Author: Darrell Young
Publisher: Rocky Nook
Pages: 416
ISBN: 978-1933952642
Aimed at: Owners/potential owners of Nikon D300/D300S
Rating: 4
Pros: Well illustrated; an enjoyable read
Cons: Sometime confusing
Reviewed by: David Conrad

If you own a Nikon D300/D300S do you also want this book?

So how do you write a companion manual to a camera? What do you tell the reader? The temptation to be complete and explain everything avoids the potential criticism that the book is incomplete but if you do explain everything you end up with something that reads like the manual.

This particular book basically takes the menu system of the Nikon D300/D300S and proceeds to work its way through it. This isn't just a listing of what the menu items are. The author does try to put things into context and explain what is going on and what the options are all about. The menu items are also well illustrated, making the overall effect attractive.There are some nice sample pictures as well. However, some of the sample pictures showing a range of effects are less than impressive in the sense that you can't really see any differences - black and white filters for example.

There is a lot of useful information in this book but unfortunately I found it quite hard going. Often I would read a section and think - wait it can't be this difficult. The author has a habit of raising a question and then not answering it immediately which can make explanations drawn out and confusing. It would probably have been better to adopt a task oriented approach to explaining how to get the best from the camera - after all it is remarkable how simple something can seem when you realise the problem is is supposed to solve.

This isn't an essential book if you own the camera - you could probably learn more by reading the manual and studying a more general book on photography, but this book does occasionally point out features of the camera that you might miss and it adds some motivation for why a feature is as it is. The only problem is that the overall effect is to make the subject seem complex and confusing.

Recommended but you have been warned about its drawbacks.