Day 1 in Philippines - Manila: Testing out New Casio ZR700

This post has been long overdue, it was my trip to Philippines to dive. I opted to visit two islands, one for diving and the other for leisure.

But the problem with travelling in Philippines was that if you want to travel to any island at all, you would most likely have to by pass through Manila, which means getting several flights in this trip.


Taken with Casio ZR700 in Art mode.

I have flown 6 times on this trip alone. 2 to go Manila from Kuala Lumpur and back, 2 to go Palawan from Manila and back, and 2 flights to go Boracay from Manila and back. Tedious, I know. No pain no gain. The best jewel is discovered via the toughest journey.

So since I was dropping by Manila and the connecting flight missed my arrival flight by an hour, I had to stay one night in Manila to catch the morning flight out to Palawan the next day.


Testing out different Art mode.

Stayed in the best rated hotel in the city according to tripadvisor: Bayleaf hotel, which was located within the old city wall, an incredibly easy access to walk around the wall.


HDR setting under "Art" mode.

Honestly speaking, if I could skip spending a day in Manila, I would. There's absolutely nothing in the city that travellers can do, or see. There's an old city wall which nothing of the old city remains, a ruin or so not too far from the old city and a cathedral in the city.

What's Manila famous for? Malls, copious amount of massive malls. That's where most families, teenagers and school kids spend their entire life in.

If you must and absolutely have to put Manila on your travelling list, I'd say spend no more than a day here, if it's to me, I wouldn't need more than half a day in this city; why would you spend any of your precious travel time in a mall-infested city but instead visit the main jewels of Philippines, its gorgeous wondrous islands.

It did, however, gave me a first try out of my new camera walking around Manila testing its different mode I have been meaning to try on my travels. And I was fairly impressed with the ZOOM capability on this camera.


The clock tower from where I was standing (on the wall) at 18x zoom.

Now this was the icing, this was shot at 72x zoom.


A bit noisy and unmistakeably visible. The camera captured the speakers on the clock tower that my eyes could not visibly see from where I was standing. I know I've tried the zoom before but never on a travel and believe me, I have tried zoom shooting from many high places since then, especially when it gives me great view access to a city. It's a dangerous tool for peeping toms. lol

And the art mode was rather fun to play with.



This was the first time I uploaded photos straight from my camera without editing them, I didn't even bother to resize or watermark just to prove my point.

Afterall, how else can I show you the real quality of the camera if I were to edit the photos.




Enough of Manila. Let's see what I have shot in Palawan.

to be continued...