Sunset View From My Office

One problem with VQ1015, if you focus it directly on a very strong light...like the sun, there will be a small dot on the photo. ( so....that is not an UFO :p )

Buy Vistaquest VQ1015 ENTRY & VQ1015 CLASSIC - 2nd Bulk Order

I have received quite a few VQ1015 order after the first bulk order, it was difficult and higher cost for small quantity import. So now here is your chance for the 2nd bulk order. :) And this time round, the VQ1015 Classic range is available too! This is for interested buyers in Singapore and International orders are welcome too if you are willing to pay for the postages.

Order Closing Date: 30th June 2009

Available Colour: Please specify your choice of colour when ordering.

VQ1015 ENTRY : Red, Blue, Black or Yellow

VQ1015 CLASSIC: Hot Pink, Orange, Turquoise or Purple

Pouch: Red, Blue, Black or Yellow

VQ1015 ENTRY Standalone Price: Singapore Dollars SGD $85 each or US Dollars USD $59 each.

VQ1015 ENTRY STAR BUY PACKAGE Price: Singapore Dollars SGD $88 each or US Dollars USD $61 each ( comes with 1 choice of Jelly Lens and 1 special Pouch ) - photos and details coming soon!

VQ1015 CLASSIC STAR BUY PACKAGE Price: Singapore Dollars SGD $158 each or US Dollars USD $109 each. ( Limited Stocks! Subject To Availability Only )

E-mail your order: kgfixplayground AT gmail DOT com

Singapore Orders
Local Payment: You don't have to pay me first upon ordering, I will only collect 60% of total sum via online banking when the bulk order is confirmed to proceed. Balance Cash payment upon meet up for collection.

Local Collection: Meet up only at NOVENA SQ on a Saturday Afternoon as according to my schedules.

Warranty
3 months limited warranty for Singapore buyers only.

I have managed to get a three months warranty ( starting from the receiving of goods on my side ) for buyers from Singapore but you will have to pay for the postage ( for both sending and returning ) and mail it to overseas supplier for checking and servicing. Please note the warranty do not cover cosmetic wear and tear, misuse or any damages caused by user's fault. Changing of firmware is also done at your own risk, the warranty do not cover for damages caused by firmware change. A damaged caused by firmware change cannot be repaired.

Overseas Orders
International Payment: You don't have to pay me first upon ordering, I will only collect full payment when the bulk order is confirmed to proceed. For Paypal payment, I only accept US Dollars and please add 4% to the overall cost for Paypal fees. For payment using Western Union Money Transfer, I only accept Singapore Dollars.

Postage & Handling: US Dollars USD $8 for 1 unit in Small Packet Registered Airmail packed with bubble wrap.

Note: Some countries charges taxes or custom duties, these cost are the responsibility of the buyer. Please check and make sure your country allows importing of digital camera before ordering. Box packing and/or Insurance can be requested at additional cost.

Warranty
No warranty for International Orders.

You may request me to open and do a test shoot, e-mail the pic to you and make sure all function is working before I mail out.

Ricoh GR Digital II

This is one camera that I really would like to have it... but it is retailing at SGD$1099.00 (with GST)... very expensive for a non-DSLR camera. The rating for this camera was excellent...many people said once you have it, you will never look back for other cameras. There are many reviews about this camera online and you can find the photographs taken by this camera in Flickr.

Why I like this? Besides what it is good for as mentioned in many reviews...I especially like it...for its simple design and for its bonus ability for being able to take square format photos, cool!~ A DSLR is quite complicated for me...so I think Ricoh GRD II will be just right for me! :)

Reminder: My birthday is in December!!!

Vistaquest VQ1015 Instruction Manual & Error Codes

This is probably the first written VQ1015 Entry manual? Hehe! I am pretty new to this camera, this manual is based on what my distributor has told me and also some added points based on users from other sites/blogs/forum etc. Hope it will be useful for you :) I may add on or revise the info here later if I find out more details or discovered something new about the cam.

How To Put Battery?

1. Put your left hand thumb at the bottom, middle finger at the top left corner and use index finger to keep the view finder pressed down.

2. At the same time use your right hand middle, ring and little fingers to grip the metal keychain, pull it towards your right while your right thumb help push the coloured cover towards the left at the bottom. Index finger goes to the top right corner.

3. Please insert battery in right direction or you might spoilt the camera.

4. After putting the battery, just pressed down the view finder and just slide the camera body back into cover.

About SD Card

1. The recommended brand would be Kingston or Toshiba SD Card ( make sure it is original ), it should worked fine with most sets. If there is no response on the LCD when you insert the SD card, that means it is not compatible or was sensitive to this card. Try using another card.

2. For VQ1015 April Edition ( Serial No. starting with 0811 ), there is no built-in memory, so you won't be able to take photos without a SD card.

3. Slide in the card and turn the the camera to hold it in vertical position, use two thumbs to press in the SD card and all other fingers supporting the camera at the bottom. You will hear a click when it is inserted into position.

4. Using the same method, remove the card by pressing the card again with two thumbs , it will eject out.

How To Read The LCD Symbols.

1. 4 tiny boxes - 640x480 pixels.

2. 5 tiny boxes - 1280x1024 pixels.

3. 9 tiny boxes - 1600x1200 pixels.

4. 3 overlapped Squares - Taking 3 multiple shots at one time. ( Meaning one click will allows you to take 3 different photos )

5. Standard self-timer icon - It allows roughly 20secs you can hear soft beeping sound, it gets faster towards the end before it takes the photo.

6. Video Cam icon for taking videos - The video mode is 320x240 pixels, you can take up to 40sec.

7. 'DEL' wordings, just click on the shooting button and it will delete the last taken photo.

8. "F" inside a tiny box - Format the card, it will delete everything in the card. Click the shooting button once, the shooting counts numbers will blink and press again the shooting button and it will erase everything and format the card. It may take a few secs.

9. There is a "60" and when you click on shooting button, it will became "50". I found this info online that it has to do with the flicker rate on electrical lights which means the Hz of electric frequency in your country. Check here to find your region, then set the cam to match. But according to my distributor, this feature don't make any difference in the photos.

Setting The Camera

To set the camera to 1600x1200 pixels as default.

1. Click on mode button to show the 9 tiny boxes icon, and click once on the shooting button.

2. Click on mode button again to go to "F" with tiny box icon ( Format Icon ) and click once on the shooting button. The LCD will show blinking texts, within this 5 secs, click on the shooting button again. Thereafter everytime you on the camera it will be at the 9 tiny boxes (1600x1200pixels) mode as default.

A 1600x1200 pixels photo is about 200KB, that means you could have 1000++ photos in a 2GB card.

How To Shoot?

1. The shuttle will open before you see "---" on the LCD, so make sure you hold really still before the "---" appears. The first photo when you just on the camera is often slower, thereafter it should be faster.

2. The exposure is automatic, so the timing to take each photo will be different as according to light condition, it will take more time for low lights and night shots.

P/S: The exposure time for each camera may have slight difference as this camera is a small factory production, there is no standard on this as according to the manufacturer.

My personal experience, don't expect much for low lights and night shots, this camera can't really perform in such conditions, but every unit is different, I have tested on my colleagues and also 2 of my buyers' units, some do perform better.

How To Change Firmware For Taking Black & White Photos?

Please read the following carefully, do read twice or more before you start it. If there is any doubts, please ask first before you do it.

Caution: Firmware update is not covered in the warranty. Do this at your own risk. Any damage due to firmware update cannot be repair - it will kill your camera FOREVER!

1. Download two files from the below link. One is "VQ1015 ENTRY　0727" and the other is "VQ1015 ENTRY　0612". Please refer to the screenshot below. RECOGNIZE THE CIRCLED JAPANESE WORD "内蔵メモリ無のENTRY" instead of just following the screenshot blindly, who knows if they will change the link position later?!! Please be very careful not to download the wrong one.

The reason is the other one is for earlier VQ1015 batch which has built-in memory. Never attempt to try on the wrong file! Those who brought the VQ1015 from me, you have the April 2009 Edition with Serial No. starting with 0811, this set do not come with built-in memory. Other users please verify your set batch before trying.

After your successful download, please unzip both files.

Download Link: http://shop.prokitchen.co.jp/other.command?url=/zakka/vistaquest/vq1015-entry-download2.htm

2. Inside Firmware0612 Folder, you will see firmware filename "YHTMMSF.BIN". Please check carefully, the firmware inside Firmware0612 Folder is to update the camera to take Black & White photos.

3. Use a battery with sufficient battery life, this is very important, if the battery went flat during the update process, it will kill your camera. The firmware is the system for the camera, once there are missing datas, there is no way to on the camera at all and there is no way to repair the camera.

P/S: I would suggest using a new battery when doing this step as I find that the battery detector for this camera didn't seems to be accurate, so do not rely on the LCD reading for the battery life.

4. Remove SD Card. Never leave SD card inserted in camera during firmware update. This is VERY IMPORTANT!

5. Use the given USB cable to plug the camera to the computer. From the Firmware0612 Folder, copy and paste the file "YHTMMSF.BIN" to the camera's 100IMAGE folder which is located inside DCIM Folder.

6. To remove the camera from the computer, you have to do it the same proper way like you remove a USB thumbdrive. Mouse over to the bottom right of the monitor screen, find the icon "Safely Remove Hardware" right click/double click on it, follow instructions to disconnect the Camera. You will hear a short beep followed by a longer beep, altogether two beeps.

7. To revert the Black & White back to Colour mode, use the firmware "YHTMMSF.BIN" from Firmware0727 Folder, repeat the steps from 3 to 6 again.

For original instructions in Japanese, visit prokitchen.

Photos Credit: prokitchen

Error Codes

E57/E58
When you see these codes, there are 2 possibilities. First possibility is the battery is too weak, change a new alkaline battery. The second possibility is try remove the SD card and put in again. Some people mentioned online that you should use this SD card solely for this camera, which means don't save different camera's photos in one card. Copy all your datas from the SD card to your computer harddisk and then reformat the SD card with your computer.

Singapore: The Lasalle Show '09

Singapore: Lasalle College Of Arts

Singapore: Selegie House ( part 2 )

Singapore: Selegie House

A parked Bicycle (01)

Singapore: Visitors' Centre At Orchard

Facade of The Building.




Courtesy Mascot outside the building.

Korea - Sunset

Korea - Frozen Plants

Sony Ericsson K810i Cyber-shot

This is the mobile phone that I am using now. It comes with a 3.2 megapixel Cyber-shot camera which is not the best right now but I am pretty happy with the photos and since I don't develop them, the resolution is good enough for blogging.

It is a auto focus camera with a Xenon flash. There are some cool built-in editing features but I don't really play with those. Oh yes... I can post a picture directly to blogger easily.... simply perfect for me!

I took quite a lot of photos during my 2007 Korea Winter trip, I will be posting it up soon :)

For more information about this phone, check out with Sony Ericsson.