2. The camera you may be looking for

Lets talk of some serious photography and camera we are looking for .
I feel sometimes a fool of myself sometimes . I keep on researching a lot before i actually buy something . I am not sure this is  good or bad ... wasting time in finding the specifications before actually buying .
Lets check another pic clicked by Me :

This is the Advance Studies , Shimla , India . This is a building bulit by the british in the Year 1888 .

If you want to make a good , fast comparison in cameras then i shall recommend a very nice site
http://snapsort.com/

And if you want to really go into the deep and want to get more detailed reviews the a good site is
www.dpreview.com/

In addition you can always go on youtube and search for your favourite camera .  Searches like  "unboxing XX"  "first hands on XX" and others can give you exact idea of how the product looks and performs .

Here ia a potrait of a  "SADHU" clicked by me :

 

So Like everyone else does , i searched here and there ... asked friends ... went to stores ... burnt time on net ..... and finally selected a camera ..........................................  Panasonic FZ35  . It cost me around 320 USD that time from amazon.  I will explain the camera below ,,,, and inbetween if u also become its fan , like me ... you can click the pic and you will be directed to amazon ... and ofcourse you can order it there :) .

                                     Panasonic FZ35

The Camera  is actually a great combination of of Digital Zoom cameras and DSLR Cameras . I wont actually discuss much that it is a 12 Mega Pixel camera or it have got 18X  optical zoom , since these things can easily be found anywhere on the net.
Rather i will go for things which are not so obviously available . Like the Battery charger .. which works both at 110 Volts  (USA) and 220 Volts (India) ....  Also if you can get this camera in USA then it is much cheaper than anywhere else .
The body is made of quite nice plastic , and you feel nice grip when holding the camera. You can even take good quality videos with the camera . It have got internal Stereo microphones to capture the background sound.


The best feature of the camera is it can shoot RAW photos (which provide much greater processing capabilities) , and this feature is only found in DSLR cameras as of now . This feature makes this camera much ahead of other Super Zoom cameras .

I did tried to load a RAW picture clicked by Panasonic FZ35 ... but the Blog restricts from adding RAW photo  ....  :(  .

 This is a macro shot of the coins , clicked from Panasonic FZ35 .  The camera have got quite got macro capability .
Regarding the RAW photos from the Panasonic FZ35 , i wasnt much satisfied with the Software provided alongwith the Box . You wont find much options in the software to edit your RAW photos . Though basic editing features are quite good .
For better editing features , you can use Adobe CS4  (you may require some plugin which are FZ35 specific) or also Adobe Light room 2.7 (may be now newer versions than 2.7 are available) . I find Adobe Light room as one of the best Software Tool for editing you Photos . The tool is much easy to be used and effects are excellent , much better than any other tool available .
The tool is a bit costly , but good things never come cheap :)  ... as the saying goes no honey without money .
one can find it on amazon from below link :

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3


Moving on ahead , the camera have got excellent zoom 18X ... but that is way to high for a human hand to handle (coz our hands keep on shaking ) ... Though the in bulit Stablization feature is quite good ... but still for high zoom shots ,,,, a Tripod is always a must .


This pic of moon was taken with full zoom of  Panasonic FZ35  ...   Digital + Optical   .. i think 32 (though not sure ... ) without the Tripod , so i think you will feel a Blur effect .

So taking a Tripod is must when buying this sort of cameras . And if you really dont want to spend on buying a Tripod , then here are a tips for taking the photo :

1. Hold your breath when actually taking the photo . This will  give you more stability .

2. Take the support of something ... a Table , a tree , wall etc when taking picture . The support of Tree , wall etc will make you highly stable .

3.Always use your both hands to hold the camera when clicking the Photo .

4. What ever precaution you take to be stable , but your clicking the shoot button also produces a bit jerk on the camera . So better use Inbuilt timmer in your camera to take pictures (of course where it is possible) .


In Europe the same camera Panasonic FZ35  have been released as FZ38 , the reason i am not sure . Though there are some differences between the two models :

Product SKU's(stock keeping units):
DMC-FZ38 (VQT2F13 - Europe);
DMC-FZ35 (VQT2F10 - U.S.A.);
DMC-FZ35 (VQT2H01 - Australia/Asia-Pacific)
Video Out Format (Analog),
Select between PAL and NTSC
Available - VQT2F13, VQT2H01
Not available - VQT2F10

Available Recording Time,
VQT2F10, VQT2H01
MPEG - up to 2GB, AVCHD - up to the capacity of the card.
VQT2F13
All formats - 29 minutes 59 seconds.

Nomenclature,
Extended Optical Zoom - VQT2F13, VQT2H01
Extra Optical Zoom -VQT2F10

There may be few more differences , but its not really much of worth , keep looking for more of them :) .
In short we can say    FZ35 -> USA  and   FZ38 -> Europe. And except for software feature , the hardware is identical .

This pic was clicked by me in the Himalayan Region of Northen India . This displays the  "Gaddis" or the shepherds or the normads who keep on roaming in the high altitudes along with their goats and sheep.
The altitude of this place is around 3500 Meters .

To be continued ................

1 The camera you may be looking for

Photography is one such thing , which brings  you   more   close to nature and make you feeling like travelling new places . To capture a moment , to share it with others  and to keep it a memory forever . Nothing could be better than a Camera . If you watch movies from Bollywood , in it Amir Khan says ... the first word which i said after my birth was neither MOM  nor DAD  .. but it was  "CAMERA  !!!!"

                                                                                                                           

So we can see that how important could be a camera to us . I have seen people , software engineers , doctors who left their jobs only for the sake of their love for photography. Giving another instance of  all time hit Bollywood movie "3 IDIOTS" ,  A Engineering Graduate leaves his Job for the sake of becoming Photographer. Photography can not only be a hobby , but it can be a passion that can give your soul a satisfaction and of course it can earn you money (some photographers earn such amounts which even managers of big companies can not even think of)

These days actually anyone can be a photographer :) . With cameras in most of the Mobile Phones these days , you can click any moment , without the problems of carrying a heavy camera alongwith . Mobile Phones ranging from 5 MP to 8 MP are easily available and that too at affordable prices . Though the quality of these Mobile phone cameras may not be very good (like that of a DLSR) , but still they produce quality images which can easily be printed , posted on web , FaceBook  etc.

Eample of good Camera Mobile Phones are

Nokia X6       A 5 Mega Pixel Camera Phone . Nokia phones are always good in respect of durability and  battery life . So when you are clicking lots of pics , the battery wont give up in the way .

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10   A 8 Mega Pixel Camera Phone . The phone also gives you additional  Photography advantages such as  Zoom to bring distant objects near , Macro mode and a lot many other good features.

Samsung Jet S8000   This is a 5 MP camera Phone from Samsung .  Though i myself have never got a chance to use samsung mobile phone . But from my friends i have heard that this is a good camera phone .



C901 Sony Ericsson Green Heart Phone   This is a 5 MP  Camera Mobile Phone . I my self have tried this phone and the experience is very good .  The  picture quality is very very good  and the controls are also very  nice . The phone is  light and the Camera Have got a cover at the back (which i personally like very much since my camera lens is always protected) . The only problem is that this phone is available in limited markets . I myself got this from Germany through a friend .

I have seen many Photography competitions which are open to only photos clicked from Camera Phones . BBC , Nokia have already announced such photo competitons in which photos from Camera phones which camera resolution of  2 MP or more Mega Pixel were included .


Moving ahead with technology , These days PEN CAMERA  are available in market .  These are usually sold under the banners like  "Spy pen camera"  .. by wich you can spy on ur GF/BF ... take high quality photos and videos ... as claimed by the manufacturers . 
Though i have never tried these ... and not sure if ever these have been tried on me :)  ....

 
                                           Pic: Pen Spy camera .

Such Gadgets are made only with purpose of spying . They are least concerned that how the camera produces the photos , rather they want that what all their camera captured ...and help them caught some-one red - handed . Ever i am also least concerned to these , since i am a true camera and photography fan.  

Today is the era of everything going Digital . But looking back , when i was a kid , i used to find  everyone having Film Camera . These cameras produced excellent quality of images . The only drawback being that the Hard copy photos , with time , moisture got damaged . Proper handling of the photos was required .
The One which i always got attracted to was one minute photograph . The camera instantly gives you a  hard copy of you photograph in matter of few seconds.

                                        Pic: A instant  or  1 minute Photo Camera .

But these days  the film  Cameras are a rarity , only some real admirers must be using these even today .

If you actually are looking to buy a camera , you need to first ask a question : what i need form it .

Do you really want to click some good photographs or .... want to spy on some one :)

Before buying a camera it is always good to get some hands on a friend's camera or better read a bit that what photography is all about . .......

Here is a Photo clicked by me  ....

This photo is clicked in the Himalayan Region of Himachal Pradesh , India . The exact name of the Place is Triund .

Himachal is a Himalayan State in India with still prestine surroundings and  rich culture from past.

The Picture was clicked with a Mobile Phone  and shear luck to get the nature in so perfert form .

To be Continued ....