Mar 17, 2007

Photography upgrade!

Sony Ericsson w300iYesterday was a funny day. But before I tell you more about that let me tell you about what I did. We went yesterday to our favourite gadget purchase place, ostensibly to purchase a phone for The Wife. I recently got me a Sony Ericsson w300i, which I must confess, I love. It's almost totally devoid of quirks and I love the fact that it plays music in the background and you can use the phone without pausing the music, unless you're getting a call or something, that is. I also love the fact that comes with some of the best earphones I have ever had the pleasure of assaulting my ears with. Not only are capable of mega volume (and mega, mega bass), they also happen to be exceedingly comfortable. (All usual disclaimers apply about loud music on earphones. And for The Wife: this is not too suggest that I actually listen to music very loud, just that if I wanted to, I could. But I don't want want to, so I don't... er....). Anyway, as it turns out, she wanted to replace her sweet Samsung D600, which is another brilliant phone. But crucially, has bitch-poor earphones (they don't fit and don't sound that great either) and won't multitask while playing the sweet music. In our budget (return Samsung, plus Rs 4000 only), the W300i was the only phone that fit. And she wanted a silver one, which obviously, the man didn't have. It seems Sony Ericsson doesn't sell the Silver coloured W300i in India (have you seen one? Let me know). I've added the pic so you can identify it.

Sony Cybershot DSC-H5While browsing the phones, I spotted a camera I've had my eye on for long... the Sony DSC-H5. I've always wanted (and still want) a proper lens-changing, all-seeing DSLR, but until I scrape together the dosh, I needed something more powerful than my superb, but limited Sony P200. So, out went the 7.2 megapixel, 3x P200, and in came the 7.2 megapixel, 12x H5. With all the goodness of a full manual mode, most of the functionality of a low-end DSLR and cheap too. That's the news. I haven't shot anything with it, of course. The Wife is, as we speak, purchasing a UV filter to keep the lens dust free (etc) and so hopefully, I'll get to fiddle with the H5 over the weekend. In the meantime, I've memorised the manual...

10 comments:

Glifford said...

Congrats on the H5. But a question! Why not the Panasonic Lumixes? Either the FZ50 (almost as big as a dSLR) or the FZ7 (compact and has everything except manual focus).

Atleast you wouldn't have been stuck with Sony proprietory (and expensive) Memory sticks and all and all!

Ohh you have a walkman phone... hmm!

Anonymous said...

Dude,
I have been reading your blogs for some time now and I have to admit... I really like them. I am also a bit of a biking enthusiast who has dreams of doing the Himalayan Oddessy once in my life on my Royal Enfield. I don't get so much time to follow my passion though(laziness also plays a big factor). I am not much into the crotch rocket types, preferring the thumping of the metal beasts. I also commute about 25 kms everyday over some of the worst roads in Andheri going from west to east. But the Bull makes it all worthwhile.

Take Care

Anonymous said...

Oh, me again... BTW the SE W300 rocks. My wife has one and she loves it to bits.

righty ho!

rearset said...

Glifford:
The chap I go to didn't have the lumix series on sale. Also, I've now owned three Sonys, plus two more in the family, their digicams just work. And since we've had that many sonys, I think the memory stick costs are now accounted for... :-D

The walkman phone is actually my first sony cellphone. But if it's any indication, it won't be the last...

Anon:
I once read that if there's something you want to do, you should make a plan and do it. As in, decide. Say to yourself that you want to do the Odyssey... in 2007. And you'll find that you'll work towards it... It's not even that expensive... Best of luck.

And I'm glad you like them blogs...

Unknown said...

i got a walkman phone too, while i had initially purchased it with the intention of not having to have to get a separate mp3 player, I’ve actually used the camera of the phone more than the music player!

Yup, those headphones are amazing! They are the only ones that I have used till date without my ears hurting from using them.

Among the D-SLRs the Olympus e-400 (hope i got that number right) caught my eye, since it has some live-photo viewing feature (from what I’ve read, it’s the first SLR to have live picture viewing that the regular / chota-mota digicams have but the run-of-the-mill SLRs don’t O_O ). Unfortunately, that all I can do, money big issue : (

Anonymous said...

hey man where's the story on the new honda unicorn??

Hrishi said...

Hmm.. no canon s3 eh? Thats one smaller cam. easier to lug around :)
But i guess one buys the brand he's used to..(I used an canon SLR before moving on to digicams)

sanket kambli said...

great blog....i view it everyday
agree with this guy..
Anonymous said...

hey man where's the story on the new honda unicorn??

20 March, 2007 23:00

where is it man...??
I know this is post-irrelevant.
but anyway..
I have been riding to work since a week...on my 180 UG3...
a few things I observed....
>180's headlight is inadequate...
>hard braking while coming down flyovers can lead to wheel lockups(I have been lucky to avoid them)
>many office going bike/scooter riders...drag their feet...a lot while riding slow...for quite a distance...
>using horn and pass switch together at night is a good thing.
>I am still not good at leaning the bike during left corners as compared to right corners
>I still like the bhiwandi bypass more than eastern express highway..on which I ride
> found out from a magazine..
that 180 has the best 0-60 aceeleration after zma....better then P-200..P-220...I am loving it
.....thats...all..there is ...more ...but can;t think .right now..

Anonymous said...

Where are you? Been checking out hte blog everyday and must say its been quite some time since you've written anything..Write rearset..Write!

Anonymous said...

rear, where r u man?