Friday, January 22, 2016

Quote of the Month


"The 62 richest billionaires own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world population."

..... Oxfam, 2016

The wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400 million. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people increased by $500 billion to $1.76 trillion.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Sony A6000


Sony A6000 in silver body with 16 to 50mm lens with optical steady shot

I bought the Sony A6000 recently as a lightweight portable camera. The Canon 70D is just too heavy for casual photography. Sony has compact size camera and I was contemplating to get one. However, in consideration of the sensor size and image quality. Decided to go for a bigger sensor but yet portable camera.

In the race before my purchase was the Olympus OMD-E10 and Canon M3. All 3, including the Sony A6000 are mirrorless camera.  I didn't choose the Canon M3 because of the size of the standard lens and it does not come with an electronic view finder.

The Olympus OMD-E10 (mark I) was very attractive in terms of price as it was about $150 cheaper and the shape of the camera was very classical. It also stands out for its 3 axis image stabilization mechanism.

The Sony A6000 won because of its APS-C sensor which is a bigger sensor than the Olympus. It also won because its standard lens has a wider angle which is important for my style of photography. At its widest angle, it is 16mm which multiply by a crop factor of 1.5 gives a 24mm lens in the full frame standard. The Olympus only managed a 28mm at its minimum. This 2 factors gives the Sony a marginal edge.

After using the Sony A6000 for a few days, I notice a few operation issue, (I) the position of the video button is a awkward position (2) the manual is not comprehensive enough. (3) The auto ISO function seems very eager to increase the ISO level. (4) the battery is easily exhausted. Sony gave an additional battery (5) Image file size is large for a APS-C camera. Some outdoor photos can have a file size of more than 10 MB.