Canon ef50mm f/1.8 & Nissin Speedlite Di622
Last weekend, I went to LowYat Plaza to replace my Macbook’s hard disk. 120GB SATA not bad for a bargain price of rm150. As usual, Lowyat Plaza was full of computer geeks. They talked by programming code, IF THEN ELSE. Unfortunately I was not one of them!
IF harddrive <= RM150 THEN BUY,
ELSE find another shop
Seemed like I was not the only one who enjoyed shopping at Low Yat Plaza, while the rest came, full of cash to spend.
After a long hour at LowYat Plaza, I decided to go and have a look at Keat Camera Service at Jalan Pudu.
I was sure most of the DSLR users had been in this situation before – how to upgrade kit-lens. I owned 18-55mm for a long time, I felt it was the right time to upgrade. I’ve read alot of review on kit-lens upgrade but none of them were within my budget. Basically professional review would recommend for expensive lens. I couldn’t afford that!
During KLPF 2008, I’ve asked the same question to all the vendors. Which Lens should I choose to upgrade from kit-lens. Well, I’ve been introduced to this new lens;
1. Canon 17-200mm = RM 899
2. Canon 50mm f/1.8 = RM 280
Between those 2, I chose Canon 50mm f/1.8, simply because it was cheap! I was told that with this lens I could get sharp image with superb blur background, which would be nice for portrait photographs. But the downside was its focal length! More over, this lens looked more like a toy than a piece of optical equipment. There was not much to this lens. There was no distance window or markings. There was barely even a focus ring – and the tiny ring that was there was barely usable.
Canon 50mm f/1.8 was a fast lens. Unfortunately, only five non-rounded aperture blades were used in this lens. This design led to sometimes-poor bokeh (image quality of out of focus areas). sigh ! 
Next on my upgrade list was to buy a flashlight. So, I asked the tauke, which was the cheapest flashlight, regardless of brand. He introduced Nissin Speedlite Di622 to me for RM550 compared to Canon Flashlight around RM1000. Not bad for amateur photographer. It had Guide Num (GN 44 at ISO100) so it was quite powerful and it also acted as slave flashlight.
New lens and flashlight were tested on one of my favorite Zoids, RZ-055 Mad Thunder.
“The Madthunder is a Triceratops-type Zoid created by the Helic Republic, as a counter to the Deathsaurer.
The Deathsaurer had proven to be more than a match for any previous Helic Zoid, capable of easily defeating the Ultrasaurus. As a result, the Republic developed a Zoid specifically to counter it. The heaviest Zoid ever created, the Mad Thunder was equipped with the thickest armour available. In order to protect it from the Deathsaurer’s fearsome Charged Particle Cannon, the Zoid was also equipped with a special energy shield mounted in its head. This shield absorbed and deflected charged particle attacks, making it effectively immune to the Deathsaurer’s main cannon.
As conventional weapons had proved to be ineffective against the Deathsaurer, the Helic designers equipped the Zoid with a pair of massive drills, capable of boring through even the thickest armour. The intention was that the Madthunder would simply ram the Deathsaurer and impale it. The Zoid was equipped with numerous secondary weapons so that it could fend off attacks by other Zoids while doing so.
In addition to its fearsome battlefield capabilities, the Madthunder was outfitted with a field command centre and extensive communications and sensory capabilities.”
Picture Info :
Shooting Mode : Manual Exposure
TV = 1/10
AV = 2.0
Focal Length 50.0mm
ISO 100
Auto White Balance
For more of my Zoids RZ-055 Mad Thunder image. Click here
Judging from the picture, I would say not bad for a start. Even Mad Thunder was smiling while his picture was taken. Haha! Nissin Speedlite Di622 only suitable for beginner, if you never tried bounce light, optical trigger, and such you should Nissin Speedlite Di622 is good for you. As for the amateur level, go and get the original Canon/Nikon flashlight.
The Bad :-
1) Cannot be triggered using cheap china wireless trigger
2) Optical trigger is only usable in-doors.
3) Slow recycle time
The Good :-
1) Suitable for indoor-studio like environment where the optical trigger would work
2) Cheap
3) ettl compatibiliy.
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