My brother Tchung, sis-in-law Sharon and Ling were talking about during Hannah’s birthday event at Lentor last weekend, and the conversation ventured into the merits and disadvantages of DSLRs versus compact cameras.
Sharon used to lug around a pretty light DSLR, but even that was too much for her, what with her two nephews running about her too when they were out of home. So, she switched back to compact cameras and hasn’t looked back.
I don’t think there’s any dispute that DSLRs easily offer the best overall images, and superior handling. One disadvantage of the Olympus E-PL1 is that the type of autofocusing mechanism it uses isn’t just different from that used in DSLRs, it’s also significantly slower in reaching a satisfactory focus point when taking pictures of Hannah. That’s why Ling – surprisingly – actually prefers to take pictures using my D300 than the E-PL1, heavy as it is.
For myself, I’m really fine with the D300’s weight. The issue though is that when you’re using a DSLR as large as that in the public, you’re drawing a lot of attention. It’s not an issue when you’re in a place thick with tourists, but at a neighborhood mall like Hougang Mall, the security uncles will immediately conclude that you’re up to no good – a professional photographer at best seeking to take pictures without consent, and a terrorist scoping the area at worst.
That’s one of the advantages of using the E-PL1. Out of the several thousands of pictures I’ve taken of Hannah in her first year, only a small fraction of them have been out of home but that’s changing slowly. Taking pictures of our dear girl in restaurants is easy: there’s been a few online posts about restaurants frowning at their patrons taking pictures of their dishes, but by and large no one’s told me to stop taking pictures of Hannah at the many restaurants we’ve been to. The real challenge would be to take pictures out of those places where you’re properly sequestered as a paying customer though, e.g. in front of a cake shop where Hannah looks curiously at.
Still, I’ve been trying my luck on occasion to see how far I can go. So, the above picture was taken at the escalator running up from the carpark to the basement level of Hougang Mall as a start. Then followed by the usual Hannah @ McDonalds’ picture. She grumbled quite a bit this morning asking for a continuous stream of hotcake nibbles.:)
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