Customer Reviews

David Busch's Olympus PEN EP-2 Guide to Digital Photography

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

 

 

By far the best camera guide I've ever seen. Whereas most competing books do a quick overview of the options and then launch into generic how to take pictures advice (which is likely too simplistic and therefore not useful to someone who shells out for an advanced camera like the E-P2), Busch's book concentrates almost exclusively on the various sundry options for this Olympus camera. The book is clear and absolutely essential for those who have bought (or want to buy) a Pen E-P2.

The owner's manual that Olympus provides with the Pen E-P2 is clear but doesn't help decide when the various options might be useful. Unless you're already an advanced photographer you'll find yourself asking the question, "Sure I now know how to change that setting, but why would I want to?" This is where David Busch's book comes in. It is a comprehensive guide to the E-P2 and explains clearly in large color pictures and text how to get better photos from what is already a fantastic camera. I found it to be a superb book, well laid out and, at the price, excellent value for money. I highly recommend it and suggest that, along with your tripod, alternative lenses and flashgun, it forms an essential component of every Pen photographer's kit.

Because I own this camera, I was already aware that it doesn't have a built-in flash, and chalked the reference to such as a typo, rather than some humongous technical error. (The introduction of the book lists a URL for an errata page where reader-submitted corrections will be posted.) I also own one of Busch's previous books, and think it makes sense to share descriptions of basic concepts like shutter speeds and f-stops, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. When a new version of Photoshop comes out, I don't expect different descriptions of how to use the Selection tools. Beyond the basics, everything in this book relates directly to the Olympus camera and its use. I thank the author for taking the time to come out with the first, and so far only book written specifically for Pen E-P2 owners.

This is a very helpful book. It is much clearer than the Olympus manual, which contains a lot of information but is marred by tiny type and imperfect English grammar. Rather than simply repeat what the manual says -- and there are several long tables in the manual that are quite reasonably referred to by cross reference -- the authors try to explain how and when various camera features are most useful. Some of this explanation occurs in the chapters on general photographic technique in the second half of the book. More experienced readers may be tempted to skip over these chapters, but I'd advise reading or at least skimming the entire book. An avid amateur, I've owned a variety of Olympus cameras before the PEN E-P2, starting with my beloved OM-1 some 35 years ago as well as several compacts and two Olympus DSLRs, and I still learned more than expected from this book. Yes, novice and intermediate users will gain the most, but IMHO this book is a worthwhile read for all but the more seasoned pro. Recommended.

This book is essential for any EP-2 owner and generally excellent.

There is so much to the EP-2 that it is almost impossible to fully grasp all the camera can do without reading this book first.

I would seriously recommend this book to those contemplating buying into this camera system. I would have bought the camera as soon as it came out if I had seen this book.

The photos in there help you grasp what the options can do; many options are near impossible to grasp without this photo visualization.

The flash section is particularly informative.

This book resolved practically every question I had.

Olympus should put the book on the CD that came with camera.

This book is exactly what I was wishing for. I'm a relatively experienced photographer, but the many options on my Olympus PEN E-P2 had me rather mystified. This book explains everything and tells me WHY I might want to use all the various settings. I've learned a ton!

The book is very comprehensive and has a lot of detailed information.[[ASIN:1435457404 David Busch's Olympus PEN EP-2 Guide to Digital Photography))
Purchased at Amazon.

I appreciated this book for helping me get more familiar with my camera and teaching me some great photography concepts.
My main problem was that the authors don't seem very familiar with the product itself and labelled certain parts wrongly and not ever labelling the speakers at all. A certain section of the book even alluded that the camera has a built-in flash. Anyone who has this knows there is no flash!! Major point or buyers to take into consideration yet they make a guide and ignore it. Sounds like a copy/paste. It helped me a lot but if I didn't have certain facts about my camera from prior research, it would have confused me. I read the book from front to back initially.
I would strongly recommend for the great shooting and lighting tips but everything else, grain of salt.

I purchased three of David Busch's books over the years - Nikon D-200 (hardcover) and the Nikon D-90 and Olympus PEN E-P2 for my Kindle. They are very elementary books with about 80% of the material basic, first-time digital user dialog. The balance improves on the users manuals for these cameras, but only slightly. Touted as books to teach you "why" certain settings should be used, they lack any real substance in this regard with the majority of text devoted to lengthy passages devoted to step-by-step instructions to activate certain features; i.e. such as which direction to press the multi-selector to move through menus. I'm not certain, but I could swear these three books are "cut and paste" copies of each other with the names changed to sell more books. I am also disappointed that some of the instructions are just wrong. For example, in the chapter on using flash by "Connecting Multiple Non-dedicated Units to Your Olympus PEN E-P2", Mr. Busch says, "Finally some flash units have an optical slave trigger built-in, or can be fitted with one, so that they fire automatically when another flash, INCLUDING YOUR CAMERA'S BUILT-IN UNIT, fires. The E-P2 does not have a built-in flash.

This book is a good comprehensive, well written supplement to the 'brochure' that comes with the camera.