Xperiance : Chambhargad , Songad and Gandharpale Caves

I have always been a sony fan right from the day i started handling gadgets , my music player , my first camera , my mobiles so far ( starting from very old J230 , F305,Xperia active and now xperia ZR) everytihng has sony ( or ericsson ) imprinted.

  I had xperia active before for two years , it did survive few treks , swims and regular baths but it had few shortcomings for a outdoor phone. First it was really not that waterproof , water would still peep in and after having bath for some time you would need to keep it for drying , but it would not stop working , GPS was disappointing and camera was below average sony standard . But still it was a great phone and held it pretty well considering the amount of torture it had to suffer.

So when my xperia active retired , actually i decided to retire it when sony decided to launch Xperia z . Xperia Z was too big for outdoor use and i had to wait for few more months before they launched Xperia ZR. SO here are my xperiances with xperia ZR in wild.

                  Monsoons in Maharashtra are beautiful and intense especially in the coastal region of Konkan. Taking your DSLR out in these rains means death by drowning, few years back i had started fantasizing the option of carrying extra point and shoot camera but then came xperia active and now xperia ZR. I wanted something more than a waterproof camera , a phone , a GPS device and a navigator to sum it all.
                We decided to plan one day trek this week , chambhargad and songad in Mahad region , Raigad District. Trek in raigad during monsoons ...i knew i wont be able to take my DSLR out but carried it anyways.
                 Started sunday early morning we had to ride to mahad via Varadha Ghat , one of the most scenic of the ghat roads in maharashtra fortunately it was not raining when we started. Landscape changed distantly after crossing Bhor , it was all green and rice fields were visible now ...we were nearing Konkan . We drove through numerous waterfalls , rice fields for 2-3 hours before we stopped for hot tea and snacks. some enormous waterfalls were visible on the opposite mountain tried capturing it with Xperia ...click !! click !!! all dark ... it was too cloudy and too far away for a phone to capture this contrasting scene ..... HDR ??  .. i was not sure if this option was available but to my surprise it was ... decent picture not as clean as camera but still not bad ...

Tried capturing the waterfall by zooming in ...bad idea ... i had to tell my self ...digital zoom ...its like fake tooth ...it is there but you cant use it really. Very quickly i knew crisp photos and 16x zoom ( they dont mention its digital but it is) dont go hand in hand ..but thats the case with all mobile cameras ... Wish sony had done better in this part ..a carl zeiss would help.

 Reached mahad and waited for Sushil to turn up from mumbai. "Which way is chambhargad ?? " Bartakke ..." as per the book its to south of Mahad " Jeetu ...but which way is south ?? ...checked for the compass in phone ...it doesnt come as default installation now ...maps would help ...i was bit sceptical considering how well GPS in xperia active worked without data connection ...but lets check anyways ...started maps and my current location was already identified ...impressive ( GPS + GLONASS may be )

Chambhargad was short but steep took 45 minutes to reach top which included path searching for 10 minutes , ample grass covering and stopped rain means great opportunity to capture dew drops ...seized !!
Point and shoots sometime do better on this front than DSLRs ... xperia ZR didnt disappoint either ... focusing was bit tiring though but camera offers different metering modes and focusing even on smaller objects works fairly well.

Landscapes were pretty good as well ... wish the camera had aperture setting as well ...greedy !!

 After heavy breakfast of eggs, bananas, apples and whatever we could find started descending. choosed different route this time ...steep descend ... we struggled for a while to find it and was way too risky but we managed to reach the base somehow ...trek and risk do go hand in hand :)

Songad was just few kms towards rajgad road ... reached the base village ... one nice Uncle .. working in SAP ... showed us the route after giving his complete family history , few precious minutes wastes ...Damn it !!! but got to know the route atleast.
It had started raining badly by now ...so bad that even visibility was affected by it ...all the other cameras went hiding ...xperia ZR was the only one capturing now.
Crossed a ridge ...missed the route ..crossed another ridge and steep climb through waterfall and along the ridge and finally after 1 hour and 15 minutes we were at top ... SAP uncle has predicted 2 hours :P

While climbing i had switched on GPS and my tracks ...it was recording pretty well but because of lack of data connection google maps were not loading ...but GPS was still working ...hurray !!!

It was still raining ...had our lunch in the rain itself ...tried HD recording and  it works really well even in heavy rains ...no issues ... self timer ...tick ...works well ... camera against bright light ...needs improvement.

 Descended in 45 minutes  ... SAP Uncle 1 hr ..Visited gandharpale caves ...old buddhist caves before returning home

To conclude our trek and the Xperia ZR review , it not a great camera but its not ment to be ...what it is , is a great outdoor device , decent GPS ...i would have still liked dedicated GPS sensor but still its good and works well ... screen is awesome and works well under water ...bit sluggish under water the wet finger detection but still good ...sound is clear ....its fast and efficient ,overall a satisfying smartphone ..and the best thing about Xperia ZR is i can still update my blog while in bath tub :)