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<ul><li><strong>A medium format <keyword id="696081" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pentax">Pentax</keyword> 645Z, a <keyword id="614391" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Panasonic-Lumix">Panasonic Lumix</keyword> GH5, some lenses and lights.</strong></li><li><strong>The price of the equipment comes to about Rs. 9 lakh, though international standards would be worth much more.</strong></li></ul>The white walls of Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts’ Twin Art Gallery were bare except for regularly spaced numbers written in pencil. The floors were littered with fly-away sheets of butter paper and foam from the massive wooden crates quickly but delicately being unpacked. Despite the churn of activity, the room was quiet and when someone did speak, it was in a whisper - the significance of the work commanding a hushed reverence. The only sound breaking the silence was the clicking of a camera shutter opening and closing. <br /><br />What was unfolding in front of me was the unpacking and digitisation of 46 Tibetan <keyword id="6357076" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="buddhist">Buddhist</keyword> paintings, known as “<em>thangkas</em>.” Some of the pieces had been previously restored while some remain untouched, unrestored. Most of them had not seen the light of day in more than six decades. All were extremely fragile.<br /><br />In one corner, a few hands carefully pulled out plastic and foam-wrapped thangkas from a crate they had just opened. In another area, a few girls sat with swathes of cloth around them, rolls of velcro, and needle and thread ready to start work on making the paintings wall-mountable.<br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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<em>Marking the places where the thangkas will be placed. Photo: Jhinuk Sen</em><br /><br />These thangkas, painted in intricate detail on cotton and silk, had been brought to India by Rahul Sankrityayana and were being digitised by his grandson Manav Parhawk.<br /><br />For scholars of Hindi, Buddhist and Tibetan studies, Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayana is not an unfamiliar name. Sankrityayana was a Padma Bhushan awardee, a scholar and a writer. Called the ‘Father of Hindi Travelogue,’ he spent almost 45 years of his life on the road all over Asia and Europe, wrote more than 130 books and was fluent in almost 13 languages.<br /><br />It was thanks to Sankrityayana that thousands of invaluable palm-leaf manuscripts of Buddhist philosophy, that were considered lost, were finally <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/society/a-forgotten-genius/article18162862.ece">discovered</a>. He brought them all back to India along with these thangkas, artifacts, sketches, photographs and even glass plate negatives.<br /><br />“This is the first time in my 40 years that I have been able to see the fruits of my Nana's tireless efforts. I want to make sure I can see them again, and so that scholars across the globe have access to this immense trove of knowledge for their research,” says Parhawk. <br /><br />Before the thangkas were moved from the crates to be mounted vertically on the walls with cloth and velcro for display, the digitisation began with two cameras, two lights and lots of first-hand yelling at people to stay out of the way. All this equipment costs more than some journalists’ yearly salary.<br /> 
	
	
	
	
	
	
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<em>Setting up the equipment took a few hours. Photo: Jhinuk Sen</em><br /><br />Parhawk, who is a professional fashion and lifestyle photographer, used his medium format digital Pentax 645Z with Pentax 55mm (F2.8) and 120mm macro (F4) lenses. Lenses were switched on the camera body depending on the size of the thangka being shot. <br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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<em>A medium format digital Pentax 645Z was used for digiting the artwork. Photo: Jhinuk Sen<br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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Pentax's 120mm macro lens. Photo: Jhinuk Sen<br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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Pentax's 55mm (F/2.8) lens. <em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">Photo: Jhinuk Sen</span></em></em><br /><br />Two Elinchrom Master 600s monobloc flashes and a complicated rig to vertically mount the camera safely six feet off the ground completed the set-up for the main full shots of the thangkas which were laid flat on the ground on a large swath of black cloth.<br /><br />
	
	


<em>
	
	
	
	
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<br />Two Elinchrom Master 600s monobloc flashes were used for lighting. Photo: Jhinuk Sen</em><br /><br />Each and every one of the pieces are incredibly detailed, and to capture the close-in shots, the Panasonic Lumix GH5 (20-megapixels) with micro four thirds crop lenses was used. <br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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<em>Panasonic Lumix GH5. Photo: Jhinuk Sen</em><em><br /></em><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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<em>Close up shots of the artwork, taken to retain details. Photo: Jhinuk Sen</em><br /><br />Though the pictures were being shot in a controlled light environment (inside the exhibition hall), the large black cloth was used to reduce flare and big foamcore sheets were used as fill to make sure the thangkas got the right light. <br /><strong><br /></strong>While the confusion of the artwork numbering and listing them right had everyone fumbling with multiple lists, the bigger challenge was something else: camera positioning. To ensure the camera was positioned just perfectly over the thangka meant that it had to be placed at a certain height (that’s where the rig comes in). Furthermore, the camera could only be operated manually, which meant multiple stretching exercises by Parhawk to get the frame right so as to avoid stepping on the surface where the art work had been placed. This frequently led to scenes like this one:<br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	
	
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<em>It's an exercise. Photo: Jhinuk Sen</em><br /><br />A good few biblical photo ops later, 46 thangkas had been photographed. I then sat down with the team to discuss the process and the equipment they had just used.<br /><br />The main idea behind using the particular equipment that Parhawk did, was to generate the right colours without chromatic or hue shifts. This ensures that the art looks as close to the source as possible when viewed on computers later. The idea is to match the original, not a copy you see on screen. <br /><br />Hue Shifting is described as, “a basic tool for any artist who works on computer. The principle is the following: whenever you want to create a colour derived from another, you have to move its hue along with its brightness.” So, if you have to get a shadow tone from a brighter colour, you cannot just lower the brightness, you need to use this tool to create the right colour of the shadow. In this case, the point was to capture the absolute right colour from the very beginning. Imagine trying to accurately photograph the white colour of a blank canvas. If the lighting is too dark, the colour will actually appear grey rather than white, while an incandescent light may give it a yellow-brown tone. This phenomenon was made popular by the blue-black dress image <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/">that polarised the Internet in 2015</a>.<br /><br />A chromatic shift (often called a chromatic aberration) “is an effect resulting from dispersion in which there is a failure of a lens to focus all colours to the same convergence point. It occurs because lenses have different refractive indices for different wavelengths of light.” <br /><br />These thangkas are full of subtle colours and incredible shading. It was essential to reduce all possible errors to a minimum and it was unlikely that Parhawk and his team would ever have this opportunity again. <br /><br />“I needed to get the right highlights, mid-tones and shadows like they are on the original piece and not what works on a computer screen. This is probably the only time I will get my hands on these, and I needed to make sure I faithfully reproduce colours, luminosities and most importantly, textures of the fine brush strokes,” Parhawk explained. <br /><br /><em><strong>So was the equipment he had at his disposal up to the task?</strong></em> <br /><br />“I use a medium format camera because it shoots 14-bit raw files with massive colour depth and information. The camera has an 11 stop exposure latitude. The colour is very accurate and the sensor is 1.7 times the size of the sensors on any <keyword id="114355" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nikon">Nikon</keyword> or <keyword id="1660069" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Canon-DSLR">Canon DSLR</keyword>, even the high-end ones capturing mind numbing detail,” Parhawk says. <br /><br />Despite having most details well in place, the team was white balancing continuously with a grey card. The purpose of that was to keep a check, even in that controlled environment, just to make sure there are no errors or accidental colour casts. <br /><br />“It helps massively in post-production to spot the right colours,” pointed out film editor Ralph Fernandes who was collaborating with Parhawk on this project. <br /><br />So while the team was working with the equipment they use on a daily basis for all their other photography work, what if they could pick something better?<br /><br />Parhawk chose to pick a large format camera from my money-is-no-object list. A large format technical camera would have been incredible but they are frighteningly expensive. They can cost you more than $30,000 (nearly Rs 20 lakh).<br /><br />“What you are looking at repeating the same process that photographers do with Sinars and Linhofs. You are trying to capture the largest amount of available detail in a RAW file,” Parhawk said. <br /><br />“For older stuff and art restoration stuff, they also use ultraviolet and infrared cameras to capture details that are beyond the visual spectrum. It helps in recreating it. And that is specialised gear. There are paintings they don’t even expose to light because they may be fragile or just very, very valuable. They are digitised in dark rooms with infrared and UV camera systems,” Fernandes pointed out. <br /><br />“The lighting equipment we are using right now is not the highest possible grade. That would be the Balcar or the Briese - these are high-grade lighting systems. They are awesome, but they are very, very expensive,” Parhawk said speaking about the lights he would have liked to use if he could afford it. <br /><br />In the Balcar or the Briese the wavelengths are more colour correct and the light modifiers are better, meaning the image being shot would have been more perfect. But like most other high-end equipment, they cost many arms and many legs, even for Indian pro photographers. <br /><br />The sky is the limit when it comes to equipment that could have been used, but for now, the medium format pulled its weight perfectly. Had the team used the high-end equipment suited best for the task, the costs would have shot up by a few crores at least. They pulled out incredible details and near-perfect colours in a fraction of the cost (Rs 9 lakh for all the equipment, give or take a few thousand). <br /><br />At the end of the day, what you are looking for is clarity of image, which means good lensing, good colour depth for restoration purposes, accurate saturation and well-controlled light that reproduces the textures and colours as faithfully as possible - for that, the setup was well suited. <br /><br />The exhibition, titled ‘Rahul Sankrityayana’s Antiquity Collection,’ is as magical as the name promises. Hosted in collaboration with the <keyword id="53042" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Patna-museum">Patna Museum</keyword> and curated by Sankrityayana’s daughter Jaya Parhawk, it is <a href="http://ignca.gov.in/invitations/14_09_2018_Conference_on_Rahul_Sankrityayan_Invite.pdf">on display till 9 April</a>. <br />

What it takes to digitise artwork that is almost 4 centuries old

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Netflix</span></p><p class="caption">The character Barb from Netflix show "Stranger Things."</p></div><p></p></div></div>Google is using its new messaging app Allo to send people on a "Stranger Things"-inspired scavenger hunt.</p><p>Today only in New York City - that's Friday, October 28 - users of Allo, Google's AI-powered messaging app, can embark on a scavenger hunt to locate Barb, one of the show's characters who mysteriously disappeared. </p><p><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/28/google-unveils-allo-assisted-stranger-things-scavenger-hunt/?sr_source=Twitter" target="_blank">According to Engadget</a>, if you ask Google's Assistant within Allo "Where is Barb?", it will reveal the first location of the hunt, which will take you throughout the city.</p><p>The hunt could result in winning prizes, like a <span>BMX bike, Pentax camera or a Panasonic boombox, according to Engadget. </span></p><p>Google itself was mysterious about the scavenger hunt, writing only this on its <a href="https://blog.google/products/allo/stranger-things-are-happening-google-allo/" target="_blank">official blog</a>:</p><p><span>Google is also unveiling new features to the Allo app, including a new "Stranger Things"-inspired sticker pack, the option to <span>reply to messages directly from your notifications on both Android and iOS, and <span>split-screen mode, which is a feature of Android N. The option to draw on photos, which was only available for Android users at launch, is now available on iOS.</span></span></span></p><p><span>The Allo app was the first Google product to use Google's Assistant, which uses AI to help answer questions and provide information, much like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa (Google has now added the Assistant to its new Pixel phone and Google Home device, too). By the end of September, Allo had reached 5 million downloads in the Google Play store, five days after it launched. But the company is mostly letting the app's user base grow organically, opting not to make it standard on its new phone or requiring it of Android phone developers. The app is now No. 96 on the Play store's top free apps. </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-home-virtual-assistant-hands-on-video-2016-10">We got our hands on the Home - Google's answer to the Amazon Echo</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Fkc2k5NjE6bPcubn92QIU8A8M5DfJSE9" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You can now go on a 'Stranger Things' scavenger hunt using Google's new messaging app

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In photography gear, there are hills and peaks and higher mountains. And Hasselblad's amazing, expensive devices are Everest.</p><p>These are powerful tools for hardcore photographers, <a href="https://www.slrlounge.com/may-fourth-annie-leibovitz-shoots-new-star-wars-set/">favored by the Annie Leibovitzes of the world</a>, but largely unknown outside enthusiast circles. Hasselblad film cameras traveled with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon - and remain there to this day, film removed and body discarded to make room for moon rocks.</p><p>I got my hands on Hasselblad's newest cameras, the H6D series, for a rare, brief hands-on Monday. These are still demo models, the only two in North America. When they hit stores, the <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1244709-REG/hasselblad_h_3013742_h6d_100c_medium_format_dslr.html">H6D-100c and H6D-50c</a> will retail for <span>$32,995 and a comparatively frugal <span>$25,995 respectively. And that's before you price in the lenses.</span></span></p><p>Here's what it's like to use these high-end cameras. </p><h2>The H6D has an incredibly well-designed body</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>You've never held a camera like this camera.</p><p>At 4.7 pounds, the H6D is much bulkier than my Nikon D800 DSLR, which at two pounds still manages to wear my arm down after a day of shooting. But the H6D is comfy as heck. Long and square like a big camcorder, the H6D is well-balanced around a central battery grip, so your wrist doesn't torque as you lift it. After two hours hefting the camera my arm didn't feel tired at all.</p><p>Similarly, the viewfinder offers an experience unmatched in DSLR and mirrorless photography. I've <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/the-best-kind-of-camera-for-newbies-2016-4">written before how important</a> the look of a viewfinder is to your image making, and the H6D's looks like an open window. It operates by the same mechanism as traditional DSLRs, with a flipping mirror bouncing light up from the lens, but this mirror and these lenses are much, much wider.</p><p>But that's just what it's like to hold this camera. Here's what happens when you shoot it.</p><h2>Medium-format is a whole other beast in photography</h2><p>The most important difference between this class of camera and the DSLRs and mirrorless cameras you may have encountered out in the world is sensor size.</p><p>Hasselblad makes medium-format cameras, which are basically cameras with much larger sensors than the 35 mm sensors found in professional DSLRs.</p><p>That means that Hasselblad's cameras have much higher megapixel counts (100 mp for the 100c, and 50 for the 50c) than their lower-tier cousins, but that's <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/megapixels-dont-matter-2016-1">not the main reason</a> why photographers prize medium format.</p><p>Medium format is excellent for replicating the way the world looks through a human eye. You can see that in the images I made of actors (and friends of mine) Janice Theard and Phoebe <span>González.</span></p><p>Big sensors interact with the light coming through their lenses differently, creating much less optical distortion than smaller sensors. In the shot below, Theard stands just a couple feet from the lens. There's no zoom going on, but her features look natural - not stretched like they would on most cameras.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The effect is subtle, and a bit difficult to notice if you're not looking for it. But it makes for an entirely different experience as a photographer. You can get up close and personal with your subjects without wrecking the shot. The world looks tangible and human.</p><p>Compare that to  the opposite extreme: what happens when you try to take a portrait with the <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/why-the-lg-g5s-dual-camera-is-bad-2016-4">LG G5's ultra-wide, narrow-sensor camera</a>:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Steve Kovach/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>That image is much harder to relate to as real life because the lens is skewing the world so much.</p><p>Another big difference with a big sensor? Shallower depth-of-field. This is a little more technical, but it means that when set to the same <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/why-the-s7-camera-is-better-than-iphone-2016-3">aperture</a>, the medium-format will keep a narrower slice of the image in focus, blurring out the background more intensely.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>You can see in the above image of Theard that while her eyes are nicely in focus at f/2.2, her ears are blurred way out.</p><h2>Don't you wish your camera could focus like this?</h2><p>In order to stay sharp in a wash of all that shallow depth-of-field, Hasselblad engineers its devices with a truly fantastic auto-focus system.</p><p>It's actually much simpler than those you'll find on fancy 51-point-autofocus DSLRs. There's just a single autofocus point in the middle of the viewfinder.</p><p>All you have to do is aim it where you want the focus to land, press the "True Focus" button by your thumb, and the lens will snap sharply to attention. Then, as you re-angle the camera for your composition, it'll adjust to compensate for your changes. It's not perfect, but way better than the more common system which has you click a little square around a screen to the focus spot like you're playing the old cell phone game "Snake."</p><h2>This may be the closest digital comes to film</h2><p>This is a much more subjective measure, but medium-format fans will insist that the larger, more expensive sensors make images much closer to the texture and quality of film.</p><p>You can see this is true in a few obvious ways. First of all, film has no pixels so it makes images as sharp as the lens that shot them (up to the point when grain starts to obscure things). Digital cameras are limited by the size and quality of their pixels. Medium-format cameras are high-resolution without sacrificing individual pixel quality and fidelity <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/xperia-z5-vs-iphone-6s-camera-comparison-2016-2">like some unnecessarily high-res smartphones</a>, so they can produce astoundingly sharp, detailed images.</p><p>Here's a picture of <span>González trying to keep the Manhattan winds from mussing her hair all over the place. I blew a tiny portion of it up to show its true size and sharpness.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>And that's an image from the H6D-50c, which is a meager 50 megapixels. The 100c (which wasn't ready for shooting Monday) has twice the resolution, demanding sharpness Hasselblad's amazing lenses are more than up for providing.</span></p><p><span>Also, like good film, Hasselblad's sensors have excellent dynamic range. That means they gather incredibly high quality color and detail from way up in the highlights and way down in the shadows. (Not to be confused with high-dynamic-range, a software trick that attempts to mimic the effect of an excellent sensor, usually poorly.)</span></p><p><span>Here's a shot I overexposed on the H6D:</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>That's a nice picture blown way out. If I'd shot it on my D800 I'd be kicking myself for wrecking an image so badly that it couldn't be recovered. But the H6D's incredible dynamic range made it a trivial fix in Lightroom, Adobe's photo-processing program. Here's the result after 30 seconds of tweaking:</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>Not only are her skin tones recovered from the glare, but the colors and details are perfect. Looking at this shot, I can detect no sign that it was originally overexposed.</span></p><p><span>You can see a similar effect in an underexposure:</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>But in the end, the medium-format/film comparison comes down to a feeling. Hollywood portrait photographer David Walter Banks <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/kendrick-brinson-david-walter-banks-interview-2016-3">told me there's a texture to his medium-format shooting</a> (which he does with a<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-645D-Medium-Format-Digital/dp/B004A4U886?tag=TIsafetynet-20"> comparatively bargain-basement </a><span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-645D-Medium-Format-Digital/dp/B004A4U886">$3,670 Pentax 645D</a>) that he doesn't find on 35 mm.</span></span></p><h2><span>This camera has an incredibly fast shutter</span></h2><p><span>Another feat the H6D can accomplish is moving its shutter precisely and speedily enough to expose a picture at the exact same moment a flash goes off - up to 1/2000th of a second. </span></p><p><span>Even the best DSLRs can only match a flash to 1/250th of a second, and the Pentax 645D medium format hits an even lower 1/125th of a seconds. Flash sync speed might seem like a trivial detail, but it's incredibly important for photographers who want to control all of the light in their scene. The faster your flash sync, the more ambient light you can cut out in favor of your flash.</span></p><p><span>For this shot, I used just one umbrella with a low-end Nikon flash, but I was able to cut out almost all of the sunlight on the roof that morning.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>No unexpected eclipses hit New York Monday. That's just the power of split-second timing.</span></p><h2><span>So, should you buy it?</span></h2><p><span>Bottoming out at $26k before lensing, this is a seriously expensive camera system. Most photographers, even at the most elite levels, will never own a Hasselblad.</span></p><p><span>Company representative Dan Weikel told me that many pros end up renting Hasselblads for highly paid assignments, and insists that buyers find they "pay for themselves" after one shoot. I suspect that any photographer making 30 grand on a shoot has more than enough talent to survive without the absolute apex of digital camera engineering. But after playing even briefly with one I definitely see the appeal.</span></p><p><span>Unlike ever-more-feature-heavy DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, this is a photo system designed to do one thing very, very well: take beautiful single pictures. (Although the H6D also shoots 4K and HD RAW video.)</span></p><p><span>Other photographers report that medium format shooting makes them slow down and be more thoughtful in their process, and I'd agree. The learning curve is a bit steep, but once you get the hang of it it's an absolute pleasure.</span></p><p><span>If you're an amateur enthusiast and not expecting to make tens of thousands of dollars per shoot, I'd suggest going the film route for medium format. For the first half of the twentieth century, medium format film was the dominant mode of photography and a lot of those old cameras are still kicking around on <a href="http://www.ebay.com/sch/Vintage-TLR-Cameras/11721/bn_150897/i.html">eBay</a> and other places for just a couple hundred bucks. The film is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Professional-Portra-Color-1808674/dp/B004V3I6JY">pretty cheap</a> too.</span></p><p><span>And on the off chance that you're an amateur, but Hasselblad's price tag doesn't feel prohibitive, I have just one question: Can I have a ride on your private plane?</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/household-gadgets-future-2016-4">5 household gadgets that are about to change our everyday lives</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="E3OGduMjE6EpNySWH_3EvVwJAsTl6J-k" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Here's what it's like to shoot with a brand-new $26,000 camera

<br />
Fiery monsoons are just round the corner. While it’s fun to lounge around indoors, enjoying the view with some Coffee, it poses health risks, both for you and your gadgets.<br />
<br />
As Mumbai struggles to travel between work and home with knee-deep water spelling disaster, here are your weapons to battle the rain gods if and when your turn comes:<br />
<br />
<strong>Smartphone:</strong><br />
<br />
A phone is one of the most essential devices one uses, and there is a lot of variety to choose from here.<br />
<br />
Samsung offers waterproof smartphones, but they are slightly pricey. Samsung Galaxy S4 Active and Samsung Galaxy S5 are some of the best waterproof phones in the market. These can bear depths of up to 1mts for 30 minutes.<br />
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Sony’s Xperia Z, Z1, Z1 Compact, Z2, and ZR boast of the capacity of clicking underwater pictures and videos. These can definitely turn heads at the next pool party.<br />
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At a budget, Motorola’s Moto E, Moto G, and Moto X models come with a special water resistant 'nano' coating. This protects it from minor splashes of water. Mind, these can’t survive an underwater dip. However, you can brave the monsoon more confidently with one of these babies in your pocket.<br />
<br />
<strong>Laptop:</strong><br />
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It’s a shame there is not a lot of option to choose from when it comes to rugged laptops. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-31 is the sole torch bearer. This bad boy boasts of vibration and shock resistance, and a solid IP65 water and dust resistance.<br />
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This 13.1’’ Windows 8 laptop has Intel Core i5-520M vPro CPU with 3G, LAN, 3G, and WIMAX connectivity. The ports are covered by a flap and the display has polarization for better visibility outdoors.<br />
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<strong>Camera:</strong><br />
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Waterproof cameras have been around for a while. They are cheap and perfect for those looking for wildlife or nature photography.<br />
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Nikon Coolpix S32 is the common man’s rugged camera at a mere Rs. 6,950. It is freeze-proof at -10°C, shockproof at 5ft/1.5m, and waterproof till 10m.<br />
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There are also Pentax WG10, Nikon Coolpix AW110, Coolpix AW120, and Olympus Stylus TG-2 in the sub Rs. 20,000 category. All these can record Full HD videos and come with built-in GPS. AW120 even has Wi-Fi capabilities!<br />
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<strong>Earphones:</strong><br />
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(Image credit: Buyt)<br />
Want to dance in the rain? Whip out one of these and you’re good to go.<br />
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The water resistant Bose SIE2i is great if you want quality. Sennheiser has a handful of water-resistant earphones. The cheapest is MX685 at Rs. 3,790, followed by CX685 at Rs. 5,490 and the PX685i, PMX685i, OCX685i at Rs. 5,990.<br />
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For those on a tight budget there is Philips SHQ3000 at Rs. 1,999 and Audio Technica ATH-CKP200 at Rs. 1,799.<br />
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<strong>Tablet:</strong><br />
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When your smartphone can be water-resistant, why can’t your tablet! Sadly there is only one real contender to the throne here - the Xperia Z2 tablet. It boasts of water and weather proofing, and there are flaps to seal off the ports.<br />
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This 10.1 inches tablet boasts of Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 processor with 16 GB internal memory and 3 GB RAM. Unfortunately at a price of Rs. 49,990, you might want to get some water to douse the damage it’ll inflict on your pocket.<br />
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<strong>Others:</strong><br />
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The market is currently littered with a lot of waterproof devices. Take hard drives and pen drives. Adata's Dashdrive Durable HD710 has a rubberized exterior that makes it shockproof and waterproof. Same with the Transcend JetFlash 810 pen drive.<br />
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If you are a music buff there is always Sony’s NWZ-W273 Walkman. You can even take it swimming, or out for a jog when it’s raining.<br />
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Last but not the least, while there are a lot of waterproof devices, there are also waterproof covers that you might want to invest in – a cheap and sensible option at that. Scout the markets, get one, and relax, your devices are safe from the clutches of the rain gods.<br />
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(Image credit: Indiatimes)

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