How would you choose?

Saturday, January 16, 2010 | Blog Post

A friend once told me that i can buy time … we all know that we can only have 24hrs a day but we can eliminate some delays in between with extra money – still don’t get me?

When i was doing my tertiary with UiTM Shah Alam, i dont own a motorbike so i relied mostly on public transportation ie. taxi or bus to go to my school. During that time, there was no UiTM buses going around to pick those students staying outside campus (ahhaaha, now u know how “young” i am ) … anyway, my point here is travelling in a taxi is much much faster and comfy if compared to a public bus where if on a bad day, you might have to stand up the whole journey … but with a little more money, you may earn a little “extra”, you know what i mean??

Now lets talk about making choices – how do you choose what you’d chose. What make you choose …

Which one would you craze the most; a cheese cake from your local favourite bakery or a cheese cake from the Secret Recipe?

Why do you think some people would rather go to Coffee Bean to drink their coffee but not from the regular coffee shop or some mamak stalls around town?

Do you think that by wearing some branded jeans will make you look cool? I like Levi’s jeans ads – they are all nice …

What about cars? What is your car to you – do you need it merely for transport purposes or you need it to pull some ladies to get laid? Well, driving an expensive car like Porsche is every man’s dream, what man doesnt want that right?

I bet that most of you photogs out there would prefer a Mac machine compared to the other equivalent HP, Dell or Acer machines. But do you know that behind all HP, Dell, Acer and even the so-claimed powerful Macbook Pro is an Intel chipset? Do you really think that Adobe created their Photoshop application differently on Windows and on Mac?

Questions; why would you think that people who drive some cars but modify them to look like the famous Evo … Why not just buy the real Evo instead? And some people wear fake Levi’s and still dare to “act” cool with it …

What im trying to say here is based on most cases, whatever we choose (strictly to this post) will finally bogged down on to how thick your wallet is – right? … i would love to have those cheese cakes from Secret Recipe if i have some extra $$$ – why not?! … i saved 9 – 10 months of my pocket money just to buy that Levi’s 501 jeans for X’mas; though i know it will not make me look cool like those models on the ads but im sure im gonna feel great wearing them … and the Porsche … r u kidding me!!! i would definitely do whatever requires (only if it doesnt kill me) if i can drive that machine for just one day …

Well for me, I love cakes and most of the time i just get them from any regular bakery i can get around town … but once you have tasted Secret Recipe’s cheese cake – you can really tell the difference right away. Same goes with Coffee Bean, Levi’s jeans, Porsche and the Mac notebook – i dont need to write further, you people had already knew it.

“Cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap.”

If you agree with the quote by some Chinese proverb, have you ever wonder why people are rushing when it comes to FREE stuffs? In business, there’s no such things as “FREE” stuff – it could be an “investment” for a long term “tied-ship” …

But when it comes to software application, “Open Source” is the way to go. Dont get me wrong here, “Open Source” is not all based on “FREE” stuffs, its based on a “sharing” concept – its about “if you want it, you can use it but if you changed it, you have to share it with others” … so “Open Source” is out of the topic cuz they’re “PRICELESS”, not “CHEAP”.

Alright, now we go down to our boiling point – based on my observation (minus those “brand-loyal” people), most people who had just started photography will end up buying Canon … and here’s why:

*price lists are from the official Canon and Nikon websites respectively as per December 2009 and January 2010.

Most of those newbies photogs have only 2 things in common:

• they got influenced by friends to buy Canon, and maybe, they think they can share their lenses
• they said “why should i go buying Nikon if i can get something equipvalent/similar with a lot cheaper price?” … The word is “equipvalent/similar” – but its not, trust me.

Infact there are a lot more to consider before buying a camera:

• control features (ie keys/buttons on camera body) and system settings
• camera design (ie. ergonomic hand grip so you can hold you camera better)
• lenses and accessories availability. possible of a third party product …
• support centre (Canon has their office here in KK, not Nikon – boo)
• and etc etc …

Anyway, talking about those “brand-loyal” people, i know some who shoots on Sony DSLR. (Personally) Sony DSLR is just some “hybrid” camera as a result of technology booming in this digital era; no offends but i always see Sony as the music champion; Sony always had the slickest walkman design for as long as i can remember … So much on that, i would use some Sony MP3 player, but not the camera (DSLR).

I still remember buying some Levi’s 501 jeans at about RM189 per pair … that was sometimes around 1992 – 1995; but during the economic crisis in 1997 – 1998, instead of making the price goes down, Levi’s 501 was and NOW priced around RM279 – RM359 and above!!! Imagine a jeans cost you that much … “a jeans is just a jeans” right?? But hardcore Levi’s fan will still purchase their favourite jeans no matter what the cost is …

So, again – how would you choose? if you ask me, i’ll say im a happy Nikonian … i do believed that “good things are not cheap”, and im not implying anything on the price tag on both cameras … but if i have a lot of money, i’ll buy me a Hasselblad camera.

Looking back …

Saturday, January 9, 2010 | Photography

Most of these photos were never posted on my blog … stay tuned cuz there are more to come …

Anyway, i am just testing out my new ala-gallery picture post on my blog post area – enjoy!

*Updates: i just noticed that if you are browsing this on a smaller screen or on a 1024 x 768 resolution, you might noticed the zoomed images are a bit “rough” cuz the script will try to “resize” the images to best fit your screen height – you will get better view if you’re viewing on a screen with a minimum of 820px of height (viewing area) … Press F11 to maximise your browser

And this might not work in IE6 – please upgrade