My congratulations to all my colleagues. Five years was no light affair. All the best to our future endeavours.

Photography is a ridiculously expensive hobby. Cameras are actually comparatively cheap compared to the ever critical lenses that you mount on your camera bodies.

But some old film-era 35mm format lenses can be had for relatively cheap prices on EBay if you're lucky. And as habit would have it, I landed myself an old Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 lens for something like $30. Mounting this on my G1 gives me 2/3 stops more speed than the other Canon FD lens I first bought, a 50mm f/1.8.

I suppose, the whole topic of mounting old lenses on modern digital bodies is one of debate. Some people absolutely love this ability, while others seem to loathe it. As for myself, I think I would rather have native lenses. But considering that the Four-Thirds version of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 appears to go for something like $600 after a quick search on Google, I somehow think it's ok to relegate myself to old manual focus lenses. (Not that all manual focus lenses are cheap though! Some people use Leica lenses, and I've even seen some really nice photos from crazy C-mount lenses with apertures like f/1.1!)

And then there's the much praised Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens. A fast normal prime. Very nice. Not too pricey at something like $300-400. But it's enough to still make me content with manually focusing a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4.

Of course, not everything is perfect using Canon FD lenses on m4/3 cameras. Being designed for full-frame 35mm cameras, these lenses at their widest apertures actually tend to let in too much light resulting in some internal flaring/softening of the image. Certainly, Canon EOS users might also notice similar phenomena when using full-frame EOS mount lenses on an APS-C body. Of course, maybe not as pronounced.

In some photos (like the one above) it's not all that noticeable. In others, it's very noticeable. And with the f/1.4, it's much more noticeable than the f/1.8 lens I was using before. In some situations, it's actually a nice effect. It has the ability to give a photo a bit of a dreamy look, which may or may not be suitable for different cases.

Stopping down creates some extremely sharp images, but in that case I might as well use my kit lens.

Nevertheless, the ability to use an aperture of f/1.4 allows for better chance at hand-held shots in lower light without sending the ISO speed through the roof.

Owning the Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 makes me less inclined to pick up any native m4/3 fast primes until prices come down a bit more. The 20mm f/1.7 will be on my short-list. Otherwise, my lens kit is more or less rounded out now, covering a focal length range of 14mm to 200mm (28mm to 400mm in 35mm terms). A standard zoom, telephoto zoom, and a fast prime in a length comfortable enough for portraits.

Now to continue to work on my composition.

Check out Facebook for my latest photos from the UWCCF Winter 2010 retreat (outdoor shots were with a different lens though). Any comments on composition would be much appreciated. Perhaps too many are "snapshot" in nature. But candid portraits are not something you can plan so well? Regardless, I kind of like the ability to frame so tightly with the 50mm focal length (100mm in 35mm terms). I find that it gives a rather personal feel to some of the photos.

When asked what I like about Singapore, friends and family aside, I will almost certainly rave about the food. Some of my fondest memories of Singapore were eating roti prata when I was maybe around 6 or 7 years old. Moreover, growing up in Canada with a Peranakan mother and a Hokkien father meant I got to eat my fair share of bak kut teh (骨肉茶) with yu char kway (油條), yong tau foo (釀豆腐), goreng pisang, nasi lemak, popiah, laksa, bakkwa (肉幹) and the list goes on.

But over the past year I had the opportunity to try some foods in Singapore that I hadn't typically been exposed to during my holidays in Singapore when I was younger. In particular, the humble doughnut.

I suppose it's just something about being in Singapore on vacation that my parents would always try to maximize the amount of intake of food we couldn't easily get back home. So doughnuts just never came into the picture. And arguably, why would you want to eat a Boston cream-filled doughnut when you could instead have a nice tau sar pau (豆沙包) instead? And so my winters in Singapore were always filled with curry puffs, and other types of pau (包子) or Nyonya kuehs.

But since I was in Singapore not for vacation, but for school and work, inevitably the delightful doughnut came back to me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like doughnuts. On the contrary, I love a good chocolate dip doughnut from everyone's favourite Tim Hortons. It's a Canadian classic. Or perhaps the maple dip is more of a Canadian classic. But you get my drift.

The doughnuts in Singapore, however, look a lot less humble than my familiar Tim Hortons doughnuts. Doughnuts in Singapore are a bit of an art form. They are dressed to the nines. They are so well decorated that I almost don't have the heart to eat them. The photo below is am example of this. And note that the doughnuts pictured there are actually of "Timbit" size, or doughnut hole size. But full-sized doughnuts are dressed in a similar fashion (or actually, perhaps even more).

They look so fancy.

Yet, after your first bite (if you've ever had a Tim Hortons doughnut), you will soon realize maybe it would have been a better choice to have handed over your hard earned cash to the hawker selling tau sar pau, rather than the glowing doughnut shop owner. I don't know what it is, but the doughnuts I had in Singapore just lacked flavour. They felt more like bread with fancy toppings. They lacked that sort of dense (for dense doughnuts) or fluffy (for fluffy doughnuts) feeling that the doughnuts at Tim Hortons have.

And so I came to my conclusion that I missed Tim Hortons.

It seems that Panasonic and Olympus have hit something big with Micro Four-Thirds, as more and more companies that have a stake in the consumer photography are rumored to be putting out mirrorless DSLR-sized sensor cameras with interchangeable lens mounts soon.

Samsung's NX series has been long awaited, and is rumored to be released by the end of this year.

Ricoh, a producer of some more niche market cameras is also rumored to be releasing a mirrorless design soon.

FujiFilm has also been rumored to be putting out a Micro Four-Thirds model sometime for next year's PMA.

There is also some light speculation that Sony might be readying something. Well it doesn't say "mirrorless" specifically, it's supposed to target the Panasonic GH1 directly.

There are some rumored hints that Nikon may be following suit, given some recent patent applications.

Myself being an early adopter of the Micro Four-Thirds system can only hope that the head start that Panasonic and Olympus have created for themselves by being the first-to-market by over a year will be enough to avoid them being sidelined by new proprietary offerings from other companies.

Nikon's offerings will likely be something to be reckoned with given their market recognition from their DSLR offerings.

If Canon jumps into the game, they will also of course, just like Nikon, have a large existing consumer base because of their heritage and brand name.

Competition is good for the consumer - only if the consumer picks the format that wins the standards battle.

Obviously lens selection is a huge factor in launching a new system. And this was one of the key criticisms against Micro Four-Thirds in its early days. Almost every review of the G1 praised it for its capabilities, but cautioned buyers about the limited lens selection. Over a year later, Micro Four-Thirds has already amassed itself a good handful of native lenses. Panasonic currently has six lenses available, while Olympus has two. And within the next year, both companies are expected to further increase their lens offerings (Olympus has at least two coming next year, and Panasonic probably similar). That will probably mean over 10 lenses in the Micro Four-Thirds system by the end of next year.

In addition, Panasonic currently has three Micro Four-Third bodies, Olympus has two, and FujiFilm is rumored to be putting out one next year. That will be at least six Micro Four-Third bodies by the end of next year.

The current closest known competitor is Samsung, with their NX body, which has usually been shown with two or three other lenses.

But will this head start be enough to keep Olympus and Panasonic afloat?

This mirrorless market has created a whole new consumer product segment. They don't appear to be trying to take on the DSLR market, but yet, they are far superior than any point and shoot camera, super zoom, or even "bridge" camera.

I was walking back from class on Monday night and upon crossing a parking lot, saw a lone tree brightly illuminated by a nearby street lamp. The tree was probably yellow already due to the fact that it is now autumn. However, the orange glow from the street lamp served to enhance this more. Furthermore, the absence of any light beyond the tree drew me to try to capture it in a photograph. I'm not sure if I did it any justice.