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| Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide | 
 enlarge | Author: J. Dennis Thomas
Brand: Wiley Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $8.90
You Save: $11.09 (55%)
New (45) Used (12) from $8.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 36035
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.7
MPN: W0470260920
ISBN: 0470260920
Dewey Decimal Number: 775
EAN: 9780470260920
ASIN: 0470260920
Publication Date: May 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book. Shipped from our NYC store. Slight Shelf wear to cover. Pages are clean and unmarked.
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| Customer Reviews:
 This book is a godsend! May 2, 2008
92 out of 101 found this review helpful
I got my D300 a couple of months ago. I upgraded from a Canon Rebel and I was in over my head! The D300 had so many buttons and features that I didn't know where to start.
I just received my copy of the D300 Digital Field Guide and I have to say that I'm ecstatic. This book is so much more helpful than the stuffy old manual. There is so much more to this camera than I realized and it's all lined out right here in this little book.
The information is simple and informative enough for a beginner, but still has quite a few tricks and tips for more advanced users. The full color photos are great and there are tips and ideas on a wide variety of subjects.
The chapters on the menus were the most helpful, there are things in the menu system that I didn't even know existed (and they're important things!).
I have to say I whole-heartedly recommend this book for anyone who wants a better understanding of their camera and photography in general.
 Extremely helpful and succinct May 15, 2008
92 out of 96 found this review helpful
When I bought my D300, I had the best intentions to read through the
manual that came with it - I promised myself that if I was spending
this much on a new camera that I'd really take advantage of its full
potential. But I found the manual to be frustrating and not
surprisingly, boring. My biggest complaint was that the manual
explained the function of a button or setting without ever teaching me
how it would actually affect my photos. So I bought this book hoping
it would increase my understanding of how to use my D300's controls to
get the best possible pictures. I wasn't disappointed. This book
takes you through your camera's settings and menus step-by-step,
explaining not only the function of each setting, but also when you
should use it and how it will make your pictures better - exactly what
I was looking for. It also has a large section that talks about the
basics of digital photography. While I had heard a lot of these basic
rules of photography before, I felt like it was a great refresher
course and I learned some new tips for getting great pics. I
feel more confident using my D300 after reading this book and my
pictures have improved as a result. Highly recommended.
Well worth the investment May 22, 2008
89 out of 92 found this review helpful
I found this handbook to be far more useful than the manual that is delivered with the camera. The book describes the camera's features and menus in a logical fashion. I now have a great understanding of the D300's capabilities and can put them to good use.
The first section, Quick Tour, defines the function of each button and allows you the satisfaction of taking pictures immediately. Then Chapter 1 explores each of the controls and displays. Chapter 2 describes the use of each of the settings and automatic photography modes.
The remaining chapters guide you through taking great photos, including exposure, ISO, depth of field, color, light, lens choice, composition basics, and techniques for taking great images in a variety of situations. The final section covers downloading and editing images.
The book is well laid out with many charts, tables and color illustrations. Appendixes and a comprehensive index allow you to find answers to your questions quickly.
Whether you start at the beginning and work your way through methodically or just pick it up and look for guidance on a particular topic, you're going to learn something every time you refer to the book. I did. Well worth the small investment to unlock the potential of your highly capable Nikon D300.
Great Real World Guide June 5, 2008
87 out of 95 found this review helpful
The amount of features that a D300 has can be overwhelming, especially to someone who is moving up from an entry level Nikon or other brand DSLR. This guide really helps flesh out what the manual gives you with real world and practical examples. The D300 Digital Field Guide is especially great for explaining, and walking through the different custom functions, with easy to read images getting you through the menu. I also think the explanation of all the flash options--the commander mode and how to use multiple flashes--and slow sync operations really will help make using the D300 easier.
 There are much, much better D300 guides available May 7, 2008
85 out of 103 found this review helpful
This brief overview barely scratches the surface of what an advanced digital SLR like the Nikon D300 can do. It's barely half the size of the manual that comes with the camera. How could it be anything else?
There are much, much better guides to the new Nikon D300 camera, each of which doesn't stop at telling you how to make settings and use features, they tell you why. Thom Hogan's "Complete Guide" has more information in any chapter than you'll find in this entire Digital Field Guide, but it's an e-book. The best choice, though, is probably the Nikon D300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography by David Busch. Like the Digital Field Guide, it, too purports to provide a mixture of features and setup instruction with photographic advice, but does a much better job with both.
The Field Guide is weakest in explaining the Nikon D300's features, which is odd, because that's what you buy a camera specific book for. This is most obvious in the section on the complex and often confusing Custom Setting menu. The Digital Field Guide allots only 11 pages to this menu, mostly a rehash of the menu entries and their options that you'll find in the Nikon manual. The Busch book, in contrast, devotes 43 pages to an exhaustive analysis of how these settings should be used, and augments that with an additional 12 pages of tables with recommended Custom Setting Menu Bank and Shooting Menu Bank settings for Studio, Portraits, Long Exposures, Sports Indoors, Sports Outdoors, Landscapes, and Bracketing.
Interested in learning about the D300's exciting new capabilities, like Live View, the MB-D10 battery pack, or sensor cleaning? You'll find anything from a sentence or two to a couple pages on these topics. Mystified by autofocus or want to know the difference between phase detection and contrast detection? Busch covers that in nearly 20 pages. The Digital Field Guide's entry-level camera approach doesn't have room for that much detail. Instead, we're given such gems of insight as "Metering mode dial. This dial is used to choose the metering mode. Turn the dial to the desired mode. You can choose Matrix, Center-weighted, or Spot metering." Wow. A new D300 owner would never be able to figure that out on their own.
One of the strengths of the Nikon line is the huge number of lenses available. Busch devotes 40 pages to that, including detailed lens by lens recommendations about what should go in your kit. The Digital Field Guide breezes through the topic in 14 pages. The skimpy Nikon lens coverage is evident in the "real-world applications" chapter. Of the 16 "practice pictures" accompanied by recommendations for lenses, settings, etc., no less than 13 of the 16 were taken with the exact same Tamron 17-50mm zoom. If you want advice on using the vast range of Nikon lenses in these situations, you're out in the cold.
I suppose that if you are an absolute beginner and want an introduction to the Nikon D300 that is more concise and less detailed than the thick manual that came with the camera, this book will serve. On that basis, it deserves three stars. If you're a supertechnoid and want to know how many milliamps the LCD draws, the Thom Hogan e-book is the ultimate reference. But if you are a serious photographer who wants to know the whys and wherefores of using the Nikon D300, you owe it to yourself to purchase the Nikon D300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography instead.
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