Magic Lantern Guides: Pentax K20D
by Peter K. Burian
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Book Reviews of Magic Lantern Guides: Pentax K20D
Book Review: Mediocre book, but no other choices
Summary: 2 Stars
At the price I paid, about $20, this book was not much of a deal, and it offered only a little more insight into to the K20d than the original product manual. If you're new to DSLRs and want to supplement the original lackluster Pentax manual, there are no other K20d books available. As an alternative, you might try to fill in the gaps on by searching the web for informative articles.
Things that I did not like about this book include 1) the author's lack of criticism of any aspects of the K20d, and 2) the book's tendency to read like a list of features and instructions without much art or creativity. As to the first point, the K20d is a great camera, with many fine attributes, but it has some annoying characteristics. Burst speed is somewhat slow, the screen is pathetic compared to other cameras in its class, and Live View is utterly worthless on this camera. A well-written book would have admitted the camera's problems and offered work-arounds and insights to deal with those issues. This book read as if it had cleared Pentax corporate headquarters before printing. I prefer a touch of irreverence.
As to the second point, this book follows all-too-common product guidebook example of being charmless, uncreative, and utterly lacking in character.
At least it is readable. It does not make any glaring mistakes. And by reading it you will certainly know more than you would by relying only on the Pentax K20d manual.
Book Review: Extremely useful suppliment to the manual
Summary: 5 Stars
The manual for the K20D thoroughly lists its features, this book explains how to use them. The detailed chapter on menus allowed me to customize the camera's settings with explanations far more complete than those in the manual. It covers not just the what and how, but the why. That alone was worth the price.
This book will be useful for both beginners and experienced photographers who are learning about a new, to them, camera.
Most books could stand a better index. This is no exception. However, when used along with the table of Contents I find it quite easy to find what I'm looking for. Of course it helps that I've read the book from cover to cover. I will read it all again.
I would have liked a more thorough explanation of how to use the old M type lenses with this camera, but that is a rather obscure point that will only be useful to a relative handful of users. How many people have Pentax primes from the '70s laying around to use? (Don't you wish.) This book does touch on setup, and will be helpful with using the older lenses once the camera is set up for them. There are online tutorials for the few who need more detailed manual lens setup info.
This book lives right alongside my K20D manual. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to get the most out of their camera.
Book Review: Disillusioning! Pitiful index; tough techniques ignored - stick with manual
Summary: 1 Stars
Peter Burian wrote a grand guide on the K10D forerunner, with 5 full index pages to help you through unfamiliar terrain. So I was looking forward to learning about 'dynamic range' and 'burst mode' (movie-like rapid shooting of small frames); certainly not referenced in the pitiful page-and-a-half index. Not even a mention of the helpful 'green button' there. The D-range text repeats the user guide without leaving you any the wiser. The burst mode is skipped, as are pixel mapping and dust repair. Very little more is covered than found in the bare manual's robust index, execept for the translation from Japlish to English.
This appears to be a hurried meet the deadline and page-count quota, rather than a well-organized--filled with tips--field guide of the quality this author is eminently capable of. A not recommended exercise in frustration.
Book Review: Great Camera, Great Little Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been locked into the Pentax SLR system for going on 40 years. Some Pentaxes were good, some not so good. The Pentax ist*D was the worst so it was with trepidation that I upgraded to the K20D. After hard use for almost a year, I cans say: 1. the K20D is a superb camera and that 2. I am delighted with mine. True, the manual is complete and quite adequate, however it volunteers nothing. I purchased Peter Burian's book on a whim. Despite the quibbles of some of the reviewers, I found it to be an excellent companion to the camera. It is well written and a pleasure to read. It provides a brief review of photography written with the K20D's capabilities in mind. The book tells you what the camera can do, and how--and when--to make full use of all of its many features. Recommended.Book Review: Poor quality information and 1 1/2 page index in a reference book
Summary: 1 Stars
The book would benefit from using information that actually applies to the subject camera; instead it is a quick update of past Pentax cameras. The result is that much of the information is simply wrong or misleading, e.g. catch-in focus. The book says you need a wired remote. You don't; it works beautifuly with the normal shutter release or with a $20 wireless remote. The book is a quick effort to get a book published with previous non-applicable information. The real tragedy is they didn't even bother to include a useful index. The index is an index to itself: for manual mode they say see hyper manual mode with no page number. This book was written by lazy people. Sorry, but there is no excuse for this kind of rip off.