| Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF | |
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Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D80 | 
 enlarge | Author: Simon Stafford
Brand: Magic Lantern
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $13.57
You Save: $6.38 (32%)
New (29) Used (7) from $11.79
Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 21732
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 0.8
MPN: 1600591124
ISBN: 1600591124
Dewey Decimal Number: 771.33
EAN: 9781600591129
ASIN: 1600591124
Publication Date: April 1, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
MAGIC LANTERN GUIDES: NIKON D80, Simon Stafford, A Lark Photography Book Simon Stafford's photographs have been used widely in newspapers, books, calendars, and magazines. Completely self-taught, he has built up a wealth of experience over the past twenty years with both film and digital cameras. Throughout his photographic career he has used the Nikon system extensively, and is now the Technical Editor to the Nikon Owners' Club International's Nikon Owner magazine. The new, mid-priced Nikon D80 replaces the Nikon D70s/D70 which was the subject of the best-selling Magic Lantern Guide ever! This model features a 10 megapixelsensor, up-sized 2.5" LCD monitor, and 4.5 fps capability.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 a few flaws but an easy to use learning and reference guide May 24, 2007
Douglas H. Haden (Ridgecrest, CA United States)
44 out of 50 found this review helpful
Some of the value of this book lies in Nikon's lousy D80 manual. Nikon's manual is ill organized and printed in gray on toilet paper. Okay, maybe it is recycled paper.
Stafford's Guide is full of well-organized information. It is well printed. I can even recognize the small icons in the text (not true of all camera books). I wish publishers would not shrink icons a second time to place them in tables. However, even these tiniest of icons are recognizable in this Guide.
The author, Simon Stafford, is an experienced photographer and author. His Scottish education and UK roots show through in his language but are not distracting. Unfortunately, poor editing diminishes Stafford's excellent writing and technical presentation. Lesser typographical errors are just distracting but some errors get in the way of understanding. "...offers the photographer total control overexposure, ..." stumps the eye until you realize it should have been "...over exposure".
That said, Magic Lantern/Lark Books printed the book on decent paper (except the covers curl) and with black ink. Vastly better than Nikon's manual. The photos, especially the super-close-up photos of the D80's anatomy, are very clear. The rich typography is excellent: headings are bold, bullets are well used to structure lists, captions are set off and readable, and on and on. Point being, the production folk have done about all that can be done to make the printed material easy to read and understand. It is as if this book was well conceived, well designed, well written, and well printed, but the publisher skipped the final steps of preprinting production: the editing and index are not up to the quality of the rest of the book. The index should be five times its skimpy two pages of large print. I go on about the index because we are reading this book not for pleasure but to learn something: to understand how to use the D80's features. Especially, I want to be able to quickly locate how to change camera settings. Fortunately, the Table of Contents is nine pages of compact, structured, easy-to-scan print and stands in for the unusable index.
I seldom find book glossaries useful. This book is an exception. The sixty-plus terms are well selected and the several-to-many-sentence descriptions contain just the right amount and level of information.
So why five stars after all the griping and groaning? You can get past the inadequate final editing and the printing keeps the content from turning to mush; in fact, the printing lifts Stafford's excellent writing up and makes its content quick and easy to understand and retain. The book is 334 pages not counting the index (and you should not count the index). I can't believe the low price. Content, printing, and price offset the editing. For its few flaws, it really is an excellent book.
 greatly disappointed March 30, 2007
blueforest
41 out of 52 found this review helpful
The book is slightly bigger than the manual that came with the camera, but most of the content are simply paraphrasing what is in the original manual. i was looking forward to learning advanced skills or tricks that are not discussed in the camera manual, but i'm sorely disppointed, even the few sample pictures in the book are in black and white only. i personally don't find the book useful.
Just What I Needed May 25, 2007
BobbyJ (Near Saint Louis)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
I am an advanced amateur just trasitioning from film to digital. I bought the D-80 because I wanted a camera I could grow into rather than out of, and all opinions/reviews seem to agree this is such a a camera. However Nikon's operating manual did not enable me to feel I was ever going to be able to understand and learn to harness the camera's potential. I wanted something that would help me get organized and feel I was on a path that would enable me to understand and become confident with the camera. This book turned it all around. It provides an organized, logical, tutorial that clearly explains what the D-80 does; how to make it work for me; and supplements this with just the right amount additional information which promotes the feeling of not only how but why as well. I now feel I am going to be able to learn to use the camera and has enabled me to relax and look forward with confidence to using this remarkable tool. The little wallet-sized cheat sheet enclosed with this book is like training wheels that will prevent me from crashing and feeling I am never going to successfully master and fully enjoy this fine machine. The book's clarity and organization have enabled me to overcome my anxiety. It is "Just what I neededd". I think most new owners of the D-80 will agree it is just what is needed.
More than I expected March 21, 2007
Dan K (NY Metro)
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
For $12.50, I don't see why you would debate buying this book as it can only help you in understanding your D80. The book is a lot larger (pagewise) than previous Magic Lantern guides that I've purchased in the past. It fits nicely in your camera / gadget bag so you can easily take it with you in the field. The book goes through all the custom setting functions, and it gives you suggestions which I like. The Blue Crane DVD goes through the functions but does not give you suggestions so you have to either experiment, or guess which setting you want to use and what the outcome will be. The pictures are black and white but they are very clear and sharp. I had an N70 Magic Lantern guide and the pictures were "fuzzy" and I could not understand what the author was trying to point out with them. You can also feel confident knowing that the book is up to date because in the flash photography section, they talk about the SB-400 and the SB-400 came out in November or December.
In short, the book is easy to read, very in-depth, and I think every D80 owner should have this book. For $12 it is a steal.
I am extremely happy with this purchase.
 It's just okay - i prefer the dvd April 12, 2007
love to teach (California)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
this book seems to just paraphrase what the really poorly written owners manual states. this book will help you to understand your d80 better, which i guess would be your ultimate goal, but it is a serious time investment on the readers part.
the dvd is MUCH quicker and easier to understand as they go through everything step by step and are able to SHOW you how to use the D80 more effectively
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