My.Happy.Day Three:

This is Day 3 of our Olympus Project. Once again, we headed out of Bangkok early in the morning to the sub province of Samut Prakan at Bang Na. We are visiting the Erawan Museum, a place where not many tourists knows of. Featuring a mammoth size 10 storey high (or higher) 3 headed elephant, this is a museum, a temple, and a place of remembrance.

Olympus E-P3, 1/1000 seconds, F16, ISO 200

Although photography is prohibited in the Basement Museum where many historic items were exhibited, the main hall promises a colorful and grand ambience for all visitors – and photography is allowed here.

Olympus E-P3, 1/100 seconds, F5.6, ISO 400

Climbing up the spiral staircase, we reach a higher hall where there is a viewing gallery with a beautiful view of the museum surroundings.

Olympus E-P3, 1/1600 seconds, F10, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/1600 seconds, F10, ISO 200 (Miniature Effect manually added)

We went to a higher hall and there is a temple right at the top, inside one of the 3 heads of the  elephant. We entered a quiet & super dark temple hall. I was very glad that the E-P3’s ISO performance & low light focusing managed to get me the below shots.

Olympus E-P3, 1/40 seconds, F7.1, ISO 800

Loitering around the temple compound, we took more shots. This place is an amazing architectural art – with an amazing camera to match, that is.

Olympus E-P3, 1/40 seconds, F8, ISO 800

Olympus E-P3, 1/40 seconds, F8, ISO 800

Leaving Samut Prakan, we headed to the main highlight of the day – The Ancient city of Ayutthaya. For this location, I will let the photos do the talking.

Olympus E-P3, 1/2000 seconds, F16, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/2000 seconds, F16, ISO 200


Olympus E-P3, 1/2000 seconds, F16, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/2000 seconds, F10, ISO 200

We almost got fried in the blazing sun by the time we completed visiting 90% of the ancient city. We were done and getting ready to return to Bangkok when the tour guide told us we have to visit a tourist spot as part of the compulsory “tourist traps”, we were fine with the idea and proceeded to a “Diamond factory” which I have been many times before. Upon our arrival, the sales people were more interested to shove us to the showroom than to let us look at the production process. Just like my past visits, we walked straight to the entrance. But not wanting to waste the trip here, we went to car park where I remember there were some vintage cars on display there, so..

Olympus E-P3, 1/100 seconds, F8, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/100 seconds, F8, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/100 seconds, F8, ISO 200

So upon satisfying the agent, we told the agent to send us back to Madame Tussauds at Siam Discovery in Bangkok. Here, we were like kids “meeting” our idols and shoot practically almost every display figure that we know. Here’s some photos.

Olympus E-P3, 1/60 seconds, F5.6, ISO 800

Olympus E-P3, 1/60 seconds, F5.6, ISO 800

Olympus E-P3, 1/60 seconds, F5.6, ISO 800

We round off the tour with a Jap lunch before retiring back to our hotel. Although tired, we didn’t want to waste any time and went out again for a walk. Strangely we ended up at Fifth Food Avenue at MBK again. So dinner it shall be and that’s when our cameras’ batteries went flat which signifies the end of our project.

Olympus E-P3, 1/80 seconds, F6.3, ISO 400

On the cameras.
The Olympus E-P3 produced great colors and accurate focusing that matches any semi-pro DSLR of today. Although I find that the white balance (AWB) can be a little too blue for my liking, the color reproduction is almost 90% accurate in my view. The light weight makes it easy to carry and it does not add any stress to the user. The manual function is a joy to use as the ergonomics of the E-P3 fit most hands of any regular humans.

The small size of the camera (compared to DSLR) also attracts less attention especially doing street photography, which I personally find this a bonus. Small as it is, the photos produced by the E-P3 is comparable to most DSLR picture quality of today.

My Rating: 9.5 / 10 (Olympus E-P3)
Best for: Travel Photography, Street Photography.
Who should buy: Up-graders from prosumer digital cameras, frequent travelers & professional photographers (as backup camera)

The Olympus TG-620 TOUGH is a “dark horse” in my opinion. The specs promised performance with its knock-proof, water-proof and dust-proof claims. And I am glad to announce that I was able to prove Olympus’s claims by shooting it underwater, flung the cam onto a cemented floor, mess it up with soil and the cam still works as how it is supposed to be.

When set to “Hi2”, pressing the shutter and hold gets me almost 1,000 photos in less than 10 minutes. This is surprising coming from a Point & Shoot camera. Although the photos quality can be a little compromised for the underwater shots, but on an overall, the possibility of this well-priced and high performance little gem is endless.

My Rating: 8 / 10 (Olympus TG-620 TOUGH)
Best for: Travel Photography, Water Play.
Who should buy: Anyone who wants a high performance compact camera that is capable of almost everything in a nicely priced package.
 
The Olympus XZ-1 is the camera among the 3 that I personally fell in love with. The super wide aperture of F1.8 makes the XZ-1 a super low light performer, the light weight and compact size makes it very portable and easy to bring it everywhere. The photos from the XZ-1 are tack sharp and bokehs are excellent. In fact, I can say that there is no other camera that comes close to the XZ-1 in terms of performance & picture quality (when compared to other brands’ cameras of this class).  

Although the XZ-1 comes with a zoom range, I used the XZ-1 like a prime lens camera and I am totally crazy over it. I have never enjoyed a non-DSLR camera this much. Everyone should have one XZ-1 in their camera bags, be it a beginner or a professional photographer.  

My Rating: 9 / 10 (Olympus XZ-1)
Best for: Travel Photography, Hand held photography at night, Macro.
Who should buy: Travel Photographers, Night Photographers & Upgraders.

Interested in finding out more about the full specifications of the above 3 Olympus cameras? Be.Happy.like.me and visit Olympus’s website at (LINK) for more information.

For the full album produced by all the Olympus Cams for Day Three, please visit
link

To Read Part 1, please visit link
To Read Part 2, please visit link
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Behind-the-Scenes Photography by Tan Yoke Ling.

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Special Thanks to Olympus Imaging Singapore for making Project “My.Happy.Photo.Graphy.Olympus.Thailand.2012” possible.

Sponsor: Olympus Imaging Singapore Pte Ltd.
Travel & Review Editor: Allan J Lee.
Review Photographer: Allan J Lee.
Behind-the-Scenes Photographer: Yu ling (Yoke Ling)
Project Courtesy of Shutter Journey (Singapore) Photography Group. (SJS)
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