Nikon D200 Digital Field Guide by David D. Busch
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.99 You Save: $14.00 (70%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.02 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Nikon D200 Digital Field Guide
Book Review: The Book That Should Have Shipped With The D200!
Summary: 5 Stars
I normally don't write reviews, but this book is excellent! Being an avid film SLR enthusiast in my teens and early twenty's, I somehow ended up totally out of the SLR game for about 20 years. When my D200 came in, I was amazed at how bad the manual was and immediately went online to see if anyone had authored a book on the D200. The D200 Digital Field Guide was the first hit in Google and I preordered it immediately from Amazon.
Now I'm sure that for those who have been working with digital SLR cameras for a while, the manual was somewhat informative, but for me it was more of a pain. It explained how to set features, but not what they did or how they impacted the resulting photograph. For those who are just getting in (or back in) to photography and have the Nikon D200, this book is a must have. Look at it as a companion to, or better yet, an interpreter for the manual. Everything the manual left out is covered here in detail. And, for those few places the manual did cover things adequately, the author still touches on it for a bit of additional clarification. This book should have been shipped with the D200, as it provides clarity on how the camera handles things like metering, exposure, noise reduction and auto focus along with every other feature Nikon packed into the camera.
When book finally arrived from Amazon last week, I found that by the time I was a few pages in, the help I needed had arrived. By page 10, I was comparing the information presented in the book (which sat in the left hand) to the camera (which was in my right hand) as I was reading. Just a few chapters in and about an hour later, I was able to get much better results from the camera.
I really appreciate the author's comprehensive dedication to the subject. During the few months it took for the camera to arrive, I decided to evaluate current literature on the topic to prepare me for when the camera came in. I ended up buying Mastering Digital SLR Photography, also by David Busch. That was an easy, yet very informative read. When I purchased Adobe Photoshop CS2 recently, I headed back to the local bookstore and after sifting through the various books on the subject, settled on Photoshop CS 2.0: Photographers Guide, not realizing Busch had authored that book too. Busch presents the topics in each book in a great manner and I've been very pleased with all of them.
Book Review: All jokes aside, this is a great resource for the D200
Summary: 5 Stars
I tend to actually read the books I review, and in this case, after doing so, I find that the vast majority of the content in this book deals directly with the D200. No fluff. No wasted space, just good, solid information about a camera that can be mightily confusing for the new owner.
In my copy, the first six chapters, Quick Tour, and the Troubleshooting appendix all concentrate on the D200, in much more detail than the Nikon manual, and much more clearly, too! Even the menu illustrations, which are in full color, are more informative than those in the tiny manual. Chapter 7 is the only general photography chapter. It provides guidelines for shooting photos in 20 common picture-taking situations. Although some of the information is basic to intermediate photography in this chapter, the included tips are all specific to the D200. There is no comparison between this full-color book and the owners' manual at all.
If you are a professional photographer, you probably don't need this book. But, if you're upgrading from the D70s or D50, or another brand camera, you'll want to jump start your journey up the learning curve by taking advantage of the sage advice found here. The chapter on general photography is good if you need to brush up on your skills, too. I can't make silly comparisons between this book the the Magic Lantern edition, because it hasn't even been released yet. However, I suspect that the D200 Digital Field Guide will stack up very well against other publishers' black and white guidebooks, and most of the DVDs, too.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: Much, much better than the owner's manual
Summary: 5 Stars
About the only thing this book shares with the modest (but useful) manual furnished with the D200 is that both of them are dedicated to bringing you the facts you need to operate this sophisticated camera. The original manual is terse and basic, is illustrated with only line drawings and NO photos, and reads more like a reference book than an actual camera guidebook. The Nikon D200 Digital Field Guide, on the other hand, brings the camera to life with friendly, meaty explanations of camera functions and settings, all illustrated in full color, and with hundreds of brilliant photos.
Because the D200 isn't an entry-level camera, it justifies more than the just-the-basics treatment that it gets from other sources. That's what I found in this book. The fundamentals are there, but the author also diverges into other areas that will help make you a better photographer. I was particularly impressed that all this information is included in a book that's compact enough to take with you anywhere. If you understand the concept of "Field Guide," you'll know the purpose of this book. There's no fluff about software, padding that tells you how to post your photos on a Web site, and, best of all, like other books from this author that I have reviewed, none of the simplistic, condescending tone you often encounter. This one is a keeper.
Book Review: Satisfying introduction to a wonderful digital camera
Summary: 5 Stars
The Nikon D200 is a wonderful digital SLR, but may be a little daunting to those who are upgrading from one of Nikon's entry-level cameras, or another brand. It has many options and settings, and is more similar to the "professional" D2X than to the cameras priced more closely to it.
That is why I was pleased to see this excellent introduction to the D200 available so soon after the camera itself came out. This book does not cover all the most technical mumbo jumbo pertaining to the D200, although it does go into considerable depth. That's a good thing. New owners don't want to start right out with obscure settings and capabilities that they don't really use. Considering this book's modest price, I think it strikes just the right balance.
The D200 Digital Field Guide is very thorough where it counts, in the introduction to the camera's layout and its features, and descriptions of how to use the settings. It also has deep coverage of the most important photography concepts as they relate to the D200, such as use of lenses and lighting effects. There are many books that have 250 pages of good information in them, but, unfortunately, they are often 600 page books! This one has 250 pages of exactly the right information, with no fluff and no extraneous material. If you own a D200, you need it.
Book Review: The best overall guide to the D200
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best overall guide for the D200 available. It skips the manual mumbo-jumbo, assumes a general knowledge of photography (although it does a basic review of aperture/shutter speed settings) and leaps right into how to use this camera. This is the book that any new user of the D200 should read. It clearly illustrates the menu features, but spends half of the book on actual shooting conditions -- how to get the most bang for your buck in different shooting situations. Anyone who has used one of David's previous field guides will find that this is up to the same quality as expected. And as your needs grown, you will find the data in the book as well (I skipped the entire section on using multiple flash units - until I actually needed to do it, and lo-and-behold, there the information was!). If you have general knowledge of photography and want to leap right in, this is the book for you. If you want another manual, then the Magic Lantern Guide (manual) will be for you. If you are a beginner and need more than just the basics on camera usage, look at the Short Course in D200 Photography book. For most users, this is the best resource for what you need.