For those that enjoy taking photos of landscape, you might want to check out my latest article in Issue 02 of the Canon Style IXUS Magazine.

To gather materials for the article, I took a lovely nice stroll along Singapore’s gorgeous Marina Bay Area that is filled with tall skyscrapers and iconic structures that become lit with brilliant colors at night. In the article, I highlight two useful functions “Panorama” and “Colour Accent” and share how I used them to capture interesting photos of the bay.

Do check out the other interesting article such as the feature on “World Runway” and “Ultimate Drive experience with the Lamborghini and Ferrari F430 F1 Spider”.

Even though there are crowds of mob filling up the Festival Hall, I really enjoyed myself visiting the booths and checking out there display or merchandises for sale. This year, my favourite booths of mine has gotta be Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画), which had live streaming sessions throughout the 2 days and fans in Singapore were able to interact with other comrades all over the world. It was simply great fun to see the interesting comments float by while our Singapore cosplayers and otakus shout out their messages on Nico Nico.

Another lovely display was the DannyChoo’s booth which was setup by kodomut together with my dear friends from WLNF. It amazing to know much much effort it required to setup a booth one day before AFA, and then to tear it down again on the final evening.

Really thanks to everyone that came down to support my Figurine Photography workshop.

Well I’d be heading out for CGM Night at the AKB48 cafe, so below are a collection of photos that were shot inside the Festival Hall. For everyone who attended the event and for those that were unable to make it, I hope everyone can relive the excitement inside the hall.

Photography and collecting figurines are two of my biggest passion, and of course long-time readers of this site would know that I enjoy figurine photography.

Recently, I wrote a short article for the IXUS Style Magazine on Figurine Photography so do head over if you are interested in picking up some simple and useful tips on how to produce good shots of your favorite figurines. And the best part of it all, I managed to achieve all the shots using my Canon 220HS, a simple point-and-shoot compact camera.

On a side note, I will be conducting two sessions of figurine photography workshop at AFA 2011 – one focusing on shooting with compact cameras and the other with DSLR. I was hoping to gather some feedback on what are some of the things that you would like to learn. Of course, do lend me your support by showing your presence at the workshop. I will share with you the details of the workshop once they are finalised.

After months of teasing, Canon has finally just announced their new flagship DSLR – the EOS-1D X. The new camera is set to launch in March 2012 but prices are not released at this moment.

Here’s a quick run-through of the specifications:

• Full frame senor with 18.1 megapixels
• Dual DIGIC 5+ processors
• ISO range 100-51200 native
• 100,000 pixel RGB metering sensor
• EOS iSA (Intelligent Subject Analysis)
• 61 Point AF
• 21 f/5.6 cross-type sensors
• 20 f/4 cross-type sensors
• 5 f/2.8 dual cross-type sensors
• EOS iTR AF (Intelligent Tracking & Recognition Auto Focus)
• 12 Frames Per Second (14 fps when shooting JPG only)
• 400,000 shots rated shutter
• Ethernet connection
• 18.1 megapixels

There seems to be tons of new features and this could probably make the EOS-1D X the new DSLR king in the market. Would be interesting to see how this awesome camera would be priced.

TOKYO, October 18, 2011—Canon Inc. and Canon Marketing Japan Inc. today announced the introduction in Japan of the new EOS-1D X digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera offering a high level of performance to satisfy the demands of professionals in such fields as sports photography, photojournalism and studio photography.

To date, Canon has developed its top-of-the-line digital SLR cameras through the 1Ds series, which delivers exceptionally high image quality, and the 1D series, which achieves superlative high-speed performance. Integrating the strengths of these two series, Canon’s new professional flagship model, the EOS-1D X, brings together the highest levels of image quality and speed performance.

The new Canon EOS-1D X incorporates a newly developed approximately 18.1-megapixel 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor which, in addition to achieving an optimal sensor size and pixel count balance, effectively makes use of Canon’s proprietary semiconductor technologies to ensure low-noise performance. Featuring Dual DIGIC 5+, which comprises two new high-performance DIGIC 5+ image processors—each realizing approximately 17 times the processing power of DIGIC 4—the camera delivers exemplary image quality and speed performance, in addition to data processing power that has been greatly enhanced compared with the EOS-1D Mark IV, released in December 2009. Compared with the EOS-1D Mark IV’s sensitivity range of ISO100–12800, the EOS-1D X offers a range that has been expanded by two steps, to 100–51200,* for outstanding imaging results with reduced noise, even when shooting indoors and other dimly lit settings.

Combining a 100,000-pixel RGB metering sensor and DIGIC 4 processor, the Canon EOS-1D X’s new AE system, the EOS iSA (Intelligent Subject Analysis) System, is capable of determining not only brightness levels, but also a subject’s face and target color, making possible high-precision exposure control. The newly developed AF system incorporates an AF sensor with a total of 61 autofocus points for improved high-precision subject capture. The sensor includes 21 f/5.6 cross-type sensors, 20 f/4.0 cross-type sensors, and 5 f/2.8 dual cross-type sensors. Equipped with 20 f/4.0 AF points, the new camera offers the same level of precision as the EOS-1D Mark IV at f/2.8. Additionally, working in tandem with the new AE system, the camera’s EOS iTR AF (Intelligent Tracking and Recognition Auto Focus) function is capable of tracking a subject’s face or target color to maintain focus on a moving subject.

The Canon EOS-1D X’s new Dual DIGIC 5+ image processors make possible high-speed continuous shooting of up to approximately 12 frames per second with high-precision AE and AF performance. In the ultra-fast continuous shooting mode, the camera realizes a continuous shooting speed of up to approximately 14 frames per second (mirror remains raised during shooting, JPEG images only).

The Canon EOS-1D X delivers high reliability even in harsh shooting conditions. The rugged shutter unit boasts a lifespan of over 400,000 cycles while the camera’s exterior covers and operation panels employ a dust- and moisture-resistant design. Furthermore, the camera features a new dust-removing system incorporating two vibrating elements, a first for the EOS series, improving on the earlier cleaning system.

The new EOS-1D X comes equipped with a Gigabit-Ethernet connection that, when shooting in locations equipped with a wired LAN connection such as large sporting arenas, enables data to be transferred to editing desks quickly and reliably. Inheriting the same basic operating design as previous models, which focused on offering instantaneous operation, such aspects of the new camera as its button and control layout and GUI were reviewed and redesigned, with great attention given to operability when held vertically, during blind-touch operation, and when confirming images.

Featuring advanced video-capture capabilities, the Canon EOS-1D X’s upgraded imaging system and Dual DIGIC 5+ deliver greatly enhanced movie quality. In particular, the camera minimizes the occurrence of color artifacts and moiré, and enables the shooting of low-noise video even in dark conditions.

The Canon EOS-1D X will be available in Japan from late March 2012 at an open price. Canon has set initial production at 7,000 units per month.

Source: Canon Rumors and Digicame.info

Canon has created an interesting series of commercial feature the popular child actress Ashida Mana 芦田 愛菜, who recently starred as Rin in the live-adaptation of Usagi Drop film.

Each of the CM each start off with some quirky line such as whether a printer can bring one happiness.

Every single light used was real, and no computer-generated trickery was used. I wonder exactly how many times the flashes were fired in the entire PV. ^^

Source: petapixel

And here’s the behind-the-scenes clip of how the PV was made:

The concert was held in a Republic Polytechnic, and it meant that we get to see them really up close! I could still vividly remember how one of the lead vocals of FLOW, Keigo gave everyone in the first row a farewell high-five at the end. Right after the concert fans also got a chance to meet and greet their favorite band members and I managed to get two nice autographed posters of souvenirs of this wonderful experience.

During the handshaking and autograph session, we managed to talk with the guys from FLOW. So if you want to find out which is Koushi Asakawa’s favourite anime, then do read the full entry on the STYLE IXUS official website.

Apart from dining on good food, shopping for figurines & dollfies goodies, I will also be attending May’N UNITE!! Asia Tour 2011 in Hong Kong on 29 May 2011. While my blog will be on hiatsu for a couple of days, I will try to provide updates through my twitter and facebook page XD

Do stay tuned to my site and the STYLE IXUS site for final articles detailing my full Hong Kong experience! It will be published in Jun 2011.

My fortune was told by Sugar, who specialises in Western astrology and Sabian astrology, and it was interesting to see him doing his analysis on his laptop. He charted my fortunes for the next five years and shared with me that my life was entering a new phase and I could expect things to pick up starting the middle of this year.

I’m certainly looking forward to making changes in my life soon and I hope my fortunes would indeed come true. Meanwhile, do head over to the STYLE IXUS to read the full entry of my NEW EXPERIENCE.

Even though it was really fun, in the end I still prefer using the conventional controllers. I think its partly due to the game genre as well because I prefer RPG and first-person shooters, and I can’t imagine playing those with the Kinect.

Apologies for the lack of photos in the first entry since I still have not gotten used to documenting my experiences step by step. But now that I’ve gotten used to it, its really fun and useful to have a compact camera to bring alongside with you everyday.