Anupe

More than looking for the cheapest DSLR, I think you should first fix a budget range you're comfortable with and then look at both DSLR and Prosumer brands that fall within that price range. Among DSLRs the ruling kings are Canon and Nikon while the Prosumer category have some very good cameras by Panasonic Lumix, Olympus and Fuji. The Panasonic Lumix uses Leica lenses and is pretty awesome as far as picture quality goes in the prosumer range, especially their DMC-FZ 28. Google up a few reviews and compare. But first try and finalise a budget you're willing to spend. Good luck!

^^^ You would need a DSLR and another (Point and shoot or Prosumer) to take exact same pictures for you to be able to judge the difference between the two and especially indoors,as that will be your main field of photography. There's no point in looking at pictures shot on DSLR and pictures shot on Prosumer of a different subject. Most of todays cameras have a lot more quality, as rajan stated and a little tweaking in post production can do wonders to most pictures shot even with a Prosumer or a good Point & shoot.

Everybody's missing the point of the original poster. He just needs to take indoor pix of his family and that's it! My suggestion would be to probably ask a friend of yours who has a DSLR to drop by at home and take a certain set of pix and you could shoot the same frames with your point and shoot. Have a look at both outputs after proper post editing using Photoshop (people generally dont realise how much more value good post production work can do for a picture)or any other good photo editing software and see if you feel the need to take the plunge for a more expensive camera or not. Additionally, instead of going all out for a DSLR, you could settle for the Prosumer series of cameras which are the intermediate range between a high end DSLR and the basic Point and click variety. The Prosumer category of cameras usually start of anywhere from 8 megapixel upwards and with a minimum Optical Zoom of 15x. One thing to take note of is to make sure the Prosumer ( or super zoom , as they are sometimes called) shouldn't have barrel distortion when zooming in for long shots. Reading up a few magazines or sites like dpreview.com will help you take a firm decision once you decide for a change in camera from your present one. For your current requirements I don't think the investment in a DSLR is required, and even other wise a good prosumer camera should be enough, since they all come with good presets for portrait and indoor photography these days.

Rs check

Great going HP! Keeping fingers crossed for all your discussions. You're breaking new paths towards making RCDMA platform more and more attractive to countless subscribers! All the very best, my dear friend

There's been a lot of talk, on the Sense vs TouchWizUI user-interface on HTC and Samsung phones respectively, with each group, polarized and stating that the skins which both these companies have used over the vanilla Android as better than the corresponding rival's skin. There are more people who swear by the HTC SenseUI being a better interface as compared to the TouchWiz, which most of the HTC fan-boys term as an "iPhone wannabe interface" lol Anyways, to cut to the chase, I came across a video on Youtube which compares the two interfaces, albeit on A Samsung Vibrant GalaxyS vs Evo4G. Check the two interfaces and see which is more user-friendly, for yourself.

Long overdue, Arun. Thanks!

Lumix DMC-FZ35. Read up the reviews. Its a great camera. I use an older version, the FZ-28. Image quality absolutely rocks!

Not sure if any of this info will help, but just to give you a heads up for the computer/ media entertainment rig in my room, albeit a little old, but working superbly, and what I have used to connect and play back media on both my computer and blu ray player. Audio connections: Desktop computer with Creative Audigy 2 ZX Pro sound card, THX certified and capable of 7.1 surround connected to Creative DDTS-100 Decoder which has options to connect 3 component and 3 optical audio link inputs lines and has a toggle to switch between desktop soundcard and any other peripherals that are connected to the decoder. PS3 console connected to Decoder via optical out for 5.1 output Decoder is connected to Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 THX surround sound. Optional toggle switch on speaker audio controller to upscale 5.1 or 6.1 input to 7.1 Video connection: Desktop graphics card connected via DVI output from Graphics card to 26" LCD monitor having 1920x1200 screen resolution. PS3 console ( for blu-ray and up-scaled dvd playback) connected to monitor thru HDMI with audio channel disabled as the PS3 audio output is fed to decoder thru optical link. This set up gives me an option to playback media files (mkv, et al) from my computer itself, or switch to loading blu ray or dvd disks on the PS3 console to get best bang for the buck as far as output is concerned, both on the audio and video front. It might be a tad expensive and most probably the decoder might be extremely hard to source as well, as I think it has been pulled out of the market. But this has been a great set up for me so far. Hope it helps.

@csmart: I think what dhirajbhai meant by GEB is Global Easy Buy of e-bay. Correct me if I'm wrong.

^^^ mate, I've been on a WM phone for the past 2 years so I know that smart phones are not that hawt on battery life, but there's still a line you have to draw on how often you'd want to spend your day charging batteries to keep productivity at optimum levels. My WM Touch Pro gives me at least 9 hours between charges and yes I already carry 2 batteries for that handset to last me thru the day. The issue with the Evo's estimated battery life of 4-5 hours would mean I have to carry 3 batteries instead of 2.

^^^ Thanks man. I'm in Mumbai for the next 3 days, so will try and get more info from Sadik & Doc if I can contact them.

^^^ In my case, the only time I probably wont need data connectivity is before 8am and after 10 pm That translates to roughly 14 hours of data connectivity requirement for me. Push mail settings for my current phone have been configured to go into sleep mode from 10pm to 8 am and on weekends.Since I dont own an Evo right now, I can only depend on folks like you to give me a heads up on whether I should go for this handset which I like very much or settle for another model for practicality.

@galaxy: Thanks mate. Finally, some real info everybody can use. Battery life for at least 12-15 hours is the bare minimum expected in smart phones of today. And this lower power longevity is a trade off for the amount of features you get in the higher end phones of today, which I'm perfectly reconciled to. But 6 hours is way too short. Sitting in an office doing a 9-5 desk job might let you get away with a 6 hour battery because you can keep the phone hooked to the USB or a charging cradle, but for people who are out on the field for 4-5 hours, this would just not be feasible. I guess this means I'll have to let go of my choice of picking up the Evo.. I so really wanted this handset instead of the Incredible, but practicality makes you take tough decisions. @Sumit: Boss, the idea of having push mail is to leave data connectivity on full time or at least for 14 hours ( say from 8 am to 10 pm). What's the point in having a feature like push mail if you're going to manually switch on data connectivity from time to time and check mails? That isnt "push" mail anymore then. Wifi and GPS can be switched off as per requirement, but constant data connectivity is a must for a person like me who's work pattern depends on email connectivity all the time. Would be great if I got your input on the battery life as well if you have all the above features switched off or what kind of usage pattern you have. Thanks!

Ok went thru the entire thread and I dont think that battery life question put up by parin was properly answered, so I'll reiterate again, since I plan to pick this handset up later this month. Been reading up battery reviews online about how the Evo battery lasts about 4 hours if you're using constant push mail and allied data usage along with normal/ nominal talk time. If 4-5 hours battery life is all you get for steady data usage, then it would be totally worthless, in spite of the fancy screen and size, right? And no, adding on a bulky brick like heavy duty battery is NOT an option Any real time feed back ( now that there have been quite a few users for this handset in RIMweb) would be of great help. Thanks guys!

Go Vivid, the audio track of the Sony VAIO advertisement featuring Kareena Kapoor, seen on TV. This track has been seamlessly looped by me. Go Vivid_Sony_VAIO.mp3

The intro violin looped twice from the song Lehrein in the flm Aisha. Its a mellow tone. Not sure how many will like it. Lehrein_into_Aisha.mp3

Could somebody suggest a laptop (NOT a Netbook) that gives 10+ hours battery usage, is extremely light( below 2 kgs) and can efficiently run MS Office 2007. Optical drive is not mandatory. Price range upto Rs.65,000.

^^ Absolutely true Dj. I think the net landed cost of the notebook would be in excess of 60k if I buy it thru 20North.

Thanks hitesh. I have been using 20North since last year. This time I'm picking it up thru MyUS though. Probably cheaper and faster. By the way I got dumped with customs duty for a 6k product by Customs last time when I ordered from 20North so their under 10k duty free gifting option is not entirely foolproof. Higher value product purchase this time so I'm going thru direct channel since I'll be paying duty anyways. 20North is good for below 10k value product. You have to take into consideration that they take about 20% margin on the base value so not worth it for higher value items. Thanks mate!

^ No yaar.. checked up a few forums reviewing it and youtube too.. it does attract fingerprints quite easily it seems. Anyways, I think the deal breaker between the silver and black is definitely the battery lol

@Dhirajbhai: Ek our problem hai yeh glossy black finish notebooks ke liye.. they're fingerprint magnets. Silver finish doesnt show up that problem as much

yes dhirajbhai, difference in x1k and A1 is the battery.. my main requirement! lol arre yaar mere saath kareedhlo.. I will leave the unboxing HD video presentation to you though @ Dj: Boss, that caselogic attache is for 10.2 netbooks yaar. The UL30Vt is a 13.3 inch.. sahi honge ? & 200gm weight difference between 6 and 8 cell. Not much but the plus in power is just too good to ignore

Nana_Chi_Taang from Khatta Meetha. Intro, triple loop ... cut it this morning Nana_Chi_Taang.mp3

Thanks guys.. @Greatest: If I lose the Android vs iPhone argument, I will direct him to your link @dhirajbhai : I had called you last night specifically to ask this question lol