The magic of Canon

I have used my new Canon 50d for roughly a month now and after nearly 600 actuations, I must say it is a truely amazing midrange camera from Canon. Don't get me wrong though, I still absolutely love my first dSLR, the 400d but this 50d just opens out so much more options for me to play with. The most useful feature that I found (and sadly missing from the 400d but available through later 450d and 1000d) is the auto ISO mode and in the 50d, it switches between 100-1600 in auto mode.

Pairing it with the large aperture of 50mm f1.4 lens, the 50d takes amazing handheld night shots. Another plus is a significantly lower noise level at higher ISO of up to 1600. Although it goes all the way up to ISO 12800, things start to get a bit too grainy for my taste above ISO 3200. Another important plus is the maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 seconds, which allows the use of bigger aperture in bright daylight for portrait work without the need to use ND filters. Oh yes, did I say the 3" HR LCD screen is a godsend? It's just amazing that Canon can pack the resolution of a standard VGA monitor into a 3" screen!

The photo of this beautiful singer was taken at ISO 1250 with minimal lighting at Bistro38, Joondalup Resort. She performed for nearly 3 hours continuously while we were feasting on the buffet. Just in case you are thinking about having your next all-you-can-eat round there, my advice is you are more likely to get your money worth at the Jetty Restaurant at the Hillary Boat Habour. The buffet is worse or on par with the Atrium Restaurant in Burswood and you will be paying through your nose!

Zoom Zoom!

I usually spend countless hours in front of my monitor surfing the web when I run out of things to do or photo to shoot. I came across this image which I thought was quite funny and like to share with you guys....an ultimate Nikon freak! or...may be something my dear friend Wayne would admire lol!

As a Canon user, I found some interesting stats for a similarly rediculous lens made by Canon and since has been discontinued in 2005. Of course, to showcase a lens of this calibre would be absurd not to include a hot chick like those exortic cars at the expo right?












The lens is a Canon EF 1200mm f5.6L USM and it costs a whopping US$99,000; it's 84cm in length, weighs in excess of 16kg and comes with the heavy duty tripod! Go figures!

Two slices of heaven

Well, we went back to our favourite pizza place again in Mundaring last Friday and it was again fantastic! The first of the two pizzas we tried was aptly named smashing pumpkins and the other was some sort of seafood pizza with huge succulent prawns (sorry...forgot it's name). Smashing pumpkins was the pick of the two, it was indeed the first slice of heaven for the week :)








The Second slice of heaven was found at the King Street Cafe in the city. I am a great fan of everything made from banana and the guys there at the cafe bake one of the best I have come across! They have two sorts of banana cakes, the regular banana cake and the baked banana cheesecake. The later one is the one to die for...trust me :)

A fun weekend or not...

Yesterday night, we attended the Rio Tinto Christmas party at the Adventure World with my niece and nephew. Overall, it was not too bad at all if not because of my pounding headache. I have never been to Adventure World before and because I have heard so much great things about the park, I went to the park carrying high expectations.

To my disappointment, I was suprise to find out how small the actual fun park is. Moreover, the facilities and equipments there are fairly old and ill maintained considering the astronomical entry fee per person that the park demands. The last check on the board, for $45/adult, $37/child and $39/pensioner or concession card holder, it is not cheap by any standard! Nevertheless, it was still a fun night out with the kids. Will I go back again?....well, definitely not as a paying patron :)