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Nikon N80/F80

Nikon N80/F80

List Price: $19.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Meets my expectations.
Review: As a first time Nikon owner I found the user guide to be lacking in some areas. I purchased the N80 Magic Lantern Guide to better understand the complex assortment of options available with the autofocus and auto exposure settings.

The book explained the use of AF and AE options quite clearly. An early use of the camera in a very high contrast environment and a set of mostly over exposed photos made me decide I better learn what all those knobs did. This was my primary reason for buying the book.

My old camera only had center weighting metering, so the N80 has provided a challenge to learn when to use spot, or average, or matrix metering. This book helped me to grasp the situations where one method may be more suitable than another. It accomplished that nicely.

As with any guide like this, there is a certain amount of boiler plate. Material that is there for novices. But the book also helped you get to know the camera and its capabilities better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Picks up where the owners manual leaves off
Review: Great informative book for the N80/F80. Goes into deatils about all settings of this great camera. Also informs the reader about lenses, flashes and great tips.

If you own the N80/F80 you need this book. Very helpful.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Nikon manual, rewritten
Review: I found very little information that isn't in the Nikon manual that comes with the camera. There are a number of factual errors scattered through the book. I was hoping for more hands-on advice on how to effectively use many of the more complicated features, and more detailed explanations of how the camera performs automatic functions. The book is padded with general photo advice not specific to the N80. This might be more helpful to a new photographer who doesn't have any other photography books.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Good Resource for those new to Nikon cameras
Review: I have been using a manual focus Minolta for over 15 years, so when I got my N80 I was new not only to Nikon equipment but also to auto focus and the myriad of features available on 35mm cameras today. I felt that I needed more infomation than the user's guide could offer.

The originial edition of this book was published in Germany, and the basis for this edition is apparently a translation of that edition. It may be for this reason that parts of the book are not as readable as other books that bear Peter Burian's name, for example the "National Geographic Photograhy Field Guide."

Having said that, this book expands on the user's guide in a number of areas, and I have found it very useful in learning about my N80. For example, there is a detailed discussion of the various possible combinations of the auto-focus area and auto-focus mode options. Likewise, it describes in detail the various metering options and when you might want to use which.

As another example, the book gives a thorough description of how and when to use the the self-timer. I'm sure that must have been mentioned in the user's guide, but it must have been brief, because I certainly didn't see it.

Overall, if you're new to Nikon or new to auto-focus cameras this is a very useful little book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great for a new Nikon owner
Review: I recently bought an F80 and found this book (unlike the camera manual) to be the best source for gaining a full understanding of the camera's more complex features. Highly recommended for anyone new to Nikons. Doug

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Help in gray area that manual does not cover
Review: I'm the owner of N70 of this book, because this book is not expensive, I decided to purchase the n80 book too, after I aquired my N80, expecting some redundancy.

In general, the book replaces a lot of topics topics compare with the N70. the great benefit of this book is it covers some gray areas either the manufacture manual does not mention, or the manual mentioned implictly but readers might not aware of the implication. For example the book warns you, if you use speed priority exposure, but your len maxium aperture is not big enough to result correct exposure, the camera still fire in auto exposure mode and result underexposed. In additon, if you use shutter speed exceeding 1/125 that exceed flash max sync speed, partial flashing will result. Such problem you can understand but may easily ignore if simply reading the manual.

Another benefit is some general advices, which is especially plus for beginers, I enjoy the coverage of len comaptibilities and some info on recent Nikon Len line up.

As the other reader points out, the book has some errors, F80 frequently refer to as F8, default custom setting for change aperture is to turn subcommand dial (but the book ask you to use main command). Those are simply careless or editing typo. What appalling me is on page P152 , it mentioned customer setting 19, not only the setting is not for the topics discussed there, but also in all custom settings, there is simply no such function for N80/F80/F80s, making me wonder if the author really testing the N80 or simply imagine many mechanism should be the same as F100 (which maybe largely different).

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Chock full of errors
Review: If you understand the basics of AF SLR photography, do not buy this book. It does do a good job of introducing the basics, but unfortunately it falls flat on its face when it comes to explaining the features of your new N80. As other have noted, the book is rife with errors in description of the N80's features and functions. It is difficult to believe the authors had this camera in hand when the book was written. I found the manual that comes with the camera to be much more useful.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Chock full of errors
Review: If you understand the basics of AF SLR photography, do not buy this book. It does do a good job of introducing the basics, but unfortunately it falls flat on its face when it comes to explaining the features of your new N80. As other have noted, the book is rife with errors in description of the N80's features and functions. It is difficult to believe the authors had this camera in hand when the book was written. I found the manual that comes with the camera to be much more useful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great companion to N80
Review: My copy of Magic Lantern's N80 is carried in the camera bag with my N80. I've placed tabs on a few excellent references in the book that give recommendations to specific settings for various photo situations. I have found this book to be not only a great reference for the camera but also a nice refresher on photography. I especially appreciate the info on appropriate add-on flashes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Beginner Reference Guide
Review: This book serves as a good reference guide to the N-80, though I'm not sure if it's necessarily better than Nikon's camera manual. I think the book is at its best when used by beginner photographers, since much of the book covers the use of the camera and its features in practical photographic applications. It also goes into lens and flash selection, and the use of other available accessories.

My first Magic Lantern book was their guide to the N-60. At that time, and as a novice photographer, I greatly benefited from the book. The N-80 book was less valuable to me, mostly because I was farther down the learning curve by the time I read it.

So, it's a great source for beginners, and it's value diminishes thereafter.


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