Customer Reviews

Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D40

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this book along with the d40x Field Guide, and have to say the Field Guide is much better. This book offers little that the original manual doesn't already have.

Get this instead.

Nikon D40/D40x Digital Field Guide

Sorry to be the skunk at the garden party, but this book did nothing for me. The writing is stilted and abtuse and there's little in here that goes beyond the owner's manual, which is actually clearer and easier to understand. The author spends several pages on AF (autofocus) modes and settings and only confused me further. He uses terms like "moire" and "aliasing" without explaining. You have to go to the glossary in the back for elaboration.

Waste of money; just read the owner's manual or visit www.kenrockwell.com and get ken's easy-to-follow D40 guide.

This book is a terrific guide to help understand all the functions of the D 40, and I realized that it gave me significant insight concerning not only what functions were on the D 40, but what settings and features should be changed from defaults.Very useful.Thanks to the author and Magic Lantern Guides.

I once had the original manual, pocket size which comes with the D40 but can no longer locate it. I did find it rather dry, and involving a lot of page flipping and searching for related information, and rather small type in order to be pocket size, so I thought buying some commercial camera guides would help.

I didn't. I got this and also the Nikon D40/D40x Digital Field Guide. I found that stuffed with some general theory and this, well, for one thing, the quick reference wallet cards have unreadably tiny print, there are instances of page references which were left blank, and too much flipping from section to section. The spine here does not permit such page flipping, and the pages separate from the spine. The author presents his own examples of, for instance depth of field, etc., and some general advice, but over all I find the Nikon USA website's manual much more accessible, clearly presented and to the point.

Just copy out the number on the bottom of your D40, go to Nikon USA print out for free the manual. You of course control the output size: I printed it on regular letter sized paper and received a very visible copy, best yet and punched for a three ring binder. I wish I could find the original manual, which seemed to have even more information dedicated to this great little camera, but it will turn up somewhere in the future.

Even if you do not have your camera with you, and have not registered at the site, you can still view an unprintable copy of the manual there and take notes. It is very clear and very helpful to open up all of the possibilities of your camera.

Shoot in peace!

This book is very in depth, but it fully explains things that the user manual leaves out. Additionally, it gives hints from the author about settings and strategies. This book is not a "sit down and read" book, but is more of a reference. I recommend this book if it is for your first Nikon camera body, otherwise you may not find much use of it if you are already familiar with Nikon digital bodies.

This guide is OK, but I prefer Ken Rockwell's handy guides instead. You can find them on the web and download PDF versions for a donation. Ken's are better (in my opinion) and a better value as well.

I have found the Magic Lantern guides very very helpful over the years and this one is no exception. Highly recommended.

This guide fills out the missing pieces the D40 instruction manual left out. I gave it a quick skim through to get an over view of the advanced functionality of my camera. Now I take it with me when I'm shooting... to look up tricks and tips to get the right shot in the field.

Highly recommended!

The book is difficult for me to understand, however, I believe this is due to my total lack of knowledge of photography terms. The Nikon D40 is a difficult camera for the novice to understand unless using the point and shoot options. I have been reading and rereading the book, and the knowledge is gradually coming through. The book is much better than a DVD I purchased on the same subject.

I got this book and it is just an expanded version of the user's guide that came with the camera. I picked up David Busch's Field Guide and it is much more helpful than this one.