Photosent

After reading numerous reviews, blogs, news; watching videos, 'Finally' I bought a new Canon 550d.This blog is not focused on why I bought this camera, but its more focused on research I did in last few weeks about cameras and lenses before laying my hand on this one.

Canon cameras 550d, 500d, 450d,1000d and  Canon lenses 18-55mm, 17-55mm.17-85mm,18-135mm,18-200mm,55-250mm,70-300mm,USM, lower F, high end, lower end, all kind of cannon lenses were considered.
Nikon Cameras D3000, D5000 were also considered, 
For any 'to be' serious photographer, this is should be the starting point!

-- Past(point and shoot)tense -
I was an Avid Fan of Nikon, anything Nikon in camera, I would assume that it is the best !, infact my first camera was Nikon coolpix.

When I saw the pictures from my friends using Canon/Sony / even Olympus, all those yielded much better results than my Nikon., my Nikon yielded good results in full day light , in night it 'sucked'(sometimes even in day light IQ were bad) , where as Sony /Canon Point and Shoot yielded much better results.

I don’t know to this date why did I like Nikon, was it because every Hollywood movie I saw, protagonist using Nikon (Jurassic park for ex)/the brand name or whatever, for me Nikon was "THE" best camera brand. I now feel, only reason one would buy Nikon point and shoot is because of the pre-store hype, it was/ still could the best film cameras (Remember the days when we used to buy films for our old cameras? Take photos, give them to print and only when we had prints in our hands we would realize how god / bad the snap was ). We are taking about digital, and as far as point and shoot goes, there is no comparison to Canon. Image quality of Canon Point and shoot cameras are much better than the competition around. So if you are buying a point and shoot, go for Canon.

-- Photo (present) tense or what I would like to call it Photosents--
So Canon Point and shoot cameras are good, Is this the only reason why one should buy canon DLSR? - Definitely No.
There are 4 types of DSLR’s (broadly classified)
1. Entry level – Canon 1000d and Nikon D3000
2. Mid Level  – Canon 450d,500d,550d and Nikon D500
3. Semi Pro – Canon 50d,70d etc and Nokin D90 etc
4. Pro (these are very costly ones) – like Canon mark 1D


Iam an amateur photographer so did not even look at high end cameras.
1000d and d3000 are both good entry level cameras and there is nothing much to choose between them, based on your brand loyalty, one can be picked. But these being entry level, don’t give much control over the images.


Next step is Mid level, A year back Nikon was the leader here, with its d5000, canon had 400d and 450d but feature wise Nikon d500 was ahead, I would have picked d5000 today if these were the only choices. 
But today, in terms of mid range dslrs, Canon is ahead; Nikon is still 2 generations behind canon . Canon has 500d and 550d now.
Though I must agree there are places where in Nikon(2 gen old) scores much more than Canon like fps (frame per seconds), but Canon is a full package ' cannot not say same about Nikon.
Some of the features about 550d are
• 18 MP APS-C CMOS sensor
• DIGIC 4
• ISO 100-6400, H:12800
• Full HD movies
• 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 Clear View LCD with 1,040k dots
• iFCL metering
• Quick Control screen
• Ext. Mic socket
• Movie crop
There is not much to choose between 500d and 550d but 550d has full HD movies and 18mp CMOS sensor and scores much ahead of all mid range dslr. Infact it’s almost as good as a semi pro. ( I would say almost coz semi pros have some better features)


-- Lenstense--
Finally after deciding on Canon 550d, I was about to buy it, but hold on .. Which lens? There are various of these available with startup kit.,
In a nutshell Lens is what makes DLSR what it is today.


what I read is no lens is all in one. (or may be companies want it this way), its best to have multiple lens. What’s the point in having a dsltr and thinking about not changing lens? the whole point in having dslr is to have better image quality and this can be achieved by having different lenses for different  situations.
so what to buy now ? for me it was simple, I wanted to buy something which suited my budget., for from the searches , I found 55-250 to be the best cheap lens around so, didn’t wait for much time and bought 550D with 18-55mm and 55-250mm lenses.


-- Future ‘tense’? --
May or may not be ?
But I simply Love what I have
@ end of day, no matter what lens/camera you buy, it’s the person behind camera which counts and not the other way around.

Forgetting is good :)

Came across this wonderful article, Couldn’t stop myself from sharing it.

"

Forgetting is actually both necessary and useful. Imagine remembering every single second of every single day of your life. It would be very difficult to keep all the information organized and to focus on one thing at a time. There is just too much information to be remembered. We automatically forget most of the sensory information we take in without even realizing it.

A Perfect Memory ...

There was a man who did not forget. Solomon Shereshevsky was a Russian journalist with a perfect memory. He never took notes during his interviews, but his articles were detailed and accurate. He told his editor that he didn't need to take notes, because he never forgot anything. His editor sent him to Aleksander Luria at a local university for testing.

Over the course of the next 30 years, Luria would carry out an extensive series of experiments examining the journalist who would become his most famous case.

During the research trials, Shereshevsky was able to recall extensive lists of words, numbers and even nonsense syllables without mistakes and with only occasional hesitation. He could also report the numbers or letters in reverse order. Not only this, he remembered them years afterwards, as well as the clothes Luria had worn on the day he had first learned them!

Even events from early childhood could be recalled, including things that happened when he was still in his crib. There also appeared to be no limit to his digit span, as opposed to the seven to nine items that most humans can manage.

... May Not Be So Perfect

Unfortunately, Shereshevsky's gift was a serious handicap. He was unable to block unwanted memories. Also, he had a terrible memory for faces because he memorized them so exactly. People's faces change with time, lighting, mood, and expression. Shereshevsky had difficulty recognizing faces because they looked so different to him from the ones he had completely memorized in the past.

Shereshevsky had trouble understanding abstract concepts or figurative language. Luria wrote about him: "He was not able to read poetry or fiction easily, as each word or phrase would blossom into an intense visualization that might be contradicted by the next one... Shereshevsky's pathological memory interfered with his ability to hold a regular job, enjoy literature, or even seemingly to think in the abstract without being distracted by sensory association."

Shereshevsky gave up his journalism career and became a professional mnemonist giving regular shows to paying audiences. Despite his success, he never had great satisfaction as a performer and gave it up after a while. He then became a taxi driver in Moscow but his life faded into obscurity afterward. Aside from a possible death date in 1958, there seems to be little else available.

"

Life Moves on ???

Lot of news and news channels and seems lack of news.

News channels claiming they are the first to visit hospitals having Mangalore plane crash victims, how does it matter who is the first to visit ? and showing this as an advertisement every 30 mins ? what else do we need ?

Same is the case with us, we are glued to television when these news are playing, 'tech savy' ones go to twitter/facebooks to get the updates. with celebrities paying homage and saying "god bless their soles".

Well, i think its "us" who wants these sensationalized news , did we(Indians) feel the same pain when plain crashed in Libya? well, we might have sympathized with that incident , but more pain was caused to see Mangalore crash. or do we feel the same pain when there is a bomb blast these days ? if there is a blast with less than 10 people dying in it, i hardly see people worried about the same. so be basically- we need something which is a happening around us or it should create a fear that 'I' could also have been a victim . Iam not saying this is only with Indians, Iam sure it was same effect when Libyans saw Mangalore crash.

well, at the end of it "Life Moves On .. " doesn't it ? we talk about it today and next time when something happens we are glued to television again .

Plumbered in Pune

Phew . it was a hard march month . 

Hard because, we were working at vodafone pune for almost 12 hours a day and were working on all public holidays as well as weekends. 

If you work continously for so long, you tend to feel that the weeks / monts are very long.

This is my first visit to pune, Iam finding difficult to describe pune in one sentence.

Pune is a big city, but traffic here in pune is far less when compared to other places like Hyderabad/Bangalore/Chennai/Bombay. 

offcoure we cannot compare pune with capitals of state , but pune is a big city . pune has all the elements for being a capital of a state. 

Food in Pune is very similar to the way we prepare food at my home towm Bidar. I loved meals here.

But when it comes to breakfast, nothing can beat bangalore. 

I didnot get a chance to move around in pune, given a chance I would like to see some places here. 

I also wanted to go Mumbai to visit my friends, but have been so busy that didnot get time to go there . 

I Will be here for 2 more weeks, if i get a chance, will try and go to mumbai.

But one thing is for sure, As soon as i go back to bangalore - I will go on a holiday. 

after working for so long hours here.. i feel I deserve one.

A R Rahman bags 3 oscar nominatioins!!!!!!!!!!

A R Rahman nominated has got 3 nominations for OSCARS!!!

the man whose best will always be his next has got 3 oscar nominations.

Long pending recognization for the maestro , he has single handedly changed the bollyood mucic for nearly 2 decades and deserved many ocsars long back.

I must admit , iam happy and exited for Rahman but certainly not surprised.

bye bye chennai

Finally i will be going back to bangalore .  

When i came to chennai 5 months back, i have to admit that i was not very happy to come here, mostly because of the stories i heard of the people who were illtreated /cheated / faced language issues etc. and also because i was comming from karnataka to tamilnadu. 

But now, on the day iam goning back to bangalore, I have mixed feeling about chennai. 

True that autowala's here ask for more money as soon as they realise that you can't speak tamil, but they also dont take you for a ride. I myself have traveld in auto many times, some times late in nght , sometimes very early in morning , but i was never taken for a ride. Auto;s though they demand high amount from you,  but are pretty dependable and friendly once you strike a deal and start your travel with them.

I have not faced a great deal of language problem here, true that people reply to you in tamil when you start the conversation , but once they realise that you dont understand their language they try to comminicate with you in whatever way they can. Not because they dont want to speak to you in any other language other then tamil, but because they are proud of their language and have not been in a situation where they had a compulsion learn any other language.

I dont see any reason why one should not take a pride in their mother toungue, in a way i respect them for the love they show to their language. 

Chennai'tes are conservative, but things are changinng. from what i can understand from the discussion i had with locals here, they are quickly changing.

I would certainly remember chennai for the rest of my life, i would also remember that it was here, sitting in my hotel room i watched

Obama become first african american to become president of USA

Attack on Mumbai (India)

as far as city goes, i would not forget

evening walks on Marina beach (longest beach in Asia)

walk on the crowded streets of Usman road in Tnagar.

Chettinad food

a variety of idli's and chutneys they prepare here, if i would not have come here i wouldnot have known that there are somany varieties of idli's available. 

the collection of cotton and silk clothing they have here is amazing and one cannot forget the vast designs and variety of gold ornaments you can purchase here.

One thing i really wanted to , but missed was the trip i have been planning to take on ECR road to mahabalipuram. 

I would certainly like to come back here to enjoy the food, shop, and take a trip to beautiful temples they have in this state. 

Till then bye bye chennai

Tech Savy Advani

While surfing the net, i came across following websites

http://www.lkadvani.in Web portal of LK Advani 

http://blog.lkadvani.in   Blog of LK Advani 

I was pleasantly surprised at this initiative , Also came to know that BJP is going Obama way by using youtube and other social networking sites on Internet for their election campaign. 

I would really hope that LK Advani (prime ministerial candidate of BJP)  takes more interest and takes some time off for his blog and continues this even after the election campaign (irrespective of results) 

after this initiative of BJP iam eagerly waiting if Rahul Gandhi(could be prime ministerial candidate of Congress)  will come with similar strategy.  I would love to see him using Internet to communicate.

I would also like to see all the parties put their manifestos online and also details about the candidates they are contesting.