Sony Would Be My First

Ok, I love traveling, let’s stop bragging about it. It’s all over it. So I thought that in order to capture the moments I need a proper camera, by proper I mean an interchangeable lens camera with huge pixels and more ISO (common people paradigm). The last time I used the kind was when I went to Karimunjawa and it was my friend’s. It was a shame though, I could not maximize the function. To my least understanding of photography, I thought I took some great pictures. Here the photos I took with Canon EOS 550D with 18-55mm kit lens.

Pantai Pulau Cemara Kecil

At the small boat, heading to Karimunjawa island, the mainland 

I love taking picture and traveling. I’ve been wanting to buy a camera since a long time ago to preserve the moments. I said the hell, this is it, and I have to buy it now. And so they say, the first camera you buy is very crucial because in the future you will be needing more lens, more accessories that are to be compatible with one you already have. So it is more likely that you will have to stick with the first. Given the thought, to avoid future regret, I asked some of my friends for reference who then told me to just buy a Canon. 

I’ve done my homework. I came to a dozen camera shops just to ask reference pretending that I would directly buy from their shops. I researched and read almost all the reviews that popped up on google. Their answers vary from favoring the mainstream brands like Canon and Nikon to the underdog, new comer Sony. This did not lead me to any further confusion though. If anything, it convinced me to stick with the underdog that I was in love since the first time I laid my eyes on her at one of the shops I came across.

Sony A37 SLT

After some debates (mostly with my own persisting fear of regret), research and friend-asking process, I decided to buy a Sony camera type Alpha A37 SLT (Single Lens Translucent) with 18-135mm kit lens with aperture range f/3.5 – f/5.6. The debate involved the popularity amongst the brands that I considered (Sony, Canon and Nikon), the wide availability of various lenses, the features and performance, the image quality that they produce, the complexities of the camera, the endurance and maintenance and of course my instinct.

Well, since I was still very green in the area and not really in the capacity neither to break down the detail of review here, nor to thoroughly compare this camera to another. I’m just going to highlight some reasons of why I am happy with this little Sony A37 so far. 

Let’s see here what all those things might be. It is obvious that the size is quite small. It comfortably fits my grip and it is quite light as well. The camera has wide viewfinder that makes you comfortable to peek out through it and shoot.  The speed of the focus when taking picture is also amazing. This has something to do with the technology that is talked a lot from a Sony camera alpha series, which is its translucent mirror technology that allows the mirror inside the camera not to move so enables you to take pictures with shooting-speed up to 7 fps. The technology enables the camera to shoot and focus simultaneously. And the picture is great, the color is vivid. The Sony A37 is also talked to be able to record great full HD video. And I was shown this one and it was great. The camera is very responsive.  

Here are some of the pictures I took with my Sony A37. 

Spider at Gelanggang Kolamrenang UPI

Sunset around Gelanggang Kolamrenang UPI

JICA, UPI

I didn't do much editing to those two images. I just change the sizes to that it would not be too hard to upload.

So what do you think of the images? The underdog is not that bad after all, is it?



Fajar.

Traveling? Yet Again.

It has been quite a long time since the last time I wrote something. I mean with all the works, romance and personal struggle through everything, I had spent so little time for this particular activity (thank God I finally have a life). It’s not that I am a regular or professional writer or anything. It’s just that I used to like writing once in a while. So here I am, trying to rebuild the habit hoping to be able to make something out of what has been left off, what has been unused for a quite some time.

So what I like to talk about this time is traveling. This particular topic has been on my mind since a very long time (to make sure of it, I have written couple about it). I have to admit that I am some kind of a late bloomer for this kind of thing, looking up to those traveling gods I read on the magazine or some places worthy of visit that they have been. Here I reasoned why, it was not only because I had no money to do that but also I had no gut. It was gut mostly though, to be more honest. But not anymore, I have money now, it was not a lot but if you save up a little, it could take you to places. So I now travel. 

Pantai Cemara Kecil, Karimunjawa.

Speaking of traveling, I like to talk about a fellow traveler I ran into the other day. The story was just to help me make a point out of this writing. It was a young foreigner on my way home the other day. We took the same minivan to Pangandaran, my hometown, her traveling destination. It was like a private shuttle services so it provided door to door pick-up service. We were the first two passengers in the minivan. The waiting was killing us. I knew it’s killing me. And it’s killing me too, not to initiate conversation when, aside of the driver, there were only us. I might have got quite a story from this foreigner and some time to kill.

So it began with “wow we are waiting for the passenger to come” on my part, she responded with “yeah, is this some kind of housing for rich people?” and the conversation continued to traveling, how she had been sitting for more than 20 hours on a bus hopping from Padang to Medan, all by herself (yeah, I was amazed too). And the conversation moved on towards the most fundamental thing in our existence in the world of how we perceived religion. It’s not that she was in some kind of in a mission of religion neither was I, with all the religious talking. Bottom line, we’re not religious freaks. We were just couple strangers who, for the long hours, got stuck together and made conversation of whatever came to mind and surprisingly we shared the same questions and confusion about what religion really was. And the funny thing was that I never got her name, neither did she.

Oma Alchy Bar, Karimunjawa.

But anyway, my point was that traveling not only could get you to places but it also could get you to meet a lot of people you would not expect when packing your bag and sitting on a bus, train, plane or ship and discussed the most private, essential and unlikely subject you probably would not discuss with the people you already knew at home.  You got the chance to have insights from complete strangers who you probably meet only once in your life but you will remember them and their stories for the rest of your life, not to mention their companies to enjoy beers and cigarettes. All we have to do is to be open and that is exactly what I have been trying.