my family, I brought along with me the Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 macro lens, Olympus 25 mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital and the Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6. This time around, I brought an even smaller backpack and have successful managed to place my camera, three lenses, my purse and my cosmetic pouch as well. If my camera and lenses were any huger, I would have probably needed two bags just to fit them all in.

So, that is all for my short post on my Sekinchan road trips. I took the time to share more about the kind of gears I bring on a road trip, along with how I generally feel about using the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 as a travelling camera. It isn’t an in-depth review or a comprehensive post on why I like the EPL7 when I’m travelling. It really more about sharing my thoughts and feel generally. I hope you enjoyed the post and thanks for reading! Hoping to talk more about my Phuket travels next!

Till next time,

xoxo

Review: Why I love the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7

By now, it's almost a few months since I have started using the Olympus EPL7 and I'll be honest to say that I haven't touched my EPL5 for some time already. The thing is there is so much to love in the new camera even though I have the older version of it. So while it may appear like I'm doing a comparison to the EPL5 here, I'll be posting on what I love about the new camera which is actually also a new feature in the EPL7 or an upgrade.

Note: The pictures in this post will be pictures that I have taken over the course of the last few weeks, so they won’t have a theme or a particular flow of it as I would like to demonstrate the different capability versatility of the camera.

WiFi Capability

// Here’s a picture to show you how the Olympus Image Share app looks like when it is used under the “remote control” mode. Picture taken by Calvin. //

I mentioned in my first post about the EPL7 just how much I welcome the WiFi function cause it meant that I can control the camera remotely and also transfer the pictures I took immediately to my phone to upload to social media or simply just to share with my friends.

Using the Olympus Image Share and my phone which is running on the Android KitKat, using the app to shoot and transfer images were seamless. You can see in the pictures below how the app works in the live view/remote control mode. From the app, you can control settings like the shooting mode, the aperture, shutter speed, self timer …pretty much most of the shooting options can be controlled from the camera itself. Once you enable self timer, the screen will also flip to show the mirror effect.

// This self-portrait was taken using the”remote control” function in Olympus Image Share app, which I used the Touch AF to select which area in the frame to focus on (in this case, it is my dress) and then setting the timer to 6 seconds, giving me ample of time to pose and to keep my phone in the pocket. //

// This is also another self-portrait taken using the Olympus Image Share app, by using the WiFi from the camera to connect to my phone. This time around I wanted to try a full OOTD shot, and with the EPL7 and 25mm lens placed on the tripod, I was able to do so all by myself. It really help to be able to see what’s behind the camera lens which is basically how I look like in front of the camera. That way, it allows me to pose better with my better angles. //

// Here’s a behind the scenes pictures taken by Anna from http://annna.net/. Now, you can see that the camera is placed on the tripod and I’m controlling the camera using the WiFi connectivity of the EPL7 and with the amazing Olympus Image Share app. My phone screen is only showing some of the settings that I can control. //

I have mentioned how often difficult it was to shoot my own self-portraits (I did a Project52 last year, where I shot self-portraits every week) but with this app and the WiFi capability, shooting controlling the camera remotely, allows me to set my settings and compose my picture too. The best part of this all, is that it also works for group self-portraits, like the one above where I captured using the Olympus Image Share app. That will explain why I am holding my phone. The picture above was shot using the 25mm lens, so it was a tight space. Meet Jackie, Robin and Anna.

// Here’s a picture that I captured by using the app with a self timer of 6 seconds, allowing my friend and I to pose. The picture above was not posed though, because I set the timer too long and it captured us, mid-laughing. See the original posed picture below. If you notice, we are still in focus even though we moved from our original pose, and that is the beauty of the Olympus’s AF. //

Faster Autofocus with Touch AF

With the EPL7, the autofocus is fast and pretty accurate for me. It also has the 81-point AF grid which covers the entire frame of the image, hence anywhere can be your focus area. I remember telling this to one of my friends, that my camera had 81 point and he didn’t believe it. But it is true and what makes it even more awesome is that the camera has Touch AF.

// For pictures with this effect, Touch AF is useful as it allows you to select the focus area. I chose to focus on the Mrs Claus’s cupcake, which you can see is sharp, capturing the little details on it even the glitter on her cheeks. //

Touch AF allows you to select any area in the frame that you want to focus on. This especially useful for me when I’m shooting food, because I know exactly which area I want it to be in focus, and the rest is not. By being able to do this, I found that my pictures came out to have the effect I wanted, which is a soft bokeh in the background with the food in focus.

TruePic VII image processor

I mentioned above how I have the EPL5 camera and now, I’m shooting with the EPL7 mostly. So here’s the thing, when I started shooting with the new camera, I realised that my images were much sharper than my previous shots on the EPL5. I would say that the pictures have a certain clarity to them and the effect is a very neat, clean and focused picture. I don’t know how to explain further, but I’ll leave you with an excerpt off the Olympus website describing what the TruePic VII image processor does. And as usual, the colours of the image are just amazing with the new processor, it is vibrant and almost a similar colour as what we see.

“TruePic VII optimizes sharpness according to the optical characteristics of the attached lens and aperture (F) value, performs high-precision demosaicing optimized for the low-pass filter less sensor, and features Fine Details II that reduces false colors. It brings out the potential of lenses to achieve sharpness and high resolution.”

// The pictures above and below were taken in a dimly lit with incandescent light bulbs which gave my picture a orangey hue to it. It made the food less appetizing but I used the Olympus’s One Touch White Balance, to get the correct white balance and ta-da! The pictures looks better. I also wanted to emphasize that with the new TruePic VII image processor, I notice the vast difference compared to my EPL5. // Note: If you’re an Olympus user and do not know of the One Touch WB, do click on the link to learn more about it and how to enable/use it on your camera.

3-axis image stabilization

The EPL5 uses the older Image Stabilization system while the EPL7 has 3-axis image stabilization. I’ll be honest and say that in poorer lit conditions (like in the restaurant I mentioned above), I found that the EPL5 struggles to capture a sharp picture and that is when I decided to shoot with three pictures continuously just so that I can get a sharp picture. I shoot in RAW + JPEG, so that means that my memory run out faster that way. But I didn’t know any other way to get my picture clearer in those lighting condition. I could bump up my ISO, but I didn’t want (I like mine at the maximum of ISO1600) and I am already shooting at the widest I can without have too shallow DOF since I am mostly shooting food.

But with the EPL7, I have never once had that struggle of shooting in low light condition. Most of the pictures I snapped were sharp and clear, even in low light and mostly in any lighting condition all together. I must say having the 3-axis image stabilization really helps in that. With this, I am so much confident in shooting at a much slower shutter speed with lower ISO because I can be sure to rely on the axis image stabilization.

// In pictures like this, having the 3-axis stabilization is pretty much amazing because when you extend your hand that high up, hand shake tend to happen and with the Fisheye Body Cap 9mm lens, especially since aperture is fixed at f/8.0. The picture above was shot during daytime so the shutter speed was pretty fast to be fair. Hand shake happen still, but the camera managed to get pretty sharp image. //

// I decided to mount a FL-50R flash, which is a flash meant for Olympus DSLR’s on my camera to shoot for my annual dinner. The whole set up, actually made the EPL7 feel rather imbalanced, with the weight of the flash being very heavy. Because of this, I was relying on the 3-axis stabilization to ensure that the image I take is still sharp. I was also shooting at the speed of 1/60, which is much slower than my usual shots. //

// With most of the pictures from the night turning out good and focused, I can now definitely rely on 3-axis stabilization, along with Olympus fast AF. Even so, shooting with the right techniques and the right settings is crucial. So, as amazingly powerful a camera can be, do ensure and check your settings is right before proceeding to shoot. //

* * * * * * * * * *

And with that, it wraps up my reviews on the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7. I wrote three posts on the camera, so do read them all if you haven’t read it yet.

1. Snaps: Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 (where I briefly mentioned about the camera and included some sample images)
2. Snaps: Selfies with the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 (where I talked about the e-Portrait / beauty mode and taking selfies)
3. And this final post, which I told you what I love about the EPL7

I will be posting more about the camera in the coming months, and since I’m leaving for my Phuket trip soon, I plan to do a photo post on that trip using the pictures I captured with the EPL7 and the Stylus TG3 (which is a waterproof camera with WiFi capability). I am beyond excited to shoot underwater so stay tuned for that. :)

Till next time,

xoxo

Eat: Bmon Cafe, The Strand, Kota Damansara

A friend of mine, together with his brother, recently opened a cafe located in The Strand, Kota Damansara. Now, before you go on thinking this is yet another cafe, it really isn’t. This cafe is an manga themed cafe with its main character being Bmon (drawn by my friend’s brother), so you’ll expect to see comics splattered across the walls and as part of the decoration of the cafe.

It is located upstairs, so do look out for the stairs leading to the cafe. As always, I’m completely hopeless when it comes to shooting pictures of the ambiance and the decoration of the cafe. So, allow my words and your imagination to work. I promise I’ll try to shoot the interior of the cafe next. But for pictures of the cafe, do head over to FollowMeToEatLa post on Bmon Cafe.

I did get to take pictures of my outfit in the balcony of the cafe, which was one of those rare occasions when I do. I always make it a point to dress up but I don't get my picture taken. But the interior of Bmon Cafe was too gorgeous not to take some snaps over there.

As the cafe is newly opened, the menu is simple with the usual breakfast meals, pastas, pizzas, waffles and salad. The drinks menu however, is rather extensive. I won’t be posting so much on the drinks, but instead talking more about the food.

All Day Breakfast | RM16.90

Tuna Wrap | RM12.90

Mushroom Wrap | RM12.90

The All Day Breakfast is mostly a staple in most cafes these day, over at Bmon Cafe, I found it to be reasonably priced and rather simple. It comes with scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, hash brown and sausage. Then, they also serve wraps in the cafe, with a choice of either tuna, chicken or mushroom. When I was there, we got to try the wraps pictured above.

I never was a fan of wrap, I thought they were soft cold mushy and just not tasty! But the ones I had in Bmon Cafe, was served warm with the wrap being crispy thin and as I sink my teeth into them, I love how generous the serving of the fillings ; for both the mushrooms and the tuna.

Tuna Mayo Salad | RM10.90

Fruit Mayo Salad | RM10.90

I love vegetables, but I have never ordered salad when I’m eating out since it is especially easy to make myself. But the ones at Bmon Cafe were visually appetizing, served in an authentic salad bowl which makes it easy for sharing and the combination of the fresh vegetables and the choice of ingredients are refreshing. There is no secret in which was my favourite one, the Fruit Mayo Salad.

Hawaiian Pizza | RM13.90

Mushroom Pizza | RM13.90

And next, we had the crispy thin crust pizzas which comes in two variety with is the all-time favourite Hawaiian Pizza and the Mushroom Pizza. I have always loved mushrooms, so my pick would be that pizza. It was crispy and loaded with sliced mushrooms, coupled with cheese and with a hint of tomatoes base sauce. The Hawaiian was delicious too, hitting the right notes with the generous toppings of ham, chicken and pineapple.

Chicken Carbonara Pasta | RM13.90

Chicken Bolognese Pasta | RM13.90

Similar to the pizzas, there are two choices of pasta which is the two favourites which the the carbonara and the bolognese flavour. I found the Chicken Carbonara Pasta to be very rich in flavour, more so because of the finely chopped garlic used in the sauce. The Chicken Bolognese Pasta  was tasty too, and there is an option to choose either chicken or beef.

Hippo In The Pond | RM14.90

I saved the best and my favourite dish for last, so if you're still reading the post then you’re in luck because I’m about to tell you about the dish which is served in extremely limited quantity in Bmon Cafe. I heard only 5 were made in a day. So what is this Hippo In The Pond? It is actually potato croquette which have fried with breadcrumbs and hidden within this, is a whole boiled egg. You can see that it is also loaded with salad, ham and chicken floss as well.

You can see the sauce at the right side of the picture, and that is actually the cheese cause. You’re supposed to pour the sauce and eat it together with the potatoes and everything else in the bowl. And can I just say how heavenly the combination of both the cheesy sauce and the potatoes? It was deliciously amazing!

Chocolate Mud with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream | RM10

Waffle with Strawberry Ice Cream and Fruits | RM12.90

There are a lot more selections of cakes and desserts to choose from but of all there is available, my top two picks would the Chocolate Mud with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream and the Waffles! Just as when there was a burger trend going about, it would appear that waffles are the trending food for now. So, do hop on over to Bmon Cafe!

* * * * * * * * * *

// Bmon Cafe //

No. 8-1 Jalan PJU5/20B, Petaling Jaya
03-6158 9993

Open daily from 11am to 11pm

* * * * * * * * * *

I’ll like to end this post with a couple more pictures of the food that I took, which are of different angles. The pictures in this post are taken with the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7, or better known as the EPL7 together with my favourite Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 Lens. These were taken with natural sunlight, as my only source of light and edited with Lightroom on the JPEG files, since my version of Lightroom doesn’t support the EPL7 RAW files yet.

Tuna Mayo Salad | RM10.90

Hippo In The Pond | RM14.90

Bmon Plant | RM13.00

Bmon Plant | RM13.00

Fruit Mayo Salad | RM10.90

Till next time,

xoxo