Customer Reviews

A Short Course in Canon EOS 5D Photography book/ebook

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

 

 

If you don't know more than this book teaches about photography you should have never bought a Canon 5D. How to mount a lens? How to zoom a lens? Come on. This is a rehash of photography 101. I've never sent in a book review before but this book is such a waste of money, I had too.
DO NOT BUY!

Unfortunately, having bought this book provided me with no value as it covers the basics that I learned a long time ago. This book is aimed at users who have never held an SLR in their hands (film or digital), and it is a complete miss on the intended audience as anyone not familiar with the notions outlined in this book is highly unlikely to buy an EOS 5D.

Furthermore, the book has a kind of photocopied, B&W look and feel that certainly does not justify the high price charged, which rules out even putting it on your bookcase, in case your five year old decides to learn about photography and you elect to let them do it with your EOS 5D... ;-P

A complete waste of money, which is a shame considering I could have spent hard earned dollars on books that taught me something.

DO NOT BUY unless you have no idea of what depth of field is, in which case, sell your EOS 5D and buy yourself a Nikon FM2 to learn how to take photographs.

Shame it was not described better.

P.S. I never wrote a book review but this screams for my 2c worth.

Download the instruction manual from Canon, go to Kinko and have them spiralbound this manual and you have a far better "short course" than this offered here. I bought the short course for the D20 and was very disappointed. I personally like the Magic Lantern books for their simple language. The one for the D5 is not yet out, but can pre-ordered.

The book is a general photography book angled toward the D5 controls and how to operate the camera. It can be very basic on the photography technique side but in some way's that's the books strength in reminding you why you are using that technique. It's a very good book for beginners and intermediates a like but I suspect those with an advanced knowledge of photography will find the book far too basic to read about how the D5 works. What lets this book down is the very poor printed version almost a photocopy print the advantages are the spiral binding allowing you to leave the book open when you play with the camera and the a full colour version of the book on CD.

Each time I get a camera I go buy the related 'Short Course' and have never been disapointed with the material.

Make sure you have access to a color laser or be prepared to take the CD with color PDF to print out the full color version. The printed book is B&W which is odd giving the subject is about color digital cameras rather than Black and White photography. I'd glady pay $5 extra for a full color binded booklet.

Also if you own a Canon camera make sure you visit Canon's website to get an electronic version (PDF) of your cameras manual. That way you can print that out too, but tell your printer to print it FULL PAGE so you can punch and put into a three ring binder and have a large print manual with plenty of room for your own notes. This is much easier to read as you are learning your new Canon camera than the included tiny manual in the box.

Canon 5D is not my first digital camera;In digital "era" I owned first an Olympus 3030 ,six years ago, a Canon 20 D 2 years ago and now the 5D, and I can say this tool brings back the technical capabilities of film cameras to those older amateur photographers allready accustomed with the performance of a film SLR.I read lot of stuff on photo topics including of course the owner's manual :), but after reading this course I can say it's the easiest way for a begginer to understand principles of photography and how to manage and to get maximum of performance from such a tool in a very short time.Well done and thank you Mr Curtin.

This is an very informative book, written in easy to follow instructions, the DVD that comes with the package is a very helpful tool.
Recommended for all Canon EOS5 users
Regards
Terry