Gears & Gadgets

I often get emails asking about the gears I used for blogging. This page should answer all the queries. Btw, I am open to tech reviews/sponsorship/endorsement. You can contact me at alvinologist@gmail.com.

My current camera 1 (main): Nikon 1 J1

A beautiful semi-pro camera that is compact in size and packed with easy-to-use features. Think iPhone in the camera world. I do not like to lug a heavy DSLR around when traveling or attending events. This fits nicely into my bag and has interchangeable lenses. I especially like its super fast shutter speed – perfecting for capturing images of my active little boy.

Satisfaction Rating: 9/10

My current camera 2 (DSLR): Canon EOS 60D

I used this when I am in the mood for more serious photography and when I want to capture hi-resolution images. It also doubles up a hi-definition video camera.

Satisfaction Rating: 8/10

My current camera 3 (back-up): Panasonic Lumix LX3

A semi-pro camera popular among bloggers for its compact size and packed features. I do not like to lug a heavy DSLR around when traveling or attending events. This fits nicely into my bag, yet features some custom modes. I especially like the panoramic 16:9 aspect ratio option and the pin-hole mode. The only thing I do not like is the manual lens cap.

Satisfaction Rating: 9/10

My camera: Nikon Coolpix 5100 (retired)

This is a great semi-pro camera that is small enough to fit into a hand-carrier and yet able to produce high quality images, comparable to bulky DSLR cameras. I particularly love the easy-to-use macro function which I often utilise for food photography.

Satisfaction Rating: 10/10

My laptop: Apple Macbook Pro, MB166/A

It has a 17″ LCD, a 200GB hard disk and matt finish on the covering. Everything comes with the standard factory specifications except for the RAM which I upgraded to 4GB from the original 2GB of memory. I have been a Mac user since purchasing an eMac five years ago. Great for editing videos, doing graphic designs and digital illustrations.

Satisfaction Rating: 8/10

My current mobile phone: Apple iPhone 4

Believe it or not, this is my first smart phone. So far the experience has been great. I am tweeting more, checking my emails more and logged on to Facebook more regularly, now that I can go online on my mobile phone.

Satisfaction Rating: 9/10

My current backup phone and 3D camera: HTC EVO 3D

The HTC EVO 3D is always the crowd-pleaser at any parties or events. People are always curious to see photos or videos of themselves in 3D.I am still taking lots of 3D photos and videos with the phone.

Novelty aside, the phone packs a neat Android OS, with lots of mobile and interface customisation setting unlike Apple iOS.

My only complain is that the touchscreen keypad is too sensitive for my fat fingers, constantly returning to the main menu page when I tried to hit keys near the edges of the screen.

Satisfaction Rating: 8/10

My mobile phone: Sony Ericsson K850i (thankfully, retired)

This is the most horrible mobile phone I have even owned. I am just holding on to it because I intend to downgrade my plan with Singtel and am waiting for the two-year contract to end prior to trading it in. If not, I would have thrown this into the garbage bin just a month after using it. The phone lags horribly. A simple task like sending a SMS takes more than 2 minutes because of the ridiculous lag when scrolling through the address book. The three touch buttons seen cool at first, but the novelty wears off after an hour and became a constant irritant when you keep accidentally triggering a touch button when you meant to activate the other. Did I mention the phone also hangs frequently and shuts off by itself? In case you think I am experiencing these problems because I am using an old phone, these problems persisted from day one when I purchase this horrible piece of shit. I am swearing off Sony Ericsson for life after this phone. Seriously.

Satisfaction Rating: -10/10 (worst mobile phone ever)

My tablet: Wacom Graphire3 6×8 pen tablet

I find this good enough instead of paying more for the Wacom Intuos range at almost double the price for higher pen sensitivity. My first tablet was the Graphire2 4×5, hence I much appreciate the larger pen area.

Satisfaction Rating: 9/10

My external hard disk drive: Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB and Seagate 2.0 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

There’s a firewire port and it is Mac-compatible. It served me well for less than 2 years before it suddenly crashed without warning. I had to spend good money to send it for data recovery. Worse still, Maxtor has been bought over by Seagate since and the warrenty and customer support is extremely inadequate, leaving Maxtor customers like me in the lurch.

Satisfaction Rating: -10/10

Very basic, value-for-money external hard disk. I own two of these hard disks currently and both are serving me well.

Satisfaction Rating: 9/10

My speakers: Creative INSPIRE T3100

Good quality audio at a reasonable price.

Satisfaction Rating: 9/10

My printer/scanner: Epson Stylus CX7300

I don’t really need the printer, it’s the scanner I need. However, scanners are seldom sold individually nowadays hence I purchased this All-in-One unit from Epson. The scanning works well and I am satisfied with the quality. I have problem installing the printer driver on my Macbook though, and it has not been resolved. This is not the first time I encounter such a problem. It seems most printers and scanners in the market have drivers that are not Mac compatible – a real pain.

Satisfaction Rating: 6/10 (for just scanning alone since I cannot print)

My video camera: Creative Vado HD

Compact and easy-to-use. This is ideal for traveling. It records in HD quality. Custom features are limited though.

Satisfaction Rating: 8/10

My video camera: Sony DVR TRV27E (retired)

This can qualify as an antique in the fast moving digital video camera market. I bought this five years ago and it is amazing that this bulky hardware is still in great working condition. It records in 1CCD though and there are not much you can do with the fixed auto settings. I use it mostly as a mini-DV player to log tapes into my laptop nowadays.

Satisfaction Rating: 10/10 (for having served me faithfully without breaking down for so long)

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