Kuala Kelawang 01

I was so forgetful to leave my flash and diffuser at Liew's place, only discovered it when we arrived to our macro spot.

So I can only shoot natural light subjects or borrowing other people's camera.

(Natural Light)

(Wolf Spider with offspring on her back - Natural Light)


(A closer look)

(Longhorn Beetle - Natural Light)

(Assassin Bug - Natural Light)

(Jumping Spider, using liew's camera: 5D Mark II, MP-E 65mm @ 4X, MT-24 EX + DIY Diffuser)


(Using Shunfa's camera: Treehopper with ticks on its body)

Night Macro 01

I got my first owlfly, too bad I couldn't get close enough before it flew. Before today, I thought owlfly does not exists in Malaysia.

(Too bad only got a record shot. didn't get a chance to snap a nice shot)

And we found many sleeping bees around the spot.

TEST: Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC

After acquiring my UWA lens for a week, I still haven't got a chance to really test it in the field. Its a shame to buy a lens and keep it inside my dry cabinet and not using it, so I decided to take some sample shots of the lens

1) Lens Flare Test


The lens shows some weird flares when a light source is positioned somewhat beside the lens, approximately 11 o'clock direction, out of the frame.

(53 seconds, f/16, ISO 100)

I will be pissing off if each image of mine contains flare. Luckily, this is not the case. My second image shows no flare (see below). Anyway, this lens produces beautiful star effect from the streetlight when aperture is narrowed down.

(54 seconds, f/4.5, ISO 100)

2) Sharpness

The sharpness of this lens is awesome. The below image was shot wide open (again, you can see the flare):

(50 seconds, f/4.5, ISO 100)

and its 100% crop near the edge:



No sharpening or noise reduction as it will affect the sharpness. Pretty neat eh?

New Gears in the House XXIII

My 1st Sigma Lens!

(Spherical front element and built in hood, make it unable to use filters)

Built quality is superb, feels very solid. I love the crinkle finishing on the lens body but I heard it will peel off/fade over time.

(The effect is exaggerating at 8mm as it will distort anything near to the lens and anything at the edge of the lens as well)

The only con I found in this lens is not being able to use any filter. But I have yet to try to hand-held a piece of square filter in front of it. It might just work.

Price: RM 2,200.00
Discount: -
Net: RM 2,200.00

Total spending to date: RM 15,450.03