The "Mini-Gun" Mamiya 250mm f/5

 I bought the rare 250mm f/5 from e(vil)-bay while I was in Singapore and I have brought it back to Thailand for some closeup portraits.  Its a hell of a lens.  All metal and glass.  Not much plastic (only the levers or the aperture ring seems to be plastic).

I posted this snapshot of the lens as a scale on facebook and I loved one of my friend's comment.  He said it looked like the mini-gun from the worms game.  I agree with him so I decided to nickname it the "Mini-Gun".

I tested the lens in SG with a roll of film.  Its ok except the last 2 shots went missing.  Double checked and realised it has a bit of oily aperture :S.  Which means the shutter may not be functioning correctly.  I need to send it for a good CLA but due to time constraints, I decided to let it be for the while.  Since I don't think I will be using it that often.

However, today, I decided to shoot some instant photos with the mini-gun and surprsingly.  It handles pretty well and surprisingly my hit rate was pretty good even with such shallow DOF and slow shutter.  Heavy camera really has less camera shake? hehehe.

Here are 4 of the better ones..

 

There are a few more but I'm just too tired to scan and post them now.  But I have to say the bokeh and sharpness of this lens is quite lengenary as mentioned in other photographic forums.  Contrast and colours are good too.  The only bad thing (optically) besides the weight is that it slightly vignettes on the Instant photos.  I dun really mind though as I guess I would use it mainly for portraits for instant photos so that is not really a big issue to me :) .  Its still surprising cheap in the ebay market (less than $800 SGD) so its really really a bargain to get such a good glass with such a price tag.  But I guess my muscle of my arms will get bigger if I used it more often.  hehe 

 

 

Busy month.

I'm back in LOS and the kids are happy to see me.  So's my wife whom seems to be a little worn out from taking care of the 2 little monsters for the pass month.  I will be quite busy this month.  Firstly is to remodel my study.  I had brought back my film scanner and 24" display.  Also my NAS from my home in Singapore.  Which means I could build another station in my studies just for photo editing and scanning.  The mac mini will be the chosen one for this task.  My old PC will take the old monitor and will be used my girl for her games.  (Normally if I start using the computer she would want to play) So its much better for me to have 2 stations at home side by side.  Which means at least I could be doing something besides looking at her playing dressup games :P

Then I need to settle my little shop house.  Still under construction but having its finishing touches.  I might fly back to SG too if time allows (or if I'm bored :P).  Girl's term just ended so its a month holiday for her.  So it will be hectic for us as the kids will be at home.

Some of you also wondered why I have not posted photos recently.  Actually I shot some while in Singapore but never found the time to scan it.  I plan to do it today once I setup the scanner later.  I also tried shooting with the beast and the GIAGANTO 250mm today..... verdict... I think I won't be using it often... bloody heavy and hard to focus with such a small finder mask... Most probably will use it for my landscapes though...

Will post more later.  2 monsters calling me.... :p

1 year multiple entry Visa for Thailand.

I went to apply for my multiple entry Non-Immigrant 'O' Visa at the Thai embassy today. It's my first time doing it actually.  

The documents required are exactly the same as the single entry except one thing.  The amount of money you have in your bank :P  (Thai's learning from SG, if you want to stay in Thailland for long, you must have moola :P)

Anyway, printed and endorsed my bank statements this morning at my bank and went straight down to the embassy.  There were some silly hiccups at the counter.  This is because they recently changed the rules of applications and its actually much more tedious to get approval.  A lot of the people in the Q were acutally denied on the spot or asked to come back with their more documents.

First change are the fees.  A whopping $50 SGD for Tourist Visa and $100 for single entry Non-immigrant 'O'.  It used to be free for the Tourist and Transit Visa.  $30 if I'm not wrong if you take the Non-immigrant 'O' for non-Singaporeans.  So some actually didn't have enough cash on their hands and have to rush back to their hotels to get their money.

2nd thing is the air tickets.  On their website, they actually asked people not to buy air tickets before applying for the visa as they might be rejected.  But they want to see the confirmed air tickets this time round before you even apply!  This is a big one.  Lots of people were fustrated with this change as its like a chicken and egg issue; I buy the airt tickets but you reject me how?  And I don't buy, you don't allow me to apply.  I think they really need to update their website on this one.  I see a lot of people came without a ticket and was sent home (I also kena the last time so I came prepared this time :P) 

Anyway, the Q was pretty long, waited about half an hour before it's my turn.  The same old Malay lady who serves me (quite a few times) greeted me and we chatted a bit :)  (Me old bird liao).  I asked about the 3 yr multiple entry and she said that is only for investors.  (Money again.)  Not applicable for Non -O hehe..  Anyway, all my papers were in order and approved on the spot.  Collection is tomorrow after 2pm as usual.  And one more change actually, the collection time was reduced from 2pm to 3pm only (last time used to be up to 4pm) 

So I guess I won't be going through this motion for the next 12 months.    That's pretty good news to me actually.

For those who are interested, you can see the latest fees and required documents for application of Thai Visa over here at the SG Thai embassy website.

PS:  A little update in LOS.  Called wife today and she mentioned that our flock of chickens had laid 2 eggs... hehehe.. Girl girl is very happy and she checks on them all the time.  Boy boy blur blur but oso excited :)

Just 1 more week

and I will be back in LOS.  Yeah!  We have more or less moved into the new house my sis bought.  Its pretty close to the old house we were staying before.  Not going to sell the old house as my mum plans to rent it out for some income. :)

As for me, my reservist actually started on Friday.  Its actually pretty welfare.  Friday was just a half day briefing on what we will be doing and yesterday on Saturday, we worked hard and managed to hit our quota!  (Sorry can't really say what I'm doing as under OSA :P)  So today and tomorrow (suppose to be standby days if cannot finish), I will be free and no need to go to camp to report and book in.  Tues morning will be a debrief and that's it!  hehe..  Happy!

Wife say boy boy already started to complain since last week liao.. Night time kept looking for me :(  Think this time go back that bugger is going to be angry with me for quite some time... better get some toys for him and my girl too....

Cheeky boy.

Wife told me this 2 weeks ago via phone but I never found the time to jot this down in my blog.  Pretty funny incident about my boy.

It happened while I was away and wife' childhood friend came back to Maesai from Bangkok for a visit.  She has a baby girl about 6 months younger then my son.  (My boy is 2 btw :P)

After dropping my daughter in school.  They have a little gathering at her house and boy boy was playing happily with the little girl.  All was normal until nap time.  The baby girl has a strict nap time and she went to sleep on her little mattress.  My boy, being alone, get bored easily and slowly drift into his sleep too.   Wife naturally just placed him next to his new found friend on the same mattress.  

10 mins later, her friend checked on the 2 kids and found my boy basically has all his hands and legs wrapped around her little girl... hehehe.  She smiled and jokingly complained to my wife that her daughter kena "eaten" (taken advantaged of) by my boy liao.  Wife went in and took a look and yup, my boy was hugging the little girl like a pillow.  Very usual of him.

An hour later, I guess the little girl sensed she was not alone on the bed and woke up.  Immediately she cried and make up a big fuss.  Here's the funny part.  My boy never likes people to disturb while he is sleeping (even my wife and I).  He would cry and throw a tantrum if anyone just woke him up.  So my wife was expecting him to make a big fuss but surprise surprise... he didn't.  He just smiled back at my wife, look at the crying little "girlfriend" and gave a funny sly grin.  Macham like (hehehehe, I got what I want liao) :P.  Wife and her friend broke out laughing.  Too bad I wasn't around, could take a photo of this little sly dog...  Wonder where he get that sly genes from ..... :P

 

Another chapter in my life.

35 years I have stayed in my old house and just last week, the movers came and moved out most of the stuff to the new one my sister bought.  At the moment I am still staying in my old house (for convinience sake) but daily, I still need to move some minor personal stuff to the new one.  And there's no more internet connection so I guess I still need to come to the new house almost everyday to surf...

The new environment is a good change to old one.  Fresh paint, new nieghbours (pretty lucky to have good ones) and new furnitures.  It was a pain in the ass to move actually.  It does not help if your father is an avid philatelist and collector.  Meaning we had box loads of stamps (yup tons of them) to move.   Moreover my whole family are avid readers so the amount of books in boxes are huge too.  My mum gave the movers a big tip as most of our stuffs are really damn heavy :P

I will be spending sometime to shift through the collection and maybe sell them off locally at a shop or through ebay.  Its interesting though.  Stamps used to be an important part of communications (writing letters or postcards)but nowadays, we are replaced by email, twitters or blogs.  Even through social website updates.  I'm glad though that there are still a lot of stamp collectors in the interweb which means I could sell some of them off.  Most of the stamps my late father collected are from PRC.  Anyone interested do drop me a message.  Or if you have a lead in buying bulk can drop me an email too.  I have a truckload of them now sitting just beside me while I'm typing this :P  

A man's story.

This is supposed to be published yesterday but I was too poof in moving and shifting all the stuff in the house.  As  my sister has bought a new flat.  My mum decided to move in with her into the new HDB flat while we clear out the stuff in our current apartment so we can rent it out for some money.  "Asset enhancment leh!!"  

Anyway, was clearing the stuff of my old man when I spotted this whole cache of diaries he wrote.  Memories just flooded where I clearly still remember, everyday, every night during news time (around 8pm).  My late father would sit in his chair and starts to write his diary.  He continued to do this until he was bedridden.....

Anyway, all of us read through a few entries.  His writing was elegant and very very neat and easy to read.  (Unlike mine which are terrible! :P ) Most of the entries are just boring stuff like what he ate, buy and other mundane daily stuff....  a bit boring but once in a while, we get to see some very interesting entries.  Like one which he felt a bit sorry and regretted on scolding my sister for waking him up and etc... little things here and there that make these diaries so much more meaningful to us.  I wonder my kids will get to read about my blog one day after I passed away and get the same feeling?  

I took a photo of the diaries on the bed before packing them into a box.  Its going to my sister's house first before we decide what to do with them.  There were also tons of old photos which I guess we still have a lot of things to sort.  

And here's the funny part, my father passed away on the 3rd Sep (thus I want to write this piece yesterday) and the day I found the diaries was on Friday.  2 days before the 9th death anniversay.

Maybe he wants us to read about his life again?  :)