David Busch's Nikon D90 Guide to Digital SLR Photography (David Busch's Digital Photography Guides)

I received a D90 kit for Christmas from my beautiful wife. The next day I bought this book. If I hadn't...I'd still be trying to figure out how to utilize all the functions and capabilities of this extremely powerful camera (and I'm a techno-savvy geek!) The D90 is my first foray into DSLRs, and while I was a fairly decent film photography enthusiast back in the day (a pretty good darkroom and lots of purely manual shooting), the plunge into DSLR's has a rather deep end in the pool. Forget trying to figure out the manual...just put it in your kit bag for later and pick up David Busch's book. It's well organized, explains in very well written terms how everything on your new camera works (without being dumbed-down and frustratingly simple like many similar books are), and goes beyond the camera itself to give you shooting tips, post-editing strategies, future lens, accessory, and software advice, and the confidence to start taking great pictures within a few hours of perusing the pages. This book should be your first purchase after buying the camera itself.

This book was recommended by a friend after I bought the Nikon D90 digital SLR camera. The camera was a retirement present and certainly more complicated than the point and shoot cameras I'd been used to. The owners manual that came with the camera was not only dry reading, but a bit hard to understand for a relative novice. David Busch's book was written as though he were sitting down with you to explain the camera. It goes step by step and allows you to start using features a bit at a time. And for more experienced readers, he points you to sections you can likely skip in favor of more advanced coverage of features and methods. This is a great companion for the camera with practical suggestions for learning and getting useful accessories.

After reading nearly every word in the first 3 chapters, including the preface, or frontmatter written by the author, I felt like the author was trying to sell the book throughout the writing and to promote his self. That was bothersome and elimination of that would make the book shorter. First of all, it doesn't help me use the camera, which is why I bought the book. Second, it is blatant self-promotion which shouldn't be needed if David is indeed that good--the product(s) should speak louder than the self-promoter. I was very surprised by the number of times the author mentioned himself, his other books or is years of background, and article writing. It really got old after the 10th time in the middle of the page. That said, I found the book to be very helpful, compared with the manual. I have yet to test out most of the things he says to do. However, in a pinch, I needed to know something, I looked it up and got back on track in time to take some great shots. THAT is what is needed in a book, not the author telling you how awesome he is and what a great writer he is. Frankly, the book is reasonably well-written (I have published a number of articles as well as reviewed quite a few), and so that should stand on its own. The diagrams were informative, useful, well-captioned, easy to understand and generally the text that went along with the figures was useful. I will have to check out the index to see if it is useful as well as continue to work through the rest of the chapters. The Table of Contents was useful. The way the book is organized seems logical and covers more than the basics. Nicely, it begins with VERY basic and works up. For a new DSLR owner, it was very helpful and continues to be so. I was particularly interested in composition, but it is not covered in any detail. Granted, the book replaces the manual, but does have some good sections that will help you become a better photographer, besides helping you learn how to use your camera. It was and continues to be very much worth my money.

id wanted a book on my new camera since i got it. i held off for awhile though. ive always found that the best way to learn about something is to do it, so thats what i did. i took lots of pictures. some good, some bad, but i learned how to use the camera. i did some research on the books, and then bought this one. . i read and re-read it now. knowing what i already knew from playing around with the camera, it was easier to learn even more from the book. the book is extremely well done and easy to follow and use. i bought it right from the writer, and he shipped it to me asap. plus its signed by him. overall, it was a great purchase and if/when i ever get another camera, if he has a book about it, ill buy that one as well. .

This book is everything it was said to be. It sure helps learning the camera!

Being a Scandinavian and not having English as first language can often be a bit troublesome when looking for good non-fiction books. This book never offered any problems in this regard. It was orderly and logical in it's layout and I had no trouble reading it from cover to cover. I would especially recommend this book to all people that buy the Nikon D90 as their first SLR. Being one of those people myself, this guide proved to be exactly what I needed including both camera specific information as well as offering pointers on how to use all functionality in real life photography. Using this guide together with one of Scott Kelby's 'Digital Photography' books would make a perfect starter kit!

This book is chock full of useful information which is presented with good illustrations. One reviewer said that it is not for beginners. If the book wasn't sometimes confusing and other times just wrong, I'd disagree and say it's great for anyone no matter your level. What makes it not great for beginners is that the confusing and/or inaccurate parts will really mess them up. A more experienced shooter will figure it out and get over it. I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't for the questionable parts. I'll only mention three. The first one has already been covered by a reviewer with other people commenting. It has to do with wireless flash and the D90 commander mode. The author talks specifically about the commander mode, and then in the section that immediately follows, implies that commander mode is not an option in firing the flash wirelessly. I'm sure that even the author would agree that the confusion could have been avoided by wording things a little differently. The other two problems occur in the HDR (high dynamic range) section. The author says to use shutter priority to maintain a constant aperture for a constant DOF (depth of field). He obviously meant aperture priority. Perhaps the book's editor was not a photographer him or herself. Anyway, this would no doubt confuse the hell out of a beginner. The third bone to pick is that the author tells you to manually shoot the pictures with exposure bracketing. Even if you use a remote, there is a better way. It would be MUCH easier to have the camera do it automatically. While still using exposure bracketing, just set the self timer for three shots (you can set up to 9 shots but you can bracket only 3). For beginners or those coming from point and shoots, you can set the camera to shoot from 1 to 9 consecutive pictures (instead of just 1) with each "triggering" of the self-timer. Why would you want to do that? One reason is when your subject changes and you want to be able to select the best picture from each group of shots. Do this when shooting a group and you can select the one with the fewest eyes closed, yawning, etc.. I digress. Fix the errors and clear up the confusing parts and this would truly be a killer book. Otherwise, it's pretty darned good. It covers all the basics, teaches a little about the art of photography (instead of just how the camera works), covers accessories and optional photographic equipment including software, and even goes into special applications like HDR.

This book is 400 pages long and is the only guide book that covers the Nikon D90 in such a thorough manner.The author is a Nikon photographer that uses the D90 and it shows in his detailed description on how to get full use of all of the D90 features.Also he writes in a manner as though he was in the same room with you and makes all of his instructions easy to understand.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and had trouble putting it down.I am now taking better pictures quicker because of this book.I can't express enough how much I have enjoyed reading this book and is my number 1 book I have on photography.