Customer Reviews

Digital Video Solutions

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

 

 

Don't buy this thing. If you want to see how bad it is, go to the
publisher's site and read the sample chapter. It's obvious that the
author has never held a camera of any type but he still has the
courage to write about it.
Unfortunately, he often is just flat
wrong. On the very first page of that chapter he describes a pinhole
camera with a "bulging glass in the middle of the box." He
states that if you point the hole at something, light will go through
the lens and project on the other side of the box. A 10 year-old kid
knows that there is no lens inside a pinhole camera.
Another time
he says "when you 'stop down' on a camera, you are increasing the
aperture diameter. 'Stop up' means to decrease aperture
diameter." I've never heard of stopping up, but whatever you want
to call it, that statement is backwards. Stopping down, decreases the
aperture diameter. He calls depth of field "the field of
focus" and his explination of it has huge holes .
My personal
favorite is that he repeatedly refers to "video filming."
Say that around a video professional, and you'll be asked how you load
film into your video camera.(...)

This review is based on Chapter 3 only. I haven't seen the rest of the book.

1. The information provided is mostly trivial, suitable for one who never used any photo- or video-camera before. It might be your first book to enter the field - it certainly won't be the only book you need (IMHO).

2. Complaints of first reviewer are valid. E.g. page 39, last paragraph. The author basically describes a pinhole camera: "...take a lightproof box and make a tiny hole at one end..." But then he talks about a "bulging glass in the middle of that box..." - looks like clue-lack. Page 44, last paragraph (and the one above it) - mix-up of what "stop-down" means, and introduction of "stop-up". Page 48 - the author talks about Night Shot, forgetting to mention that this feature is found on Sony camcorders only (don't try to find it on your Canon, for example). Same page tell you that "for filming in bright sun at the beach use ... Sand feature" - it wasn't very enlightening (especially if you graced yourself with one pass over your camcorder's manual). Page 49 - don't know about yours, but my camcorder doesn't have Twilight setting.

To be fair - there were a few good tips in this chapter. Not enough for me to justify purchasing the book. Also, other chapters may contain more useful information - I don't know.

I had never owned a video camera before. This book helped me see the things I could do with it. I think I'll have this book around for a long time. If anything, it tries to cover too much in few pages. Perhaps as I get good at this, I'll understand the book better.

I'm afraid I don't have a clever title review, but I have read the book and I thought it was a great introduction to digital video techniques. It's got easy to follow examples and some great projects - it's even got some projects that you can do with your kids, which I thought was really fun. I'd recommend this book to people I know who are just starting out in digital video - already have, in fact, to my students.

This is a good book for PC users. Lots of the hardware and some of the software content is not needed by Macintosh users. The photography tips are excellent for all. It is well-written with lots of attractive Windows photographs, but if you are a Mac user, you already have lots of the digital video solutions that are in the book. If you are a PC user and are really, really serious about digital video-well-it could be time for a platform change.

This book turned my digital camcorder into a valuable tool. I can use it for much more than I thought. I'd recommend this book to anyone who recently bought a digital camcorder. Lots of stuff in relatively few pages.

This book teaches the basics of video making and editing very well. Walks you step by step through using the most common video-editing software. I found it very helpful. Previous reviewer sounds like he's grinding some unrelated axe. Somebody turn down your book proposal, tough guy?

Not sure what book the previous reviewers read, but I found Steward's book to be perfect for what I needed--a quick introduction to the subject of editing digital video. It got me up and running. A quick read with good results.

This book did a great job of explaining the basics and teaching me how to edit video with my new computer. I read chapter three, where the author does a good job of explaining the basics of how a camera works. And, contrary to what the previous reviewer says, he DOESN'T call it a pinhole camera at all. Not sure what that reviewer was reading. Perhaps that reviewer can cite the page on which the phrase "pinhole camera" appears. And who's Charlie White? Thanks.

This book brought my camcorder to life. I'm having a great time learning how to edit my videos, and make better all the way around.