Alfie seems to be flavour of the month for pictures. I just like the fact that I have my iPhone with me most of the time and I can grab random shots like these. He just looks so disproportionate here, big head and small feet.

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The AUD is surging towards parity with the USD. I never expected it to really happen, but it’s almost a reality now (currently 1 AUD buys 0.99463 USD, based on the gadget on my desktop). All those economic concepts I learnt in Uni are coming back to me now. I recall in one of the first lectures in Macroeconomics, flip the newspapers open and you will see articles with opposing ideas on the same page. You’d think that the answer is either/or and it can’t be both? Sometimes, you can argue things both ways, and it really depends on the information you have missing that stops you from getting a full prediction on what is to happen.

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The parity of the dollar and the recent drop in price for Panasonic’s GF1 + 20mm f/1.7 pancake is really making me itch to get it. Heh, It’s currently sitting at around $750 imported or $900 locally. It’s like the conundrum with my many PCs. I already have so many computers, and I do have a couple of cameras (both circa 2007, I have the D300 and a Canon IXUS from the time). The D300 still performs admirably, but the Ixus frustrates me. It was meant to be a casual point and shoot, something small enough that I’d be happy to carry around wherever I went. It just never turned out that way and the iPhone does a better job at it with apps like Hipstamatic and Tiltshift Generator that gives you a fancy way to spruce up pictures. After that, it’s just a few clicks to post it on Facebook or Flickr, making it easy to share some of these pictures while doing creative things with it.

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I can almost replicate the 20mm field of view with my D300, but it will be twice the weight and almost triple the volume. Some days you just don’t mind having a camera with you but aren’t committed enough to lug a kg of equipment around. That’s where the GF1 would come in and while I’ve been having a daily conversation with a friend who’s smitten with Sony’s NEX-5 (which is very small, has the equivalent quality of a D300, but almost non existent manual controls) about the pros and cons for both cameras. Sure the GF1 might not have the same dynamic range as my D300, nor can it handle noise in low light as well, but that’s besides the point. It’s the idea of having a powerful photographic tool that’s convenient to lug around that I feel a thrill just to think about it.

People talk about buying cameras these days, and lust over having a D3 or a 5D Mk2, and want to own those legendary lenses that people in forums keep raving about. I’ve had the benefit of trying different lenses and knowing the kind of quality I can squeeze out from my D300 (I probably still don’t get to use it to it’s full potential). I read much online, and I find I improve the most when I actually take my camera out to take photos. Do I need a new camera? No. Will it improve my photography? Maybe, only because I like the idea of having a fixed focal length to challenge how I can get the best picture frame out of it. If I like the image quality and if it makes me takes more photos (as reviewers of the GF1 had said, they had so much fun with it they didn’t want to put it down), I’m quite happy to plonk the not too small amount to try it out.