Metric @ KOKO London

This was my first gig photography with a photo pass, and the fact that it was for Metric made the whole deal sweeter. All the pictures from the pit were shot with a cheap but fast 50mm AF f/1.8D Nikkor lens as I found my 18-105mm to be inadequately slow.

I had loads of fun and to be able to shoot Emily Haines was a dream come true. Also thanks to Davoud D (flickr id: sony_boy) for the tips, and to Metric for providing such an exhilarating and entertaining performance. The acoustic version of 'Combat Baby', performed as an encore, was simply sublime. The crowd in particular was amazing and both Metric fans and none fans alike seems to be lapping it up. Surely mainstream success is just around the corner?

The special edition version of Fantasies is out today. Do make sure to grab it.

Carmen, O2 Arena review

If you ever thought about seeing Carmen at the O2 Arena, don't! If you were thinking or getting one of those cheap almost free tickets, don't! You will leave frustrated, and not because the former Millennium Dome is shit and colas will cost you between £2-4+.

We purchased front rows seat (and not those cheap tickets you get from 'insiders', much to our regret) and we still couldn't see shit. This was mainly because they hired tons of extras to shield the performers (who were mainly not in sync'ed with the excellent orchestra by the good people from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, because they can't be bothered to keep an eye on one of the billions of tellies there with the conductor in it) especially in the last act with the street carnival and all, as well having a part raised platform on the arena with the principals often preferring to sing in a huddled position hidden away from the audience.

It was never a good idea to host a opera in a 20,000+ arena and it shows. The acoustic was awful and the majority of people attending aren't used to this sort of shows - they were firing pictures with flash as if it was a basketball match! A thick skin lady behind us was even firing her SLR (with flash!) in quiet sections, with nary a scolding from the stewards. It wasn't a surprise to see people leaving even before the intermission. But what do you expect when the opera was mainly marketed to the lowest common denominator with a ridiculous marketing campaign of trying to associate the production with ITV's awful "from Popstars to Operastar"?

Finally let's not forget that Carmen at the O2 is actually performed in English. Sacrilegious.

Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D Nikkor

Bought Nikon's cheapest lens yesterday - a 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor. As I shoot a D90 with a DX sensor, it is about 75mm equivalent.

Took some shots with it whilst walking around sunny London. This lens is fucking sharp. Easily the best £100 I've ever spent.

Sennheiser RIP

Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser, the founder of Sennheiser, has passed away.

Put simply, without him, I would never have had the pleasure to own and listen to a IE 8, the greatest IEM Sennheiser has ever made - or indeed the countless of other Sennheiser headphones I've worn so many times in over ten years since I discovered the joy of headphones and portable music.

Thanks Sennheiser!

St. Albans for #gumtreepeople

Just created my #gumtreepeople entry forSt. Albans (after some time wrestling with Gumtree's strict naughty words filter). Yes it is for a competition, but that doesn't mean that what I wrote isn't true!

St. Albans is a market and cathedral town that sits near the site of the former Roman Britain town called Verulamium. It was one of the bigger Roman settlements in Britain. So large in fact that it even attracted the attention of Queen Boudica who went on to sack and burn the town. It recovered and continued to grow up until the Roman occupation ended about 1500 years ago.

The modern St. Albans takes its name from Saint Alban, the first British Christian martyr. It has been suggested that the name Holywell Hill near the Cathedral site, is because the severed head of Saint Alban rolled down the hill from the execution site, and where it came to rest it uncovered a spring (thus being named Holywell).

Well enough of history, here's my entry about what I find best about the town. If you have any questions about the town, please leave a comment here or on this forum post hosted on Gumtree.

Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 UI demo

Here's a quick video I recorded earlier, demonstrating the new Walkman NWZ-A840 series's UI. The UI is heavily borrowed from the touchscreen based X-series DAP, features a couple of downgrades when compared to the basic looking but highly intuitive one found previously on the A810, S630, S730 and others.

The previous 'now playing' shortcut that can be toggled anywhere within the system by pressing the 'Options' button has been replaced by 'to playback' shortcut that isn't available everywhere, but a whole a bit more useful than the previous incarnation as it presents more shortcuts depending on where in the system you are on. Tracks can also be added to a 'wishlist', which is useful for people with a subscription based music service. For people who likes to purchase CDs (like me), the feature is kinda redundant, but it is there for those who wishes to use it.

The system as a whole felt slightly slower, but I didn't find this a major issue for day to day usage. We are also still cursed with only two custom EQ slots, and the lack of quick find (the table with alphabets is missing) is also irritating, particularly if one is planning on installing hundreds of albums. On the other hand fans of podcasts (fancy word for pre-recorded radio) will be happy that the A840 supports them out of the box.

You can't create, edit or delete playlists on the device itself (it must be done on a PC, which isn't really difficult). This is something that irritates many, but to me isn't a huge deal as I don't tend to use playlists a lot. But what I do wish is for Sony to bring back SenseMe, the auto-playlist generator that I loved on the S630/S730. It was a brilliant piece of application.

So one step forward, but two steps backwards. Not good Sony.

Canon PowerShot SX200 IS impressions

With summer fast approaching I decided I needed a new compact camera for bringing into gigs. My previous G9 was a disappointment in that regards (400 is generally unusable, and it had a huge problem with dusts - not that this would be any different I suspect). I got this SX200 IS a couple of days ago and it is a lovely camera to use. It looks huge compared to the new generation of ultra slim digital compacts, but it is slimmer than my G9 and thus more pocketable, though it is rather heavy (thanks to the use of metal materials). The best thing about this is its ease of use.

With the G9 I had loads to do before I can make it work, but with this all I do is set to auto or tinker with the manual settings a bit and it more or less works (well most of the time anyway). I've decided that since now I have a proper DSLR, all I want from a point & shoot is just that. The ISO performance is great, for a compact and certainly far ahead the G9 (goes to show that anything newer, even if it is a lower-end model, is generally better).

I won't go into all the silly technical details that most photography review sites love to go into, but just as a summary, the SX200 IS has a 12x optical zoom (28-338mm equivalent), 720p30 video recording capability, manual control, scene detection and Canon's proprietary anti-blur processing engine (Image Stabilizer) which seems to work great even in full telephoto mode. The body is mainly made of metal (likely aluminium) and a bit of plastic and chromes. It features a conservative and yet stylish design.

The controls are sparsely laid out and the only way of doing all the manual bits and selecting ISO settings is through the menu system, which isn't the most intuitive way of doing something but at least it keeps the camera clean, and I guess, as well as the cost. I dislike the dial on the directional pad. The lens do suffer at full telephoto with a aperture of f/5.3 at 336mm (12x). Not surprising but something to think about. On the other hand, as I mentioned earlier, the anti-blue technology works really well even when the zoom is maxed. There is also a macro and super macro setting for shots from 1cm away.

I haven't tested the 720p video mode yet, but I am sure some will love this. I personally doubt I would use it much as I just am not that interested in making videos. That said I am sure I'll do the odd gig video if the bouncers are kind enough. The biggest issue with this camera is the flash. It would always pop up even if you do not wish for the flash to fire. I can imagine future issues with the pop-up mechanism. There is also no viewfinder, but to be honest who would want to see through a pinhole?

The used SX200 IS cost me just under £150, which I think is a good deal for what is still a pretty good and almost unused camera (silly former owner). So a decent enough point and shoot for the price I paid. However the cost of a new SX200 IS is just slightly below that of a new SX210 IS (with faster lens as well), so maybe it would be better to consider that instead.

Image samples (resized, but untouched):


From wide angle to full telephoto




Some distortions


Full telephoto and a cropped sample

Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 first impressions

I've only been listening to the Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 series for a couple of hours and has so far I've been impressed by it. The sound quality is pretty good, but I'll give it two weeks of intense listening and comparison with other DAPs before I comment further.

The amp here isn't as powerful (or it may be a bureaucratic decision) as the one that powered the X-series or S730/S630 that much is true. With the old X-series I rarely need to go above volume 15/30, but with the A830 I would need go increase it to 20s to get a comparable loudness. Not a problem with my IE 8, but this may be an issue with people with more demanding headphones. I haven't touched the bundled headphones yet, but they look good and should sound better than most bundled headphones. I still suggest investing in an aftermarket higher end headphone.

Build quality wise, the A840 passes with flying colours. The OLED screen is dominated by a visible glass layer that gives it an extra class though I worry about the durability (plastic is generally more crash-proof than glass). The buttons on the front are nicely build but do not provide enough feedback. It should have been raised so as to provide a better tactile experience for people who want to control it 'blindly'.

Transferring music is quick! Despite being connected via MTP, it is so much quicker to move music onto the A840 compared to the X1060. More later!

Just a note on Sony's confusing way of naming products: NW means it is for Japan and NWZ is the international version. A840 is the series as a whole and the last digit represents the storage capacity. So A845 is for 16GB, A846 for 32GB (so far only available in Asia Pacific and Japan) and A847 is for 64GB (which does not exist outside of Japan).