Customer Rating:  
Summary: Average
Comment: As someone relatively new to Digital SLR's (but not photography) this gave me a brief overview however I found it a bit waffley and did not really get into assisting with getting the most out of your digital SLR camera. It covered a lot of things but not in any great depth.
I would highly recommend a couple of other books to look at as well if you are looking for a book of this type : (1) The Book of Digital Photography by Chris George or (2) The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 by Scott Kelby.
Customer Rating:
Summary: difficult
Comment: i was looking for a book to give me an idea on how a slr works with easy to understand writting. however i found that even the introduction was hard to understand if you are new to the scene.
so i must say i made a mistake buying this item purely because i needed something less complicated.
do not buy this item if you want something easy to read and are new to the world of photography. however if you already have a background of the subject then im sure it will be fine.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Comment: I am very much a hobbyist photographer with a limited in depth knowledge. This book is extremely helpful, not only does it help you understand how to use and set up your digital slr, but it explains technique for taking photos and provides a lot of helpful information regarding everything digital photography related. If you are only going to buy one book, i suggest you get this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for the more serious digtal photographer
Comment: I have learned more about the working and setup of my digital SLR from this book than by reading the camera's manual alone. This book explains the reasons certain features are useful and why you may want to use them, where the manual just skips over what options are available and a brief description.
For example, I now understand what the histogram display is telling me and what I can do with that information, why I may want White Balance Bracketing and what to watch out for when using my 35mm camera lenses on my digital SLR.
It does not just give details of the SLR itself, but proceeds in great detail on other associated subjects - Colour Calibration, editing, optimising, distribution and storage. It gives advice on accessories (flashguns, tripods, backup storage etc), hardware (laptops, wi-fi, printers) and probably every aspect of photgraphy that a professional would need to consider as far as 'tools of the trade' are concerned.
This book refers to Adobe Photoshop CS3 in detail, but does also give examples of other alternatives for editing and archiving your photos.
It is not a light read, but goes into a large amount of technical detail in several areas (it has the best article I've read on the differences between the various sensors used by different manufacturers).
If you just bought your digital SLR for a bit of light relief and aren't really concerned with how it does what it does then this probably isn't the book for you. However, if you are interested in getting the most from your camera and really want it to produce the picture your mind thought it had taken, then this gives the information and guidance that you wil need.
I have a couple of minor issues, relating to the sequence of the articles and the examples shown. For example the section on Advanced Optimising mentions Curves and Levels, which are actually explained a few pages after this article (although it is cross-referenced). And some of the before/after examples are printed too small for me to actually see any differences, although the descriptions in the related articles do describe what I should be able to see.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A reasonably experienced film photographer's guide to digital
Comment: If, like me, you understand film photography but have finally scraped together the money to buy a decent digital camera, then you will discover that your new toy is both familiar (focus, aperture, shutter speed) and very different (noise, histograms, washed out highlights). Also you will find that some film and darkroom processes (ISO rating, colour balance, cropping, shading) have moved to the camera or the computer.
This is the best written and most informative description of the technical aspects of the digital format that I have found. The illustrations are clear, the style is lucid, and the level of technical detail is sufficient to explain the technicalities without descending into horribly complex equations. It is also a good read - and definitely not boring.
Although the author explains things from the basics, in practice this is a not a book for a beginner, but rather for someone who already has a good basic knowledge of photography and wants to master the subtleties of the digital medium. So it is ideal for those converting from film to the new format.
One final comment: don't buy this book if you have a simple "point and shoot" digital camera! You'll get frustrated because, as the title makes clear, it is about digital SLRs and it assumes that you both have one and want to learn about using it.
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