Mastering the Nikon D700
by Darrell Young, James Johnson
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Book Reviews of Mastering the Nikon D700
Book Review: Very practical and informative compendium to the Nikon D700
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this book, "Mastering the Nikon D700" not as an aid to utilising the features of the D700, but as a guide to compare the features of my current Nikon DSLR with those of the D700 . In actuality, I purchased this as a precursor to one day purchasing a Nikon D700.
For me the book admirably met my needs.
What did I enjoy about the book?
The writing style was warm and helpful, rather than technical and mechanical.
The authors have adopted a style of `friends to friend' as they discuss the various features of and how to use to the better advantage these features on the Nikon D700.
This seemingly and somewhat interactive and unassuming style is both engaging and very helpful.
The layout of the book is logical and has a well considered `thumb through' for chapter identification and location.
The excellent illustrations demonstrating the camera menus and features are another highly commendable feature of this book. Guiding the reader to the precise location in the menu(s) or on the camera, these illustrations make for rapid cognition and comprehension.
I found the grayed out boxes with orange headings especially helpful pieces of information regarding practical uses and applications relevant to both general and specific camera use. So, having read these well identified sections, I gained knowledge and therefore usableMastering the Nikon D700 experience regardless of currently still waiting to be able to afford the Nikon D700 camera.
Because I'd just returned from another country where I should have affected White Balance on my Nikon D70s, but didn't. I had the very current and time-consuming experience of having to manually retouch many of my 1200 shots. So I gained timely and very practical understandings of the sections on White Balance and Loss less compressed NEF. Because I was holidaying I decided that I would shoot my photos in Jpeg format. The loss in photo data which I suffered made so much more difficult my re touching work. For me these are memorable lessons, but Mastering the Nikon D700 came at the right time for me and answered my practical and technical questions.
I will mention just one more area of learning for me from reading this manual. Before reading about it, I was entirely unaware of the technical reasons for Exposure Delay in Digital cameras. Now I am much more informed.
I've been shooting pictures for quite a few years and look for written material that will enhance my capacity as a photographer. This book has met my need admirably and help me to be a better photographer and hopefully increase my photo sales!
Has this book increased my desire to purchase a Nikon D700.
You bet it has....I can't wait to do so and see the increased quality that such a unit will bring to my photography.
Well done, authors Darrel Young and James Johnson together with Publishers Nikonians Press.
Ross Burton
www.roscovisuals.com
Book Review: A Splendid Book, Rich in Details
Summary: 5 Stars
Every Nikon D700 owner can profit from this splendid book. The authors have gone to great effort to ferret out extra possibilities in the buttons and knobs, and most especially in the menus. Did you know that the center nib of the multi-selector can be programmed to bring up the histogram in Playback with a single poke? How very nice!
The authors start out with an overview of special new features like Live View and full frame, and then review some basics of photography, white balance and histograms and so forth, but very soon they are on their way into the menus where they have done their most excellent work.
The D700 menus are vast, involving at least 250 choices, too many to count. In many cases the authors have written little essays of advice in addition to their descriptions of the actual choices themselves. The reader gets a much clearer understanding of what the choices are and how and when to use them, and this is invaluable.
But better still are the 100s of little black and gold screenshots that follow along with each menu item, page after page in this book, on almost 200 pages in all. From these screenshots, the reader can navigate more readily through the myriad of menu choices and arrive at the exact spot. How very much this reduces the confusion of dealing with so many features that are available in this wonderful camera. Many readers will also find new capabilities in this camera that they might never have ferreted out for themselves.
The authors are quite determined that every reader learn (and use) the shooting and custom banks which store little collections of settings so that no one need to wade through pages of menu choices to find those exact bits needed that instant when a different shooting opportunity arises. A single click on the fly will change to these settings, and the photographer is ready to go.
The book concludes with a dandy 20- page review of Nikon's Creative Lighting System, again with the screen shots so that the reader can see exactly what to do and how to do it.
Book Review: VERY DISAPPOINTING - Very incomplete.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is a waste of time.. There are no master lessons here....
1. The reason I bought the book was so I could get a different perspective from the manual, not always written clearly, that comes with the Nikon D700. Instead what I received was a rudimentary book that told me repeatedly to refer to the manual. Thanks for making me read two books at once. Hint: No one wants to constantly be referred to the manual, which gave much more information that this book gave me, but not in a very readable manner. Having to refer to the manual while reading this book is clumsy for the reader, and it shows laziness on the author's part.
2. It seems to me the authors were trying to make Brownie points with Nikon. The book barely scratches the surface which the manual does very well. Not once did they criticize any of the many features on this wonderful camera. But there are certain improvements that Nikon could make to their menu. Only accolades for Nikon in this book, by the authors. There is no in-depth discussion of the benefits / disadvantages of certain settings and menu items. More importantly, there is no discussion on why you would want to use certain settings and in which situations.
3. I thought this was a book on mastering the Nikon D700, not on basic photography. For some reason the authors digress for pages on what depth of field is. They don't do a very good job and this is not what I bought the book for. I know what depth of field is. I want to know more about the camera.
4. I am saddened that Nikonians, a web based site for Nikon users, allowed this book to be published with their name on it. It is so incomplete.
5. A very thin overview of the D700 in a very thin book, with lots of nice pictures of the camera and settings. (In this aspect the book is better than the manual, as the manual's close-ups of the cameras menus and buttons, etc. are in black & white.)
6. ARGGGGHHHHH --- I feel ripped off by the authors who claim this book is more than it is.
Book Review: Lots of practical advice
Summary: 5 Stars
I haven't finished reading this book yet, but a camera of this complexity must be customized to meet the needs of its user, and I can see that the author has made every effort to include his own methods at the ends of each major section. For example, he says he has a lot of older Nikon AI lenses (as I do) and took the time to add the focal length and widest aperature into the "non-cpu lens data" memory of the D700. Since he has a lot of lenses he decided that using the interactive menu system to select which non-cpu lens was in place was too inconvenient, so he reassigned one of the buttons and command wheels to select it. I did this (preview button plus front command wheel in my case) and it is a lot more convenient! There are tons of different choices one can make among these menu pages and he gives the reader a level of detail that the manual doesn't. He also gives the choices he made, and his reasoning behind them. I have slightly different needs than he does (I'm more interested in black and white prints than color, e.g.), but I feel that he gives me enough information to make my D700 a better fit to my own world. This is a really good book - highly recommended for those who want a true user's manual rather than the good reference that Nikon supplies under that title.Book Review: If You Own the Camera, You Need the Book
Summary: 5 Stars
O'Reilly is famous for publishing missing manual books. This book is published by Rockynook under the NikoniansPress label. It is a book sponsored by Nikon enthusiasts, and presents the many features of the Nikon D700 in a clear readable format. The Nikonians is a Nikon user group numbering over 170,000 members. Their web site, http://www.nikonians.org/, is chock full of valuable information about shooting photos with Nikon cameras and is frequented by both amateurs and professionals. If you own a Nikon camera and are not a Nikonian, you should join. Their forums are particularly valuable in solving your photographic problems.
The owners manual for the D700 is actually well written, clear and concise. This book adds a practical adviser to the mix, explaining why using a certain choice in a certain situation will produce an outstanding photograph. It has appropriate photos of both camera menus and photographs explaining the results of the menu choices that one makes.
When you make the decision to purchase a camera body that will set you back north of 2 G's, you'll appreciate knowing all the tricks and methods that will reinforce the wisdom of that decision. This book does that, and should be part of your library.
Highly recommended.