SWATCH Elementary (SUOB728) watch review

I always wanted a SWATCH watch and a few days ago I got my first one: The Elementary (SUOB728). I did not buy this one, it was gifted to me by my girlfriend for our anniversary. I once mentioned to her that I like the design, and she remembered it, now ain't she sweet? Most SWATCH watches are inexpensive, this one cost about 80 USD here in Taiwan (you can get it discounted at 55 USD). But you also can't expect much in terms of build quality. The main point of these SWATCH watches is the design and the life style that the watch promotes. It's a fashion watch, basically.

CASIO F-91W review

I own 6 watches, and the Casio F-91W is the cheapest watch I've ever got for myself. It cost me 450 NTD, which was about 15 USD at that time a few years ago. I can't say I really wore it a lot until recently, but I bought it for sentimental reasons. I used to have a watch like this in the 1990s, and when I saw it in one of the stores here in Taipei, I had to have it. Launched in 1989, this watch is legendary for every kid who used to grow up in the 1990s. Just having a watch in the early teens made you look cool, and electronic watches were really hip among kids, because they looked modern, they looked like they were at the forefront of innovation.

My Nikon 100mm f/2.8 Series E lens review

This is my first extensive review of a lens and I hope to make it a series, because I had a lot of fun making it. The goal here is to give you my opinion from a real world experience point of view. I will share some specs and data, too, but not too much. So let's get into it.

Nikon D810 long term review

I bought my Nikon D810 in January 2018, so the camera is not yet 2 years old, but very close to that. The shutter is currently at 15900 shots, which means I took around 720 shots per month, which is not bad for a purely hobbyist photographer. I bought this camera after a few years shooting APS-C (I started with the D5300 and then upgraded to a D7100) and I needed something more rugged. I was also interested to jump into full frame, because I already had a lot of full frame glass, and I wanted to have that extra quality and wider field of view. So when Nikon launched the D850 in September 2017, the prices on the D810 started to dip. I got mine in a shop here in Taipei for about 2050 USD as they were clearing stock, and I thought it was a steal (the D810 launch price was 3000 USD).

CASIO G-Shock MTG-B1000-1A review

I’m owning the MT-GB100-1A for about four months now, wearing it almost every day, and I’d like to share my thoughts with you on how the watch held up and where my expectations were exceeded or where they fell short (you can check out my unboxing post with my initial impressions for comparison).

Excellent Nikon Z7 reviews by Ricci Chera

Ricci Chera is a member of the Nikon School UK, a team of people working for Nikon, that is conducting workshops and seminars in London. Privately he is a landscape and wildlife photographer (here is his Instagram). He's recently started his own YouTube channel "Ricci Talks", and has shared several video reviews of the new Nikon Z7 camera with real world testing. Let me share them with you here.

Excellent Nikon Z7 reviews by Stephan Wiesner in German

Stephan Wiesner is a German Youtuber with close to 100k subscribers, who is reviewing photography gear on his channel. He's also writing reviews on his blog, and publishing photography magazines in German language. He's also a landscape photographer, and is using Sony A7ii, Sony A6000 as well as Nikon D750. He likes all those three cameras for different reasons. Nikon Germany has recently approach him to review the new Nikon Z7 mirrorless full frame camera. He published several videos, from unboxing to real-life usage. Since the videos are in German, I will be translating some of his conclusions into English for you for a better understanding.

CASIO G-Shock MUDMASTER GG-1000RG-1A review

The G-Shock MUDMASTER GG-1000RG-1A is a Rose Gold version of the Two Sensor Mudmaster series, or the so called better value for money Mudmaster (see my comparison with the more expensive triple-sensor GWG-1000 series). The watch retails 10,500 NTD in Taiwan (around 350 USD), but I got mine with discount, it cost me 8800 NTD, which is roughly 290 USD. I'm very satisfied with this watch. It has a lot of features, maybe more than I need. I never use the compass for example, same is true for the temperature, which I feel it's not so reliable. I basically just use world time, because it's very useful during my travels (I'm on a plane every month, and work in several time zones). The features I miss with this watch is Tough Solar and Multi Band 6, but I can still accept that Casio decided to remove this to enable a lower price point.

Apple Air Pods review

Apple's AirPods are a very interesting product, that I was quite fascinated with, but I always felt the price was too high, but most of all, I found the design a bit of goofy and therefore embarrassing to wear, which was a bit off-putting. Then I got mine as a gift, started using them, and totally changed my opinion about that. Apple announced the AirPods in September 2016 along with the iPhone 7 and started shipping them in December 2017. It's a product that is widely praised for its seamless integration with the iPhone, but is it really that good? Let me share my experience with you.

Fujifilm X100T camera longterm review

The Fuji X100T was quite a revered and hyped up camera when I bought one in August 2016, but it was close to the end of life, as its successor the X100F was already rumored (it was launched in January 2017). I paid 29,000 NTD for it, which was at that time around 920 USD (the MSRP of a new X100T at launch was 1300 USD). The reason for that is that I got a grey market version. At that time I did not know that a new model is coming out, and I also did not care much - I wanted this camera after reading so many great online reviews, because I looked for a smaller compacter camera for travel, so that I did not need to lug around my heavier Nikon kit (D7100 and lenses). The initial excitement quickly faded away and I ended up selling the camera. Let me tell you why further below, but first let’s look at the key specs.

CASIO G-Shock MUDMASTER comparison: GWG-1000 vs. GG-1000

The MUDMASTER is a sub-series of Casio G-Shock watches that falls under the umbrella of the Master of G Collection (other current sub-series in this collection are called Gulfmaster, and Gravitymaster, as well as the older Mudman, Frogman, Gulfman, Rangeman, and Riseman). Within MUDMASTER there are again two sub-series, the more expensive and premium GWG-1000 watches that come with a triple sensor, and the cheaper and less fancy GG-1000 watches that come with a dual sensor.

CASIO G-Shock G-5600E-1DR review

The CASIO G-Shock G-5600E-1DR is my latest timepiece acquisition, and I'm pretty impressed with it. I was never into G-Shocks, but I've recently fell in love with the squares, and decided to get my first one. I was heavily researching G-Shock squares before making my buying decision, and I chose this one, because it's the only Tough Solar model without Multi Band 6, which I felt was nothing that I really need and pay more for it. However I wanted the solar charging, so this was the best choice for me. I bought it via PC Home, it cost me 3060 NTD (around 99 USD). It's not the cheapest square, but also not the most expensive (they can go up to 300 USD), for me it was a nice sweet spot. Check out my pictures and read about my impressions and experience below:

Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter review

So I bought the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter from Apple together with the latest MacBook Pro "13-inch (no TouchBar), mainly because I needed an USB-C to HDMI adapter, which is required for my work. I'm doing a lot of presentations and need it to connect to projectors. Retailing at 1690 NTD (USD 49), this adapter certainly wasn't cheap. With that said, it did come with another USB-A and USB-C port, effectively giving me 3 different I/O ports, and thus adding additional value. There are other pure USB-C to HDMI adapters from third party brands, but I opted for Apple's own product, because I know their quality control is one of the best in the industry (I know that from friends in the Taiwanese supply chain). Since I bought an expensive laptop, I'm not going to save money on USB-C adapters. There were stories about bad quality USB-C cables causing issues with products, and that's definitely something I want to prevent.

New iPad Pro 9.7" had scratches, so I returned it

I was so excited to finally get my new iPad Pro 9.7" yesterday. I arrived home late from work, and the package was waiting for me already. I ordered it online two days ago and it was here. Those who read this blog know, that it was a month long anticipation. But since it was late, I decided to unbox it the next day. So today in the morning was the time to do it. This is my third iPad, and arguably the best ever made, so I was pretty excited. I set everything up for a little unboxing video in my room, and started to unwrap the box. I've unboxed like 7 iOs devices in the past, and it was always a pleasure to see how they slowly slip out of the box, but this one just would not go out. It was odd. I had to really tug on it to get the top part of the box off. Something didn't feel right. When I finally unwrapped the iPad and checked the front and the back, I spotted scratches! In total it was 6 of them! I was very disappointed, especially because of the recent problems of aluminium chipping on my iPhone 6s Plus. Seriously, am I just unlucky, or did Apple's quality drop? As a big Apple fan, I'm very disappointed. This was the most expensive tablet I've ever bought, I got the 256 GB version, that costs nearly 1000 USD!

iPhone 6s Plus Gold aluminium chipping

I bought my iPhone 6s Plus (Gold) in December 2015 (photo above is from the day I unboxed it), that is 6 months ago. When I saw the phone in one of the Taiwan Mobile shops a few weeks before that, I was stunned. The Golden color looked gorgeous, and it's the first time I didn't buy a black (or space gray) iPhone. When I unboxed the new phone, I checked every detail, and the device was spotless (photo above was taken at that time). In order to keep it intact, I decided to buy a case. It was a plasticky/rubbery transparent case, that had a good grip, but made the phone a little bit bulkier. I used to have an iPhone 6 Plus (Space Gray) without a case before, and it was really easily to slip from my hands. I dropped it a few times, and learned my lesson, so I decided that my next iPhone will be put in a case, despite me hating the way iPhones in cases look. So I was really surprised to see that despite being in a case, my new iPhone 6s Plus had got some small scratches on the side (photo from April 2016):