Monday, October 24, 2011

Growing up with Casios...my early watch craze

hmmm way before there was portable gaming, PDA's and ipods... the coolest gadget that a kid born in the 80s could have was a Sony Walkman and his Casio Digital Watch...

When it comes to watches I'm one of those weird guys who is a righty but also prefers to wear his watch on his right hand. Through out my kid and teen days casio was always the watch of choice....why? coz of the many functions to toy around with. I was a sucker for features and of course got suckered into the various models made by casio.

Among some of my geeky casio's were :


1) Casio 300m water resist - not that I went diving anyways, just for bragging rights haha (my watch can go deeper than yours)


2) Casio Data Bank - I could store phone numbers and even dial using the watch (by putting it near the mouth piece), damn I guess you cant get any lazier than that.


3) Casio Barometer BM-200 - This watch was freaking cool, as I could measure the altitude and the determine if it was going to rain wooohooo!!!

I actually really miss this watch as it was lost. Being in the aviation industry it would have more significance now than it did before. If I ever do find this watch at a flea I wouldn't think twice to grab it.

None of these casio watches ever did die on me. It was just mostly my negligence in using them and some lost during trips or relocation. Later on as I grew older the mentality that digital watches were for kids kicked in and I started wearing analogue watches (to be continued in another post)

Until today I still own a casio and make it a point to own at least one casio for the role of beat-em-up watch (jam Belsahan). The casio's are the ones that always follow me on camping trips, beach vacations, sports, and bike rides.

The current one that has been with me for almost 5 years is a casio Duro 200.
- Stainless Steel, analogue and digital (still need the analogue touch)
- Calender calculated till 2099 ( i dont think i'll even live that long)
- Stop watch, Timer, World time
- Tempreture and tide graph (the geek feature)


Actual picture of my watch... battered and bruised but still ticking

Sunday, October 2, 2011

GiLA-GiLa CaMeRa...

Ever since I had my first born I fell in love with photography i share this hobby with my other half. I just wanted to post this to keep track of the many few lenses and camera's that I have had the pleasure of owning and using. I'll do some reviews another time, for now, lets just make a list.

It all started with this...(in order of chronology)

Body - Olympus E-system E-420 DSLR

Lens - Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f3.5-5.6

Lens - Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f3.5-4.5 MK1

Lens - Zuiko OM 50mm f1.8 Manual focus

Lens - Vivitar OM 24mm f2.8 Manual focus

Lens - Nikkor 50mm AF1.4D

Body - Nikon D90 DX DSLR

Lens - Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S f3.5-4.5

Lens - Nikkor 55-200 VR AF-S f4-5.6

Lens - Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 (non-motor) MK1

Flash - Nissin Di622 TTL

Lens - Nikkor 28-105 AF3.5-4.5D

Lens - Nikkor 28-70 AF3.5-4.5D

Body - Fujifilm S3 Pro DLSR

Flash - Nikon SB-400 mini flash

Flash - Nikon SB-80DX

Lens - Tokina 11-16mm f2.8

Lens - Nikkor 70-300 AF4.-5.6D ED (non-VR)

Lens - Nikkor 70-210 AF f4 constant (two-touch)

Lens - Nikkor 80-200 AF4.5-5.6D

Flash - Nikon SB-800

Body - Fujifilm S5 Pro DSLR

Lens - Nikkor 24-85 AF2.8-4D

Lens - Tokina 80-200 ATX Pro f2.8 (gold ring) MKII

Body - Nikon D70s DLSR

Lens - Nikkor 35mm AF2.0D (my latest acquisition)


Whoa!!!! I guess thats a lot of lens, now you might think that I spend a lot on these lenses, but the truth is I dont keep all of them, I sell and then buy others lens (some call it being poisoned). Some of these lenses I bought used and I got for a real bargain. The thing is these lenses have really good resale value (depending on quality and rareness). I even made some really good profit selling off some of the lenses (not gonna tell you which one though haha)

Now, among all of these cameras, lenses and accessories, the ones that are still residing in my dry cabin are....




From left to right.... Nikon D70s, Nikkor 35mm AF-D f2.0, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8, Tokina AT-X Pro 80-200 f2.8 (SB-800 flash not shown)

Now why did I keep these items?

D70s - it just rocks!!! awesome colours, the best blue skies you're gonna get. (go ahead...ask any nikonians) shame about ISO limitations though (I dont shoot anything higher than 800 anyways)

Tamron 17-50 - The non-motor version is a gem coz they dont make this version anymore. AF-is fast, no back focusing issues and sharper than the built in motor version. Some distortion at 17mm and have yet to compare with the VC version.

Tokina AT-X 80-200 - For some reason tokina does not make 80-200mm lens anymore. this lens performs just as well as the nikkor two touch AF-D (perhaps because it shares the same design) Even though this lens rarely gets out that much, but it comes in handy for any sports events or concerts :D


So thats my current gear for now...

among my wish list is (if I had the money)

Body - Nikon D200 or D700

Lens - Tokina 12-24F4, Nikkor 85mm F1.8, Nikkor 28-105 or Nikkor 24-85 (yup I feel like buying these again)

Flash - Nikon SB-700 or Metz Mecablitz (heard good things about these)




alrite...off to shoot more photos (and finding more money ;P)