We procrastinated over purchasing a replacement sofa though on account of the fact that it was going to be a huge waste dumping something we\u2019d just bought. So we bore with it for nearly 2.5 years until we decided we had enough and picked up a 2 + 2 corner sofa Ektrop series with Idemo Biege<\/a>. And life has never been so good thereafter.<\/p>\n The Sigma 18-250mm<\/a> (Win)<\/strong><\/span>. This was a hard decision. I\u2019ve taken around 9000 pictures using the old Nikon 18-55mm VR lens and despite its plasticky and almost fragile build, it\u2019s amazingly sharp and very reliable. Unfortunately, I kept finding myself wanting a bit more range on the zoom end, and the whole thing about changing lenses wasn\u2019t working very well for me when I was traveling alone. Nikon had its 18-200mm VR of course, but it was going for an arm and a leg and had a couple of design issues. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve had a lot of luck with Sigma lenses, so as soon as the 18-250mm optically stabilized lens was released and the first reviews positive, I ordered one from B&H Photo-Video<\/a> in August this year for SGD885. 2 months later and about 2000 photos later, this lens has proven itself to be a keeper. The Nikon 55-200mm was sold away, and the Nikon 18-55mm is now a backup lens. <\/span><\/p>\n The Nikon MB-D10<\/span> (Win)<\/strong><\/span>. I haven\u2019t blogged here about my purchase of the vertical hand grip for my D300. The grip costs about SGD380 at shops here in Singapore, but it\u2019s made of the same tough and high quality material as the rest of the D300. I found an online shop based in Malaysia selling the same unit for just a shade under SGD300 though, so didn\u2019t hesitate in picking it up right away. The MB-D10 is now a permanent attachment and hasn\u2019t left the D300 since purchase. No more flapping chicken wings when taking portrait shots.. hooray! :)<\/span><\/p>\n Part 3 and the concluding post in this series next.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Continuing from the previous post.:) The Ikea sofa (Win). We\u2019d been thinking of replacing our living room sofa barely a month or two after its purchase from the furniture warehouse 3 years ago. The old sofa set fitted looks wise<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/blog2009rivervaledsc-0927newikeasofa.jpg\")
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