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Peluncuran Nokia Lumia 800 di Singapura (Bagian 2)

Ini adalah lanjutan dari tulisan saya sebelumnya. Acara utama memang datang ke acara peluncuran ponsel Nokia Lumia 800. Tentang kenapa malah banyak cerita diluar itu, ya karena memang acara berlangsung lebih singkat dari semua rangkaian perjalanan (termasuk jalan-jalan) ke Singapura. :)

Mungkin karena lokasi tempat menginap yang tidak terlalu jauh, perjalanan menuju Clarke Quay (lokasi peta) juga terasa cepat. Tapi, mungkin juga karena jalanan yang relatif lancar. Setiba di Clarke Quay, belum terlihat dan terasa keramaian. Acaranya sendiri direncanakan baru mulai pukul 19.00. Jadi memang masih terlalu awal.

Sembari menunggu, saya sempatkan untuk berjalan-jalan sendirian melintasi jembatan Read Bridge yang melintas diatas Sungai Singapura. Saya juga iseng berjalan-jalan melihat bangunan-bangunan di kawasan tersebut. Untung tidak sampai hilang. Terakhir, saya  duduk-duduk di tepi sungai. Hanya duduk diam dan melihat jembatan dari kejauhan. Salah satu kemewahan tersendiri di sore itu. :)

Sempat pula bertegur sapa dengan seorang bapak-bapak yang akhirnya meminta sedikit bantuan untuk dipotretkan, karena sepertinya beberapa kali gagal mencoba memotret diri sendiri dengan menggunakan kamera saku. Dua jepretan saya ambil. Setelah itu, saya sendiri melanjutkan keasikan saya sendiri mengambil foto dan video dengan ponsel saya.

Dan, tentu saja tidak ada foto saya sendiri…

Setelah berkeliling, saya kembali ke salah satu tempat makan yang tepat berada di sisi sungai untuk bergabung dengan rekan yang lain. Mengobrol sembari menikmati makanan ringan dan minuman, sambil menunggu acara dimulai.

Hari sudah gelap, dan akhirnya masuk juga ke tempat acara. Ini sebenarnya bukan kali pertama saya datang ke sebuah acara peluncuran produk (ponsel). Sempat juga terbayang apakah saya akan melihat sajian pertunjukan seperti peluncuran Nokia Lumia 800 di London yang kalau melihat dari videonya sangat luar biasa.

Di tempat acara, saya bertemu dengan beberapa rekan media dari Indonesia. Saya sendiri lebih banyak menghabiskan waktu bersama dengan ponsel saya untuk sekadar mengambil gambar dan video. Dan, saya baru menyadari kalau baterai ponsel saya sudah hampir habis. Dan, acara juga belum mulai. Duh!

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General

Nokia N9 Sample Photos

I love photography.
After using some different cameras (DSLR and phone camera), I think  this year I spend more time using mobile phone, not the DSLR. Sometime, I almost forgot that I still have Canon 450D. After having Nokia N9 in my hands, I wanted to test its camera features, just like what I did with my previous Nokia N8.

Nokia N9 does not have the best camera specifications compared to other mobile phone products (with camera). But, for a mobile photography, the photo quality is pretty good. Let’s look at Nokia N9 camera specifications:

  • 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
  • Wide-angle lens, true 16:9 imaging
  • Large lens aperture F2.2 for better and faster photos in low light conditions
  • Dual LED flash
  • Digital shutter, continuous autofocus, touch-to-focus and exposure lock
  • Focal length: 3.77mm / 28mm, F number/Aperture: F2.2
  • Still images file format: JPEG/EXIF/XMP
  • Digital zoom up to 4x for still images and video

Now, let’s see how some photos taken using Nokia N9. These photos are not edited at all. Nokia N9 has also a simple photo editor to crop, rotate, brightness, and contrast, etc. I only captured some photos, and send to Flickr directly from the phone using built-in upload to Flickr feature.

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General

Flickr: Photo Sharing or Photo Storage Service?

If you read this blog, or meet me in person, you probably know me as Flickr fan. Yes, among services owned by Yahoo!, Flickr is one of my favorite. I have friends who love to use Flickr and also bring some people to Flickr. So far, they’re enjoying it. Well, at least I heard some positive feedbacks from them. Some friends also bought/renewed their Flickr Pro account and they asked me to buy them Flickr gifts.
But, it’s 2011 now. Many photography-related services flourish. To refresh your memories, let’s take a look at 500px, Instagram, or picplz for example. And, I’m sure more to come to the game.
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I asked myself recently: How do I use Flickr? Is it as photo sharing, or simply as a photo storage service? You can find out a bit about how I use Flickr by watching a short presentation during Yahoo! Community Town Hall few months ago. With many other options to share photos these days (again, mind the word “share”) here, I feel that Flickr is more photo storage for me. I do actively share and upload photos to Flickr. But, it’s not only about having photos uploaded there. It’s also about social web interaction.

The magic feature: Share to Flickr

Look at some applications/services that put photos as its primary contents. Many of them has “Share to Flickr” feature. Photos are shared to Flickr directly. Easily. But, where the discussion takes place? Is it on Flickr? May be not.

The way people enjoy photos

06052011315A simple question: how do you enjoy Flickr photos? There are some ways: visiting the website from the desktop, from Flickr mobile version, or using mobile applications. Even I have Flickr for iPhone, I rarely enjoying the photostream. I feel that it’s not something I’m enjoying. Try to fire up your Flickr for iPhone apps, and experience yourself. If you have your photos delivered to many services e.g. Instagram, Twitpic, and Flickr, I am sure Flickr is not the first site you (or your friends) will visit. Except you make your photos exclusively uploaded to Flickr and share the links to social networks.
It does not seem that simple though. For example: If I share a photo from Flickr to Twitter, Twitter will display the image right away. Some Twitter applications are smart enough to display the shared links as photo thumbnails and photos with bigger dimension. Will they visit Flickr — and exploring my photostream? Probably. But, I think most of them won’t.
I might sound selfish here by expecting other people to explore my photos. But, you know what I’m talking about here, right?

Shoot, share, and interact

People take photos using many devices, from simple to advanced tools. Using mobile phone or expensive DSLR cameras with fancy lenses. And, to upload the photos, there are some ways too: send directly from mobile devices, by email, or using another social network services and put Flickr as the last destination. Some people still love doing the traditional way: transfer the photo from memory card to laptop/computer, and upload them manually. I still do this sometime.
Again, what happen when the photos are stored to Flickr? Is it easy to interact with the photos? Of course, it’s easy. But, is it super easy? People might to go to Flickr for some reasons: they want to browse their photos or their friends’, or because some photos are made exclusively available at Flickr. Look at White House for example, or NASA. Or, because special event photos are displayed there at Flickr. People will go there. I will go there. But, for personal collection, or just simply “because I don’t want to loose these” photos, Flickr might be a great place to store them. When I need it, I will go there.
This is challenging. It might be a big challenge for Flickr and many other services out there. Innovations and strategies are designed to answer this kind of need. Some services come with an idea and unique approaches. So does Flickr, I think.
I might be wrong here, but from a personal perspective — as a Flickr user — I feel like using Flickr as photo storage service now. Something Flickr does not expect.

Categories
General

Taking Photos using Nokia N8 (Personal Experience)

The first thing I did after having Nokia N8 (product details in Bahasa Indonesia) in my hands last week was taking photos. I have been following this phone for months, and feel so lucky because I now have chance to try it myself. First impression: Love it! Nokia N8 offers a great improvements on its camera. Now, it has 12 MP camera, equipped with Carl Zeiss lens and also Xenon flash.

I like taking photos (go to Flickr photostream for photos), but since I live in Jakarta right now (and I didn’t bring my DSLR camera), this phone should be a good companion for me. Better quality photos (using phone camera) is one of the features offered besides entertainment, music, business-related features, and also video. For this post, I will write more about the word ‘photo’. Anyway, you can explore full specification and features by going to Nokia N8 product page (or, go to Nokia Indonesia for details in Bahasa Indonesia).

In the last few days, I took some pictures in some different condition (day light, night, low-light). I have to admit that I’m really impressed by the final results. Each photo has around 1 MB in size. If needed, I can adjust some settings like “Scene Mode” (Automatic, User defines, Close-up, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, and Night portrati), Color Tone (Normal, Sepia, Black and White, and Vivid), White Balance (Automatic,  Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, and Fluorescent), Light sensitivity, Contrast, Sharpness and also Exposure. But, the “Automatic” mode should just work when you only need to point and shoot.
After photos were taken, I can also make some basic editing actions like cropping, resizing, or color adjustment. Photo dimension taken using Nokia N8 is 4000×2248 pixels. For a landscape photo, it will not be a problem. But, when taking portrait photo I feel that it’s “too tall”.
Seeing is believing, right? So, here are some photos taken using my Nokia N8. All photos are displayed without any editing.
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Categories
General

Cisco Human Network Photo and Video Contest

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Just a reminder if you like photography and videoblogging. Cisco’s Human Network blog — hosted by Asia Blogging Network — has a contest. Submit your photos or videos and win some great prizes (digital SLR camera, digital video recorder, and wireless router Linksys by Cisco. For details, read the contest entry page. Can I Join? :D

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General

Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi / Kiss X2 Digital)


No, no. I haven’t bought it. It’s still in my wishlist. (specifications/review)