David Busch's Canon EOS 70D Guide to Digital SLR Photography (David Busch's Digital Photography Guides)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
David Busch's Canon EOS 70D Guide to Digital SLR Photography (David Busch's Digital Photography Guides) Details
About the Author With more than a million books in print, David D. Busch is the world's #1 selling digital camera guide author, and the originator of popular digital photography series like David Busch's Pro Secrets and David Busch's Quick Snap Guides. He has written more than a dozen hugely successful guidebooks for Canon and Canon digital SLR models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Second Edition, and Digital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photojournalist for more than twenty years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and newspaper reports with award-winning images. He's operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and upstate New York college. His photos and articles have appeared in Popular Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hundreds of other publications. He has also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet and Computer Shopper, and his advice has been featured in National Public Radio's "All Tech Considered." When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debuting at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch's Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography. During the past year, he's had as many as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com's Digital Photography Bestseller list--simultaneously! Busch's 120-plus other books published since 1983 include bestsellers like David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Digital SLR Lenses. Visit his website at http://www.dslrguides.com. Read more
Reviews
As a hobbyist looking to take my skills to the next level, I upgraded to the 70D from an xTi. Canon's manual is not awful, but with so many new features to learn (WiFi connections, video, live view and touchscreen, advanced custom autofocus functions) I thought I could benefit from a third-party book as well, and so I purchased this book.There's much to like in this book. Although some details in the early chapters are repeated from the camera's manual (such as the map of camera buttons, ports, and controls), this information is easier to read and better illustrated; most topics in the rest of the book go well beyond the camera's manual. The author supplements explanations with high-quality color photos and tips and anecdotes from his personal experience; he also does a nice job in most places of explaining not only how to use a feature, but why.STRENGTHS:It is not easy to write a book intended to satisfy a wide audience with varying skill levels and experience, but I think there is something in this book for everyone. Here's a sampling of topics I thought were particularly detailed and helpful:- Good treatment of metering methods (evaluative, partial, spot, center-weighted), with photos that illustrate which method to use for a given lighting situation, as well as helpful examples of when to use exposure modes (aperture priority, program mode, etc.)- Thorough explanation of exposure compensation and bracketing- Two chapters devoted to working with flash (I haven't yet dabbled in flash photography, but I have good info to refer to when I start)- Tips for connecting to and using WiFi- Troubleshooting and prevention section, which includes topics such as how to upgrade the camera's firmware,considerations for making the best use of memory cards, and practical tips for cleaning the camera's sensor manuallyOPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT:I have found the autofocus system to be the most challenging part of using this camera. Chapter 5 of the book includes a good explanation of the new dual pixel CMOS AF system, as well as steps for microadjusting your lenses. However, I would have liked to have seen more explanation of tying together all of the factors that contribute to nailing focus for a given situation, in one place. Here are some examples of how Chapter 5 missed some opportunities to go beyond the camera's manual:- Manual focus. It would be helpful to address the situations where better results would be obtained using manual focus instead of AF. This is also where using the magnification function in live view to check focus could be mentioned, with a reference to the live view chapter for details.- Manual zone AF selection. At first, I thought this method was like a "single point assist" feature, where the camera uses a single point you choose within the zone, plus one or more nearby "helper" points within the zone. By playing with the feature, I realized that is is just a way to narrow the 19-pt auto method to a smaller area, maybe as a compromise for when you don't have time to select a single focus point. Mentioning this in the book would have helped turn on that light in my brain sooner.- Custom functions related to AF. Chapter 5 is where the majority of focus-related topics are covered, but custom functions are not covered until Chapter 9. More cross-references are needed to Chapter 9. For example, there was no mention in Chapter 5 that you could further tweak the way your camera focuses, including telling the camera how to respond when a subject accelerates, decelerates, or stops quickly or when another subject enters the frame, or that you can specify whether the camera's priority should be on accuracy of focus or speed of the shutter release when you take a series of photos of a moving subject.- Back button focusing. The description of C.Fn III-04 would have been a good opportunity to briefly explain back button AF and what settings are needed to completely divorce focus from the shutter button.- Other AF considerations. The book neglects to mention other considerations for achieving good focus using the AF system, such as when to turn image stabilization on or off and when to set the lens to a limited focus length.With that said, the author was approachable and open to suggestions for improving the book, so maybe this information will appear someday on his errata page as bonus info.
