Shutter lag might not mean much to the casual photographer but to a professional photographer, it can be the difference between a good and bad photograph.

Shutter lag is the time delay between the pressing of the shutter and the time the photograph is taken. This time is usually measured in milliseconds and even a few milliseconds of difference can have a remarkable difference in speed.

Shutter lag is caused by the number of calculations that the camera makes in those few milliseconds. The camera has focus on the subject, decide on the right level of exposure by giving a correct combination of the aperture and shutter speed, the white balance, the ISO and whole lot of other things in that small period of time.

We can reduce the shutter lag by reducing the number of calculations the camera has to make. The easiest way would be to set the white balance since one can easily estimate by observing the lighting conditions. The shutter speed can also be set at certain situations when we know that the subject might be similar. The aperture can generally be left to the camera but we can set it if required. The factor which can reduce the shutter lag by the highest amount would be setting the focus manually. The ISO can be left to the camera unless you are under low light situations.

In newer cameras, you have a half-press feature where you can ‘half-press’ the shutter button and let the camera set all the required settings and therefore, there isnt much delay when you press the shutter fully from the half-press mode. This is useful when you are anticipating a certain event and can keep the shutter half-pressed and press it fully when the event occurs.

Another interesting method is to use the ‘Burst’ method in the camera. Good cameras can have a speed of upto 3 - 5 fps (frames per second) and you can generally take upto around 7 -10 photographs while holding down the shutter and this would remove need for pressing the shutter at the right moment. The fastest camera right now is the Canon EOS 1D Mark III which can take upto 110 photographs at speeds of 10fps and at a resolution of 10 Megapixels.

Point and shoot cameras generally have a longer shutter lag and DSLRs are known for their minimal shutter lag.

I have outlined all the methods for reducing shutter lag and you can try experimenting with various methods on your own to reduce it. Thanks for taking time to read my article, please feel free to post your own ideas in the comments.

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If you have been reading the newspapers lately, you probably would have noticed the full page ads for the PS3 and the numerous amounts of articles of the press release.

Its been priced at Rs.40,000, which is almost $1000 and the games are Rs.2,800 and above, which is around 70$. In my opinion, that is a complete rip-off. The PS3 is only 600$ internationally and charging an additional $400 is unjustifiable. Well, Sony does make a loss on every PS3 but charging such an exorbitant price is not the way out. Sony says that they are trying to get the government to decrease the current 35% import duty but even with that much duty, the price should only be around Rs.32,000.

Although I, along with several others protest at the price, I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of people who would have gone and gotten themselves a PS3 by now. Sony has only shipped 1,200 pieces of the PS3 right now and I can see the shortage coming soon if people are willing to shell out that much money.

Sony plans to sell 10,000 units of the PS3 by the end of 2007 which means that they will be getting around 4o crore rupees from just console sales. If each owner buys 2 games on an average, thats another 5 crores. Obviously Sony wont get all the money from the game sales but they will get some royalty.

The gaming console condition in India at the moment is somewhat confusing. The Xbox 360 was the first next-gen console in India and has a strong marketing campaign. The premium version costs Rs.28,000 and there has been good sales.

The PS3 is the second next-gen console and it might overtake the Xbox 360 in sales since Sony has a good image in India and the number of Playstation fanboys is uncountable. I think they should have no trouble in reaching their anticipated sales of 10,000 units.

The Nintendo Wii might not be debuting anytime soon since they already have production problems on their hands and are not able to meet their international demands. To buy a Nintendo in the USA right now, one would either have to buy one at double price on Ebay or just wait till the next stock arrives.

The part which makes the whole console scene confusing is the grey market. All the 3 consoles were available illegally here just weeks after their international release at more than double their international prices. There are no available statistics of their sales and hence, one cannot correctly determine the sales of the consoles. Even though 2 of the consoles are now available legally, there exists a section of people who will buy them from the grey market since they will be cheaper there now and will also be able to play pirated games which are available cheaply. One thing that they don’t understand is that their warranty is void and most importantly is that the internal parts are usually swapped by the grey market sellers for low-quality ones which will cause problems in the long run and performance will not be the same as a legally bought piece. Whatever the companies try, the grey market will always exist and people will continue to be fooled there.

The gaming experience of the 3 consoles differs by a large extent. The Xbox 360 has great graphics but less features when compared to the PS3. The gaming is similar to the original Xbox since the controllers are the same but only wireless. The Xbox does not have any special features, its only advantage was the fact that it was released before the other consoles and may soon lose its market share.

The PS3 is a powerful console and the only capable of Full HD output.It has a whole host of features including a Blu-Ray DVD Player. The motion sensing controller is great too but only useful in few games and the lack of vibration is disappointing. The life-like graphics make up for that and there have been rumours about a vibration controller coming out later. Its the most expensive of the 3 but it is also the most powerful and feature-rich of the 3.

The Nintendo Wii is a very simple and basic console offering graphics just a notch above the original Xbox. The console is tiny in size but the star attraction which has made this console outsell the others is it’s innovative motion sensing controllers which require the player to move a lot. It has captured a wide range of users, including me, and being the cheapest of the 3, it has a great potential of released in India.

One of the good things about the release of the PS3 is that the prices of the PS2 and PSP have been dropped to Rs.8,000 and Rs.10,000 respectively. So, portable gaming is a lot cheaper now and people who cant afford a PS3 can opt for a PS2 which is a very good console, infact it was the best selling console of 2006 Christmas.

Update : The official release date for the Wii in India has been rumoured to be somewhere in 2008. That’s a long wait.

Update II :  According to Anand, the import duty for gaming consoles is 54%.

I have highlighted the various features of the current gaming console scene in India and it is upto you to make the decision on the console to buy.

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This has to be one of the funniest videos that I’ve watched. It’s a guide to dating demonstrated by Mr.Bean, as to whats right and whats wrong on your first date. Its slightly long at 7 minutes but is worth the watch.

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I watched ‘The Da Vinci Code’ yesterday and I really liked it. They’ve done a wonderful job of adaptation from the book by cutting out the insignificant parts and emphasizing on the important ones. The soundtrack is amazing and it keeps the movie going on. The acting was great too and the locations were exactly how I had imagined them to be. It was also nice to places that I’d visited a few days ago in the movie. Not much of visual effects in the movie. Overall, nice movie, worth watching, 8/10.

Played the Wii with a few friends yesterday, it was really fun and all of us had a great time.

I’ve signed for a new ISP today. Hopefully, it will be better than my old one.

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I watched the movie ‘300′ yesterday . It wasnt as gory as I had expected it to be though. The visual effects were amazing and the sound was perfect. The storyline is pretty good but I had expected a different ending. The fight scenes were perfectly made and had me at the edge of my seat. The story took several twists and had an o.k.a.y ending. Otherwise, the movie was superb. 8.5/10

News, after a REALLY long time,

Most EXPENSIVE movies ever made

Nintendo warns against the use of mod chips

Picture of Mursi Tribeswoman with iPod and AK-47

Size Comparison of Nuclear Bombs

Grand Theft Auto 6 Confirmed - Hilarious

24ct Golden iPod: Finally!

Play with physics games

The World’s Cleanest Cities

Pictures of Amazing coffee designs

Russian Rail Missile System

Top 10 Porn Star Cameos

13 Little Things That Make A Geek Happy

10 Ways I Don’t Wanna Die

Top 10 Artificial Technologies Ready to Create a Real Human Being

Milestone: One Million Blu-Ray Discs Sold

Amazing Microscopic Sculptures

Only 3% of Pakistani Muslims Think Al Queda Did 9/11

How the Wii is killing the competition

One of 34 Remaining Rare Leopards Killed

301 Useless Facts

11 signs that you will die in this movie

The Eleven Biggest Films of the Summer

5 Scandals that Rocked Art

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First of all, I apologize for not posting for the past week. It was due to my stupid ISP and therefore, I had to spend the whole of last week without internet.

After taking 12,000 photographs in France, I must say that I really enjoyed my whole trip. I came back to Hyderabad on the night of the 18th, back to home sweet home.

After all my hopes of Wii were dashed to the ground, I was walking through the Frankfurt Airport when I spotted a Wii on the stands of a store. I rushed up and bought the Wii after some thinking since it was priced higher than normal. The shopkeeper also informed me that it was the last Wii he had.

The Wii is just amazing. The motion control system is unusually sensitive. Although, I only have a few games at the moment, they’re quite entertaining. I’ve been playing a lot of Wii for the past week and it even has a record of all my games played.

When I came back home, there was a big surprise waiting for me. My dad had bought a 32″ Sony LCD HDTV while I was in France and it’s just spectacular!

I’ll be posting photographs of the trip soon but it’ll take some time since I’ll have to choose the best out of the 12,000.

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I’ll be leaving for Hyderabad early tomorrow morning so today will be my last night at Paris. We went to the Chateau of Versailles today (yes, the place where Mittal’s daughter got married). It isn’t as magnificent as publicized from outside. Even the Pantheon looks better than it. The gardens are amazing though. We waited for about 15 minutes to buy tickets to get inside. Entry was free for me as I was below 18. Everyone was given an audio-guide which explained about the history of each room, etc. The rooms were amazing, like Napoleon’s Apartments. There weren’t many rooms to see though. The hall of mirrors was being renovated but we were still allowed to walk through. We had lunch in the gardens overseeing the lake. We came back home after and started packing since we wont have any time tomorrow morning to pack. I also took my 30,000th photograph today. See you in Hyderabad soon!

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We didn’t plan to do much today since most of the places are closed on Mondays. We went to a place on the outskirts of Paris where a friend lives and after meeting them, we decided to walk around the place. The place was filled with greenery and the people there were friendly. We were walking back to the metro station when I spotted a couple cozing in public just like any other place. I was about to walk past them when the girl suddenly got up and started running and a man came from behind me and started chasing her. I didn’t think much of it at that moment. The man chased her around the corner and she went into a bus. In the bus, a small fight started between 2 groups of guys. One of them even took of his shirt and started flexing his muscles. I was quite sure that the fight would get big and just then, 3 cops who were on regular patrol on their bicycles came up to the bus and broke up the fight.  had my camera at hand so I started filming the scene immediately. The guys were soon calmed down and then, we went into the station and sat down waiting for our train back to Paris. The cops got the men into the station and were talking with them when I noticed that one of the guys in the group was pointing at me. One of the cops walked upto and calmly asked me whether my camera was digital, I replied yes. I must admit that I was nervous at that point of time. He told me that he wanted to see the recent pictures I had taken. I showed him the images although I still held the camera. When we came to the video, he politely asked me to delete it and once I did, he continued on his way. It was an scary yet exciting experience and I hope thats the last time something like that happens.

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Day before yesterday, we went to the Luxembourg Park in the morning. The park is huge and has a pond in the centre where people sail small boats. We walked around the park for sometime and then went to Pantheon, a building similar to the Parthenon. After browsing inside the building, we went down into the crypt, where famous people were buried. We were lucky enough to get a chance to go to the top of the Pantheon where you have an amazing view of the city. After lunch, we went to La Fayette, an area with famous stores. Most of them were really boring so we didnt stay there for long.

Yesterday, we went to this place called Marais, which is a street with lots of old buildings. We walked through the street and also happened to get a glimpse of the George Pompidou Museum. We went to the Picasso Museum which was filled with his paintings and sculptures. Then, we went to the only mosque in Paris and had some tea. We had crepes from the best creperie in the world and took some rest before continuing the day. Later at night, we went and saw the Eiffel Tower in its night-time beauty. The whole tower was lit up beautifully and every one hour, it goes all ‘bling-bling’ for 10 minutes, as in lots of bright white lights start flashing randomly on the tower. We admired it for awhile and had pizza for dinner at an Italian Restaurant.

Few Pictures,

^A part of the Luxembourg Park^

^The Pantheon^

^A store at La Fayette^

^George Pompidou Museum^

^The Eiffel Tower at night^

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We went to the Louvre yesterday. It was a palace and has been converted into a museum. We went towards the Mona Lisa at first just like any other visitor. Taking photographs was prohibited in areas near and around the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa has a whole to itself and was a tiny little thing on the wall. It was the star attraction in the room but I couldnt understand why. There was a humongous painting just opposite it which looked atleast a thousand times better. Anyways, after that we went and saw some Roman, Egyptian and Mesopotamian objects, most of which were great. I took lots of great photographs but I’m posting only a few good ones here. Then, we went and saw Napolean’s room which were mind-blowing. We were in the museum for nearly 4 hours but still had a lot more to see. We decided that it was enough and came out. We went to a park opposite it and sat for awhile before continuing to the obelisk which was about a kilometre away from the museum. The obelisk was ‘obtained’ from Egypt and looked pretty okay. We walked around, took pictures and retired for the day.

Photographs, click thumbnails for full size.

^The inverted pyramid under the Louvre.

^Egyptian Sarcophagus^

^The ceiling in the Roman section^

^People in the Egyptian section^

^The book of death^

^One of Napolean’s heavily decorated rooms^

^A building in the park^

^The Eiffel Tower and the obelisk^

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