Mexican restaurants barely exist in Asia. During the three years I have lived in Japan I saw two, and one of those was on a U.S. military base. Chinese and Japanese restaurants aren’t hard to find in Gwangju, Korea, but discovering a Mexican place seemed too good to be true. I stopped by Corona, hoping to eat, three times before finally being able to. The first time was a Monday (and they are closed on Mondays). The second time I showed up at 3 p.m., but they hadn’t yet opened for lunch (now they are). The third time I was really craving Mexican food, but I forgot it was a Monday. 😉

Today (Tuesday) I went by again, and this time they were open! The owner, a Korean named Choong Jun, worked at a restaurant in Los Angeles with a bunch of Mexicans and that’s where the idea came from. He speaks good English. I think he was the first person I have had a conversation with in three days (as I don’t speak Korean).

Anyway, back to Corona… The food is a little different from any Mexican restaurant I have ever been to. It was good, on the spicy side, and inexpensive. Next time I may ask for it to be less spicy. I think the menu said something about various levels of spiciness, but I didn’t order any special level.

I had a burrito for about US$5 (6,000 won). It came with chips and salsa (three giant chips that were actually full-sized corn tortillas that had been turned into chips). After I finished my burrito I was given a plate of nachos (covered in cheese, meat, sour cream, salsa, jalapenos, and onions). I don’t think the nachos normally came with my order. Perhaps they were saying “thanks for coming back a fourth time even though we weren’t open the first three times” or they were just working on a new nacho recipe. In any event, I wasn’t charged for the nachos and left absolutely stuffed.

I just noticed that Gwangju Blog did a review of this place in which they complained about the speed of service. My food was served very quickly. Also, the menu looks totally different now. I think Corona did a recent makeover. My food looked better than the photos that they posted.

The drink selection here is outstanding and far more diverse than anything I have seen in Korea thus far. They had about a dozen different beers to chose from which is about ten more than most places. Included in the selection were all the major Mexican beers (Corona, Sol, Dos Equis, Modelo, etc.), tequila, and Lost Coast Brewery’s Indica India Pale Ale. I never expected to see an IPA from California in Korea. They also had things like blue lemonade and Cherry Coke!

Next time I’ll bring my camera for some photos.

You can find Corona near the Chonnam National University back gate. Head down the street/alley with Dunkin Donuts on the corner. Near the other end, look up on the opposite side of the street from Dunkin Donuts to see Corona. They are on the second floor.

The address is 159-8, 2F, Yongbong-don, Bukgu, Gwangju. They are open from about noon to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Maybe they are open later on Friday and Saturday nights.

Posted on July 8th, 2013 under Korea. Tags: beer, corona, food, gwangju, reviews. Comments Off on Corona – Mexican Food & Drinks – Gwangju

New World Video Direct (Nwvdirect.com) offered a good price on a Nikon flash (SB-600). Based on Google’s 4.7/5 rating from 2,300 reviews I figured New World Video Direct was a good company to buy from. I ordered the product and waited for confirmation. After a few hours I received no confirmation of shipment or even confirmation of my order saying when to expect it so I went online to search for more feedback and customer reviews on New World Video Direct. I read lots of old (3-4+ years) reviews from customers who said New World Video Direct are a bait and switch retailer, offering products they don’t have in the hopes that you will be willing to change your order to some cheap alternative that you still pay the higher (in my case Nikon) price for.

Sure enough, the next day I received an email from New World Video Direct saying there was a problem with my order, and I needed to call them to discuss. I declined and asked them to cancel my order if they couldn’t ship what they originally promised me they would. New World Video Direct cancelled my order (several days later) rather than comply with our initial purchase agreement.

What really burns me, though, is they are still offering the item I ordered for the same price even they though they don’t have any of the item (nor can they likely obtain the product since it has been discontinued by Nikon).

They are a scam. Save yourself some time, and possibly money, by not doing business with New World Video Direct.

Posted on April 23rd, 2012 under Other. Tags: reviews. Comments Off on Avoid New World Video Direct (Nwvdirect.com)

I really love my Caselogic SLRC-205 SLR Camera Sling Bag. It is the perfect size for a DSLR with lens attached if you only need to bring along one extra lens (or no extra lenses and a lunch or water bottle). However, if the lens attached to my Nikon D7000 is my 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II then it doesn’t fit. The 70-200 lens fits fine as the spare but not when it is on the camera body.

So I decided to get a second sling bag (pictured above), just a little bigger than the first. Well, it arrived today and even though it is roomier, my D7000 still doesn’t fit if my 70-200mm f/2.8g lens is attached. Rats! I’m keeping it, though, as this bag can fit multiple lenses, lunch, and a netbook computer or iPad in addition to a DSLR with lens attached. The DCB-308 will be handy on my trip back east this summer. I just wish it was an inch or two deeper so that I could have my 70-200mm lens attached while carrying.

2018 update

Posted on January 31st, 2012 under Other. Tags: photography, reviews, travel related goods. Comments Off on Case Logic DCB-308 SLR Camera Sling Backpack

My home desktop (HP Pavillion a6057c with w2207 Widescreen Flat Panel LCD) was a pretty decent setup when I first purchased it four years ago. However, compared to my quad-core laptop purchased last year it doesn’t compare. Recently it has been giving me problems, especially when I try to do photo or video editing. Just looking at photos could be a slow process.

Finally, the colors went funky on me and no amount of rebooting could get things back to the way they were. The a6057c comes with on-board video, meaning there isn’t a separate video/graphics card so I thought that may be the problem. Researching what video card would work well for someone who isn’t a gamer but who uses Photoshop showed that the consensus was that a video card wouldn’t help with Photoshop or viewing images. A dedicated graphics card would only improve performance for games. I found that hard to believe so I purchased a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD3850 PCI-E 512MB DVI/VGA graphics card for under $50 anyway.

It turns out that Photoshop CS5 performance (and just scrolling through photos in Windows Photo Viewer) is improved dramatically with a dedicated graphics card like the HD3850. The color problem wasn’t fixed with the new graphics card; I needed to reset the monitor to the original factory settings to solve that problem, but the speed with which I can view and edit photos now is incredible. Don’t believe those who say Photoshop performance is entirely based on your CPU. If your computer lags and you have on-board graphics, do a cheap upgrade to an dedicated graphics card to extend the life of your PC several years.

P.S. One other item to note is after installing the graphics card my sound no longer worked. To solve that problem I went into the BIOS (by pressing the F10 key when I started my computer) and changed the on-board audio setting from Auto to Enabled.

Posted on May 7th, 2011 under Other. Tags: reviews. Comments Off on Will a graphics/video card improve Photoshop performance?

One of the main reasons it took me so long to purchase a DSLR was the size and weight factor of these beasts. Not only are they not fun to carry around, they make you stand out and look like a tourist. My first bike ride with my new Nikon, a mere two miles, was miserable. I used the camera bag that came with the camera, not a bad bag, but not what you want to have over your shoulder on a bike ride or a hike. So I did some research and came to the conclusion that I needed a “sling bag.” A sling bag is like a backpack, except that you don’t have to take it off to get the contents out. Based on the reviews of others, I came to the conclusion that many are not waterproof, not easy to use, fall apart, or have no space for a tripod. The one that consistently got good reviews on these four issues, and could be had for well under $100, was the Case Logic SLRC-205 SLR Camera Sling Bag. I made the purchase and have been using mine for over a week now.

So far the bag has exceeded my expectations. The rotation of the bag works smoothly. I can have my camera out in just seconds.

The SLR suspension system in the main compartment works great. It suspends the camera in the pouch so the camera lens isn’t touching the bag. You don’t even have to put the lens cap back on the camera since the lens isn’t touching anything in the compartment. This allows for even quicker shots. Alternatively, you can take the SLR suspension fabric out (via the velcro fasterner holding it in place), leave the lens hood on, and insert the camera. The SLR suspension does not work with a lens hood. I was happy to see that my D7000 with 18-200mm lens still fits (barely) with the lens hood.

I haven’t tested the sling bag in wet conditions yet, but it seems like it will do just fine. My new tripod easily attaches to the exterior, and the bag can still be slung around with the tripod attached.

This past weekend I went on a 20-mile bike ride with the sling bag and discovered another use of the straps for the tripod. The day started out in the low 50s so I had a jacket on. Halfway through my ride the temperature was in the upper 60s, and I wanted to remove my jacket. I didn’t have my tripod on the bag on the ride so I used the external straps to secure my jacket to it. It worked great. Taking off my jacket was the only time during my entire ride (which included over 200 pictures) in which I took the sling bag off!

There is another, newer model (308) of this bag which appears to have more space for storage. Personally, I’m glad I went with the 205 as it has all the space I will need on most outings and is less than half the weight of the DCB-308.

There is a compartment in the 205 that can be used for an extra lens (or lunch or water bottle if you don’t have another lens like me), another for lens caps and/or filters and/or SD cards, and another that can also be used for such things although I have found it handy thus far for storing my keys. There are also handles in just the right places to sling the camera to your front side or sling it back to the best position on your back.

Check out this video for more.

Finally, one of the things I like best, is that you don’t look like a tourist with this sling bag. Others won’t even know that you have a camera on you until you take it out. The sling bag looks (and feels) like a mini-backpack, not a bulky camera bag or full-blown backpack. You no longer need to have your DSLR tied around your neck like an anchor.

Posted on May 4th, 2011 under Other. Tags: photography, reviews, travel related goods. Comments: 7