Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Olympus Roadshow in Wellington

Last tuesday, i was lucky enough to be invited by Olympus and they fly me to Wellington for an overnight trip and attend the roadshow by them. The primary objective of the roadshow was basically showcase all the Olympus range, and of course, the ultimate OM-D E-M5!  The roadshow was held at the Te Papa Museum, and attend by over 50 invited guess. Great food and drinks served!

Te Papa Museum

Took some sunset shot before heading to the museum for the roadshow.
Wellington sunset

I stayed in a wonderful hotel called Distinction Century City Hotel's Suite Room (which is booked by Olympus, but not paid, duhh.. i have to fork up $159 for a night and still waiting for reimbursement) But anyway, the room was superb. Have a look!
Distinction Century City Hotel

Distinction Century City Hotel

Distinction Century City Hotel

Distinction Century City Hotel

Im quite impress by the new technology of the EM5, especially the 5 axis Image Stabilization ( world first!) and the weatherproof sealing ( demonstrated there too by pouring glass of water over it!). The mirrorless camera is compact and solid-magnesium alloy body. Image quality are comparable, if not, better than most APSC Dslr. I'll tested it out in the coming days to see how it performs. Another thing is like was the EVF, which is superb! The bracketing mode is superb too, especially the Art Filter bracketing. However, during writing; especially when you're shooting 11 art filter bracketing, you cant possible view other photos while waiting for it to finish writing.. slow.... real slow...

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There is some drawback, especially the small size (which doesn't fit my hand well) and with the added grip, actually make it worse cause it obstruct my 5th finger. Another comment was, the LCD color tinge. Im quite sensitive to colors, especially on the LCD. From my observation, most Samsung phones had that problem. And now, the EM5, which is dissapointing. If you don't know what i mean, try look at the EM5 LCD and then the Electronic View Finder. Look at the green/yellow tinge on the LCD! Total disappointment i should say..

Anyway, overall, the camera is real good in terms of build quality and image quality. Nothing to complain (until i finish playing with it for few more days) Will update soon on that!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Wine tasting in Marlborough, NZ

It was one of the days when most of us had day off, and we had nothing to do in Blenheim. Wine tasting sounds like a good thing to do in Blenheim. There's loads of wineries around here and nothing else. Haha.. I went to my first wine tasting in Nelson, to a winery called Seafried. They have one of the best dessert wine, Riesling, IMHO. Apart from that, we bought some nice white wine.. i bought Pinot Gris for only NZD18! Cheap and good :P

So this round, we went to a nearer winery, Rock Ferry and Saint Clair. Look at us, invading the winery from friends from all around the world, namely, Malaysian, Korean, Slovenian, Argentinian, Taiwanese....
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First wine tasting experience for most.. and the best part was, it's free at Rock Ferry!
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Isn't the surrounding beautiful?
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A group photo before we heads to the next winery
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Nice welcome!
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Cellar Door of the Year..... 2010......
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Looks good, but taste... not so good....
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That was an expensive glass
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and there you go! Btw, it's NZD3 per person :)
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Some decoration in the cellar door.. and i like it!
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After an hour or two, we ends the wine tasting and heads to Makana Chocolate Confection nearby,
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They have some of the nicest chocolate, especially the Macadamia Toffles...
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It would be a good wedding gift isnt it?
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and we call it a day..
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It was a good visit, a good experience! Looking forward for the next wine tasting session!