Great Beginner Book for Canon XSi Users!
Written: Dec 31 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clear, concise, well written book that demystifies DSLRs and makes the XSi fun to own.
Cons: Chapter on transferring images may be a bit too basic and unnecessary.
The Bottom Line: Must have book for a newbie XSi user. The author does a great job of walking you through step by step and does not patronize you for being a novice.
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| flashfriday's Full Review: |
I was fortunate enough to get this book as part of a Canon XSi bundled deal through Amazon. The author Ben Long clearly made this book with the understanding that there are a lot of people just getting into DSLR photography now that these great cameras have dropped dramatically in price. This book includes 11 great chapters that do a great job of walking you through all the amazing features and functions of the Canon XSi. By the end of this book you will not only feel much more confident using your Canon XSi you will also have learned the basics of digital photography. Here is a brief recap of each chapter:
Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Rebel XSi
This chapter does a very good job of walking you through all the buttons and basic shooting techniques. I love the fact that Ben Long encourages the user to start taking photos immediately. I was amazed at how gratifying and easy it was to take stunning pictures with just a few simple tips.
Chapter 2: Anatomy of the Rebel XSi
Here Ben teaches you the basics of what an SLR camera is and how to clean and maintain your camera. He walks you through the basics of how you should hold the camera and a quick lesson on understanding the focal lens. His tip about not using the zoom while composing the shot was eye opening to me. It really forces you to look for shots at a specific focal length.
Chapter 3: Playing Back Images
Although this chapter was a bit basic for me, my wife absolutely loved it. It does a good job of explaining all the ways you can play back your images on your XSi. It also explains the various ways you can delete one or all of your photos. I breezed through this chapter but I did like the section that discussed how to protect certain images from being erased.
Chapter 4: Image Transfer
Of all the chapters in the book, I found this one to be the least interesting and actually applicable to all digital cameras and not just the XSi. That being said, newbies will no doubt find the information invaluable. There is a brief section at the end that does discuss how you can set up the XSi to select images to transfer.
Chapter 5: Photography 101
This was by far my favorite chapter in the whole book. The author does an excellent job of explaining the basics of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I now have a much better understanding of how lighting and exposure work.
Chapter 6: Program Mode
I have to admit that it took me a much longer time to read this chapter. A lot of the information regarding white balance and focus modes is difficult to grasp but Ben's easy and step by step explanations really allowed me to understand exactly what is going on when you change specific settings. I had a blast trying out some of his tips and the lightbulb in my head starting going off the more I experimented with the XSi. The author's "give it a try" attitude is really motivating.
Chapter 7: Advanced Exposure
This chapter goes into much greater detail regarding the XSi light meter and exposure controls. I loved the explanation of how to effectively use the histogram. After reading chapters 5 through 7 my brain felt a bit fried but the information began to gradually sink in after reading each chapter a few times.
Chapter 8: Finding and Composing a Photo
This chapter was a nice breather from all the technical stuff and gives you great tips on how to compose great pictures. My wife always has a much better eye for photography yet she learned quite a bit from this chapter.
Chapter 9: Specialty Shooting
Explains how and when to live view modes, shoot panoramas, and shooting in low-light. I remember when we first got the camera my wife wanted me to always have the live mode activated because that's the way it has always been with other Point and Shoot cameras. We quickly realized that you should only use the live view in very specific situations. The low-light shooting tips made a lot more sense now after reading chapters 5 through 7.
Chapter 10: Flash Shooting
Explains how to use a flash more effectively to properly light your scene. We have yet to buy an external flash and practice with "bouncing a flash" but I'm sure we will at some point.
Chapter 11: Raw shooting
I was tempted to jump ahead to this chapter because I really wanted to know how to shoot in Raw. All the XSi reviews that I read encouraged you to shoot in Raw. I'm glad I waited until I read this chapter to experiment with Raw. The rest of the book gives you a solid background which helped me to better understand what Raw is and why I might want to use it. This was an excellent way to end the book.
Recommended:
Yes
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