Petaling Street in Chinatown Kuala Lumpur may be a visual treat but the traders can be a little aggressive. They do not like a camera in their face. Which is quite reasonable, considering almost every product sold there is a counterfeit. And don’t forget that nervous worker is probably a foreigner with a counterfeit work permit.

So when the Nepalese guy stuck his pinkie into his nose, I breathe a sigh of relief. It was their secret code of approval for the diminutive Olympus E-P3 camera. The illegal network of walkie-talkies crackled through the labyrinth of tarps but no one pulled out a machete. Phew! Of course, little did they know that the tiny, harmless, touristy-looking camera can produce a video with quality better than any of the fake Blue-ray discs sold there 🙂

I set out during twilight and it soon became night. The myriad range of lighting conditions gave the E-P3’s auto white balance and exposure metering a good workout. I chose to arm myself with only one lens. The new Olympus m4/3 12mm f2.0 street videographer’s lens. The low light capability of this combo is quite amazing, as you will see.

The new Olympus Pen E-P3 & M.ZD 12mm f2.0 lens. Backpacker-friendly too

Those unfamiliar with this KL landmark, may find the following trivia interesting:

The messy peanut pancake (kuih apam balik) hawker is sort of an icon there. He is quite friendly to photographers who shoot and don’t buy.

The corner winter-melon-dried-longan drink remains the most popular stall there. See that woman with two cups.

I wanted to capture the sounds of the Chinese conversations between traders. With so many tourists from Middle East countries there, I ended up with a fascinating ambient sound track full of Arabic chatter instead 🙂

If you have a media player and a big screen HD TV, you can also download this Full HD clip from vimeo.com/tvsmith and watch it large and loud.

All pictures & videos photographed with the Olympus Pen E-P3 by & © TV Smith