47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, August 5, 2006
This review is from: A Short Course in Canon EOS 30D Photography (Spiral-bound)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The book itself is well-written, and does very well at telling me why I should use the 1,317 features on the Canon 30D. That's what I wanted, and that's what I got. There are some disadvantages.
For $25 I would have expected color printing - in many cases the printed pictures in the book are almost useless because of the lack of color. And this is why I would say the CD is essential. I'd suggest that you get the CD or CD + book. Not only are the CD illustrations in color, there are many `animations` which you can click on to get additional, usually animated, instruction. Many of them are controlled by the mouse. An example is the animation on hard vs. soft light, where you use the mouse to drag a light away from or toward the subject, viewing the difference this makes in the illumination. This is also one of the animations where it's not immediately obvious just what you're supposed to do with the mouse to get the animation. But they usually tell you how to get the animation more clearly, so this is seldom a problem. Also unfortunately, to get the animations you must be on a computer connected to the internet - the animations will not work on a stand-alone computer.
As I mentioned earlier, the book tells you not just the use of the buttons, but a background in photographic principles. For example, they have 4 pages on depth-of-field, including how you can control it and how it affects your images, including two animations to illustrate the concepts. Even if you're fully conversant with depth-of-field, it's still worth going over.
This is the kind of book where you need to have the camera within reaching distance. And be sure you have the Canon instruction book right close - on several occasions the instructions tell you to `To access the DoBeep function, push the reberfar button', with no hint as to where the reberfar button IS! But then again, I guess any semi-adequate 30D owner should have memorized the location and function of all the buttons and dials by the third day :>)
Bottom line - would I buy it again? You becha'. It is, after all, the very best book published on the 30D!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must have book for the 30D owner, January 9, 2007
This review is from: A Short Course in Canon EOS 30D Photography (Spiral-bound)
One of the best books I ever read - perfectly tailored towards the Canon 30D. I have my 30D a year now, use it on a regular basis and still found some information I was not aware of. Go and get it!
Only thing I have to criticize: Book is printed in black and white not in color - kind of defeats the purpose. So I printed the color version of the book from the DVD and I LOVE it!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Buy the CD not the book !!!, February 23, 2007
This review is from: A Short Course in Canon EOS 30D Photography (Spiral-bound)
As other reviewers have said, this is for the book and the CD which only has a readme and the an Acrobat File of the book. The PDF is beautiful and well illustrated compared the the book which is printed in black and white and is really only good as a field reference. I would have preferred going to the authors website and just buying the CD instead of the book and printing it out myself in color.
No complaints about the contents, I just disappointed in the quality of the black and white book which was just printed off an a laser printer and spiral bound.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
