Sunday, April 26, 2009

A Revisit to Namsan


Here are some fun photos I took on my second visit to Namsan (with camera this time... my phone camera just doesn't do the trick)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

At the Ball Game with my new camera!

Sunday evening I went to check out a ball game at in Jamsil. While I was watching the game, I took some time to test out the zoom on my new camera. My Canon Powershot SX200. I decided this would be the best time to test out the 12x zoom. My camera also has a 4x digital zoom, which I sort of forgot about. So, anyway, I found that when you zoom out, it stops at 12x, the end of the optical zoom. But, if after it stops, you push it more, it moves into the digital zoom mode. Now, granted, I wouldn't want to use the digital zoom if I were doing anything important, but boy, was it fun to play with. 12x optical zoom x 4x digital zoom = 48x maximum zoom. Do you know how close you can get to the players using this? Well... let me just show you. And let me emphasize that these photos were not cropped, or edited at all, these are the original photos.


Just some shots to give you an idea of where I was sitting.


Maximum zoom: 48x
Pretty clear... I think, at least

30x zoom... I think


Some photos of home plate. You can kind of make out their faces!


Cheerleaders
The cheerleaders (yea they have cheerleaders at baseball games here) were in the stands along the 3rd base line. This is the full 48x zoom. See if you can find where they are in the photo:





I also found how to select only one color to display. But... I couldn't figure out how to change which color was highlighted....

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The final decision....

I've finally decided to buy the Canon Powershot SX200. It's small and compact, but it has a 12X zoom, and more importantly, it has full manual controls, plus aperture and shutter priority. I know it's not a perfect camera. People's main concerns seem to be the flash that pops up automatically (though I found in the shop if you cover it with your finger you can keep it from popping up.. as long as you don't move your finger) and that it has no viewfinder. But... I've probably used the viewfinder on my camera about 2 times in the 7 years I've had it... so... really I'm not concerned about that. The cover for the USB port seemed quite flimsy, but I guess that if it did fall off, it wouln't be the end of the world. The one on my camera is fairly flimsy too, but it's never given me a problem over the years....The controls, though, seem ultra easy to use when I tested it in the store, and that's my biggest concern with cameras. I don't want to be searching through menus for 5 minutes to take one shot.

I went to the Canon shop in Shincheon on Saturday. They were sold out, but I put my name down for the shipment coming in on Monday. It's going to be 468,000 won, wich is $351.00 USD today with the exchange rate. So.. basically I get the same price. I may get a memory card with it, though, which in the US, I guess you can't get for free anymore. My friend bought an IXUS while we were there, and they gave her a 4GB (!!!) memory card for free!(!!!). I'm hoping they'll do the same for me. I'll def buy an extra battery to go with the camera, since I don't want to risk running out of juice on a trip. Those cost about 47,000. I wonder if I can get that cheaper online or at Yongsan? I'm also wondering if I can get a small tripod... but that's something else I'd be better off getting in Yongsan... but... would I really use a tripod though???

Here's the CNET inital preview of the camera:



By the way, the IXUS my friend bought, while I would never buy it myself because it has very few options to play with (of if they are there, I couldn't find them, which is basically the same thing to me), actually takes some nice photos. She had it out last night and she took some amazing low light photos with no flash and they are as clear as day. I was shocked. So, if you are just looking for a point and shoot, this might be a good line to look at. I forget which model she got though. I think it's the newest one. It seemed a little pricy for what it was, and it doesn't take AA batteries, but it's another option out there.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Around Anguk...

Yes! Spring is here!

Some cool, atypical shoes I found...

One of the traditional neighborhoods in this area...

Friday, April 3, 2009

Boy on the Chongyechong

Motorbikes of Taipei


Before I went to Vietnam, I thought that Taipei had more motorbikes than I'd ever seen before in my life. Yea, people do drive plenty of cars there, but they have entire parking lots just dedicated to motorbikes (something Seoul could use actually). Here is one of my favorites from Taipei...

Changgyeonggung III

Here is yet another photo I took while at Changgyeonggung. Though it was December, there were still leaves on the trees. I played with the exposure on this one a bit. What do you think?

Again it seems as though my best photos are taken by coincidence... This photo was taken at the DMZ between North and South Korea. This soldier is making sure no one takes any photos beyond the line, because on the other side is an incredible viewpoint of Kaesong in North Korea. I guess taking photos could somehow jeopardize.... something the South wants to keep secret..... anyway... whatever. I was on the other side of that line here.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Black and white is a slight improvement


I've been so uninspired by my photos lately... Nothing I take seems blog worthy. I haven't really been anywhere too interesting lately anyway. Here's another photo from Hong Kong from when I went to the Big Buddha. There's something about the angle of the photo that I really don't like. But, I do like the statue a lot, and I like that little pagoda in the distance in the background..