This post is inspired, at least in part, by 's posts about his camera and mobile experiences. While I enjoy taking the odd picture of a beautiful sunrise or the rare low flying airplane/chopper, I hardly qualify as a photographer.  Indeed, for eight years, between 2003 and 2011, my only camera was the 1.4 megapixel camera built into my Nokia 6630 phone. It took ok shots in natural light, which was all I used to click.Here's a picture I took with the 6630, of a really friendly and helpful staff member of NSCT Kharghar, Ms Rekha, with her kids, when all of NSCT had gone on a picnic to Bordi beach in 2007.

I rarely took indoor shots as they were too grainy and noisy. Here's one of the few times I actually took a pic indoors with that camera, when I clicked my friend Sachin, showing off his DYI chair built with interlocking cardboard slats.When I upgraded my phone in 2011, to a HTC Salsa, I thought that I'd get a good camera in the bargain, but I was proved wrong.  The Salsa was as disappointing indoors, as the Nokia 6630 had been.  Next up was my first ever real camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC SZ1, a point and shoot with a 10x optical zoom, that I bought just before I left for Sweden. This was an ultra compact, which meant I could carry it everywhere, in my jacket or backpack, and I really loved it. I took many memorable pictures with it, till I lost it earlier this year. Here's a pic I took with the SZ1, at a dinner party at the Faxen's, along with Chandan Basu and his family.I was fairly destraught when I realized I'd lost the camera, but thanks to , I got a replacement in what is widely referred to as the best superzoom camera in the market, the Canon SX50. This camera really whetted my appetite for photography and allowed me to take some shots I was over the moon with, such as this one!

Unfortunately, however, the SX50 I owned flattered to deceive. It quickly developed severe issues with lens retraction and before long, it simply kept shutting down once for every shot I could take.  I was getting bitterly frustrated by the number of photo opportunities I was missing out on, simply because the camera turned off at just the right moment.  Without an international warranty and no local camera repair facilities in Linkoping and no desire to spend more good money on it, I attempted what I now realize was a stupid attempt at DYI camera repair which didn't end well for the camera, and thus ended my brief affair with the SX50.  In the meanwhile, Deepa had bought herself another SX50 and was facing lens retraction issues, though at a milder level, with the new unit too.  Though I was desperate for a new camera,  I decided to steer clear of the SX50,  but I had now been well and truly bitten by the super zoom bug.   After doing a lot of research and reading of reviews, I decided upon the Olympus SP-100 which boasted a dot-sight tracking assist system which no other camera in the market had.  And it had a 50x zoom! I bought it yesterday, and my initial experiences have been very good.  It makes target acquisition incredibly easy and quick, so it generates some opportunities for pics that simply wouldn't have existed with other cameras.  Here's a pic that I took of a FedEx MD-11, flying at a fairly high altitude. I was able to acquire it, zoom in to the full extent, focus and take this pic, all before it passed.  I'd never have been able to manage this with the SX50, or for that matter, with any other super zoomer.  This pic was taken at 50x zoom:

Of mobile cameras I've owned, at least two more deserve honorable mentions. Here's a picture I took with my Google Nexus 4, when I was doing the Vatternrundan bike ride, earlier this year:And this is a picture I took with the Micromax A110, in Utrecht, Netherlands, earlier this month. Considering what I paid for the phone, I think it's been a complete value for money package </lj-cut>