A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second. - Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second. – Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

There have always been a few who have favoured the written word over a photograph and there have existed masses who have discovered a thousand words in every picture. The eye stumbles upon Nietzsche in a photograph… the mind hikes with Mark Twain as it scans a picture… and the smile that one click evokes is comparable to a poem by Wordsworth. Yes, pictures are important, despite what writers like Jarod Kintz say when they compare a picture with a thousand words by a lunatic. All I can say is that a picture never sucks… not even the ones where the haze hides the clarity or where rumbles and shakes meander with the colours and shapes of truth. Therefore, a camera in your pocket is a revolution that has a sublime impact on your living moments.

A camera in your pocket? This sounds rather improbable as we see more and more people fumbling and stumbling around with large and heavy DSLRs. I guess it is time for all such photography enthusiasts to know about the world’s thinnest 3x optical zoom smartphone or the ASUS Zenfone Zoom. As a traveller I have always believed that the world is a big place with endless things to explore and experience… and full of wonderful stories that are sometimes hidden in the details and easily escape attention. The digital age has ensured that we see more as we click more. I do this all the time and then I go through my photographs when I have time and discover all the little things that would have gone unnoticed had I not clicked. My stories are in the details of my pictures.

My stories are in the details of my pictures

Another thing that I want to mention here is that I do have a DSLR but don’t always carry it with me. But yet I hardly ever step out without a camera… no, I am no magician and don’t save shots in my brain with a blink but simply opt for a smartphone with a reasonably good camera. I mean, a phone isn’t just a phone anymore… I use it as a sketchbook, a notepad, a library with books, a messenger, and of course a device to do some distance voice chats. I’ll talk about these features in a later post, but for now let me just focus on the camera and photography. Jerry Shen, ASUS CEO agrees with what I have just written and he told me: “Photography has become extremely important for today’s smartphone users. Consumers want to capture every precious moment of their lives on their smartphone cameras, and also be able to perform multiple tasks with the same device. With ZenFone Zoom, we are introducing an unbeatable smartphone that adds value to lifestyles today and puts professional photography within the reach of everyone.” Let me add that such a smartphone would be wonderful for a story-teller like me.

We need to see the world up close and as I have already mentioned, the World’s thinnest 3X optical-zoom smartphone with 13MP PixelMaster camera,10-element HOYA lens, laser auto-focus and 5mm edge sounded impressive. But this isn’t all… the ASUS Zenfone Zoom is nearest to a pocket-sized DSLR experience with periscopic innovation, Smart FSI sensor, 52MP Super Resolution, 5cm macro shots and pro-style Manual mode. Quite obviously, these specifications were not possible with the smartphones that have been in the market so far as this is precisely what research in the world of innovative technology is all about. This monster performance of the ASUS smartphone is because it has a 64-bit quad-core processor. Other features like its 4GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB storage, 250Mbps LTE, BoostMaster fast-charging and Full HD display are what make it really indispensable for a phot enthusiast. For connectivity, I like postpaid sim only plans.

The rear camera benefits from dual-LED Real Tone flash as you will see in the photograph that I clicked at 4 in the morning to capture the early morning foggy view of trees… and so this feature creates the most natural illumination for indoor portraits, generating the perfect combination of yellow and white to capture lifelike colors and skin tones. ZenFone Zoom’s rear lens also has laser auto-focus to point and shoot with total clarity in just 0.03 seconds.

Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second. - Marc Riboud

Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second. – Marc Riboud

Not everyone is a story-teller
Not everyone is a photographer

Well, that’s quite true… but what is also a fact is that no one wants to store bad and unusable pictures. Pictures aren’t just for phone viewing… with other technologies improving, almost everyone loves to project them on to their large LED screens or get them printed and framed. Bad pictures from unworthy cameras in smartphones can cause a lot of heartburn so I guess it is time that the smartphone with you becomes a revolution in your pocket.

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Pictures clicked with the ASUS Zenfone Zoom…

When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls! - Ted Grant

When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls! – Ted Grant

When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice. - Robert Frank

When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice. – Robert Frank

To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, There are always two people the photographer and the viewer. - Ansel Adams

To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, There are always two people the photographer and the viewer. – Ansel Adams

You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams

You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams

Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. - Alfred Stieglitz

Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. – Alfred Stieglitz

For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. - Henri Cartier-Bresson

For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. – Henri Cartier-Bresson

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. - Richard Avedon

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. – Richard Avedon

A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know. - Diane Arbus

A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know. – Diane Arbus

There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes. - Abraham Lincoln

There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes. – Abraham Lincoln

A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away. - Eudora Welty

A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away. – Eudora Welty

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Buy Asus Zenfone Zoom here:

Flipkart: Asus Zenfone Zoom

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Arvind Passey
29 January 2016

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This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.