24 Hours Series

24 Hours in Lisbon with the Sony RX100 V

Published

April 22, 2017

Chay Lazaro

I’ve always had this idea that every corner of Lisbon has a slight cinematic VSCO filter. And while visiting the capital of Portugal has always been a dream of mine, I did not really expect to do and see much because of how underrated the city is compared to other destinations in Europe.

I brought the RX100 V with me to document my journey as I wandered around the hilly cobblestoned alleyways of Lisbon and its neighboring towns. I have been using the RX100 III for two years now, so navigating the latest from Sony’s series of high-end point-and-shoot cameras is already second nature — from changing white balance to adjusting exposure.

Fairytale morning in Sintra

We started our day with a drive to Sintra, a 30-minute drive from Lisbon’s city center. I don’t know why I haven’t seen any photos of this place on my Instagram feed before, but I swear this town could give Disney theme parks a run for their money.

It was drizzling that morning, but the view from Palacio de Nacional de Sintra had me singing Disney songs. We learned a little bit of history, about the royals who once ruled and lived in the castle and the Moorish influence in the country.

After the tour, a little bit of sunshine greeted us along with this tourist train. Tell me, is this the real life or is this just fantasy?

No baker with his tray of bread and rolls was in sight, but Sintra had pastelarias at almost every corner, and I wasn’t gonna leave Portugal without trying its famed pastéis de nata — egg tarts! I’m not exactly a fan of pastries, and I don’t find the egg tarts sold in Manila and Macau drool-worthy either, but this one had a more gooey custard, not a creamy scrambled egg. Oh, and they dust it with cinnamon powder before serving!

Every sight looked like it came straight out of a Disney movie. I didn’t want to leave!

Lunch in Cascais

Aside from egg tarts, Portugese cuisine is also famed for its seafood dishes. For lunch, we drove to the coastal town of Cascais where we had Mar do Guincho’s arroz de marisco for our main course. It reminded me of seafood paella, except Portugal’s version is soupy.

Parks and recreation

After lunch, we headed back to the city of Lisbon. One of the things I love about traveling is all the open spaces and parks I can hang out in to soak up the unfamiliar.

If you’re lucky, you’ll meet locals who are as inspired by the view as you are.

There are many ways to get around Lisbon — including buses, taxi cabs, the metro — but the vintage yellow trams are tourist attractions themselves.

Walking is also a good option (with the help of Google Maps), as sometimes you end up going to places Google or Instagram wouldn’t normally suggest.

And you stumble upon unexpected miradouros (viewpoints) like this one. Thankfully, Globe offers unlimited data as part of its $12/day (PhP 599) flat rate roaming plan, so getting lost is out of the question.

Ice cream, in all forms at any time of the day, is my favorite kind of pick-me-up, so a scoop of gelato is a must wherever my feet might take me — in this case, in Docas de Santo Amaro.

Sometimes, you also get a good view of the sunset to go with your gelato.

To cap the night off, Lisbon has a bunch of speakeasies that you can visit to enjoy a good drink or two (and dinner, too!). A local recommended that we go to her favorite bar called Foxtrot.

Stunning Lisbon

My flight back to Manila was not until after lunch, so I squeezed in a quick early morning visit to Lisbon’s oldest district, Alfama.

In the area is another evidence of Moorish influence in Portugal: Castelo de São Jorge, a walled compound atop one of the hills of Lisbon that served as fortification and royal residence back in the day.

At present, it gives you best view of Lisbon’s red roofs and pastel-colored houses. Worth the entrance fee!

There’s never enough time to get to know a city, and Lisbon is no exception. There’s so much to learn about its history, architecture, and people, and I still wish I stayed a wee bit longer. But for now, obrigada, Lisboa.

[irp posts=”11619″ name=”24 Hours in Singapore with the Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime”]

24 Hours Series

vivo V27: Studio lights in your pocket

Meet the new Aura Light Portrait System

Published

April 14, 2023

Chay Lazaro

It’s spring 2023 and vivo is back with the V series. The vivo V27 comes with a new feature called Aura Light Portrait System, which takes its main camera to another level. Like its predecessor it’s got a color-changing back, making it a fashionable choice for different users.

Stylish color-changing design

We have the V27 in Emerald Green, which starts off with a lighter tint that looks like jade. When exposed to UV light, it changes into a darker shade of green. This is achieved thanks to the Emerald Glass processing technique. The phone also comes in Magic Blue, Flowing Gold, and Noble Black.

Chay is wearing light colors so the Emerald Green model matches her outfit better. It makes a nice, subtle pop of color, and goes with her pastel-y mint green purse and boots.

It’s also worth pointing out the 3D curved screen and this curved back on the V27 make it feel extremely thin and light.

Studio lights in your pocket

As mentioned earlier, the vivo V27 features the Aura Light Portrait System for great portraits even in low light. It’s a combination of the IMX677V sensor, which Sony designed with vivo specifically for this phone, algorithm optimizations, and the Aura Light. Its outer ring is matte and sandblasted, softening the light coming out of it.

The Aura Light, combined with the large sensor, and algorithm optimizations work together to take great portraits even in low light.

Lunch and coffee

The day before was a very long day so we figured we should get food and coffee. We found this dimly lit restaurant in Soho called Cafe Select. I think it’s a German restaurant because we had some schnitzel and there’s German decor everywhere.

We also specifically asked for the corner booth to test out the V27’s low light capabilities. Despite the lack of light sources, it’s impressive that the V27 managed to produce an accurate cutout of me even when I kept moving with the Bokeh Portrait video mode on.

There’s no natural light in this restaurant so it’s also the perfect place to take portraits and test out the Aura Light Portrait System. It’s like a portable ring light that you can use to take clearer portraits. Take a look at some examples.

On video mode, you can also use LUTs. We had fun using the Nostalgia filter to film a short video in the restaurant, which perfectly matches the vintage vibe of its interiors.

High definition selfies

The vivo V27 would not be a V-series smartphone if it didn’t have an amazing selfie camera. On the V27, we got a 50MP HD selfie camera with autofocus.

It’s worth noting that the phone feels so light in the hand. It’s so easy to take one-handed selfies. I also love how subtle the color change is on the Emerald Green model.

The V27 offers three levels of selfie filters that help hide blemishes and enhance your features — None, Natural, and Classic.

The 50MP front camera means clear selfie details. Most other smartphones have inferior selfie cameras compared to its rear counterparts, but not the V27. As you can see in the example below, zooming in on my eyes show that you can clearly see the strands of my eyebrows.

Walking the High Line & shopping

To test its video stabilization and macro camera, we continued to walk the High Line. Both features produced very impressive results.

Another feature we tried is MicroMovie. It’s perfect for creators like me. It comes with a whole bunch of templates that you can use for TikTok or Instagram Reels. I filmed a daily vlog with it and had so much fun.

While we were shopping, I noticed too that the V27 changed colors after being indoors for a bit. It turned into a beautiful white marble-like finish that fades into mint green at the bottom.

After the sun has set, it’s time to take more low-light portraits and OOTD. Our friends Alex and Leslie even joined us for a quick photo shoot. New York City comes to life at night, and with a 1/1.56-inch sensor and Super Night Mode, the vivo V27 can easily capture the hustle and bustle of the city streets.

More than just a camera smartphone

The vivo V27 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 and comes with either an 8GB or 12GB of RAM.

With Extended RAM the phone borrows memory from your internal storage and gives you an additional 8GB RAM. This way you get either 16GB or 20GB available RAM.