Customer Reviews

The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/1000D Companion

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The Canon EOS Rebel cameras are basically entry-level DSLR cameras. If this is your situation and you recently purchased a Rebel XS--known as the 1000D outside of the U.S.--you may want to get this book. This book is a beginner book that is specific to your camera. It's a good book with which to start.

There are twelve chapters to this moderate sized book. The reader is given some very helpful screen shots of camera menus, as well as the displays that one will see through the viewfinder (i.e., the eyepiece) and on the LCD viewer screen. There are full-color images showing the camera with easy to understand text and lines pointing to exactly what to press or turn to set various things on the camera.

Getting to It

In the first few chapters, the author Ben Long teaches the reader about the camera in general: Chapter 1 shows the reader exactly what to do to get started taking pictures. It includes pictures of the switches on the camera and the lens and screen shots of the menus. The second chapter provides a well illustrated tour of the camera. Knowing where everything is on your camera will make you more comfortable using it. There's also information on the care and cleaning of the camera.

The third chapter covers how to view images and manipulate images within the camera. Many of these things you may figure out on your own, though. In the next chapter the author discusses how to copy images to a computer. This includes using the Canon utility program on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers, providing screen shots for both.

Photography Basics

The author turns his attention to teaching the reader about photography in general in Chapter 5 by discussing the basics components of exposure: ISO (i.e., sensitivity of the image sensor), shutter speed, and aperture (i.e., how wide the lens is opened). From there, in Chapter 6, he explains how to take pictures using a non-automatic mode. He covers the different methods of focusing, setting camera sensitivity, and adjusting white balance (i.e., image coloring based on lighting).

In the following chapter Long discusses the light meter and other exposure information provided by the camera. He gives advice on how to improve the camera exposure for the best lighting of the final images. In Chapter 8, he steps away from camera specifics a bit and explains how to compose a photograph--where to position the subject or the camera for the best shot.

Other Stuff

In Chapter 9, Long talks about using the live view mode (i.e., using the LCD panel for taking shots). He also speaks a little about taking panoramic photos and images in low lighting. These three topics seem to be loosely pasted together. Chapter 10 is about using the built-in flash and an external flash. There's not much to this chapter, but maybe it's enough for a beginner since Long explains how to deal with red-eye and how not to overexposure people with the flash. Those are the main problems of beginners.

Chapter 11 talks about the advantages and some steps involved in using the RAW image format. Most beginners probably shouldn't add it to their list of things to learn. The final chapter explains how to customize the 'My Menu' page. It also has a few pages on lenses: helping to decide which additional ones to buy. I'm not sure why Long didn't make a separate chapter for lenses and provide more information on them. Of course, most beginners don't think about getting a second lens for quite some time, at least a year.

Overall Thoughts & Reading Guide

Again, if you just bought a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS (or 1000D) and you're new to using a camera like this, you should buy this book and read it. If you do, I recommend taking your time and starting from the beginning of the book. Play with the camera along the way. If you're going to skip around and not read all of the book, I recommend skipping chapters 9, 11, and 12. If you want to lighten your reading load even more, you can probably skim chapters 3 and 4--reading only what catches your eye.

It is a pretty good book. However it was not written from the scratch. It is very much "find/replace" XSi with XS from the previous XSi edition. The book failed to differential XSi and XS and used XSi features on XS. For example, XSi has 9 focus points and XS has 7 focus points. The book repeatedly using 9 focus points. Don't take me wrong. It is a good book as long as you have done enough research and understand the differences between XSi and XS.

I got a Digital SLR for Christmas and signed up for classes at the local community college. This was the best book by far of any one else in the class. Very well written. Very easy to understand. I still reference it when I have forgotten what settings I need. I also ordered another book and it is not nearly as good. Nice examples of the pictures you may want to try to capture.

I absolutely love this book and highly recommend it to anyone with a Digital Rebel XS. It's easy to read and understand and is very informative. I read it cover to cover when I first purchased it and still use it as a reference a couple of years later.

Excellent, excellent. Easy to understand. Because of this book I use all my camera's features and understand the camera much betterf.

This one I did not think I was going to get delivered, to tell you the truth I forgot about it all together. So I guess you can say I recived a supprise.. The book was in almost new conditon. I will buy from this person, but in future at least let know more or less how late.

i bought this canon eos rebel xs (complete kit) which came of course with an instruction manual. since this is my first digital SLR, reading the manual was an ordeal since i am used to the traditional manually-operated-analog SLR.

i have since read the instruction manual for over 5 times now and i am still gradually getting the hang of it. it's a good thing that this book "canon eos digital rebel xs/1000D Companion Book" came along written by Ben Long. the book explains a lot of things that the instruction manual did not cover, of course, the manual did not explain why you are pushing certain buttons. but this companion book explains the "WHY's" of certain functions and gives a ton of tips not covered by the instruction manual. the instruction manual is so tiny and so hard to read. get this book and see what i mean. but i suggest you read first the instruction manual before you read this companion book. the book is well written and user friendly. i have scanned the other books pertaining to this camera but this particular edition by ben long is by far the best.

I bought this book right after I got my Canon Xs. In the couple of days since I have gotten almost half-way through. It's very easy reading. The 5-1/2"x8-1/2" format is very handy and the photos are crystal clear. The author's explanation is smooth and proceeds in a logical manner. There's a chapter on the general terminology surrounding f-stops, shutter speeds, focal-lengths, etc. at just the right spot, just before he gets into the manual settings available on the camera.

It does have some editing errors, in the form of missing sub-heads, missing bolding, buttons mentioned pages before you learn where they are, etc. But really none of this is a problem, and the spelling and ordinary editing work has been done well.

I'm very pleased with this book and would recommend it to any new Canon Xs owner.

Excellent beginners guide. What I like about this book is that it assumes nothing and goes into quite a bit of detail on each camera feature.

Definitely recommend.

An excellent guide for new owners of this camera. Very specific instructions and ideas on how to use it, and a thoroughly good investment. It is a good book to browse through slowly as there is a lot of information to absorb. Illustrations are good, too.