Customer Reviews

Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS 5D

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

 

 

I routinely buy a Magic Lantern Guide for my cameras as these books are more informative, with better explanations and tips, than the camera manuals. The Canon EOS 5D Magic Lantern Guide does not live up to their standards and is nothing more than a wordier camera manual. It lacks color photos to show various white balance settings, and other topics enhanced by color photos. It also lacks diagrams that show camera settings, as does the manual, and it leaves out important details also found in the manual. I wouldn't bother buying the guide, instead use the Canon's camera manual and its quick reference guide. Supplement this with a general book on shooting in digital and how to work with histograms.

After purchasing the Magic Lantern Guide for the Sony A-100, I ordered this as soon as I purchased the Cannon 5D. The A-100 guide was well written, well organized, and contained information not included in the manual. The Canon 5D guide is poorly organized and contains less information than is found in the manual. On several occasions I have grabbed this book first only to be unable to find the information needed. In those cases, the manual was the better reference.

My advice, don't buy it, use the manual or find a guide that is well organized and complete.

Magic Lantern guides have always proved to be an invaluable addition to a photographers library. They are formatted roughly in the same way sequentially as the instruction manuals that come with a new camera. The difference is that the Magic Lantern guides expand on each section to provide understanding not just explanation. Each section is also brimming with tips from the pro's on how to achieve the best outcomes and how to get the most out of the available functions. The guide for the EOS5 lives up to expectations in these respects. The biggest gripe we have about this guide is that it appears to have been rushed to print after the release of the camera. As a consequence it is full of typographical errors from misspellings to missing words. Nothing that affects the integrity of the information but it does however reduce the quality of the publication and the credibility of the publishers. Not to mention being a bit of an insult to anyone that buys the book.

This book may be fine for those who have lost their manual. But if you haven't lost your manual you wont be needing this book.

Detailed info that you'd never know to improve you photographic skills are in this book. Automatic option is fine, but knowing the many effects and options this camera has to offer should be taken advantage of.

Get the new 5D Field Guide that just came out instead. That is way better than this. This is more like an expanded manual. The 'Field Guide' covers everything you can do, including which lens to buy, which accesories, etc. in FULL COLOR! This book just sits on my shelf unread.. actually I just went to find it to confirm something for this Lantern review.. Guess what? It is LOST! No real loss ..LOL I think it has a pull out cheat sheet which might be the most useful part. But ever there.. get the BLUE CRANE Digital lamenated fold-up cheat sheet instead.

Why not use the canon manual packaged with the camera? For the most part I did not find anything "extra" or "enlightening" from this manual...Very disappointing.

Did you know memory cards with the 5D must be replaced after 9999 shots? One of the few useful facts the Canon manual did not have which the Magic Lantern series did.

*addendum to my review---After my 5d memory card stopped recording after 9999 shots I used in my Rebel XT. I recently reinserted the card back into my 5d & it worked! Apparently after using with by XT model the counter defaulted to "0" which enabled use with my 5D again.

I find the Magic Lantern Guides to be very helpful. I've used them for the Canon Rebel XT, the 30D, and now the 5D. I don't understand the few negative comments I've seen here about these guides. Of course, I'd like to see even more detail with examples on several of the features in the 5D guide, but I guess that kind of knowledge must come from experimentation with the camera.

This review was more basic that what I was hoping for. Great book for basic digital photography knowledge but I wanted something a little more in depth on creative processes.

This is a gotta have book for the 5D.It goes beyond the Canon user manual.
I am happy in every way with my online purchase. Lower price and fast delivery.