Yvonne + James Wedding @Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver

First of all, Jessie and I have to thank Brian for assisting us in this wedding shoot. Because of his own wedding in the coming July, he is very very busy recently. At the same time, Billy is still on vacation (Somewhere in Asia).

James planned his own wedding from the beginning to the day before the big day. He had a 2~3 inches thick folder with him when he met me. It wasn't an easy job to be a planner and the groom at the same time. However, he made everything well on the day. My team really appreciate the big room with food and drinks arranged for us. One of the "surprises" was the Food Truck Fest at the Vancouver Art Gallery. There were a lot of people packed at the plaza. It wasn't easy for us to get close to the stairs for photo session.

OM-D E-M1 was tested seriously on the day. Photos came out pretty decent. Same as Sony A7R, E-M1 doesn't have low-pass filter for making photos sharper but... moiré problem is visible on lines and cables. Dynamic range is quite good. We are happy with this little camera.

TT Films Same Day Edit Video

Ceremony & Reception: Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver
Cinematography: TT Films
Commissioner: Kelly Yip
A/V: Four Seasons PSAV
Floral: Niki Trading
Cake: Cakeaters Edible Art
Décor/Same Day Coordinate/Setup: Absolute Events & Rentals
DJ/Uplights: Absolute DJs
Ice Sculpture: Cool Creations
Harpist: Janelle Nadeau

Raymond & Jessie
www.raymondleung.ca
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↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

↑ Brian's shot

Canon EF To m4/3 Focal Reducer (Speedbooster) Review

After vacation, I picked up this focal reducer (FR) from Billy and tested it. Now, I can show you how things work. First of all, this FR has no aperture control and no electronic connection with camera. Your Canon EF lenses will be wide open all the time at its own largest aperture. I don't have any Canon EF-S lens but I'm pretty sure it can't work with EF-S lens. Without this FR, EF lenses' focal length on m4/3 cameras is doubled. A Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L will be a 100mm f/1.2 lens. With this Chinese made FR, the lens becomes 72mm f/0.86 (50mm x 2 x 0.72 = 72mm) & (f/1.2 x 0.72 = f/0.864). Pretty cool, right?

First test is using my old Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 DC with the FR. This lens is pretty good for travel. You can see (below) the shot that I took at St. Peter's in years ago. Camera body is Canon 30D. The widest end 10mm is 16mm on 30D (APS-C sensor 1.6x). You can see the lens is sharp.

Let's mount Sigma 10-20mm on Olympus OM-D E-M1 + FR!

OK! It fits. When I had "Canon 1D Mark II N" (APS-H sensor 1.3x) many years ago, I mounted this Sigma lens on it without breaking the mirror. Therefore, I'm very sure it works with this FR. I know the "usable focal length" is around 14~15mm.

@10mm (= 14.4mm on E-M1): Dark and not sharp at the 4 corners... Can be fixed in Lightroom.

@20mm (= 28.8mm on E-M1): Without serious problem.

Let's take a look at the performance with Canon EF lens! I pick 50L because it has the largest aperture with MF control (85L needs power to focus).

Focus at Ironman's forehead. Auto white balance. M Mode. Equal to 72mm f/0.86

Same M Mode setting with the previous one. Equal to 100mm f/1.2. It's obviously about 1-Stop darker without the Focal Reducer. Photo is sharper. E-M1's auto white balance acts differently, too.

Using Canon 50L. Focus at Start/Stop button. See the "C" at Canon Logo? Mm... Our 50L should be very sharp on 5D Mark III. Maybe, the reflections inside the FR affects the quality.

Let's try it with Sigma 35mm f/1.4 (Equal to 50.4mm f/1.0)

Subject is my E-M5 and 45mm f/1.8. I tried to focus at the white "37mm" word on the filter...

Look closer... I missed the focus a bit but you can see the lens' focus ring on the right is very sharp. Sigma 35mm f/1.4 rocks!

Conclusion: I think the result is acceptable when this FR is only $100+. What do you expect? I expect Metabones will make one with electronic control very soon.

Speaking of E-M1, its AF speed is really really fast (See the photo below taken with 12-40mm f/2.8 and 10 fps). It is a camera you can trust.

I brought E-M1 and E-M5 to San Diego last week. They served us very well. Light weight and weather proof. We could look at the photos on our iPads with Wi-Fi connection. I put an old Tamron 28-200mm lens on E-M5 for getting longer reach at the Zoo and Safari Park. The photo below is what I get from 200mm end + E-M5. Quite amazing!

Mirrorless products improve in a lightning speed recently. However at this stage, they still can't replace the pro series DSLR like 5D Mark III, 1DX, D4, and D800 etc. You never know what Sony will do in the coming months. If Sony updates their full frame A7/A7R like E-M1, it may change the whole industry.

Raymond
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Chinese Speedbooster For Canon EF to m4/3 Is Available On eBay!

The actual thing received by Billy

I'm pretty excited to see Speedbooster (Not made by Metabones) for Canon EF lens to m4/3. It's 0.72x instead of Metabones' 0.71x. As expected, it will not work with EF-S lenses. However, I will try to put my old Sigma 10-20mm DC lens on once I get it. I think it will have dark corners with OM-D because 10-20mm lens is made for APS-C camera as 15-30mm full frame focal length. And this EF to m4/3 speedbooster will give us (10mm x 2 x 0.72) = 14.4mm (wider than 15mm).

eBay's price is $140. If you buy it directly from China, the price is about $100.

Can't wait to get it and test it with my E-M5 and E-M1!!!

Raymond
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Something Different: Photo Shoot With Katrina

In most people's mind, we shoot wedding photos. However, we do other photography jobs too such as event and family photos. Yes, our calendar is filled with engagement and wedding photo jobs. In between, we do accept something different. In 2013, Raymond shot quite a lot of family sessions (it was a record). The most memorable one is the session(s) of Katrina. We started this project from her newborn stage to her first birthday. Last year, we stocked up more and more portable studio equipment for shooting family/baby sessions in client's homes. We're very excited about shooting the coming family sessions in this year!

Raymond & Jessie
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Canny + Kingsley Engagement Session @Stanley Park Bright Nights

Because of the unstable weather around Christmas, we delayed this photo shoot to the last week of "Bright Nights" event at Stanley Park. Canny & Kingsley already had their Pre-Wedding photos done in Taiwan. We tried to do something different from those photos and we had to do it QUICKLY...! Temperature dropped very fast after sunset. We didn't want them to stay outdoor without thick clothes on for too long. Everything went very smooth. Not many visitors were walking around us because we started very early. Right after we finished the photo shoot, the park was filled with lots of people.

Some of the photos in this session were shot by our new Olympus OM-D E-M1. Photo quality could catch up Canon's APS-C cameras like 7D or 70D. It was very light and we could mount it on a monopod to shoot from an iPhone. Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 performed like a Canon L Lens (Of course, the price is similar to L Lens). I think the whole photography industry will change again because of mirrorless cameras very soon. What about Sony A7/A7R? Mm... I like the idea (E-M1's size but full frame sensor). However, I don't want to pay Sony's R&D department as their new product line tester. I'm quite sure Sony will have A7T, A7N, A7B, A7Z (you name it) in less than 8 months. I will wait for their next A7 model.

Raymond & Jessie
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