Magic Lantern Guides: SONY DSLR A300/A350 (Magic Lantern Guides)

List Price: $19.95 Discount Price: $11.47

Customer Reviews:

Very disappointing book - do not buy! [Posted on 2008-08-18]
I have purchased recently a Sony A300 dSLR and wanted to learn some tips & tricks, in addition to the materials in the excellent users guide.

As the book hinted that it may fit the bill, I have purchased it.

The book looks very nice from the outside - but the inside is very disappointing.

1. The structure is not very logical, and key parts are missing (for example it discusses the menu and fn button functions, but never gives an overview of what happens when you press the button first).
2. There are no tips / tricks in the book which I would consider useful - it looks simply as cut / reshuffle / paste of (some) parts of the users guide. (There ARE various hints and recommendations in the book - and they may be useful for some, but they did not help me.)

The original users guide (came with the camera) has lots of recommendations about how to use the camera and also how to take good pictures, in an easy to understand manner. This book is not good for either - and it actually may confuse the reader more than help. (It did confuse me for sure!)

Of course, if you like puzzle games: you may like this book as you will have to flip back and forth to find something (but in some cases you will never find it). If you want a solid document, helping you to make most of your camera: this book is not it.

Note: I had previous experience with SLR and digital cameras. I have also read a number of other similar books. As a result my perspective and the perspective of others on this books may differ. If you have no experience whatsoever about SLR cameras, or digital cameras in general, you may find this book interesting.

Not your best choice for learning the Sony cameras [Posted on 2008-10-16]
There are certain concepts that seem to linger on, long after their usefulness has passed. One of these is the pocket-sized third-party "camera guides" or "digital field guides" that first appeared five years ago as an alternative to the manual furnished with a single lens reflex camera. Ostensibly portable, they are filled with dense text, tiny illustrations (often --incredibly for a photography book -- in black and white) and with little more than rephrased descriptions of control operation and menu options. This book is in that mold.

You'll find most of what is in the Sony manual and probably can learn to use your A300 or A350 from this book if you have a lot of patience, but you won't learn much about how to take better pictures using the features of either camera.

A much better approach is taken by the author of David Busch's Sony Alpha Dslr-A350/A300/A200 Guide. It's a much larger, full-sized book, with lots of full-color pictures. It devotes three chapters to describing the Sony cameras, their controls, features, and menu options, but then offers separate chapters on optimizing exposure, selecting lenses, using available light and electronic flash, and advanced photo techniques. These aren't generic photography chapters. Each is aimed specifically at the Sony Alpha camera line, the Sony lenses, and electronic flash units. It's a meaty book, and not padded with two-page recipes on how to shoot an action picture, or landscape picture, or animal picture, as you'll find in most digital field guides.

If you really want to learn photography with your Sony camera, you'll skip books like the Magic Lantern guide. Much better options are available.

newbie, newbie. [Posted on 2008-10-21]
First of all,you must understand that I am truly a newbie into the realm of DSLR.

I got the Sony A300, because of a couple of different reasons, compatability with Minolta & Konica, Value for my hard-earned dollar, and the reviews that I have seen on many different sites.

The book that comes with the camera, I feel does not do a fair job of really explaining what is going on with the whole process, let alone just the camera. I recieved this book yesterday, just have began to read it, and so far it has explained things that others take for granted. For example(just to show you how little I know), I have no frame of reference for the terms, what they mean, and how they represent what is occurring within the camera when you change the f-stop or the ISO.

When looking at the reviews listed, please be careful, because I almost didn't buy this book. But so far, I am glad that I have made this purchase.

Good Luck...It Is A Jungle Out There!

Magic Lantern Guide: Sony DSLR A350 [Posted on 2008-11-23]
A reasonable supplement to the camera manual but a I felt that a substantial amount of the text is boiler plate applicable to any DSLR. A better, albeit somewhat more expensive, guide is Friedman's "The Complete Guide to Sony's Alpha 300 & 350 Digital SLR Cameras." In addition to the basics, this latter guide gives the reader some tips and procedures which are not covered in either the manual or the Magic Lantern guide.

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