Customer Reviews

David Busch's Canon EOS Rebel T1i/500D Guide to Digital SLR Photography (First Edition)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When it comes to useful camera guides, David Busch is the master. (The cover blurb notes that he is the #1 selling camera specific guide author, and I can understand why.) Like Scott Kelby he explains everything you need to know in a comprehensive yet conversational way, with lots of examples of how to use his tips. He provides something that none of the other guides, mostly rehashes of the vendor's manual, are able to do. Busch gives you an in-depth introduction to a camera like the Canon EOS Rebel T1i and to photography at the same time.

This book offers Busch's typical in-depth explanation of Canon's "upgrade" from the previous Rebel XSi. The T1i has more megapixels and the same full HDTV movie-shooting capabilities found in the professional EOS 5D Mark II. With such features, it is in many ways superior to Nikon's equivalent offering, the D90. Busch really understands the advantages of the T1i, and lays them out for you in his easy to understand style.

Need to learn how to set up and choose basic options for your T1i? Busch carefully explains every feature in about 150 pages of well-illustrated text. Other manuals skimp on these important details; Busch takes the time to clarify confusing choices, and refers you to later chapters if you want to learn more about the photographic techniques that use them.

Already understand your T1i's features and ready to master photography with your camera? Busch explains exposure more clearly in a single chapter than in entire books I've read on the topic. Ready to expand your lens collection? He includes an astonishingly complete chapter describing the best Canon lenses. Have you found that your T1i's sensor cleaning feature isn't perfect? Busch has a chapter that demystifies the scary topic of manual cleaning.

It's always a pleasure to review one of David Busch's books, especially his camera guides, because he doesn't follow the established paradigm of simply rehashing the vendor's manual with longer explanations. His approach is unique, and will help you become both a better Rebel T1i user as well as a better photographer.

Unlike the book Canon packs in the box with the Rebel T1i, this one is easily understood, and contains all the information you need in a sensible format. I am upgrading from a Digital Rebel XT, and have found that this book helps me learn all the features and adjustments quickly.

It contains many things the guidebooks I purchased for my XT did not have. Unlike the pocketsized books, this one is a full sized book with easily twice as much useful information and much more in depth explanations. It is better for learning your camera, and has much more complete discussions of the Custom Fn. settings and menu options than the other books I looked at. The pictures are all in color, not black and white as I found in another book, and are much larger than those used in the smaller digital field guide type books.

The writing style is friendly and great for a beginner, which I am not, and it also has a lot of depth. Busch really digs deep into the T1i's features and capabilities. He explains how to perfect your exposure, describes how autofocus works, and reveals the secrets of using Live View and movie-making. The Picture Styles section was very complete. If you're just starting out, this book will get you up to speed quickly. If you want to learn more about photography so you can use this camera better, it does that, too.

I love Canon products and have been very happy with my 40D. I bought a Rebel T1i specifically as a backup to my 40D because it had more megapixels, and also includes HDTV movie making. I ordered this book at the same time because I was so pleased with the Guidebook he wrote for my 40D. This book is also easy to read and much more detailed than anything else available for the T1i, particularly the user manual Canon includes with the camera.

Like his previous Guidebook, this one has nine chapters that explain how to set up the camera, a listing of each of the buttons and controls, what they do, and how to use them, and an exhaustive chapter that explains all the menus settings, with both a listing of options available and, most important, which options are best for particular kinds of shooting. The manual offered by Canon confuses me on these points, but here I found all I wanted to know. I am now confident that I can set up my camera correctly in all situations.

Before reading this author's books, I had problems getting the correct exposure at all times and often had out of focus images even when using autofocus. Now I understand, especially when using the new Live View feature. The explanations are much more clear than in the small Guidebooks which are as the other reviewer says pocketsized. I would much rather have all the information I need than to have a smaller book. I recommend this book if you are new to the Rebel T1i or even if you are upgrading from a previous Canon EOS camera.

I purchased this book as I have never owned a Canon digital SLR. The book is a comprehensive review everything about this camera. The photographs are great and each section ties back to a photo so that you can see what David is referring too. Unfortunately I have never owned this type of camera and am breaking into the technical part of photography. This book uses jargon that I had to then go look up or find another section of the book to understand. If you don't understand basic concepts of photography this is not the best book to start with.

There are some great on-line digital photograhy classes by John Greengo (at [...]) for those of you who are truely starting out and need to understand photographic concepts. (I have no affiliation with this group and am not paid by them.) You may want to consider understanding those concepts before you dig into this book. If you are already past that point then the book is probably just fine.

While I'm not a total novice to the DSLR world, this book is a great reference for everything about the T1i. I feel much more confident about getting the most from my camera now that I have this paperback. It is well written and full of valuable info. It is a resource to which I can return as needed. If you want to use your T1i to its fullest potential, you need this book.

A wonderful guide/manual which goes over, above and beyond the instruction booklet which accompanied the camera. Very informative, very thorough and a "MUST HAVE" if you are serious about fully getting to know and utilizing your Canon T1i.

This is a superb book that clearly explains all features of the camera in a much clearer way than the manual. The author not only tells you how to do things, but explains when different settings are apporpiate. While this is not a book on the principles of digital photography, it is an excellent supplement to such books. The only omission I found was on page 161 where the author discusses bracketing for High Dynamic Range photography. In listing the steps to capture the images, he neglets to point out that all images should be taken in aperture priority mode. Otherwise, the camera will change the exposure value by changing the size of the aperture and this will change the depth of field, causing the images to look different and making them difficult to merge.

Being new to SLR photography, I was not sure if I could learn all the features of my new Canon EOS by just reading the owners manuel. This book takes you step by step through all aspects of this camera, so that even an amateur like me can take fantastic pictures. If you buy this camera, you must buy this book as well, especially if this is your first SLR.

This is an easy to read book that gives you more than how t" use the camera, although that information is great. There are helpful explanations that provide information to help guide selections when shooting. Worth the read so you get the most out of your purchase.

This book is easy to understand, the chapters guide you thru all the camera functions. Very good a necessary for those who want to start to take photos with this type of camera.