Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide by David D. Busch
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Book Reviews of Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide
Book Review: Photo lessons specfic to the D80, but too heavy to be a field guide
Summary: 2 Stars
If you bought a D80 as your first camera this is a fair book. Many, though, are much better at explaining the basic concepts of photography. But if you know what depth of field is, you don't need this book; look elsewhere.
Only about 20% of this is D80 specific and that part is simply a large-print version of the factory "book".
It's also mis-named as being a "field guide". If should have spiral binding so I can lay the book down with the page open while handling the camera. That should be a feature on ANY camera instruction book.
I'm a semi-pro shooter and I got more and better info on what the buttons do from the fold-up guide also for sale within Amazon.
Okay, I've had a bit more time with the book and want to raise the rating to four stars. Why four? Depth of field is explained, yes, but a more careful and thorough reading shows that Busch has described the function as it's employed on the D80. ditto for the other million functions and I'm finding camera-specific information to be very useful.
Why not 5 stars? I gave up my huge camera bag with several lenses, extra bodies, filters etc. after lugging it around Russia for a month; it took almost a year for my hip to heal. I sold it all and went the one camera with one lens route with Photoshop on the laptop (I don't lug it around). With light weight as a tactical goal, a slick-paper book is just too darn heavy to be called a Field Guide. Read this, keep it on the shelf, and take the lighter-weight Nikon manual as a reminder.
Book Review: not the greatest
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought this book would be a better reference for the D80 than the manual, but in fact, the manual was better organized and more precise. I felt the author jumped all over the place and I didn't really learn much more about the camera than what was offered in the D80 manual.
This author seems like a very knowledgeable photographer though. The editing of this book is horrible... spelling mistakes throughout.
Book Review: Glorified instruction manual
Summary: 2 Stars
I found that this field guide was somewhat useful in explaining many of the features of the camera and how to use them, but I wish I would have saved my money because the instruction manual has much of that information. I would recommend this to beginners or to someone who wants a somewhat more informative manual than is provided by Nikon. Anyone looking for a how to book on photography using the D80 should look elsewhere.Book Review: Hardly about the D80 at all...
Summary: 1 Stars
David D. Busch is an accomplished photographer and author. He has said of this Field Guide, "I think it's my best yet of the five guidebooks I've written". I tried hard to find reflections of this expertise and confidence in the book. I did not succeed. Perhaps the problem is in editing. Busch has allowed, "early copies of this book fell victim to a production error that inadvertently deleted the hyphens", but there are more serious editing errors in the later version of the book. For all that, I find the real problem is the content. Or lack thereof.
This book is a terrible disappointment. It is only marginally about the D80. Well over half the book is on general photography: exposure essentials, all about lenses, working with light, over 70 pages on photo subjects (taking pictures of fireworks, lighthouse photography practice...), etc. Though the lenses mentioned are Nikon, there is no attempt to make this large part of the text D80 specific.
What D80 material there is is just the manual restated. Except the Field Guide has less detail than the manual.
The Index seems satisfactory until you discover the two-column, ten-plus-page Glossary has been entered into the Index. Many Index entries point to nothing but the Glossary; the topic is not even covered in the text.
I tried rereading the generic photography material to get some value from the book, but that material is spread over so many topics it is superficial.
Perhaps a Field Guide is not supposed to contain any technical detail. However, the lack of familiarity with the D80 is exemplified by such as the photo QT.-12 showing the USB cable being plugged into the D80; except it shows the cable being plugged into the Wired Remote Port.
There are two Amazon offerings that are vastly superior to this book: Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D80 (Magic Lantern Guides) and A Short Course in Nikon D80 Photography book/ebook.
Book Review: Not for me
Summary: 1 Stars
After reading this book I don't understand why anyone would buy it over using the Nikon D80 Manual that comes with the camera. The Nikon manual describes everything that you might need to know about using you D80. The book, on the other hand, glosses over many important details of how to specifically use the D80. Don't think that you need an extra book when you have a free and complete manual. Read the manual; skip the book.