Canon EOS 60D For Dummies

I've been shooting SLR since 1976, and DSLR since I bought the original XTi/400D in 2007. But I've gotten way more serious about photography in the last few years, and finally decided that an upgrade to the 60D was in order. Although I'd spent a fair amount of time learning the basics of exposure with the XTi, there were things I wanted to do photographically that I either couldn't do with the old XTi, or had to do differently with the 60D. So, I bought the Dummies book. An excellent move on my part, as it turned out.The book is divided into 11 chapters. A few of them I skipped over, since they covered information I was already familiar with or subjects that really didn't apply to what I'm interested in (file types, automatic settings, movies, playback, etc.). But the remaining chapters were worth the price of admission all by themselves:Chapter 1: Covers all the controls and settings. There are a lot of things on the 60D that I didn't have on the XTi, and this chapter was invaluable in clearly laying out what all the buttons, dials, menus, and screens are all about. Everything is thoroughly and clearly explained.Chapter 7: Covers exposure and lighting. For me, this was a fantastic introduction to and explanation of exposure compensation and bracketing, which I knew I needed to learn about, but was sorely ignorant of. Great explanation of how to bracket automatically, and bracket beyond the automatic capabilities of the 60D. A stand-out chapter.Chapter 8: Covers focus and color. Although I was pretty comfortable with the concept and manipulation of depth of field, this chapter gave me some good additional information that will be helpful down the road. Good explanations of and tips on white balance adjustments and color space. Anyone shooting, viewing, and/or printing should be aware of the sRGB vs. Adobe RGB dichotomy and the implications of each.Chapters 10 and 11: Cover miscellaneous features and special circumstances. Information on making customized settings and menus, mirror lockup, and autofocus options is helpful and interesting.My issues with the book are few. I think a little more forethought would have reduced the frequency with which you are referred to figures that are on different pages. I found it inconvenient the number of times I had to flip pages forward or backward to look at a figure referred to in the text. I also found several editing errors, and there may be more in the chapters/sections I breezed over. Examples: On p. 35 it says that the Quick Control Dial is "labelled in Figure 1-11". It isn't. Although I was pretty sure I knew what the Quick Control Dial was, I had to do some digging to verify it. On p. 217, there is an explanation of evaluative vs. partial metering, comparing 2 pictures of the same car dashboard. In the text, it says "Switching to partial metering properly exposed the statue". That one had me looking real close for a statue on the dashboard until I realized it was a typo. And finally, on p. 270, in an explanation of crop factor, it refers to "the red outline" in the associated figure. There's a black one, but no red one. Yeah, these are nit-picky - and I wouldn't deduct anything from my 5-star rating for them - but I can see where they could throw a reader new to DSLR.Overall, my impression is that the book contains information that would be helpful to anyone moving up to the 60D from a simpler DSLR, and certainly for anyone whose 60D is their first DSLR. Especially if you're interested in getting away from the point-and-shoot approach, as I am, this book goes a long way. It covers pretty much everything mechanical about the camera, and offers a lot of creative advice as well.Well worth the money.

I first bought David D. Busch's Canon Guide to DSLR. I started reading it and felt like I wasn't able to grasp what he was saying. I'm completely new to photography and needed someone to explain the basics first; ISO, exposure, etc. David's book used these terms without first explaining them. I found myself going back to the glossary (thank God he had one) to look up the meaning of words. If you aren't completely new to photography, this book might be good, it seem very in depth.So I went on Amazon and bought this dummies book. I have never read a book by these writers so I didn't know what to expect. I was very pleased. The book reads like a textbook - which I want when I'm trying to learn something new! As soon as they use a photography related word, they explain it briefly, and tell you where you can find more information about it in the book (if you wanted to skip to that topic). The only thing I wish it had (which several text books these days do) is the terms called out in the sidebar with a definition - incase you need to remember what a term means again quickly. The book does remind you throughout the way what things are, which is nice.I would highly recommend this book!

As a newbie to digital cameras this was a good way to start. The 60D is a semi-pro camera and has a lot of buttons, a lot of ins and outs to absorb. I used a Canon film camera and a Honeywell Pentax film camera so was familiar with how aperture speed and asa worked together, but I had a lot to learn about digital cameras. This is a good guide written in non-technical terms for the layman, and a good starting point, especially if you have a used 60D with no manuals as I had.

After reading through the book it has a lot of helpful info for tips who picked up a 60D as their first DSLR. This is a great read to get you up and running beyond fully automatic mode. You technically get get a lot of this from the manual (which I did) but the practical advise makes it much easier to figure out what to use when which leads me to my next point.I would suggest finding a class at your local camera shop, this made a big difference especially going back and rereading the parts of the book I struggled with since some things are easier to see than read.

I didn't realize until over a month later when I went to look at book that I bought wrong one.meant to buy Canon EOS 60D For Dummies instead. my bad

I first purchased Dave Busch's book version of this camera and found it generally difficult to understand. He seems to presuppose that the reader is already familiar with dSLRs, though this is not mentioned in the descriptions of the book. Dave seems to be the de facto King of how-to-use dSLRs books - he's an industry in himself, but I am unimpressed with him.All of which leads me to the current book "for Dummies". I've had this book for one day and already...already!...I have found it helpful where Busch's was incomprehensible. I should have bought this book a long time ago.Highly recommended.

Whenever I get into something new I look for a Dummies book on the subject. After several years of being too busy to indulge in my old photography hobby, I splurged on the 60D, thanks partly to a bout of insomnia and channel surfing that led me to a QVC infomercial. While waiting for the camera to arrive I downloaded the Dummies book on Kindle and was able to educate myself on the new photo technology. Perhaps not the best way to buy a new camera, but this book is a great way to learn how it works.

Made learning how to get the best from my 60D so much easier. Well worth buying.

I just bought a 60D as a second camera. The Dummies guides are easy to read and it makes better learning than trying to read the enclosed instructions that are sold with the camera!

This is a great book for numpties like me. I usually watch videos etc. to find out more about the workings of my camera but even then I just don't get it. This is not a book to teach you how to take photos it's for teaching you all about your camera and it does this admirably.

This was excellent value for money. Much easier to read than the manual that came with the camera. I would recommend these books to anyone starting out in photography or just wanting to get to know what the camera can do more speedily. Canon EOS 60D For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))Canon EOS 60D For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))

Everything on the 60D camera is so simply and usefully explained and even if one has been using the camera for some time I think there is something to be gained by reading the book and using it as a good reference tool. When something is read that is interesting to look further into, it is a good idea to make notes and reference to book chapters and pages.