How To Select The Perfect Camera!

Are you a pic junkie? Are selfies not enough for you? Do you only believe in full HD high quality photographs for every single occasion? If the aforementioned traits describe you through the core, then, you either own quite a decent camera, or are in a serious need of one!  But the big question that pops up in one’s mind is: How do I select the perfect camera for myself?

Now this isn’t a full-on guide for the professional photographers who want nothing less than a bulky behemoth sized DSLR. This one provides you with a few tips to help a greenhorn choose a nice shooter for himself/herself!

1. Megapixels:  The most stupidest, illicit mistake any person can make while choosing a camera is to believe that the more the number of Megapixels a cam can generate, the better the picture! But, in reality, it is totally the opposite. I agree to the fact that the numbers of pixels do matter in every cam, and the fact that more pixels would mean more details in each picture, but it is actually the camera optics that matter more! Remember that even the high end DSLR’s have quite low MP counts. Nonetheless, while choosing a cam, do look for at least a decent MP count for your cam. Nothing less than 16MP would suffice!

2. Lens Aperture:  This is a no-brainer! The larger the aperture (read: size) of the lens, more light would enter the sensor, better would be the results. These cams are the ones which truly bring out the best low light images. Prefer a CMOS sensor along with a large lens aperture for Brilliant Low-Light Photographs!

3. Ease Of Use:  This device is going to be with you whenever you go out to travel. So you would like one which isn’t too bulky and easy to handle, one which can easily withstand a few drops here and there for those butterfingers! Do try out one by holding it in your palm before reaching to a conclusion.

4. Camera Flash: Not all sceneries are well-lit with no need of artificial lightings, here’s where camera flashes come to our rescue! Camera Flashes come in a variety of “shades” these days, with some cams providing more than 1 variant of flash attached to the camera module. Some of them being: Amber, Off-white, Generic White, etc…

5. Optical Zoom:  This is one make-or-break specification for every cam. More the Optical Zoom a camera provides, deeper can you go to click shots which aren’t even visible to the naked eye! Just remember that this feature is the 2nd most important feature while choosing a cam (after the Megapixel count).

6. Video Recording:  We should make it a point that the cam that we buy MUST have at least Full HD video recording! Ultra HD would take a bit more time to come to the mainstream niche, but HD is a must! Slow motion video recording is another add-on which you must ask for in cams. The list of things one can do with slow-mo video is endless. It is always fun seeing a dog running after its tail in slow-mo, or a child falling head-down on the floor, in detailed frames!  The possibilities are endless.

7. Screen:  Now this is one spec, which most of the buyers tend to forget while buying a new cam. But this one’s way too important! If you are able to manage to get a good amount of pixels in your picture, with perfect lighting, etc… BUT, if you are not able to picture out the perfect frame for your shot, all the hard work goes in vain. You should only buy a camera whose display is clearly legible in direct sunlight; one that displays your shots and grids without any glitches even in the brightest of days. And mind you, the display should be at least 3.5 inches! Try out a 360 degree fully rotatable screen as well! Those are great for Selfie addicts and for pics which need a bit more exercise!

8. Colors: Lastly, this is a fun spec, which almost everyone would have some idea about! Cameras these days come in a variety of color options, ranging from decent whites and blacks, to bright neon shades of pink and green! Name it and the color’s there for you! Which one’s your favorite color??

This was a small round-up of the checklist which one needs to ponder upon before buying a new cam! Do check out detailed reviews of each cam before finally choosing on one! Go! Get that Perfect Shot!

iPhone 6 Review: Finally A Better iPhone

In 2007, Apple completely “Reinvented” the “SmartPhone” by launching their very 1st iPhone, which completely changed the way, people used their phones. The only thing you had to do was: Touch, Tap & Drag, and Viola! And, with every new model that they launched, they brought out some great advancements to the screen and the phone itself!

Moreover, my favourite was, AND is, the beautiful Coalesce of the Software & Hardware to provide a seamless experience, unlike Android, which according to me, has way too many loopholes to be termed as “Near-Perfect”.

But, even after all the praise, the iPhone had one Huge con, which truly could, break the whole deal for me, and it was the Screen size. For someone, who owns a 6inch large smartphone, an iPhone felt a bit too small to be termed as legit. However, as the saying goes, “Better Late, Than Never”; Apple Finally (Yes, Finally—Praise the Lords!) brought out not just 1, but 2 new iPhones!

And today, we’re reviewing the tiny one, the iPhone 6, with a 4.7 inches screen. We are not going to go in an order of the spec sheet of the smartphone, but would rather go about by examining the good and the bad of the Beauty!

So, to begin with, the new iPhone 6 has a 4.7 inches HD screen, with a pixel resolution of 326ppi and a thin Aluminium Unibody Design! Now, this isn’t a review by a blindfolded Apple Fanboy. We would look at both the aspects of the image, the Pros, as well as the cons of the iPhone!

Let’s talk about the 5 things that we liked about it:

1. The All New Design: Even though I was a tremendous fan of the oozing Metal & Glass design of the iPhone, with not a lot of curves and a simplistic design, I really appreciate the fresh All-Aluminium Design of the iPhone 6. It has more curves than the previous generation iPhones, which makes it resemble the iPod touch, to some extent, with just 7.1mm thickness and Curves around the edges of the screen to make scrolling through Content, all the more easier!

2. iOS 8: Yes, the Best thing about the iPhone is its Operating System! The latest update to the iOS brings out a lot more improvements to the whole user experience and the interface. But we would not discuss much about the new update here. The centre of Attention has to be the iPhone today!

3. The iSight Camera: You would come up and say, that the iPhone only sports a meagre 8MP rear Camera, and that, it is Nothing, as compared to the astonishing 20MP cam’s coming up in smartphones these days! But, the only thing I would say to rebut this statement, is the fact that Pixels don’t always matter! We all know, that iPhones have one of the Best Cameras in the entire range of smartphones and that Lens Aperture, the Optics of the Camera, the Sensor, etc… are just as crucial for the perfect shot! And the shutter speed! I still doubt that there’s a camera phone which is faster at focusing and giving such exceptional results as the iPhone.

4. The Double Tap Feature: This is a feature, which is a Must for almost all Big Screen Smartphones. Especially useful for smaller hands! All you need to do is, just double-tap (not Double-Click, just Tap) on the Home Button of the iPhone and the entire screen slides down, to get you access to the upper part of the screen.
*This feature isn’t extremely useful for the 4.7inch iPhone, but would be Very Helpful for the 5.5inch iPhone 6+ which has more real-estate to work with.

5. The Legacy: The Newest feature in this year’s New iPhone 6 is, the Legacy it endures and follows- The Legacy of the Previous Generation iPhones, which, it very well continues, to go forth and rule the Smartphone terrain! When we’re talking about iPhones, we don’t generally talk about the Processors and the RAM! The reason being, that we are familiar with the fact that iPhones are known for their nifty No-Lag–No-Jitter performance! And, the iPhone 6 very well continues this Further!

Now that we’ve talked about the Goodies, let’s get into a few things, which aren’t really good about the iPhone 6!

1. The Screen: “The iPhone 6 brings out an All-New 4.7 inches Screen; while increasing the size, the pixel density was maintained to 326ppi!”
This was Apple’s 1st marketing strategy for the new iPhone. What they forget is, that it is only an HD screen, AND Not a FULL HD one, with a resolution, not even close to what other smartphones provide in the same price range! I agree that iPhones have beautiful Colour Reproduction, Incomparable ViewingAngles and an Exceptionally Responsive screen, but paying more than half a lakh rupees for not even a full HD screen, is a bit too far-fetched for me, when you can get a Full HD one for less than 15K nowadays! But, Apple has made other improvements to the screen, by increasing the saturation, colourreproduction, viewing angles and other such stuff! 

2. Well, That’s about it! The Screen quality was the only shortcoming of the iPhone 6 (According to Me), which is overcome in the iPhone 6 Plus, with a Full HD Display!

With that, I would like to end the review & firmly say, that Yes, the iPhone 6 is one of the Best Smartphones in the Market today, even though Apple could have done this a few years ago, when the reign of the big screen phones had just begun! Nonetheless, I would surely recommend it all those who are ready to shell out a bit for a Great Overall Experience!

IPhone 6 prices start as Rs. 55000 in India for the 16GB Variant and go upto Rs. 70000 (~approx.) for the 128GB Variant and would be available in 3 Colours: Space Grey, Silver & Gold!

HAIDER- Movie Review

Every once in a while, comes a movie, which is either an adaptation of an infamous work of a literary laureate, or a biopic, which is based on someone’s life!

Both these movies are Hell Difficult to craft, considering the fact that there would be a milestone already set for the movie and the expectations would be a tad too high, because we already know what’s in it for us, as an Audience!

And then come, movies like Haider, which, according to me, truly justify their worth of being in a niche, which is a bit far-fetched in contemporary cinema (being well versed with the fact that a Movie’s a hit, if it has the “Entertainment Quotient”, Humongous Budgets & Ever-So-Charming Sets these days) and a niche which doesn’t cater to the entire set of Audience.

Haider is a movie, which would be Loved by someone who has an Emotional Bend of Mind! That can be the Bottom Line of the Entire Review, if we want to sum it up in a jiffy! But, I would go a bit deeper here! 

So, the movie is an Adaptation of Shakespeare’s renowned play- Hamlet! But, the story has been bent a bit and has been appended with Kashmir’s plight & its plea for freedom during the post-independence Era of India!

Haider, a young boy, pursuing his Masters in Poetry, has been played by Shahid Kapoor; And Boy, has he played it well! His Acting, according to me, was by far one of the Best performances this year and there is no Doubt about that.

I wouldn’t go too deep in the story, or else, it would ruin the whole idea of thrill and anxiety that revolves around the Screenplay through the 2 Hours & 40 Minutes. But, a little bit of the story won’t cause any harm to the entire plot, trust me! This would give you an idea whether this one’s for you, or Not!

So, Haider’s (Shahid) father is a doctor, who is the quintessence of Humanity and takes the risk of operating and helping a militant in his own House, even though he knows that the repercussions may be too severe.

This secret doesn’t remain a secret after all, and the army officials soon find it out; take him with them to one of their camps & completely devastate their house, leaving only her mother’s tears and some scrapes of their home behind! Well, the Mother here is played by Tabu- A very nice comeback, I must say!

When Haider returns from his studies in Aligarh, he starts on a mission to find his Father back! Being all Gloomy and dreary, the only breath of fresh air for him is Arsha (Shraddha Kapoor), a reporter and the Love of Haider!

The story takes endless, almost Frantic turns, which are the Major basis of the movie and the most important of them all is: When Haider finds out that his long lost father is no more! An even bigger turn is when he finds out about the murderers!

From here on, the story changes to Vengeance! Haider sets himself on a track to avenge his Father and kill his murderers! He loses quite a lot of possessions while on his path, but finally, in the climax, it quite seems that he achieves what he was really looking for! I really adored the picturesque & scenic locations, set amidst the valleys of “The Heaven On Earth i.e. Kashmir”!

Another thing that I liked about the movie was the only palpable song, which almost depicted the entire life events of Haider’s Family and his Barbarous Uncle (Kay Kay)- the Bismil song.

This song Literally gave me Goosebumps! Shahid’s phenomenal dance moves, the music, the Sets and everything completely fit to the mood and was also quite necessary to bring the movie out from the dreary ambience.

The actors and the Director, Vishal Bhardawaj, really need to be Applauded for their Phenomenal Performances, especially Shahid!

He has worked brilliantly for the role, and I could really see and, moreover, feel the anger and the fire of vengeance in his eye and his moves! Hats Off, Shahid!

Now, let me come to a few things which I didn’t like about this movie!

The first was that it is a Really Slow Movie! I cannot emphasise more on the word “really”!

And the really Edging part of the movie, which makes you sit on the edge of your seats, comes up only in the last part of the story!

The intermission comes up really soon though and you look at your watch and say, “Hey, there still is a long way to go”, because, the story hasn’t gotten hold of any strong matter till at least half an hour AFTER the interval and that is a big thing to say!

But, to justify this on the Director’s part, I would also say that the story had to be slow, to make it tangible for the Audience!

That being said, I really liked the movie and would say this strongly enough, that Yes, this was a Good Change from the same old Love Stories that we find in Contemporary Bollywood and that, You should really go for it! Don’t miss it and see it even if you just want to see some phenomenal performances by the actors!

P.S.: Irffan Khan has a special appearance in the movie. Another Reason to watch Haider, you see!

10 Things That We Miss About F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

The Ever-so-famous show of the 90’s, which was, is and would always remain the epitome of Sitcoms really brings tears to my eyes whenever I watch it (the tears are not always of sorrow, but also because of the Immense laughter riots while watching it that Would surely bring tears to your eyes)

NOTE: I once almost tripped down my bed while watching the particular episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Here are the 10 Things that everyone misses about one of the best shows in the history of sitcoms even after 10 years of its culmination!

Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe & Joeye

1. Central Perk & Gunther – The unison of all the 6 friends together, having those Hilarious Gossip sessions with Gunther Serving them Coffee at Central Perk really brings me to reminiscence!

2. Joey’s Acting Career & Estelle - Joey’s different “Breaks”, his Soap-Opera Days, All The Weird T.V. commercials and Telemarketing skits couldn’t ever be missed out!

3. Chandler- The Funny Man - Chandler’s Sarcasm and his Jokes!! The show would have been Nothing without Chandler’s Sarcastic Remarks!

4. Janice – “OHH MYY GODDD!” “HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Do I need say more!? Janice was Definitely the Best Surprise Element in the Show! Her Vicious Laughter and her Shrieking voice!!

5. Monica’s OCD - Monica’s habit of Keeping everything as Neat & Tidy as Ever. The Control Freak that she was, has No Match till date!

6. Ross’s “Hey!” - I can Never forget the way Ross entered the Scene with his “Heyy!” And his unbounded love for Dinosaurs! The Coolest Palaeontologist I know by far!

7. PHOEBE - Hands down, Phoebe was My FAVOURITE character in the Show! INDESCRIBABLE, That’s It!

8. Relationship Status – Till the Very Last minute of the Last Episode of the Last Season, The Relationship Status of Ross & Rachel was Complicated! As they used to say, “Too Much History B/W them”

9. The TITLE TRACK – For every episode that I saw, I never skipped the Title Track! “I’ll be There For You!” How much I loved to sing along!!! Immense Pleasure.

10. Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat & Phoebe’s Songs – These were the 10 things That 1st come to my mind when I think of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and the things that I always miss about the show! And this show was Much Much More than just 6 Friends being together! It was the sweetest Show one can EVER come across! I always get a smile on my face whenever I think about it!