Bound by Canberra

After having travelled quite a bit in the last 6 or so months of 2009, I’m starting to get antsy to get out of Canberra again. I made a quick trip to Sydney back in March, but thats been about it for most of 2010 so far. Wanting to get out an try some more photography, I think I’ve almost worn Canberra out. Some of my latest are below, but I think I’m running out of Canberra icons to cover.

The National Carillion:

Lake Burley Griffin

Random Autumn shots:

Definitely struggling for inspiration. I’ve had so little time for photography lately, that the photos I have been taking feel so forced. I’m planning an escape in the next few months, probably to Melbourne, to see some footy (go the Raiders!), but also to hit up a big city again… As much as I love Canberra, and am definitely proud of it as my home town, it’s starting to feel really small. At the same time, I starting to seek out bigger things. Moving overseas after graduation seems like an attractive option at the moment…

Opportunities of Freedom

Finally… my first post in over a month. I have been so busy in the last few weeks, with both work and uni being completely full-on.

Work is busy at the best of times, but particularly in the past month. So many people have been out of our office, so those remaining (such as me) have had to pick up extra work. Uni demands have been just as busy. Heading into the last few weeks of semester means a whole lot of assessment arriving in such a short period of time. Despite the amount of reports, tutorials, presentations and preparation I have been doing in the last month, the next few weeks will be make or break for my semester. I’m doing 3 courses at the moment, in 3 fairly different subjects (engineering, physics and environmental policy), which surprisingly makes it easier to manage, as I can completely switch between each. But putting so much into Uni is causing my work performance to suffer, which usually should be the other way round.

All of this has contributed to my lack of posts, as well as a drop in the amount of photography I have been able to do. No posts and just 5 new pics to Flickr in a month is not great. However, after another 2 weeks of craziness, I should be able to produce more content, and justify my investment in this blog.

This windows are on buildings a short walk from Uni. I think they’re pretty cool.

I’ve been told that morning sun is the best for outdoors photography. However it does mean being keen and getting up early to get the best opportunities. I’ve been meaning to shot these buildings in the early morning for a while, but haven’t had the time. Last week I had the motivation and time to get out and finally do it. Unfortunately, the day I picked happened to be cloudy and overcast, defeating the purpose of getting up early in the first place! Argh!

I also finally received my new Blue Snowball mic, which I ordered through the Australian Apple Store (despite some shenanigans from TNT express during delivery… I’ve been wanting to get a new mic, to use with some videos I’ve been planning to make for a while. We’ll be doing some interviews for our Engineering project at uni, so I thought it was a good excuse to dish out for a good one. It’s not mind blowing quality (it’s not a studio mic), but it’s sure as hell a far improvement above mics you’d find built in to video cameras and laptops, so I’m happy.

In anime news, I’m still getting through Cowboy BeBop when I can, which I am enjoying immensely and just purchased Neon Genesis Evangelion which I’m looking forward to watching afterwards.

More posts soon, hopefully…

Week of Death + Lightning and Sackboy

I haven’t had a chance to update much recently after a week of death at uni (5 pieces of assessment spaced out over 4 days…), but I have managed to pick up a couple of bits and pieces; Sackboy from Little Big Planet and Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII:

I like the Sackboy Collectable. I think its the first real piece of LittleBigPlanet merch in Canberra (let alone Australia). It was cheap too, but what I really want is a plushie, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one…

My Lightning figure finally arrived from Tamarket on Friday, apparently they had been caught up with moving stuff from the Supanova conventions, which is understandable. It’s a nice figure, of pretty good detail and quality, with my only complaints being with the hair and how some of the joints appear. Aesthetics has been sacrificed for extra movement, but I really do like it nonetheless.

I’m kind of disappointed with the lack of free time I really have at the moment. I’ve started to watch Cowboy Bebop, and am averaging about 1 episode/session a week, which sucks… I’ve also picked up Resonance of Fate for PS3 and the two Otacool books (otaku rooms and world-wide cosplayers) but I guess they will have to wait until either a rainy day, or a uni break for me to enjoy them. Oh wells…

I have fairly decent plans for tomorrow, up early for the ANZAC day Dawn Service here in Canberra and then going to the Raiders match in the afternoon. Hopefully I’ll be able to sneak a bit of photography at each…

Revoltech Alter Saber

Just a quick update with my latest acquisition, the Revoltech Alter Saber.

I’ve been searching for other figures I might want to order, however I am finding that new figures are either too expensive, or just hard to find. Plus I really haven’t watched many anime series, so there are a limited number of figures that I am trying to hunt down. It’s also kinda difficult to find figures locally (Australia), a lot of the figures I am ordering are having to be imported straight from Japan.

I just finished watching the Fullmetal Alchemist series (plus the Conqueror of Shamballa feature). I’m trying to hunt down an Alphonse amour figure, but again, they are either too expensive or just poor quality.

I’m currently watching Cowboy Bebop at the moment and have Chrono Crusade lined up for afterwards.

Anyway, to Saber:

I finally managed to reach my interim goal weight, so the only thing that is standing in-between my ordering of a Welkin Gunther Cosplay is finding a flat to live in. Hopefully, with at least a half-dozen property inspections lined up this week, that shouldn’t be too far away. If I reach my goal of moving out before my birthday, I might even be able to buy it as a birthday present to myself!

How quick thinking and a bowl of rice saved my Lumix GF1

As alluded to an a couple of my earlier posts, I have entered to participate in the Canberra Photo Marathon on the 27^th of March. I had been looking forward to this event, as it would have been my first real experience of competitive photography.

To give some background, the Photo Marathon was a daylong event, where 12 themes are presented (6 at the start, 6 half way through). A photo for each theme must then be presented; with photos [in theory] taken in the order the themes are given, with no Photoshop/Aperture/ whatever editing allowed.

Examples of themes for the Canberra event included “Light”, “Evolution”, Earth Hour (which was that night) and my entry number (70). It was really well organised, with entry into the National Zoo and Aquarium included.

Naturally, I was eager to participate in this event, and it started off well. However, about an hour into the 12-hour event, tragedy struck. Attempting to fulfil the theme “Upside-down” I was taking images of the National Library as reflected in a pool of water. I had my Lumix GF1 sitting on a tripod along the edge of the water….

I turned around for just a second to assist my brother with his tripod, in that time; I heard a splash and turned to see my camera sinking into the water, it was only a few seconds, but it was enough to get water into the body and into the lens (the same lens I’d waited months for Panasonic to supply…).

My gut reactions were to do all of the right things, pull it out, drop the battery and memory card out and then proceed to dry it off as much as I could.

As I had to refrain from turning the camera on, the Photo Marathon was cut short, but that was the least of my concerns (although I was pretty disappointed it happened BEFORE I made it to the Zoo…)

Over the next few days, the camera and lens were alternated between spending time in the sun and in a container of rice. Rice apparently is a natural desiccant (absorbs moisture). After a couple of days doing this to draw the wetness out of the camera, I dared put the battery back in.

It worked…

The lens seems fine, with no noticeable blemishes, the body operates fine and its taking photos just as well as it did before going in the water. There was some condensation on the LCD screen that lasted about a week, but that cleared up gradually and now it’s fine.

A couple of test photos, let me know if you notice anything that doesn’t look right (besides technique issues…):

So… if you ever have a camera end up in the drink to the following:

• If not already, turn it off
• Drop the battery/memory card out
• Get as much water out of it as quickly as you can
• Open all compartments (battery, flash, and connector sockets) and leave it in a warm spot, to help evaporate the water.
• Store the camera in a container with rice, pour rice into the container, place a sheet of plastic (like a bag) onto the rice for the camera to sit and seal well
• DO NOT TURN IT ON FOR AT LEAST 3-4 DAYS, be confident its dry before turning it on again

After having such a good week, there’s nothing worse than wondering if your expensive camera will ever be the same again, but be patient.

Valkyria Chronicles Development Artworks

Yesterday really was a fantastic day! In the space of about 12 hours, I managed to meet Aussie F1 ace Mark Webber, watch the Canberra Raiders beat the Brisbane Broncos in Rugby League (with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in attendance) and after whinging earlier in the week about how Play-Asia were screwing me around, my copy of the Valkyria Chronicles Development Artworks finally arrived! (ordered through an always trusty ebay seller).

So first, so what I predict most people will want to see (as it’s the name of the post!), here are some pics of the Development Artworks:

Please note that all Artworks material is copyrighted by SEGA and Enterbrain INC. A couple more images can be found on my Flickr page. If you have played Valkyria Chronicles and liked it (seriously though… how could you not?!), I would definitely recommend this book. At 400 pages, it is very comprehensive, dedicating pages to the development of each and every character of the game, to the places, environments, tanks, weapons and game levels. The development of the major characters is really interesting as well, the different versions of Alicia, Welkin and Isara were great to see! It’s really hard to find anything thats missing.

It is in Japanese, so I can’t read any of the commentary, but there are somethings that you’ll notice that is different compared to the english translation of the game, like that some of the minor characters had name changes. You also get a break down of main characters personal stats like age, height and weight, which doesn’t really effect anything, but is kinda cool to know.

It really is a beautiful book and demonstrates the amount of thought and effort the developers at SEGA put into making Valkyria Chronicles. I can’t wait for Valkyria Chronicles 2 to arrive in the western world hopefully later this year!

One last photo, of local hero Mark Webber being interviewed by the local press. His home town of Queanbeyan were so excited on his return!

Mushies and the Lumix Vario G 14-45 lens

As mentioned in my earlier post, I have finally taken receipt of the Lumix G Vario 14-45mm lens that I have waited a couple of months for.

I had to dig out my old Leica point and shoot to take this one. I do like how the 14-45mm looks on the Lumix GF1 body. It’s similarity to the appearance of a rangefinder is emphasised with this lens. The only real gripe I have with this lens is the size of the focus ring. Having been used to the 20mm prime lens, with a focus ring about the same size as the zoom ring on the one above (the wider one), the focus ring on the zoom lens feels fiddlely. I realise that its comparable to the setup on SLR lenses, but its just feels odd when switching between the prime and zoom lens.

However, that is my only real concern, it is a great lens, and is much quieter than the 20mm lens, especially the auto-focus.

A couple of test shots, of some mushies growing the veggie-patch.

I like the above shot, especially as it was naturally lighted. It came out well.

Of course, just for fun, a pic of the pup. He’s very camera shy for some reason, so he’s not the greatest of photo subjects…

Next Saturday is the Canberra Photo marathon, which I have entered, so hopefully this time next week, I will be able to post another photo update (with some exotic animals, or so I’m lead to believe…)

The Panasonic Australia Experience

Continuing with the theme of problem companies and drawn out issues, I will discuss a company that shares initials with Play-Asia… Panasonic Australia.

Panasonic Australia

Just before New Years, I ordered my Panasonic Lumix GF1 from my local camera store. I ordered the 20mm lens kit, with the 14-45mm lens ordered additionally. Basically, I’d heard good things about the 20mm prime, but didn’t want to lose the convenience of a zoom lens, so I ordered both.

I received the kit in January after a short delay, which, seeing that it was just after Christmas, was understandable. At the same time, I was told the 14-45 lens would be another 2 weeks. Understandable, so I waited.

Throughout the rest of January and February, I continued to enquire about availability. I was continuously told that Panasonic Australia would supply the lens in “another 2 weeks”. As I was expecting to wait 2-3 weeks before receiving the lens, I was getting frustrated when come the start of March, I was still being told that there was a 2 week wait. After already waiting 8 weeks, how could it be possible to still be 2 weeks away? Were Panasonic Australia doing anything at all?

The Lumix GF1 is a micro four-thirds camera, advertised and sold on the premise that it is an interchangeable lens camera. In fact, Panasonic Australia lists the lenses that are available for the camera on their website. I do not believe it’s fair to market a camera in this way, as well as advertise lenses, if they are unable to actually supply them.

After a 10 week wait after the initial order, at the request of the camera store (who acted admirably and were extremely helpful and sympathetic to my wait), a 14-45mm lens was removed and separated from one of their body+lens kits, just so that they could fulfil my order.

The camera itself has performed fanatically, I love it! Panasonic has produced really a high quality camera and lenses, but are just pathetic when it comes to actually supplying them.

When I took finally took receipt of the lens, I got the hint that the lenses were still not expected to arrive until mid-April and that wasn’t even a solid date. I can’t believe that 4-5 months to fulfil an order is acceptable by Panasonic’s standards, especially in light of them receiving an Australian consumer award for their products and service.

The Play-Asia experience

I wanted so desperately to have a good shopping experience with Play-Asia, but as my experience detailed below explains, I do not trust them enough to attempt to do business with them again…

[NB: Please see the update at the end of this post for the response from Play-Asia]

Play-Asia
Back in January, I ordered the Valkyria Chronicles Development Artworks via Play-Asia. I made the order just a week after the artworks were released, however Play-Asia were out of stock. I understand that these things happen, and was prepared to wait a little while, thinking that because it only just came out, that it would be restocked relatively quickly.

For the next 6 weeks, I enquired about when it would be restock, in response, I received what I now know is a stock-standard response to availability enquiries:

“I am very sorry for the delay in shipping your order.  There is a sudden delay in restocking…
… We will try to get the stock and ship your order as soon as possible …. we kindly request for your patience.”

At the end of the 6 week wait, I felt that I had waited too long. There were other bookshops that had the book in stock, and as I was still receiving the standard response, asking to be patient, I requested a refund. At the same time, as a precaution, I opened a PayPal dispute, just to ensure that the refund would be paid.

For the next 2 weeks, with an open dispute, Play-Asia would/could not be bothered to refund the money. At one point, I received the following:

I am sorry that we cannot refund if there is an active dispute.  You may either get back the money through PayPal or cancel the dispute and let us to refund you.

This is in direct contradiction to the PayPal resolution centre, which states “The seller can use these funds to issue a refund anytime during the dispute by using the Refund link in the Transaction Details page.” Why would I close the dispute, which indicates to PayPal that it has been resolved, before I had received my refund?

I eventually escalated the claim, which resulted in me receiving my refund. PayPal had contacted Play-Asia for more information, but because they failed to respond after 10 business days, the funds defaulted to me.

I so wanted to have a good experience with Play-Asia, there are so few english/international orientated online stores offering products from Japan. Yet, it seems to be a poorly run business, with reviews indicating that others have been through similar experiences.

I know some have had good experiences with Play-Asia, but I would not recommend shopping through them to anyone.

Update – 26/3/2010:

Since posting this story (as well as a scathing review on the Play-Asia review service) I have recieved the following response from Play-Asia (sections are a direct copy-paste from the email):

First of all I sincerely apologize for all the trouble we have caused you and I am very sad and concern about your unsatisfaction…
…we actually have a big misunderstanding between our customer service department and the accounting department…
…The reason we ask you to cancel the dispute is because our accounting  staff had told our customer service department that this is a partial order…
…So which means in order to refund that order ‘so called partial order’ which is not, we needed you to cancel the dispute then we can process the partial refund. But from the very beginning your order was not a partial refund…
…I hope you will accept our explanation and my sincerely apology  for this incident and will consider giving us an other chance and experience the true enjoyable shopping with us…

With this, I was also supplied $15 store credit as a peace offering. Whilst this is a better resolution than I was expecting, I’m not sure if it’s enough to give Play-Asia a second chance as it really shouldn’t have come to this in the first place.

It’s up to you whether your willing to do business with them.

I wonder where that blog did go

I did love it so…

Well the move is complete and my blog now has a new home. This will be my 50th and last post using WordPress.com, which has worked brilliantly, but as I’m already paying for hosting for another site, I’d be silly not to take over hosting of the blog. All past posts, as well as all future posts can now be found at:

www.kincuri.com