The M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens is now in stock at B&H at the price of US$399.99. If you have been waiting for this highly-acclaimed lens, now is the time to acquire one because there is no way of telling for how long it will be in stock.

Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens

How good the lens is? Here are several M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 reviews — by by Robin Wong, The Online Photographer, SLR Gear and Photo Zone.

I think the lens is going to be a superb companion for the new Olympus OM-D E-M5, which is expected to ship soon.

[UPDATE: Disqus commenting plugin is now installed and operating]

I remember the first blog I set up way back in 2004 and the rush of excitement I felt when the first comment arrived. Well, I still get that rush each time I see a new comment appears on my blogs, this one included.

However, it seems that something has now gone wrong with this blog’s commenting system and all the comments, over 1,000 of them have disappeared; or rather, they are still here somewhere but are not displaying and I don’t know how to fix it. I’ve tried reinstalling the theme and WordPress but to no avail. Even the commenting box is gone

I’m in the process of migrating to either Disqus or Intense Debate commenting system; in the meantime, please use the contact form if you want to reach me. Thanks.

It seems two of the best Micro Four-Third prime lenses out there, the Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 and the Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH Micro 4/3 prime lenses are out of stock at my favourite retailer B&H, and it has been like that since the past many weeks.

Lenses like these are difficult to get in my place — I just moved back to Borneo from Kuala Lumpur, by the way — and finding a gem of glass like these two in this backwater of the planet are like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH Micro 4/3 Lens

Both the Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras and 25mm f/1.4 Leica DG Summilux Aspherical Micro 4/3 Lens are available at Amazon though, but for some reason, Amazon won’t ship them to my address.

Over at Adorama, the Zuiko is in stock while the Summilux is on a back order from the manufacturer. The problem is, even the in-stock Zuiko is beyond reach as Adorama won’t ship anything at all to any address in Malaysia. Sigh!

So I’m left with no option but to patiently wait for the stock to replenish itself over at B&H, the only place where I can import my equipment.

Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens

If you have been looking for a third party lens for your Nikon, Canon, Pentax or Sony DSLRs, chances are you have considered the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro , the newer version of Sigma’s 105mm Macro, with the addition of stabilisation.

Here are some reviews of the lens to help you decide whether the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro is best for your macro shooting purpose.

1. PopPhoto.com: “On our optical test bench, the lens delivered Excellent SQF data, and our field tests concurred with faultless sharpness and contrast. Its numbers came in slightly above the Canon’s, but below those of the comparable Nikon. Ironically, the sharpest of all our recently tested full-frame macros was by far the least expensive: the $470 Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro. (It lacks stabilization.)”

2. TechRadar: “Overall, Sigma should be very proud of this lens. It’s packed full of functionality and it performs to a high standard, and considering its performance it’s priced fairly too. If you can get over its size and weight, it’s a cracking piece of glass to have.”

3. The Phoblographer: “I don’t hide the fact that I haven’t been the biggest fan of third party lenses in the past. The Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens has me doing some re-evaluating.”

I wonder how does this lens fare with smc PENTAX D FA MACRO 100mm F2.8 WR, which I own.

I thought this picture of a “pole-dancing” praying mantis of mine was unique in terms of composition and the insect’s posturing, never mind the out-of-focus eyes where the focus should really be.

Pole-dancing praying mantis

That is, until I read about a Telegraph report about a lucky shot which shows a similar species of mantis perched on top of curled fern shoots. Man, that was one hell of a capture.

By the way, the photographer of the lucky “cycling mantis” shot is Eco Suparman, aged 23, and the photo was taken in Indonesian part of Borneo Island.

“I was focusing on taking pictures of the mantis when I noticed the curled plants nearby,” he said in The Telegraph report, “Straightaway I thought it looked like a bike – but I couldn’t believe my luck when the mantis walked over and climbed onto the plant.”

By now many of you would have heard of Camera Wiki, a free-content encyclopedia about camera brands and models, and is the successor to Camerapedia. Well, I just heard about it recently, that was when its admin contacted me through my Flickr, asking if I could add a photo into the page.

I agreed and added the photo of my first ever digital camera, my contribution to Camera Wiki. Here’s my write up of the square brick

I recently uploaded a video on YouTube for a long-dormant car blog of mine. The video was taken from inside a Toyota Rush that was making its way on a bumpy off-road somewhere in Borneo. The ride was bumpy and shaky and understandably, the footage was shaky as well.

After I finished uploading the video, a message came on screen, “We detected that your video is shaky. Would you like us to fix that?” I clicked “Yes, fix it” (or something like that) and below is the less-shaky-but-somewhat-dreamy footage of the bumpy ride.

Below is a shot from the same ride but uploaded with YouTube’s shake reduction message ignored. What a difference does shake reduction make.

Malaysia’s leading online photography retailer, ShaShinKi, has sent out an email alert to its subscribers informing that the stock for the Canon EOS 5D Mark III will arrive tomorrow. ShaShinKi is selling the beast at RM10,888 (body only) as against Canon’s MSRP of RM11,199 (a difference of RM311). ShaShinKi will ship the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera (Body Only) (Canon Malaysia) within Malaysia FOC.

Or RM13,888 with Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens.

You can also browse ShaShinKi.com – Malaysia’s Online Camera Shop! for other products.

There are a lot to like about spiders, especially as a subject for macro photography. They are cute, playful, furry, and have intricate features, notable among them are the eyes, which can be both satisfying and challenging to shoot.

Finding a spider to shoot is easy; the challenge — other than to get a good macro photographs out of the tiny creature — is to find different species to shoot the next time around.

According to reports, there are about 5,000 spider species in the world, many of which are endemic to certain places. Here are three ways to find your spiders:

The easy way

The conventional way. Take your camera, attached a macro lens on it, mount a flashgun, attach a diffuser to the flash gun, and sieve through the leaves and chances are you’ll find you spiders.

"Thorny spider"... not sure what species is this. Probably from the family of Gasteracantha fornicata. Shot at Singapore's Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

The hard way (Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t approve this)

Put a large white sheet under the canopy of some bushes and then fog them with insecticide. Wait for these spiders — and probably other insects as well — to fall onto the sheet, pick them up, bring them to some labs or studios and shoot them up close. It’s the hard way because you need equipment and so on, and also, the spiders would be dead.

The medium-hard-easy way

This is a more humane version of the above. Put a large sheet, preferably a white sheet, under the canopy of some bushes and shake these spiders loose and let them fall onto the white sheet. You can then pick them up and shoot them. This method is demonstrated towards the end of the video below:

The Internet is an invaluable resource for learning just about anything. You can listen to experts talking about their fields either in sound bites or follow a talk in full, as though you are sitting in the very hall where the event is being held. Here’s an example of that — a 50-minute talk about street photography by veteran street shooter Len Speier.