I have some very big news for you today. Robin Wong – M4/3 expert, street shooter, fellow Malaysian and all round nice guy – will be joining the site as a contributor. I believe our strengths and coverage are complimentary but not really overlapping, which means extended coverage and a different perspective for our loyal readers, and yes, including new product reviews (which is something that I of course cannot do in my current position). Robin is somebody I’ve always enjoyed a strong relationship with and wanted to collaborate with, though this would of course have been problematic whilst he worked for Olympus. Thus for purely selfish reasons, I was quite happy with the news of his going independent. Having done the same thing myself more than five years ago now, and under quite different – and ironically, easier – professional photography market circumstances, I’m glad to he sees enough potential to make the jump and happy to be able to support him. In the coming weeks you’ll see of course new content from him, and a reshuffling of the site to accommodate an archive for his work. Robin’s existing site will of course continue on as an archive of previous work.
Please join me in welcoming him on board! 🙂 MT
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This makes a great site even better. The timing couldn’t be better for me. I recently purchased an Olympus camera and a few lenses. I’ve gone back and read some of your old reviews from Shutter Therapy. Great stuff. Like Ming your reviews have some beautiful images. I’m really enjoying the added content and look forward to more of it. Thank you!
Congratulations to both gentlemen! A two-man army is born, and I for one can’t wait to see the resulting eye-candy. Ming of course is a Titan in his own right, and I have always absolutely adored Robin’s spontaneous, honest and inspired work.
Good times!
Thanks! We aim to please…
Welcome Robin, and with this smile alone, half the starting battle is won already!. BTW you are partly to be blamed for M’s excellent Daybag….which reminds me asking him for a possible signal of a new “mirror” bag design? I know, I know…
Mirrorless bag: coming soon. 😉
😊😊👍
I love you Robin! Welcome!
Congratulations to both of you! I regularly read both websites and think both of you are gifted photographers. A good match.
Thanks!
What a sensible thing to do, having you two collaborate. Now if you could only get Ctein and Mike Johnston back together…
Beyond my abilities, I’m afraid!
I haven’t visited in a while but I am glad to see two people I regard very highly collaborating in this new venture.
May the light and the world favor you.
Thanks!
I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. I was wondering if you can ask him what kind of wrist strap he has on that camera. Thanks
That looks like the standard neck strap wound around a few times.
Hey Mike, that was a cheap neck strap that I bought off a discount bin! Yes, wrapped around my wrist a few times, because I was sweating profusely from the walk under cruel Malaysian sun.
Congrats & Welcome!
BTW Ming … I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your Scenes From A Venetian Night. Great stuff! I am very familiar with Venice and I was telling myself that I can do this too … but I don’t want to be a copycat! 🙂
Thanks!
Great! You, Robin and Eric Kim are my go-to blog guys……….
Hey Christian,
If you find hard enough you will see a video of me and Eric together on Youtube, but that happened many years ago.
Are we going to see a friendly shootout, MF 100MP against M4/3 ?
There might be not much point to that…or conclusions are obvious (cost, size, shooting envelope etc)
Good news ! It is fantastic to read Robin and Ming together. Greetings from Italy.
Buona fortuna per la vostra esperienza insieme.
Ciao
Marco
Dear Robin,
Please pardon my ignorance – until yesterday I did not even know you existed. After looking at your website I think you and Ming have made a good decision. I am looking forward to your work with Ming.
After having been a “Nikon-only” person for several years, I bought an E-M1.2 and a few Zuiko-lenses to go with very recently . . .
Felix
Wow, this is fantastic news! I’m so delighted for both Ming and Robin…two of the most inspiring, genuine, thoughtful, and intelligent artists and photography mentors on the web. But more importantly, I’m delighted for all of us readers. This is a huge win-win and I’m looking forward to the continued evolution of this website and of both Ming’s and Robin’s bodies of work. Thanks to both of you for your continued service to our global photography community!
Two of the most interesting photography thinkers and writers, so very different in style and approach. Excellent! I hope it works well for you both. I have followed you both for a few years now! Always interesting……….Must be something in the air in KL…!
Haze from burning forests and winds of political change… 😉
This is a brave statement . . .
Welcome Robin! Great news for everyone. I’m convinced this collaboration will bring us something that’s more than the sum of its parts. 🙂
I am so happy for both of, here in the states I follow both of constantly, and enjoy both of your work and insight. Bravo!
Excellent news and I admit I had my suspicions earlier when you mentioned a collaborator, there aren’t that many KL based photographers who post excellent articles and photos, after all 🙂
PS: any update on the drone and whether (either of) you find it a useful complement to “normal” cameras?
Ah – smart man 😉
Drone: yes, it’s useful especially as a scouting tool, but also when you want an interestingly abstract vertical perspective…more to come.
Great!
Hai Robin. Glad to see you here. I am fan of your blog. Can’t wait to read more great articles here from both of you. Welcome.
Hey Kalai, glad to have caught up with you recent! Do stay around we have interesting stuff lining up!
An announcement awaited for weeks, and a very welcome one. One plus one should equal way more than two in this case.
Did we give the game away before? :O
Somehow a few people managed to put the pieces together!
Glad to hear Robin joining forces. Two distinctive style, one plus one more than two !
Cant wait to see Robin review more product 😀
Thanks Sim! See you this Saturday!
Good luck Robin and have fun.
looking forward to the new man. welcome
Congratulations to both of you. Robin, I know you got some flak when you became an Olympus employee although I thought you kept your objectivity. I think this will be a great partnership with complementary approaches.
Thanks John! Now that I’m not with Olympus I am free to do pretty much anything without restrictions!
Kind of like Superman and Batman joining forces. Great news and I look forward to your collaboration and all the great articles that will surely come.
Haha, now I have to ask who’s who in this duo!
Strangely I’m more interested being a villain! Can u be a Luthor?
Arg I meant can “I” be a Luthor. Typo
This is indeed very good news. I follow him and his exceptional photos. Genius!
Thanks Andrew!
I have been a Robin Wong fan since I picked up an Olympus about 5 years ago, and I will follow him wherever he goes … and I am pleased with the new path Robin has taken! Congrats on the collaboration, Robin and Ming!
Hey Bobby! Thanks for staying around! Surely I am not going anywhere far, and will continue shooting and sharing
I’m following both of you. Your work was, is and will be inspire my own way of photography.
That you join together will gain more in the future, thanks for sharing and keep on going.
Frank
It’s great to have more contents and product reviews. Welcome aboard Mr. Robin Wong!
A big thumbs-up for this smart move to both of you! Thanks for diversifying and enriching this site – not that it was lacking anything, but it’s a good thing nonetheless, not the least because it also means sharing the burden, thus profiting all sides. I’m quite taken by what Robin has shown and written in the past and am looking forward to his contributions.
Onwards and upwards 🙂
A cumulation of the best boosts this already excellent site to even higher levels. Congrats. I like Robin’s cordial style and Ming’s perfection. It can not get better than this. Looking forward reading your posts.
Welcome Robin, you’ll fit right in here.
Outstanding news! Really looking forward to this synergy!
Welcome and congratulations! A great addition to a fantastic website.
Welcome Robin! Looking forward to see the fruits of this collaboration.
Wow, great news, welcome Robin!
Welcome ! Robin, your partnering with a great man. I will look forward to hearing from you .
I have always wondered if you have ever crossed paths. Looking forward to this.
We’ve known each other for years. Had to have a couple of people inside Olympus to get those loan cameras 😉
Wonderful news, my two favourite bloggers now working together under the same roof. All the best and tons of success for both of you,
regards from Munich,
acahaya
Very good news. Ming was the advisor which made me more aware of the technical and inspirational side of fotography, and Robin always captivated me with his enthusiasm and good and colorful images (he still uses Olympus Viewer for RAW? It always baffled me 🙂 ).
As Ming said, two very opposed points of view, but with a convergence: good images is what matters. Best wishes for both.
“(he still uses Olympus Viewer for RAW? It always baffled me 🙂 )”
Yes – it baffles me too! But, once you get a workflow to do what you want it to, it’s best not to change it 🙂
For olynpus specific reviews I will still use Olympus Viewer 3 to deal with the RAW files. For everything else I believe there are better and more efficient tools out there!
Excellent news! A warm welcome to you Robin. 🙂
Well done Ming! A big step having a new partner onboard, but seems as if Robin has the writing and editorial chops to be a meaningful foil to yourself.
Wish you both the best!
looking forward to the new man and to what he has to say…..looks good so far
Very exciting news! My favorite photographers/bloggers now on 1 site consolidating my morning reading. Best of luck Robin!
Spectacular development in the photoblog world. May your hit-rates be plentiful! This makes perfect sense as M43 is certainly no threat to Medium Format. Full Frame however, may be a reach here. Will you guys be putting an A9 on the bench to kick things off? Perhaps the D810 successor?
Probably not an A9 – we’d have to buy it – but being a longtime Nikon user I’d probably be unable to avoid the D810 successor. Besides, I need to know what my competition is up to 😉
Awesome. Throw in a “Long Term” review of the E-M1 Mark II and we have a deal! 😉
You guys just made it easier. Instead of visiting 2 blogs now I read all in just one blog. 🙂
I’ve been reading RW’s stuff since I bougt an OLY Pen-F and got to love a small sensor. I’m not always in agreement with Robin. But who couldn’t like a guy with a smile like that?
Awwww… Thanks for the kind words. And thanks for sticking around!
That was a nice surprise, this morning. First Robins post on his blogspot showed up in my RSS-reader, immediately followed by this one. Two of my favorite photo bloggers now working together.
Wishing you both a long and fruitful cooperation together. I expect it’s going to be awesome!
Thanks!
Warm congratulations to you both Ming and Robin. I am sure the new collaboration will be a fruitful one for both of you. Wish you all the best for the future 🙂
We hope so too 🙂 Thanks!
Congratulations both, and welcome Robin!
Thanks Ian!
Great news from asia! I check both sites regularly and am very fond of the m4/3 system.
Warm welcome to Robin! Looking forward to read from you!
Nice!
Yes,the dynamic Duo, Batman & Robin :o) looking forward to reading contributions from both of you.
Awesome news…Getting both photographers that I follow in one location is amazing. Good to see different perspective. Welcome Robin
As I wrote in RW blog: Yeah! I like you both!
Excellent news ! I love the way Robin writes, very close to readers and of course he will give a new and fresh point of view to this blog. Good news for both of you and for us (readers) 🙂
That’s fantastic news! I enjoyed reading Robin’s views, great to see you guys combining your various strengths. Best of luck together!
Thanks bartjeej! Can’t wait to start writing here.
Welcome Robin! Meeting Ming’s high-standards for gear reviews most certainly won’t be a walk in the park! Best of luck!
There’s only one benchmark – editorial integrity. Say it and mean it and be able to back it up, or don’t say it 🙂 Robin evaluates very differently to me with different priorities too, which I think will be a breath of fresh air for the audience…
Thanks Egmont, as Ming Thein mentioned, integrity is important. While we both have differering review styles, that actually is what will make this work, there is no point duplicating each other’s style!
I agree completely. Besides being pointless, duplicating Ming’s style would also most certainly be an exercise in futility! Mother nature broke the mold when she made Ming…
It was quality control’s day off 😛
lol
Gaining from strength to strength at mingthein.com. I’m happy for you, MT. Welcome, Robin!!
Thanks!
Wesley, we should catch up soon! Coffee some time would be awesome.
Hmmm, I knew things were changing for Robin but I am somehow sad to hear that his website will no longer be updated?
I see two very different styles between Ming and Robin; I hope they can co-exist under one roof.
Time will tell if Robin keeps to his roots or becomes part of a machine that will make him change.
Robin, your strength in is being perceptive and seeing the action at street level, less clinical but instilling a stronger human element in your images.
Please, keep it that way 🙂
That was precisely the reason for the collaboration: we do things differently. Any other way and it wouldn’t make sense – why would you or I want a clone?
Hey gnarlydog,
Thanks for staying with me all this time, and rest assured, my style in photography and writing will remain the same. I am only writing and sharing on a different platform, that’s all!
Party on guys! So does it mean I can’t go shooting with Robin anymore? Hahaha! He is now atas!
Dr Haris,
You are always welcome to join my shutter therapy session. Bring along Ripi and some other kaki too. You may reach me through my FB messenger.
Truly, 2 of my favorite photographers!!!! Excellent! Welcome and good luck Robin!!!!
Thanks Thomas! Shall do my best.
Brilliant–I am a big fan of Robin’s and have been following his blog since the pre-Olympus days. I don’t really see any overlap issues at all. Looking forward to his contributions.
And that’s the beauty – enough overlap in the visual language and overall priorities, but completely different approaches. We can all learn something 🙂
Looking forward!
Nice one! Welcome welcome!
Yay! Welcome Robin! Ming could not have picked a nicer and skilled collaborator!
No (well, not much haha) coercion involved, I promise…I should add footnotes his presence is 100% voluntary and all that 😂
Thanks Andre! You are too kind with words.
Welcome, Robin!!!
Great news. One of my favorites