Casio ZR3500 Review

Here, I got a limited time spent with Casio ZR3500. Without wasting time, I grab it for street shooting on the next day I got it. Nop, I am not gonna mentioned anything about the beauty mode in this camera. Just feel free to look for #casioZR3500 in Instagram and I am pretty sure those photos have more power to convince you than my selfies. What I am gonna do with this camera is, I gonna treat it like usual camera (let's ignore the beauty mode) and see how much it can perform. Will this camera live up to my expectation with the RM1290 price tag? Stay tune and see.

Here are the things you need to know from the camera before proceed to the written review. Pardon my broken English. Haven't had my coffee on early morning.

Some quick glance through for the Casio ZR3500 key specification :

• 12 megapixels
• 1/1.7-inch high-speed CMOS sensor
• EXILIM Engine HS Ver 3 image processor
• 25-300mm F2.8(W) to F6.3(T)
• Optical zoom：12X, Multi SR Zoom：24X, Digital zoom 4X, Maximum digital zoom：93.6X (in combination with HD Zoom, 3M size)
• 3.0-inch TFT color LCD (Super Clear LCD) and 180 degree tiltable
• Built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• 1920 x 1080 (30fps) video recording
• Lithium Ion Battery (NP-130A)
• 108.3(W) x 61.5(H) x 36.7(D) mm
• 248 g (Including Battery and Memory Card)

Here are the photos taken on Pudu street market. The beauty mode was turn off during the whole shooting session. All photos SOOC.

The camera feels small if to compare to my current micro four thirds gear I had. For instance, someone with large hand like me, shooting with such small camera can't seem to secure itself w/o a proper grip. Other than that, the overall feel solid and good. I do like the idea of putting front shutter; giving more flexibility when selfie. The flip screen also helps alot when I am doing high or low angle shoot on the street.

On software side, it feels pretty much half bucket. It offers options to photographer to shoot in PSAM mode, but did not provide exposure meters nor live view to show the exposure. It will only trigger when I half press the shutter button (refer to the video above for the demo). This makes the whole shooting progress slower and I risk missing one in a life time moment. Hence, I gave up and try to go for RAW format. I couldn't find it at first as it wasn't under image format like usual camera nor PSAM mode. It was hidden under BEST SHOT mode. By using RAW, the camera limitation begin where it'll goes to 35mm F3.2 on wide. Not a big deal for a day time but I hate the half bucket effort so much!

The camera actually offer 300mm zoom in exchange of slower aperture, F6.3. Again it wasn't a big deal on day time but like other subpar camera, the ZR3500 suffer from focus hunting on zoom. However, it focus very quickly on wide open and not a problem at all shooting with it. I do love how wide 25mm is despite I wish it is 21mm instead. The wider the better for a wide junkie like me. F2.8 is sufficient; if you're shooting on close up subject, you'll get bokeh. Coming from Olympus that has 5 Axis IS on body, I felt the ZR3500 5 axis IS nearly didn't exist.

Did a very quick ISO test with 100% and the camera done perfectly on ISO 400 and below. On ISO800 details started to smudge and color begin to shift on ISO 1600 and above.

The Casio Connect work flawlessly to me. As long as it is pair properly to the smartphone, the connection is almost instant. Yup, Casio Connect is available for both play store and iTune.

For me, this camera does what it do best. It is not so suitable for fast moving object due to the factors I mentioned above. If you're the type love taking selfie, foods, scenery or any subject which are not moving and you can take your sweet time, yes I would recommend this camera. It is undeniable a good looking camera that easily attract female with affordable price tag.

Till then, ciaozz!

Illegear Z5 Performance Benchmark

Illegear Z5 Specification:

Display: 15.6" Full HD ANti-glare IPS/AHVA Wide Color Gamut & Viewing Angle (1920 x 1080)

Processor: Intel (R) Core(TM) i7-4730HQ (6MB L3 Cache, 2.6GHz)

Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M 3GB GDDR5 with Optimus (Maxwell)

Thermal Compound: IC Diamond Thermal Compund - CPU & CPU

RAM: 16GB DDR3L RAM 1600MHz - 2 X 8GB

Primary Drive: 128GB MSATA SSD + 1TB 7200RPM HDD

Wireless Network Card: Realtek WLAN+BT

Operating System: Window 8.1 (Trial)

Illegear is a relatively new laptop brand that is cream of the crop among customization gaming laptop in Malaysia. If you have heard of Illegear, a majority of you must have know it from this laptop, Illegear Z5. This time again, thanks to Illegear, I am able to "fondle" it for a week or so. So, let's go into the PBM.

PC Mark's result is quite amazing, recording a 3260 with it's G70M graphic card i7 processor.

To compare, click here:  http://www.3dmark.com/pcm8/7232726

As for Clound Gate, it easily achieve 20,812 score. But this is not a low end notebook or tablet, let's move to the next test.

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7282198

Ice Storm scores 87,100. Another score I am going to ignore since this is a test design for phone, mobiles and entry level devices.

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7282473

Ice Storm Extreme scores 86,261.

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7282304

Sky Diver scores 18,619

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7281676

Fire Strike 1.1 scores 6646. Although it is score better than average gaming laptop, but this is just a decent score that you got nothing to shout. Since Z5 is not a multiple GPU unit, you can't complaint too much, can you?

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7282104

Fire Strike Extreme get a even lower of 3390 scores, but I do notice that the temperature of both CPU and GPU are quite contained. A thumbs up for you I guess?

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7281937

Fire Strike Ultra scores 1740.

To compare, click here: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/7281833

You know I am not a boring ordinary blogger, I have my fair share of *cough* view in examining laptop using my *cough* own scale.

So this is the laptop when idle. The temperature of the CPU is around 45 degrees +/-

When the laptop performs rendering (video), the CPU can shoot up to 80 degree Celsius.

But if the laptop is moved to a air-cond room, the temperature drops down a few degrees.

If you are still not satisfy with our PBM, you can go to Lowyat, where they have the review and PBM there as well.

So aside of the PBM, here is my view of the laptop:

1. The laptop looks edgy due to it's LED light on the cover and around touch pad. Not your plain boring flat chest basic bitch notebook, this one at least has some characteristic on it.

2. The elevated chiclet button is like a mechanical keyboard wanna be. It hard for desktop typing but it does comes in handy when gaming.

3. The macro keys that located suppose to be a added feature that comes in handy when gaming but it's position is too close to the power button and it only allows 2 keys combination for each macro key with only 4 buttons available. It might or might not be sufficient for you, depends on the program you are using.

4.  The screen of this unit of Z5 is the IPS type. The color is quite solid, even in extreme angle, the color didn't wash out at all.

5. The screen is very wobbly, if your table is not stable, be prepare for a rough journey during your Kanjeong gaming session. It might or might not turn out to beneficial for you, depends what are you looking for.

6. Another added value of this unit is that it has build it web cam and mic, which locate on the top of the screen. The resolution is small but the quality is quite ok, better than what I was expecting from a web cam. The mic however, does capture a lot of white noise on a low amplitude, so your voice is still audible clearly when you are near to it.

7. As for audio output, I am blown away of how accurate the stereo speakers are how powerful the sub woofer is.  Of course it's not as good as a home theater, but traveling with this kind of sound system is more than sufficient for my gaming experience.

So, that's all from me. If you wanna see what's inside Z5 and it's internal hardware component, you can view our video here:

If you already have a unit of Illegear Z5, please let us know what do you think about it, do it out perform what you expect?

A day out with Xiaomi Yi Camera

So, I got something new for myself. Something completely new and strange to me. Yes, an action camera! Not GoPro, but Xiaomi Yi Camera. It cost only 399 CNY (around $64) which about 1/3 of GoPro price. So why not?

Here are the specification of the Xiaomi Yi Camera :

• 16 Megapixels
• Sony Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor
• Ambarella A7LS image processing
• 155" viewing angle lens with F/2.8
• 1,010 mAh battery
• 1080@60 fps, 720p@120 fps and 480p@240 fps
• 72 grams

Of course, one of the main reason I bought it is the ability to captured 1080p video in 60fps! True 60fps at least if compare with SJCam. I been spending few days time with the Yi Camera and I even made a first video impression on the camera when I just got it for few hours. Check it out!

So, on labor day, 1st May I took the opportunity to brought the Yi Camera for a street shooting. Yes I know it may sound abit underutilized the action camera for street shooting but that's not the main reason I bought it actually. So I did few numbers of still image and also recorded video in 1080p 30fps instead.

Went to Chow Kit market where it is a good place to test since inside the market is really dark for low light shot while outside is for daylight. I am using the camera and connected to my phone via WiFi for the whole shooting duration.

I have no doubt on the image quality on daylight. It is great. usable and color pretty much lively. Or I should say accurate. The Sony sensor truly shine well here. However the camera is lack of IS and a slightly move will cause the image blur despite it was on day light shooting. I have tested few times where I just press and move away before the confirmation sound beep and the image turn out blur. A little frustrated I would say coz I am expecting the shutter speed are fast enough for daylight.

Since everything is auto, I can't choose any ISO for the camera. On lowlight, the camera did pretty well until ISO 800 where noise are everywhere and color starting to look dull and wash out.

The camera battery doesn't last long. Just about 1 hours with continuous shooting and recording, the battery went flat. Do aware I am connecting the camera with WiFi as well. Here is the sample of the video recorded with Yi Camera on that day.

I brought it to friend house as well to tested indoor light. ISO was boost as high as 1600 and image turn out too many noise. Why I am not surprise?

Here are my verdict. I have no doubt on daylight where the Yi Camera is perform excellently. On lowlight, it just perform as bad as any smartphone camera will be. The viewing angle for the lens is 155 degree where it is closer to true fish eye lens. Being a wide angle, it is impossible to focus on close up with this camera. From the EXIF file, I also realize the Yi Camera are fix in f2.8 and also 1/30s shutter speed. Hence, the exposure are purely controlled by ISO only. Not a bad thing at least but there are no long exposure option available for the camera. It is worth the mention the mic is actually very soft! I actually have to adjust it on post processing to increase the volume. A little bit disappointed in here.

Nevertheless, I am very happy with my purchased. It is small, light, simple and easy to use. Now, I am patiently waiting for the waterproof casing so that the camera look much rugged and durable. Tell me, will you get one Yi Camera for yourself?