Customer Reviews

A Short Course in Canon EOS 10D Photography Book/CD-Rom

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

 

 

The outfit that publishes these useless manuals apparently operate under the philosophy that people will buy anything as long as the topic is of interest to them. This handbook is composed of essentially three different types of information. First and foremost, it simply repeats, in many/most cases word-for-word, information that is contained in the original user's manual. Second, there is a generic thread that applies to most common topics of photography woven throughout the text, such as using tripods to get sharper pictures, filters to alter the image, and so forth. This information really has nothing to do with the particular camera in question, and seems to be more of a filler than anything else. The other kind of information actually makes some weak attempts to address the unique specifications of the camera, with some orignal thoughts. In this area there are unfortunately very few insights that go beyond standard press release boiler plate. While they do cover basic issues such as lens conversions for the digital format (the 10D, D30 and D60 all use a multiplication factor of 1.6x to convert the standard focal lengths to the new digital focal length coverage, for example), they do so for some lenses, but ignore this very important factor for Canon's impressive line of macro lenses! Notable both for what it copies out of the manual, and for what it overlooks, this text is a complete waste of money--I would rate it "zero" stars if Amazon allowed us that option. My advice? Read the manual carefully, you will be much better off! This review covers all three digital Canons mentioned above--the same format, and much of the actual text, is identical for all three (and, I bet, for a great many other of the cameras that they produce these handbooks for)--run, do not walk, away from this "book"!

I bought this book with high expectances, but I don't see any fundamental difference between this and the Instruction Manual included (free) with the camera. Before the EOS 10D, which I deeply love, I had a Nikon Coolpix 990, and bought Peter iNova's "Mastering Nikon Compact Digital Cameras" e-book, for about the same money. This one is a really useful and outstanding book. It includes, besides the much better and detailed explanation of all of the camera's functions and tips, a mini course in Photoshop, a comprehensive course in digital photography, printing, special effects, filter operation etc., and a bundle of useful software (not only a couple of trial software) including a lot of iNova's own designed special filters for Photoshop, nothing of which goes in Mr. Curtin's book. With iNova's book, I received much more for the money that I paid. About Mr. Curtin's book, well, I'm very, very disappointed. I feel I loose my money.

The usefulness of this book to you will depend greatly on your level of photographic expertise. I am a complete amateur whose previous camera was the Nikon Coolpix 995 which I only used in auto mode. I didn't even know what an aperture was or why shutter speed mattered. After reading the prior reviews of this book it became evident to me that this is a VERY basic manual for beginners - like me. While a lot of the material in this book is also in the manual that comes with the camera, there is a lot more explanation that helped me to understand when and why I would want to make setting changes on the camera. It also uses actual photos (black & white) of the camera when showing where various buttons are rather than line drawings. The photographic samples (black & white) in this book are about 3" x 5" or larger, where the photos (also black & white) in the manual that comes with the camera are about 1 ¾" x 1 ¼" or smaller. I'm not knocking the manual that comes with the 10D. It seems logically organized and it certainly shows how to change all the settings on the camera. But for people like me, true beginners, this Short Course book helps bridge the gap so that I can now understand and use the information in the camera manual. In determining whether or not this book is right for you I'd ask yourself this question "Do I understand not only how to change the various settings on the camera, but also understand how they will affect the photograph I'm taking?" If your answer is "yes" then this book is WAY too basic for you and you won't learn anything new from it. If your answer, like mine was, is "no" then this manual will help bring you up to speed so that the camera manual becomes a good reference for you instead of an overwhelming conglomeration of camera settings. Perhaps a better title for this book would have been "A Beginner's Guide to Basic Photography with the Canon EOS 10D." While I do think this book serves a purpose for beginners, the price is too high - $15 to $19 would be more appropriate.

1) Take a general text on any given subject that has been written for 30yrs 2) Modify it slightly to avoid author conflicts 3) Modify it further to be model specific: you can probably get all the information from actual Owner's Manual. Duh?! ....and then mark it up enough so people think ...."Gee $27...There's probably some infomation in there worth having!" Sadly, my $27. didn't get me squat.

I did like the ring binding however.

Jim
Salisbury Maryland

I like this manual. It goes into a lot of (simple)detail about how the camera reads enviroments and adjusts and records pictures. Also explains much more so than the owners manual, about all the different settings and features, when and how to use them. I bought my 10D a couple of years ago and jacked with the manual for the longest-thinking it was going to teach me something new. Probably more camera than i needed at the time, but this manual has allowed me to grow into the camera at a much faster pace. This Short Course has allowed me to shift from the automatic modes to the creative modes where i have much more control over the captured images. Plus you get alot of additional manuals (in PDF) and also a couple of nice programs for your pictures.

If you own, or have access to this camera or any camera that Dennis Curtin has a manual for, and your confidence level is somewhat low,or your drive for knowledge is high, try his books/Short Courses. this book has worked well for me

This was in my shopping cart and I accidentally bought it along with three other books I really wanted. So, now that I have this EOS 10D book I must say it is VERY simplistic and not worth the $35 I paid for it. It is way too similar to the manual and offers an extrememly simplistic source on photography and digital graphics and imaging in general. For those that "don't read the manual" maybe this book will help.

Mea Culpa, Ken.

What a great book on understanding the complexities of the Canon 10D digital camera. Canon has produced a very sophisticated camera but their documentation stops short of actually understanding the whys and hows of digital images. This book is very easy to read and allows the novice to understand the principles and nuances of taking professional quality photos. The authors have included many sample photos as well as formatted the text with pertinent "Tips" to reinforce key points. They give great examples of how to go beyond the "automatic" modes provided by the 10D and teach you the steps to be more creative. I highly recommend for any owner of the 10D to add this book to your library.