My New Girlfriend – Sony NEX F3

Posted on July 22, 2012 by S

I have gotten myself a decent camera finally after many years of daydreaming. The credit goes to Weitat and Gin for accompany me to the showroom, especially Weitat for the special discount he has gotten for me.
My new girlfriend, Sony NEX F3, is a mirrorless camera, which ranges between a normal compact camera and DSLR. According to some reviews I have read online, newer versions of mirrorless cameras are equivalent to entry level DSLR.
Mirrorless cameras lose to DSLR in autofocus speed. This means that mirrorless camera users may not be able to capture moments as fast as DSLR users. As a user who has just upgraded from sub quality compact cameras and having a few touches of my friends’ DSLR, I find my Sony NEX F3 satisfying.
The thing I quite dislike about my new girlfriend, F3, is that it does not have a viewfinder. I do not like the feeling of having another person seeing what I’m exactly focusing on. Therefore, it strongly discourages me from capturing some great moments, people and especially eyes candies. After all, mirrorless cameras are designed to be used without optical viewfinder, hence, have smaller bodies.
The main reason I have chosen a mirrorless camera over DSLR is that it is much more portable given its size and weight. My brothers will be using it then, which makes purchasing of the camera more worthwhile. Other than that, the discount in price is a big bonus. Luckily, Canon has yet to come up with a mirrorless camera, otherwise I would have to make more comparisons.
I was, in fact, stuck between Sony NEX 5N and F3. NEX 5N is an improved version of NEX 5 and it has been out in the market for about a year. NEX 7 has recently being launched and is out of stock, but the price difference is far too high – around $600 to $700 more. My girlfriend, NEX F3, is new as well, however, is said to be a lower-end version of NEX 5N, which is around $200 cheaper.
– Resolution of images
NEX 5N is the winner despite NEX F3 is about a year newer. However, I do not need extremely high resolution images.
– Design
Both models look quite alike at first glance but NEX F3 looks more like a box, which is uglier. Looks of the camera is of a lower priority to me, just like a girlfriend, which nobody knows.
– Flash and external gadget
NEX F3 has a built-in flash, which is stronger than the external flash that comes with NEX 5N. I do not like attaching and removing of external flash. The main issue is that both cameras have only a connector for external gadget, including the external flash. Therefore, NEX 5N users may have problems attaching an external microphone in future for video taking, but of course, this is not a good example since you do not need flash when doing video shot.
– Price
As mentioned earlier on, NEX F3 costs around $200 cheaper.
– LCD
Both cameras depend solely on the LCD for phototaking. Both of their LCDs can be adjusted. NEX 5N’s screen can be adjusted to face downwards more, so that the user can hold the camera higher and still be able to view the screen. NEX F3 can instead, flip the LCD screen 180 degrees to face the front, so that the user can take self portrait. Both are useful but I think the latter is more useful for causal shooting, especially with friends.
The Sony salesman, Jose, was a very honest man. He did not persuade me to buy NEX 5N, which was the more expensive model. Instead, he advised me to get a camera as accordingly to my need. He did his work professionally such as showing me how to attach the external flash and the power of them. He also reminded me that NEX F3 was very new and thus there would be fewer online reviews about it, which could be the reason why I felt NEX 5N was much better.
I love my girlfriend – Sony NEX F3.
Photography has been my hobby since young. I may not be very good in it but I put in extra effort than most people to make sure my photos turn out better. I wish to capture all the greatest moments and people of my life, and bring out their best smiles in my unique angle. I want to be appreciated through my work and not words.
I hope I can get some models and improve on my photography skill for photoshooting.

How Many Ten-Years Do We Have In Our Lives?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by S

One of my favourite Chinese drama shows, which had just ended recently, was Rosy Business. I was quite surprised that Gilbert did catch it as well. The story was based on the olden days of China during the Qing dynasty and I expected not many people would be interested in it. It was mainly about the family of the major rice seller in Wuxi, China. To them, it was not only about profit but the essential of lives of the people, and thus they had to fight against thugs and their evil family members to keep the business going and the price of rice low. I first caught it when I happened to have my dinner at home instead of dining out on a weekend. My curiosity was spiked by the great plot. It was a pity that I had missed out some of the exciting parts where the main characters applied intelligence to overcome problems. The show was not anything like “Huang Fei Hong” or Tom Cruise in “mission impossible”. The hero was not a saint; he made big mistakes and grew mature over times. His loyalty, courage and intelligence were impressive. The usual quote by the hero was “how many ten-years do we have in our lives?” and it clearly reminded everyone not to waste our lives. I know I have been ill-treating myself for the past twenty-plus years. Though I have not produced much result, I have clearly spent most of my entire life racing. I’m been trained not to have lust on food or travelling. I’m losing myself as days go by and soon becoming a zombie. I’m not a smart worker and I’m definitely bad at priority management. I have clearly disappointed many people. I’m never in need of money not because my family is rich but I rarely spend on myself. I’m used to mess around with hunger since polytechnic days. My dad’s last payslip wrote around $1300 before he passed away and my mum spent quite a sum of my dad’s leftovers (CPF and insurance) on renovation of the rundown house, insurance plans that she could not afford, crappy health magnetic mattresses and she even lent a big portion of it to her boss who had been abusing her verbally. One year before I went to the army for national service, I had to start skipping meals after volleyball games. Nobody can understand how much I have been through and thus no one is in the position to judge me. I have to work extra hard because I’m neither a genius nor apple-polisher. There are also some risks that I’m not able to take. I need to do something for my next ten years of life if I can live on.

Nanyang Kitchen at People’s Park Complex Food Centre

Posted on March 6, 2011 by S

A visit to Chinatown last evening killed my huge appetite. My family and I went to People’s Park Complex Food Centre for our dinner and my younger brother happened to have a craving for herbal soup. Since I was exhausted from the night cycling half a day ago, I wanted to take some meat. We ordered a bowl of soup and sweet and sour pork rice from the stall “Nanyang Kitchen”.

It was run by China people. The lady was very rude. She forgot about my order after collecting money and made me stand there for very long. My brother had taken our herbal soup away earlier on and left me waiting there alone. Many people who had ordered other food (meat and fish) were served before me.

She thought I was a new customer and tried to take my order again. I told her I was waiting for my sweet and sour pork rice and she started asking her chef to include my dish. Next she told me, “Young man, there are many people waiting for their food, be patient okay? The meat requires a long time to cook.”

Obviously she was in the wrong and I was in fact very polite to her all along. I was very turned off that she tried to hide the fact. Can’t this China lady admit her mistake? I’m a Chinese born in Singapore and it’s obvious I could hear her late instruction for her chef.

I don’t think she’s running an honest business. She overcharged a customer who was sharp enough to expose her. The food tasted quite bad seriously. She was a great foreign talent who was actually quite bad in her mathematics who also reminded me good customer service.

Second Movie with Family for the Year

Posted on February 10, 2011 by S

[Saturday, 5 February, 2011]

My brothers and my elder brother’s girlfriend started playing monopoly deal game in the room. Lucky joined us but he was moving around to change his sleeping position, unlike my mum could sleep throughout at the corner. Lucky, however, refused to stop farting. After the game, I continued with SEO work for the quit smoking site and went to bed after 7.30am.

My mum woke me up before 11am to get ready for movie. We went to Great World City to catch the movie “It’s a Great Great World”. Since we were in a rush, we did not take breakfast before that. It was a good movie and I enjoyed the pieces of stories inside. It was filmed in a humorous and touching way.

We went home after dropping by the pet shop. We had steamboat at home for our first meal of the day. I started dozing off and by the late afternoon, everyone was out of the house. I continued sleeping with Lucky using my chest as his pillow as usual unless 7pm.

I started playing a game in Command and Conquer before watching my favourite show on channel 8 – Zheng He Xia Xi Yang.
Skai Chan @ http://sillydumb.com

First Spring Cleaning in Office

Posted on January 8, 2011 by S

[Monday, 3 January, 2011]

I blogged while catching the last episode of the repeated Hong Kong show “Yi Wu Fang Gu” and went to bed at 1.30am. Lucky was in deep sleep that he did not notice everyone had gone into the room. However, I could not doze off.

Mike woke me up after 8am by SMS and I reached office at around 10am. It rained. During lunch time, I met up with Mike near Kampong Bahru Road. His rented car was spoiled and thus we walked over to Everton Park for the Chinese mixed vegetable rice. We were disappointed again for the rice was too dry and sticky. We went back to the office to continue with work before we started spring cleaning at around 6pm before going off an hour later. We had dinner at one of the Chinese mixed vegetable rice stall near 7-11.

After reaching home, I continued working on the tuition agency site and also had discussion with my brother to engage part-timer to do the job. I messaged Jenrine to see if she could afford any help.

New Year 2011

Posted on January 8, 2011 by S

[Saturday, 1 January, 2011]

At the first minute of the year, I was busy blogging with the long due entries. Mike was relaxing himself with the Starcraft 2 game. We left at around 1.30am and I went to bed after 2am without switching on my laptop again.

I woke up at 11am and dozed off again until 1pm. My mum cooked instant noodle for me. Mike came to Tanjong Pagar and waited downstairs.

We went to the office in the rain. I did some SEO work for the tuition agency and then, followed by some coordinating work. I added in AJAX scripting for the administration end.

Mike and I had dinner at Everton Park. The Chinese mixed vegetable rice was somehow disappointing for the beancurd was spoiled. We went back to the office soon and left home after 8pm.

I had some discussion with my brother over the tuition agency stuffs.

New Year Eve Working in Office

Posted on January 2, 2011 by S

[Friday, 31 December, 2010]

I could not doze off at 2am probably due to the air-conditioner. It had been a great problem for me to sleep early all these years. For the past week, I did not have this problem since my mum and younger brother were not around and thus I could sleep with only the fan on.

I went to join my elder brother after some hours since he had not switched on the air-conditioner. However, my nose was already blocked and I had problem dozing off. Knowing about this, my elder brother did not switch on the air-conditioner even though he was about to do it before I joined him.

I went to the office after waking up at 11am and started doing networking stuff for Smart Tuition Singapore. Mike and I had lunch at Pinnacle Duxton. He bought herbal soup and plain rice, carrot cake and chay kway teow. We were rather disappointed with the latter.

After going back to the office, I continued with my work and also did some coordination work for Smart Tuition Singapore.

At night, we went to Vivocity and had dinner at Super Dog for the first time. It was rather expensive for the standard of food. We went to the Challenger and saw a stuff selling the Xbox 360 Kinect. She was stylish. After she ended her job, she got changed into her home clothes and looked even more attractive.

Mike and I left for the office before the crowd became worse with the New Year countdown. We met the security guard, Kirstna, and he told us his story for almost half an hour while I was having a bad stomach. In order not to give him the wrong impression, I waited for him to end the conversation before I rushed to the toilet. We continued with our work and Mike released his stress by playing Starcraft 2 online.

Working on the New Year Eve was nothing unusual but working inside the office during New Year Eve was quite special.

Collected, Lost and Retrieved the Company Stamp

Posted on December 31, 2010 by S

[Wednesday, 29 December, 2010]

I worked a bit on the tuition agency website and went to sleep after 2am.

Lucky refused to sleep and he woke me up a few times. I went to office after 9am. During lunch time, Mike and I went to Tanjong Pagar to collect the company stamp and we became arrogant and crapped a lot about it. We had lunch at the second storey’s coffee shop and the noodle with wantan and char siew at $4 was nice.

We shopped at NTUC and bought detergent to wipe off the white board. Then, we went to Watson at Amara Hotel. After reaching the office, we realised there was really a transparent cover on the white boards and that was why we could not clean the markers’ ink away.

We enjoyed some grape fruit juice without alcohol. Suddenly, we realised we had lost the company stamp.

In the evening, we drove over to Pinnacle at Duxton and parked the car there for the first time. We changed our mind and decided to go to Tanjong Pagar for dinner at Mike’s favourite Chinese mixed vegetable rice stall. After that, we went up to the second level and saw our company stamp there. Someone had tied the plastic bag to the wall. We went back to the office to continue with work.

One Burden Off and Elder Brother was Home

Posted on December 31, 2010 by S

[Monday, 27 December, 2010]

I was trying hard to solve an issue on Smart Tuition’s CMS that caused auto reload on completion of the first load. I walked through my coding and saw nothing that would trigger it. I was suspecting the server side but I failed to solve the problem. I went to sleep at 3am.

I was not sure if I did doze off but I got up at around 5am. Before 7am, I set off to the office.

It was quite a productive morning. I finished an article on deep breathing for the tuition agency website to help people to relax themselves. Then, I did SEO for it, together with the stress management article. After that, I started to work on Tze Khit’s website.

I had lunch with Mike at Everton Park. The standard of the fish and chips from the western food stall was a little below average. After taking lunch, I continued with Tze Khit’s website and it gave me quite a big headache since almost every link is targeted at the live site. When I was almost done with all the tasks on the piece of paper, he dropped me an SMS to let me know that he would get Daoxiong to update the site since he knew I was very busy. I felt it was really right since Daoxiong was the original person who started his two websites. I finally put a burden off my mind and started working on SEO for Smart Tuition.

I had dinner with Mike at Kampong Bahru at the Muslim prata shop near the bus-stop. We ordered Maggie goreng, laksa and mutton soup. None of them tasted good. After going back to the office, I was exhausted soon with the lack of sleep.

My elder brother had reached home before me. We went down to walk Lucky together. I got two packets of milks and some heat reducing drinks at the NTUC before we went home.

Volunteered for ASD Singapore Goodies Bag Packing Team

Posted on November 24, 2010 by S

[Saturday, 20 November, 2010]

I worked on the tuition agency website until 9am and managed to also create a Twitter and Feedburner accounts for it. I dozed off for a while until 10am and felt quite surprised that Huiting did not give me morning call. My mum bought noodle for me and the fish cake she heated up in the oven was cold. I went to the toilet twice and I knew I would be late definitely.

Huiting called me when I was at the lift lobby and in order not to be disconnected, I did not board the lift. She told me she was leaving Singapore Polytechnic and since she did not know how to get to her friend’s place as well, we decided to meet. However, I was not sure where to meet her at since she did not know the Pasir Panjang Food Centre. We agreed on meeting at the prata shop, which I knew would take me longer to reach.

I was too tired to walk after having the diarrhoea and thus I went to the bus-stop in front of Amara Hotel instead of walking a longer distance to Keppel Road. I alighted at Vivocity to change bus but Huiting told me her bus did not stop near the prata shop. Therefore, I got her to take cab in directly while I stick to my original plan.

After arriving at Pasir Panjang, I made a wrong move to enter the private estate on my left, which was actually a deadly. Judging from the map, if there was an opening, I would have shortened my journey by quite a lot. I took the entrance at the extreme right and managed to find a familiar path along the canal. Eventually I made it to the playground and I was lucky to reach the destination soon.

After going into the house, I managed to see Huiting and I was quite stunned to see that one of the girls was stylish looking. We got started soon and it was quite messy for the goodies from the sponsors were too many to be lined up properly. We had over four hundreds of goodies bags to settle and I mainly worked on some papers and magnets that nearly broke my back.

We ended work after 2pm and went to the nearest duck rice stall to eat. It was the second time I went there and I was quite surprised over how popular it seemed to be when there was nothing much special. The meal cost more than sixty bucks and Ricky, being the eldest guy, treated us.

We took bus to Harbourfront while Huiting stayed at the bus-stop to wait for her sister to drive over. I was quiet through the journey for I knew none of them, except for the stylish babe did talk to me on the way for our lunch. I waited at the bus-top while the rest of them went to the train station.

I dozed off soon with Lucky after reaching home after 3pm. I woke up at around 6pm and started working on the tuition agency website.

Dear Dreams

Skai Chan

Tag Archives: review