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國際金融中心商場 IFC, Central to Hong Kong International Airport
Stay up late in the city and head for early check in in the morning.
The check in counter in IFC, Central. Take advantage of the city check in.
Elevator behind the check in counter for going up to the mall, bars, cafes and restaurants.
Then head upstairs to get some gifts and foodstuffs for loved ones waiting at home.
If you have a Nespresso machine-espresso supply smorgasboard.
After last minute gifts hop on the subway to go to the airport.
Directions inside the subway cars for your convenience. Watch out for the quiet section of the subway for further napping on the 1 hour ride.
Upon arriving the luggage carts are all laid out neatly for your portability.
A reminder to take lots of pictures.
Enjoy the awesome ceiling treatment in HKIA. Go directly to immigration.
It's a long walk, don't be late. HKIA has everything a traveller will need.
After immigration it's HKIA in all it's grandeur. Where gates are and lots of shopping, restaurants and most anything you will need.
...even a shower
and have a pleasant flight.
Sincerity
The very polluted Pasig River that runs through the Binondo area
Binondo aka Manila’s China Town akin to the dirtiest parts of the world. Where trash is controlled chaos, where the Chinese underworld operates, where wholesalers call home and where food is always a comfort.
One restaurant that stands out is Sincerity, already an institution serves up Chinese food from the Fujian Province of China. This is real, unadulterated Chinese food. On a diet? Skip this place. The closest thing they have for dieters is the Coke Zero. Armed with an 85mm f/1.8 and an empty stomach, for an hour and a half, the place gets shot with a Canon and a healthy bill at meals end.
The EF 85mm f/1.8 on a x1.6 crop sensor DSLR like the Canon EOS 7D goes all the way out to 135mm in full frame numbers. It is a great walk around lens even if zooming in and out takes a bit of walking. This is one lens where it can reach the good stuff-like say in a car, roll down the window and bang, you have the shot. Streets in downtown Manila are one way and narrow. The 85mm f/1.8 also one of the sharpest, cheapest and lightest in Canon’s lens collection. Short enough as well not to cause too much undue attention.
Remnant from the last Chinese new year
Admist controlled chaos
Interior views of Sincerity
Tableware presentation the old way
Kikiam- a roll stuffed with chicken, pork and other good stuff
Ma-chang (肉粽) or zongzi (粽子)- gluttinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves and stuffed with pork, chicken, mushrooms and nuts
Oyster omelet (蚵仔煎)- made with oysters, eggs, tapioca starch and eaten with a sweet chili sauce
Stirred fry Chinese vermicilli with various meats and seafood.
The classic and very tasty Sincerity fried chicken
Lunch time traffic
…IN YOUR LENSES
Stumbling upon a recent article ‘Finding the Sweet Spot’ by Ontario-based photographer, Steve Richardson, reminded me of questions posed by friends on particular lens sharpness of various makes. Generally, a standard answer would be-the relative optimum sharpness of a lens would be f/7 to f/8 to f/9 or the maximum aperture of the lens and decrease aperture by 2-stops. With the Canon 24-70 f2.8L a bias answer would be that it’s sharp throughout.
Of course, sharpness depends greatly on brand and sheer luck. A dependable brand (Canon, Nikon, Olympus Zuiko, Zeiss, etc.) will produce lenses with about an 85% success rate without obvious flaws. Until it gets dropped and the focus mechanism will need repair.
With third party brands (Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc.) sheer luck plays a huge role in getting a sharp lens. As too many factors come into play and most notably, third party lenses are reverse engineered from actual samples of lenses from the big two-Canon and Nikon. Resulting in a bigger chance a buy will result in a faulty lens. From a personal stand point, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 and 10-20 f4-5.6 are excellent and cheaper third party options to their more expensive counterparts but still not impervious to flaws.
Pro quality lenses are also prone to it’s fair share of faults. Take the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II(US$1,800)-it’s not necessarily sharper than the Canon 85mm f/1.8(US$400) but the L version has weather sealing and produces a much more beautiful bokeh(background/foreground blur) than the non L f/1.8. Do these factors substantiate a purchase for a greatly more expensive lens? To each their own.
After thorough research and lens purchase the best thing to do to ensure a good copy is to test it’s sharpness. Here is a very simple and effective way of doing it. Just follow the simple instructions on Steve Richardson’s post over at Photogrpahy Bay.
Shot details: Canon 50D+EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, AV Mode(Aperture priority), f/2.0, ISO 100, AWB, Flash Off, Adobe RGB, Center-weighted average. RAW converted in DPP and post processed in Photoshop. The photo was cropped to approximately 2/3 of the original 15 mp and zoomed in (right) to check clarity of detail.
In ‘Finding the Sweet Spot’, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II was used for testing. Photographer Steve Richardson’s copy of this lens had a maximum sharpness at f/8. Does this mean the nifty-fifty should be used at all times at f/8? Determining lens sharpness should not deter you from capturing good photographs at any aperture. It is just a guide for knowing the exact opening for maximum sharpness when the need arises. All lenses should be used to it’s full potential by testing different apertures and shutter speeds on various subjects and compositions.
This author has used the nifty-fifty from it’s maximum opening of f/1.8 to minimum opening of f/22 and gotten excellent results time and time again. Not every photo is equal but you will get a good one most of the time. Finding the sweet spot on the cheapest and lightest lens in Canon’s line up only makes the nifty-fifty much more fun to shoot with.
