I had written a lengthy review about the new Kodak C1093 IS that I purchased recently. I got a chance to use it to review my friend’s Chevrolet Spark car. I present to you the review and if you are a future owner of this car, then this review will help you decide on the car. I shall try and make this review as objective as possible and as specific as possible.

 

Looks

 

Looks of a car can be very subjective. However I do want the Aam Junta to come out of the notion of buying a car for its looks. Did you realize that what matters is the comfort the insides provide, the ease of driveability of the car and certain other considerations such as power, fuel efficiency and service costs. So if you ask me about the Spark honestly – I like its looks. Its cute, has a certain chubbiness that other small cars don’t have, and this makes the car adorable. Its kind of bulged out at the center from bottom to top, but other than that I cannot exactly say that the shape is anywhere near aerodynamic in nature.

 

Cosmetic uniqueness

 

If you ask me, this section is yet another way of talking about looks, but about some subtle things that make this car look cute. Firstly its small in form. What then strikes you from the front are the glaring headlights with sharp projected indicators much like our canine teeth and a rather subdued Chevy logo right on the middle of the bonnet. While I think the front was just about perfect the backside of this car slightly stumped me with respect to the design.

The backside of this car had three noticeable artifacts. Unmistakably huge were the watermelon sized rear lamps which kind of looked extremely odd, but the light it generates at night is enough to blind any driver behind this car. The worst ones I’ve seen until date are those of the Santro, which cause a headache on constant view at traffic signals. I pray to god that the car in front of mine is not a Santro. Now I guess I will have to add Spark to that list as well.

That was not all. There was a nice metallic strip named ‘Spark’ in chrome. I particularly like the font. And finally the reverse lamps or the fog lamps, I fail to understand – were nicely placed below the boot. They looked awesome and the Chevy feel could be understood while looking at them.

 

 

Interiors

 

The interiors were not a let down. Chevy has done a decent job. Particularly to note were the center console (which might be annoying to certain old age drivers) and neat A/C vents dotting the dashboard at four points. The steering itself looked very flimsy, but then so did it on my own Swift D, before I actually leather wrapped it. I suggested Shankar to leather wrap it because I know for sure that the grippy feel you get after that is done is far better compared to the original slippery feel. The center bottom portion was as usual, three dials, one for heat, one for direction and one for speed of the A/c with one slider to control where the air came in from.Add a dummy button to finish up with the symmetry!

 

Just to complete the discusson on interiors, I particularly liked the blue dials with white font on it. It was so subdued yet elegant and very readable. The console box was – well – just a console box. Nothing much to be elegant about, but just was there as thought it felt happy enough to co-exist with the other zillion parts of the car. Next onto a drivers most necessary module – the gearshift – or the stick as some people call it. The gearshift on the Spark felt like I was holding a lollipop. One would tend to argue that Swift’s gearshift is no better, but then hey – atleast its a bigger lollipop 🙂

 

GM has had lots of issues with gearshifts even on Aveo UVA and Aveo Sedans, but they have overcome it with customer feedback. But whether the gearshift on the Spark will see some improvements when GM itself is going bankrupt is a 14 Billion dollar question precisely speaking, and its wise for you to know that the Federal aid of this magnitude has been denied recently making GM all the more vulnerable to closure and bankrupcy. I know who will be having the last laugh – actually two people would – A. Maruti Udyog Ltd, B. Daewoo Ltd – if they still exist that is in some form of a lesser god.

Finally the door handles and window levers – they are mediocre but still do the job and are well placed on the door. This was unfortunately not the power window version, so I cannot comment on this feature here. The side rear view mirror was cute and in proportion with the overall car body, unlike the swift where they are the most important aid while on the road, the purpose of whom is not even satisfied by a large rear view mirror.

The boot is good and mildly large enough. I would say on par with Swift (its a shame that such a big car like swift has to share honours with Spark, but thats how it is and one needs to accept it). The boot can store a great deal of things as long as they are flexible and can be shoved into it. Large suitcases rectangular or square would be a tough to fit scenario in Spark. The stuff under the bonnet is all well placed. The engine makes a presence within the bonnet with neat warning signs not to touch it. This is where Americanism is at its heights.

 

Engine, space and ride

The Chevy engine is a 1000cc engine which outputs 63bhp of power and 90Nm of torque. Crank start the car and the first feeling you get is one of sitting in heaven. The silence is overwhelmingly deceptive. The feeling of calm this car gives is truly chevy style. And this is what chevy is all about. The smoothness in the revv, the purr of the engine, the comfort of the drive and extremely low NVH levels.

I must say I am 5’11” tall but I did fit myself rather snugly into the rear of this car. No space worries, just snug and perfect. Good amount of thigh and back support. But strictly for four people. You know what, dont you think the fifth person is always the unwanted guest in any car? Think about it and you will tend to agree! 🙂

 

 

The ride – is it powerful? Is it truly driver oriented? Its purely based on perspectives of each individual. For 1000cc the pull seems a bit underpowered, but nothing to cry home about after buying the car. Step on the gas and the car surges forward under the challenge to do quite well. I have driven this car with four passengers including me, and with the airconditioner on. There was a noticeable drop in power but the car still seems to weave its magic around you in other aspects, so you are not totally disheartened about it on the power part. The aircon – it cools very fast, just to keep your head and heart cool – just like in the ad.

I would still give the award to the old, aged, and historical Maruti 800 for its nimbleness in being just 800cc and in this department Spark does suffer a bit. But thats just where the comparison must honestly end. The upmarket feel, the refined engine, the space – these are areas where the M800 is put to shame.

 

and finally, the Price point and Fuel Effeciency

 

My friend Shankar got the car for an OTR of 3.6 lacs and the current price of this variant stands at 4.2 lacs with huge discounts, which brings the OTR price round about the same place once more. And forget the tall claims of the world’s most fuel efficient car at 18kmpl and all that. Be happy if you can get about 16kmpl without A/c. My friend gets 13-14kmpl with A/c always ON. Thats not bad for a car such as Spark because you must understand that the engine is a 1000cc and 63bhp power. The higher end variants of Spark almost touch five lacs, but for this you get ABS and Airbags. If you have the money and value your life, go for this variant. Having ABS + airbags is no more deemed a luxury but a dire necessity in a country like ours. And the Sparks safety systems are one of the best and do their job as guaranteed on purchase. If you still have doubts you must see this article. It speaks volumes about the car’s safety capabilities.

I leave you with a detailed impression of Chevy Spark that you have read until now. If you would like to share your sentiments about this car, I would like to hear from you. Click on the comments section and leave me your note! I ll be glad to know you more! Adieu!

 

 

 

 

Technorati : 1000cc, Chevrolet, Matiz, Spark, abs, accident, aerodynamic, airbags, airconditioner, america, automobile, aveo, bankruptcy, camera, console box, crash, daewoo, diesel, fog lamps, gear stick, gearshift, general motors, gm, indicators, industry, kodak C1093 IS, logo, maruti 800, maruti udyog, on road price, on the road, power windows, reports, reverse lights, review, safety, shankar narayan, stick, swift, uva

I have an ongoing loan with IDBI at 11% floating interest rate. Sometime two months ago, they sent me a letter home saying the interest rates have gone up and its now 12%. I had anticipated that they would resort to such a thing. But what no bank expected is the liquidity crunch that caused the current global recession. This has now brought down the prices of everything – groceries, fuel, automobiles, clothes, what not! Can the banks be left far behind? How long will private banks analyse the moves made by RBI & SBI? Is it not logical that it cant and wont be for long?! Precisely. I got another letter from IDBI who have now lowered the interest rate from the current 12% to 11.25% (somewhere near my original figure). And I would not be surprised if it does go down further all the way upto 10%. But that might take some time.

For now its cheerful to get such a letter in difficult times. I keep my fingers crossed!

Technorati : 11%, 12%, bangalore, bank, banks, bengaluru, blog, cheap, cheaper, crunch, economy, floating, home, idbi, interest, liquidity, loans, public, rate, rates, rbi, recession, sbi, sector

I found an interesting article in the DNA paper Bangalore edition today that says banks are liable to label you as defaulter if there is a situation that your property’s current value falls below your loan outstanding amount. They are liable to ask you for more guarantee in terms of mortgages or for that matter sieze your house and put it up for auction. This is a thin line clause in the agreement you sign when you take the loan which we dont notice. More details from the paper given below!

If you are yet to buy a house, you should rejoice. If you have borrowed to buy one, you shouldn’t, and not only because the value of your investment is going down. Reason: Even if you have been assiduously paying your equated monthly installments (EMIs), your house is potentially under threat.Most home loan lenders put in a clause in the mortgage agreement which empowers them to seize the property or ask you to bring in extra collateral if house prices fall dramatically.

If you are not able to do so, you can be termed a defaulter, giving the bank the right to seize and sell the flat or house bought on the home loan. Typically, a default happens when the borrower of the home loan cannot carry on paying the EMIs to repay the loan. Trouble comes from an innocuous sounding “Depreciation of Security” clause, one of the 15-and-odd clauses that constitute an “event of default” in case of a home loan. A typical “Depreciation of Security” clause reads: “If any property on which the security for the loan is created depreciates in value to such an extent that, in the opinion of the bank, further security should be given and such security is not given….”

What does this legalese mean? Any bank gives out a home loan against the house as security. In case the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank can recover the loan by simply selling the flat or house. For this to happen, the market value of the flat at any point of time should be greater than or equal to the home loan that is still outstanding. To protect itself, the bank can ask for some extra security or collateral from the borrower.

If the borrower cannot come up with any extra security, the bank can term him a defaulter. On being termed a defaulter, the loan outstanding becomes due and immediately payable and the bank can take possession of the house or flat and sell it to recover the balance.

Technorati : agreement, bangalore, bank, bengaluru, blog, clause, decreased, default, flat, home loan, india, interest rate, loan, mortgage, property, public, rates, sbi, sector, sieze

Life has indeed been tough. Coping with the loss. The loss of my beloved grandpa. I miss the pat I gave on his back everytime I saw him. I miss his fond questions on my well being. I miss the blessings he used to shower on me for each of my achievements. A man of grit and determination, he used to really head the big family, much like a sarpanch for a village. One year has passed, time has passed quickly and many things have progressed further as though his existence or his non existence did not really matter.

He had many children, grand children (like me) and even great grandchildren (like my son). He was the trunk of the large banyan tree that spread far and wide providing shade, and shelter and care to everyone under it. He yearned for all of his children to do well in life and be well settled too. While most of his sons would silently admire him, without speaking out much, I was surprised to get this email from my uncle (his youngest son) a while ago. In his own words he described his father thus:

A year has passed, too soon, since the legend ‘my father’ left for his heavenly abode.A man who reigned through “sheer courage” and “will power” till his end, fought all ‘odds’that challenged him, through ‘determination’. Attached to him, in and out of my life span so far, I cry in silence, on this day, when we all miss him so much.Nostalgically speaking, I like to recall my younger days, when he groomed all of us by giving us the best affordable education in the most difficult days, to see us grow in our respective disciplines.His love as a father, knew no bounds, since he would always share with me, that he lost his father when he was only three, hence would see his father in us.

I personally learnt from him many management principles and skills, which no ‘B’ schools would teach today, that “experience” alone could make one learn for oneself.He shared with me his style of ‘deft handling of situations while serving under his British bosses’ who are known for their “arrogant culture” and “abusive behaviour”.His way of handling them, got him a ‘pat on his back’, that made even the last British boss whom he reported, give him an “exemplary” conduct certificate, which he treasured till his last breath. I owe my gratitude to him even today, for having given me the best early education in a ‘Convent school’ at KGF even with his meager monthly salary of Rs. 400 p/month. [I’m sure his kith and kin would agree today that with Rs. 400 in hand, they can’t even step into a ‘ Mall’.]This educational background has made and moulded me into what I am today, to be of some use to the society and my family.His mastery over mental arithmetic always fascinated me and made me believe that experience and expertise is the ‘Mantra’ for success.

Spreading a huge size ‘ muster roll’ ledger of those days, he would simply work out the salary details of nearly 10K labour work force under his control as a “PAYMASTER” of his organisation, within a few hours. Dashing his pencil up and down to do the magic total of an entire month’s salary calculation. [Today I wonder what we’re up to using “Excel” worksheets and fighting with all types of noisy printers! ] . On dot, the 7th of each month, his promptness in distributing the entire salary for his work force would be over without any ” cash difference” at the end of the day, tallying so neatly up to the last pie.[ Ironically, even the Almighty decided to call him to his Abode on the date he loved-the 7th].”Subbu”, as he was fondly called by his pals in his office, used to admire him for his qualities and abilities as a “Crisis Consultant” and a helping friend in need and deed.

He almost spent his last decade being sightless after losing both his vision after a “GLAUCOMA” surgery in his eyes. His sheer ” Memory power” helped him to cope up even with a lost vision till the last. He selflessly managed his daily chores by himself much to the astonishment of everybody.As a loving and caring husband to his wife, loving father to his sons and daughters, loving grandpa to his grandsons, granddaughters and great-grandchildren, he had the rare distinction of participating and witnessing every ceremonial event including the naming ceremony of little Ved, his great grandson who had the golden oppurtunity to listen to his last swansong, lying on his lap.

This great occasion also marked his “Kanakabishekam” which he could fulfill in his lifetime. Today, as a year passes by, let us all pray for his soul to rest in peace and pray that he continues to live with us and be a guiding beacon to all of us in our lives. Tears roll down my eyes each day and moment when I miss him so dearly.

The fact that my uncle who wrote this is the most silent of all sons, surprised me even further upon reading this mail. All I can say is – HE STOLE MY THOUGHTS & WORDS about my grandpa.

Dear Gran, You will continue to live in my eyes, and in all those people whom you fondly brought up as your own. And someday when my son grows up, I shall show him this mail and the only photo of you holding him in your lap to tell him more about you and your life.

This is a private and personal blog post. If you share similar sentiments on people you love and care within your family, I would like to hear about it, please use the comments section to give your thoughts.

Technorati : Ramaswamy, SRS, Senapiratty, Subramaniam, colitis, death, family, glaucoma, grandpa, life, rangarajan, story

It was about a year now that all festivities were stopped in our house due to the demise of my grandpa. But a year has passed and we celebrated Karthigai Deepam along with friends who celebrated the Tulsi Habba this time yet again.

Simple, elegant beautiful lamps were lit all over our house and the illumination it provided made the house shine in a brilliance of its own. The mythological significance of the Karthigai festival goes thus:

Mythological aspect of Karthigai Festival

Lord Siva appeared as a huge flame of light before Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma (hindu gods), who each considered Himself supreme and said that the matter could be tested if the two could search for their Lord Siva`s Head and feet. Lord Vishnu took the form of a (varagar)boar and delved deep into the earth, Lord Brahma that of a (Annam)swan and flew into the top, Lord Vishnu failed in His search and returned. But Lord Brahma, chancing upon a piece of `thazhambu`, a flower learnt from it that it had been floating down for thirty thousand years from Lord Siva`s head. He seized upon this and claimed to Lord Siva that he had seen the other`s top. Lord Siva realized the falsehood and pronounced that there would never be a temple for Lord Brahma in this world. He also interdicted the use of the flower thazhambu in His worship. Lord eswaran(siva) appeard as a flame, this day is called Maha Dheepam

Technorati : , Tulsi habba, brahma, brilliance, deepam, diyas, festival, glow, karthigai, lamps, lights, mythological, shine, shiva, thiruvannamalai, vishnu

My wife was back from office early on Saturday (its been two decades since I believed others work on saturdays 🙂 ) and asked me to come along to the Society collection exhibition in the indoor stadium at NGV. Her hopes of having a free entry was shortlived when the counter guys charged us 100 bucks to enter the place. Its advertised as india’s biggest handicrafts exhibition, so you have to expect such nuisances as entry fees and the likes. I would like to call it Indias biggest exhibition in India’s smallest enclosure 🙂 Thats perhaps more fitting.

The exhbition did have good amount of fashion fabrics, paintings, knicknacks, all ladies fashion accessories, bathroom items, wooden furtniture and antiques, a lot of jewelry, and some interesting stuff which I ll talk about later. For now here are some snaps of the place

There were only two things that impressed me in this exhibition, one was the hose pipe that had innumerable amount of fittings with different threadings for fitting different taps, different spray types, easy portability – this costed 1900 and though I was very much inclined to buy it for my dad, I decided not to go for it right now (yes the recession bug has bitten me too 🙂 ).

So then what was the other thing that impressed me: – an electromagnetic induction based gas stove based on Eddy currents. It had no heat, no shocks, no smoke, no fire principle. Awesome. Just to prove the point, the guy there put a 10-buck note inbetween the pan and the stove. And nothing happened to it even though the water in the pan was boiling and steaming. Just to cross check I even put my hand on the stove and nothing happened as promised!

The stove comes in different varieties and typically based on weight that be loaded onto it, 30kg, 20kg, 10kg, 5kg, etc. The prices varied between 3,500 bucks to 9000 bucks for a double stove. And there was another caveat. He would sell only to corporates or to those who had orders of three and above units. No single units except when booked at the exhibition. Having said that, I was not in the mood to buy, (recession!), so I took down their contact details and walked out of the place. I am leaving it here in case you are interested.

If you need the numbers, here they are:

Bilwaa marketing inc, 2334 6440/1, 99164 24880, 99866 22106, 99803 68612, & 99028 77075. Their address is 133, 11 cross, sampige road, malleshwaram, bangalore 03.

Finally to sum up on the exhibition: It had some good food stalls at the end much better than what I have seen before in the same stadium. But for paying 50 bucks, I ended up buying some earrings for my wife, if not anything costiler (again the recession 🙂 ). My suggestion : if you really want to see the two items I mentioned by paying 50 bucks, go there, else go only if you want to seriously end up buying something. The entry cost is pretty exhorbidant and is in other terms called daylight robbery!

Technorati : 6th block, 80 feet road, bangalore, bengaluru, blog, current, eatables, eddy current, electromagnetic, exhibition, fire, gas stove, handicrafts exhibition, heat, indoor, induction, jewelry, koramangala, national games village, ngv, shock, shopping, smoke, snacks, society, stadium

The advertisement in question that caught my eye is this: (source: TOI)

I immediately jumped at the thought of having a SUN DTH at home by disposing the earlier hathway connection, considering I am getting this offer at just Rs.499/-. One look at the asterisk (*) next to it prompted me to go right down to the ad again, where I was expecting a Conditions Apply, which indeed was there too!

I was further expecting they would ask me to sign up for atleast a year, but what I actually found was quite contrary to my expectations! Installation charges Rs. 1000 extra, + taxes (@ 12% of 499 bucks, which is almost another 50 bucks!

So there you go Sun Direct DTH is yours now for “just” 499 + 1000 + 50 = Rs.1550/-. Sun, who do you think you are hoodwinking? We are smart for all this guys. Try something else more genuine. Like adding Worldspace might sound like a better bet now that Airtel is giving us that!

Technorati : Bangalore, Bengaluru, Blog, Cable tv, DTH, Dayanidhi, Dayanidhi Maran, Dinakaran, Direct to home, Dish TV, Dish TV India, Flextronics, Jayalalitha, Kalaignar, Kalanidhi Maran, Karnataka, Karunanidhi, Maran, Reliance Bluemagic, Reliance Fresh, Reliance Insurance, STB, Set top box, Sun, Sun TV DTH, Sun TV direct DTH, Sun direct dth, Sun network, Sun tv, Tamil nadu, Tata Sky, Technology, azhagiri, doordarshan, hathway, james murdoch, madurai, million, remote, rupert murdoch, stalin, subhash chandra

The recent spate of rains is attributed to North East monsoons and to cyclone Nisha (I wonder what’s with the Indian people to nomenclate cyclones just as with USA, but it sure does sound really funny sometimes – cyclone Narakasura, cyclone Ravana, cyclone Anajaneya – it gets funnier the more I think of it!).

The rains have only added to more gloom during the great recession of 2008 and the chilly weather has made it so dull to dampen spirits of attending office at all. The only gloom left is a pink slip with this kind of weather pattern 😀

I was driving rather slowly today to office thanks to an early start and empty roads what with schools delcaring a holiday in memory of late VP Singh (yes he died today after a prolonged cancer battle). I am dreading the last day of our own homegrown prime minister – Irrelevant people would block the entire Bengaluru traffic for days, and make us all walk all over the city just to make those memories worse.

Having said that, near Hebbal flyover I saw this contraption otherwise called an umbrella, but when used in wrong situations could very well serve to harvest rain water, or even function as a mobile DTH service when fitted with the right LNB material! It was quite funny that this umbrella was still serving its purpose in some way or rather in many ways!

And finally every gloomy day has something to cheer about at the end of it, so I leave you with a rainbow over my terrace that made the gloom turn into a bit of cheer!

Technorati : , bangalore, bengaluru, blog, cyclone, deve gowda, dth, flyover, harvesting, hebbal, image, infrastructure, insat, karnataka, mobile, nisha, pink, pm, prime minister, rain, rain water harvesting, rainbow, satellite, tabeubia, tamil nadu, terrace, v p singh, water, weather, winter, yellow

In part one of this article, I had written about how I got the need to purchase yet another digital camera for specific purpose of video recording. In this post, I ll explain a few things about the purchase and the elements of the camera in much more detail for you to read and enjoy.

I reached Croma, knowing well that I need a digicam for as-less-as-possible value with good video recording. I had heard about High Definition video or HD video to a great extent in the last one year and in the same time, I had also worked extensively with applications using HD video content in my job. But what I least expected that some camera manufacturer would plonk in that capability into a digicam, about the size of ten credit cards packed as a bunch! And add to that least of all – the guy in question to be Kodak.

The sales representative was friendly enough to explain to me the various digicams present there in the mall, the same old (or new) Nikon Coolpixes, Sony, Canon powershots, or Olympus or Casios and needless to say the Kodaks. Now most of these cameras either were sleek, with 3x optical zoom lenses, but would not take good video or had 12x optical bulky lenses and still would not take good video. Remember that my definition of good now had translated to High Definition. Also remember that though you do have high definition capable LCD televisions today, NO ONE gives you a HD channel as a broadcast. That will have to wait atleast 3+ years in India by which time buying a HD Tv would be a formidable proposition. This however is not the case in countries like USA where channels like National Geographic are available in ultra sharp quality HD mode which makes viewing TV a different experience.

Having said this, I was not really impressed with any camera he showed me just because they were no different from the Sony handycam I had written about in terms of video recording abilities. Until he showed me THIS:

The Kodak 1093 IS is an ultra sleek camera . It works on SD memory based storage with a Hershey shaped lithium ion battery that packs some punch. AND IT DOES HD VIDEO RECORDING!!! Plus its a 10MP sensor which can give some real good prints!

The very form factor of this camera really delighted me and its great to know one of the first few photography companies like Kodak who were recently hurt badly due to competition heating up, followed on their philosophy of making EasyShare based cameras, have finally woken up to be the first. The first company to pack a HD video recording ability into a camera as small as this. Coming back to the form factor, a little bit of pictorial explanation of things in this camera:

The camera came with a 1GB card and a pouch, but I denied the pouch and settled instead for a 2GB card. Knowing very well that HD videos would take lot of space, I decided this deal is better.

Having said that the top portion of the camera has four buttons, all embedded neatly into the form factor, without any projection for Power (a blue blinking button), flash setting button, a mode button which would easily help you adjust modes for this camera, and finally the shutter click button (which hardly is recognizable unless you look closely)

The bottom portion has a battery and SD card compartment, a tripod mount, and a HDTV or easyshare dock adapter, all again neatly built in.On one side is the USB charging port (for both data and power!!) and the power adapter socket in case you use a separate 5V dc adapter from Kodak. The other side has no other ports and is clean!

And finally the big huge LCD on the backside with four buttons around a joystick control, one for playback of photos and videos, one for menu options, one for deleting a video or image and one for sharing the image using EasyShare. Also are buttons for using the 3x zoom for either wide or telephoto modes. The joystick is very usable, and so are the menu options. The mode menu gives you 22 different photography situations and also offers full manual control if you want to be in expert mode. All menu fonts are readable and very usable easily which makes this camera a breeze to handle!

The only drawback if at all I felt with this camera relates to two things, one – very less optical zoom, something I can live with, and two – the image quality is a bit soft in all Kodaks that I have seen – something also that I can live with! The best positives of this camera are great video recording in FULL HD (the next time you watch those Sony Bravia ads, ask the dealer whether its 1080 interlaced (I) or progressive (P), obviously that P being the real Full HD), extremely usable form factor and easy portability with SD compatibility.

Before I end this post, I will leave you with a video review of this camera. Hope you like it! The moral of the story is prioritize your needs and go for a camera satisfying those needs. And always remember, try avoiding using the same camera for both video and photo. Both modes are different and needs different types of cameras! But for Rs.9999/-, this Kodak is a steal considering that the Sony DCR-DVD 610E still does not do full HD video!

After one year of procrastinating on writing about my Canon Rebel Xti DSLR, and the steam off this topic, I got yet another gadget to blog on – my new possession – the Kodak Easyshare 1093 IS digital still camera. With one hell of a difference from other cameras : High definition video recording. But before that let me summarize how I really landed up the purchase and what my requirements and pointers towards buying this camera was!

The need: My son is about a year old, and he is upto so many new things in his life that I wanted recorded on media for later viewing for life’s best memories!

The most popular: Sony DCR-DVD 610 dvd handycam. I went with my wife to see this handycam at Sony World, Koramangala. I also had the intention to buy it then and there since nothing else was even close to the sony reputation for such handycams. However the price was 17,990/- with one free handycam bag! Wow, thanks for small mercies Sony!

After seeing the handycam, I started to get less and less attracted to it for its bulk, its rather mediocre features of standard definition video capture (640×480) and the burden of carrying around lots and lots of media to record on. I just began to think of giving myself a little room to explore more choices. So returned home without the purchase.

The revised need:A digital still camera, which would help me in recording good quality video, and at the same time would use the all-famous SD card and be easily portable, small and usable for the purpose. I also set myself a budget of as-less-as-possible spending to get this new camera. This also meant obviously that I would not get any swivel LCD’s and hi-fi stuff. But I decided to live with it as long as I could record good quality video in a snap!

Just to let you know I already have an Olympus C770UZ even before my Canon, with which I have taken over 6000 images before I decided to start using it lesser and lesser, the main reasons being slow boot up time and rather lacklusture performance with respect to taking photos. The photos themselves though were really good and even surpassed my Canon at times! 🙂

So the only good places I knew to scout for my new camera in Bengaluru, Koramangala was the Next Showroom, E-Zone (who according to me never give any reasonable discounts and only fool people all the time), GK Vale (the worlds costliest photo expert) and Croma – the rather new and jazzy electronics store which is part of Infiniti Retail and have associated themselves with the TATA brand name. Since I have had good experiences with Croma even before, I dashed straight to the Croma Store in Star Bazaar the very next weekend after the Sony disaster. What followed is something of a pleasant surprise. Continue reading more in Part II.

Technorati : , 610E, Kodak Easyshare C1093 IS, bangalore, bengaluru, blog, c770 UZ, canon DSLR, card, croma, dcr-dvd, digicam, e-zone, ezone, gk vale, handycam, infinity retail, karnataka, koramangala, lcd, memory, next, olympus, rebel xti, sd, shopping, showroom, sony, sony world, star bazaar, tata, venture