i will inform STB about this shop that i happened to find very likely guilty of cheating.
initially i happened to meet this group of american musicians, and followed them on foot by guiding them to orchard, since i was going from park mall to borders. one of them decided to buy a battery for his video camera, so when he entered the shop, that's all i thought he wanted to buy. later when i joined him in the store because his other mates were outside, i was surprised to see an add-on lens for the camera taken out by the storeholder. i got curious (come on, all lenses make all of us ppl gian), so i took a look. vitacom 0.45x wideangle convertor. so the boss told the american man, that it makes the image brighter, and said he would even show us the effect. he hooked up the wiring, and then put the WA in front of the videocamera. my gosh - the ho-hum image on the camera instantly LIT UP - and i thought it might have been as well as +2EV on a digital camera!
so i asked to see the incredible lens for myself, and as the man serving us was turning his back, i put the WA in front of the videocamera, and DIDN'T see a damned different in the light level! i took a quick peep over the counter, and then this is what i saw!
since i had my 10d in standby all the while because i was taking random snapshots for the american dudes, i quickly took one snap. to think that two days or so ago, the papers mentioned that they'd blacklist all these errant shops openly, and yet this store was using a contraption to evidently cheat people! and the most insulting part was that the "normal price" was ~120 SGD, and discounted to 80 SGD. shame!!!
for those of you wondering how this thing can work logically speaking, when the shopkeeper put the WA on, he actuates the switch to show a brighter image on the TV screen. in other words, there's probably some simple resistors in the device to lower the voltage of the initial video output. the switchbox is the type you can spot in some hdb common areas/schools. or in other words, the default position for the device is to lower the voltage of the video output, and when the WA is placed infront of the video camera, the device is switched to "bypass" the resistors and hence the image becomes brighter. another loophole of this cheat is that the RCA style connectors to the video camera were the red and white ones, and the end that connected to the TV was ONLY the white one WITHOUT an accompanying red cable. no way could a shop be so stingy NOT to throw away a half-usable cable, right?
and since the man didn't really know that i snapped a photo, he inquired about my camera. "what model is that?" apparently he doesn't even know the top 3-in-a-row controls for the 10D... ;(
initially i happened to meet this group of american musicians, and followed them on foot by guiding them to orchard, since i was going from park mall to borders. one of them decided to buy a battery for his video camera, so when he entered the shop, that's all i thought he wanted to buy. later when i joined him in the store because his other mates were outside, i was surprised to see an add-on lens for the camera taken out by the storeholder. i got curious (come on, all lenses make all of us ppl gian), so i took a look. vitacom 0.45x wideangle convertor. so the boss told the american man, that it makes the image brighter, and said he would even show us the effect. he hooked up the wiring, and then put the WA in front of the videocamera. my gosh - the ho-hum image on the camera instantly LIT UP - and i thought it might have been as well as +2EV on a digital camera!
so i asked to see the incredible lens for myself, and as the man serving us was turning his back, i put the WA in front of the videocamera, and DIDN'T see a damned different in the light level! i took a quick peep over the counter, and then this is what i saw!
since i had my 10d in standby all the while because i was taking random snapshots for the american dudes, i quickly took one snap. to think that two days or so ago, the papers mentioned that they'd blacklist all these errant shops openly, and yet this store was using a contraption to evidently cheat people! and the most insulting part was that the "normal price" was ~120 SGD, and discounted to 80 SGD. shame!!!
for those of you wondering how this thing can work logically speaking, when the shopkeeper put the WA on, he actuates the switch to show a brighter image on the TV screen. in other words, there's probably some simple resistors in the device to lower the voltage of the initial video output. the switchbox is the type you can spot in some hdb common areas/schools. or in other words, the default position for the device is to lower the voltage of the video output, and when the WA is placed infront of the video camera, the device is switched to "bypass" the resistors and hence the image becomes brighter. another loophole of this cheat is that the RCA style connectors to the video camera were the red and white ones, and the end that connected to the TV was ONLY the white one WITHOUT an accompanying red cable. no way could a shop be so stingy NOT to throw away a half-usable cable, right?
and since the man didn't really know that i snapped a photo, he inquired about my camera. "what model is that?" apparently he doesn't even know the top 3-in-a-row controls for the 10D... ;(