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Must have accessories

Well, in this materialistic world with people desperately gouging for items of pleasure and wealth, I say there should be more of them. I just thought of some of the stuff that would bring more joy to people. Actually this is a kind of a personal wishlist, but anyways........here goes.
Digital Camera
Anybody without a digital camera in today's world is like a zombie wandering around like a rudderless boat. Anybody who has used a digicam will know what I'm talking about. Its the most fascinating thing to document your life in the form of photos. Although I own a couple of conventional SLRs, I had one of my friend's digital cameras for a couple of days and the portability it offers is unmatched. Who said photography is an expensive hobby. Ok, I agree that if you are thinking of a career in photography your traditional 35mm cameras still rule, but for the majority of people just interested in taking great snaps without spending too much time or money on it, they dont have to look beyond a digicam. That said, let me come to my favourite part of choosing a digital camera. To not make this boring I have left most of the technical jargon out of it! Well, with so many around these days it can be a more than daunting task. Before I start I'd just like to tell you that don't just go by number of megapixels, as these days the definition of size of a pixel varies. These new smaller pixels(X) capture and store far less information. Hence some of the new cameras in the ridiculously names 8 megapixel segment are just a marketing gimmick(like digital zoom)......so don't fall for it. Anyway, I'd like to split the choice into 3 simple categories.
Ultra Compacts This is the most popular and easiest tool for the casual point-and shoot photographer. These things of beauty are so sleek and tiny that they belie some of the great features they possess. You can get one of these beauties for a budget of $300. I would suggest not to settle for anything less than 4.0 megapixels. Some of my favourites include
  • Canon S50 or S60 or Elf S330
  • Sony Cybershot DSC-P92
  • Finepix 3800
Feature packed CompactsThese are for people who have a keen interest in taking photographs and look for complete control over each shot they take(I fall under this category). There are some really feature rich cameras in this segment. Features like scene modes, manual white balance override, live histograms, shutter/aperture priority, manual focus and upto 4x optical zoom make these cameras a must have for anybody even remotely interested in photography. For about $500 you can get hold of anyone of these five megapixels
  • Canon G5
  • Sony DSC-V1 or P100 - This is on top of my shopping list right now!
  • Nikon 5700
Digital SLRs Well, SLRs are still to take the digital world by storm. That is primarily because of their astronomical prices. You can't get one for anything less than $1200. But from my experience in SLR photography( I have a Nikon F70D and a Pronea APS) its image quality is unmatched. Although they offer impeccable images, they are quite bulky to carry around and are not something you can sneak in to a rock concert. So if you have the cash, I'd recommend one of these two bad boys weighing in at 6 million pixels.
  • Conon EOS10D
  • Nikon D70

Coming soon

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