Rating: 
Summary: Poor Exposure of the SB-28 Speedlight
Review: ...I decided to buy this book. After all, the other Magic Lantern books were so well written and informative, I reasoned.I reasoned wrong! The writer clearly understands the many technical details of the SB-28, but utterly fails to communicate his knowledge in any remotely understandable way. A fine effort wasted, I'm afraid.
Rating:
Summary: Minus Five Star!
Review: Advice: Don't buy it! Cons: Confusing, less useful than the instruction manual
Rating: 
Summary: A down-to-earth practical reference book
Review: Chock full of examples that the average photographer can relate to. Far more comprehensive than the Nikon manual. Covers a world of possible situations. If you can't learn something from this book, you are either deluding yourself or should be writing your own book.
Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time & Money
Review: Do not believe the promises made in the opening pages of this book. They are unfulfilled. Despite early protestations that this book will be better than, and different from, the instruction manual -- it is barely more than a bad rehash of the instruction manual with confusing additional information thrown in.
When the author asks that "due to constraints of time and cost" we should excuse the "artistic and aesthetic aspects" of his illustrations, we should sense that this was a 'quick and dirty' effort. Forget the "time and cost" for photography! How about investing some conceptual and organizational thought -- and concern for the reader? (Isn't that what we are paying for?) In fact, this looks so 'quick and dirty' that it seems like different people actually wrote different parts, with little communication, and with no visible editorial control. Furthermore, the illustrations are often unrelated to the text. When related, I have seen many illustrations elsewhere that illustrate the point in the text much better. The book contradicts itself in places. For example, on page 30 it is claimed that "the SB-28 uses a combined CONTROL OF flash energy via flash duration and FLASH OUTPUT ..." [emphasis, mine] and then on pg. 140 we read "To my knowledge, complex electronic CONTROL OF the actual FLASH OUTPUT is presently not used by any camera/autoflash mode ...". Since the context of these two sentences make it explicitly clear that the points being made are completely contradictory, one begins to lose faith in the veracity of other claims in the book. I read this book from cover-to-cover, twice, thinking it was my fault. What a waste of time! Even with my Ph.D. degree, I could make little sense of the author's intent. A bunch of facts thrown together and often repeated several times throughout the book, with little useful organization or explanation, poor illustrations, and no index. I found myself trying to re-write the book as I fought for understanding. You should not have to buy a book like this and then have to re-write it in order to understand it.
Save your time and money. It gets one star, because I can't give zero stars!
Do not be tempted by this bad apple from the (usually good) 'Magic Lantern' barrel.
Rating:
Summary: I've been waiting for this book forever. I'm upset.
Review: First, the book was supposed to be ready by March. Then, all through April it was still supposed to be ready by March. Now it's May, and the ad says "June 30th." I wouldn't trust that if I were you. The sad thing is, this book is really necessary.
Rating:
Summary: Confused and confusing
Review: I am what's called a "Senior Engineer", I regularly have to read and make sense of very technical and obscure material. I have now been through this book three times slowly, and can not make sense of it. It seems to restate the contents of the manual but has not organized it in a way that helps me to make a connection between the functions of the cameras and the flash unit and their various combinations of possible settings. Maybe the publisher pushed him to get it done in an unreasonably short period of time. There are a few helpfull comments on the general subject of flash photography.
Rating:
Summary: A confusing book at best
Review: I purchased the SB-28 flash in Switzerland and wanted a guide in the English language. I already had a fair understanding of the flash and the various modes, but I still had a few outstanding questions that I hoped this book could answer. The book just confused me and raised even more questions. The author's run-on sentences and poor grammar made for difficult reading and comprehension. The examples did a poor job of demonstrating the author's point and often had nothing to do with the text. Save your money and get your questions answered at the many online resources available. If you must have this book, I will sell you mine.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible!
Review: I purchased the SB-28 flash in Switzerland and wanted a guide in the English language. I already had a fair understanding of the flash and the various modes, but I still had a few outstanding questions that I hoped this book could answer. The book just confused me and raised even more questions. The author's run-on sentences and poor grammar made for difficult reading and comprehension. The examples did a poor job of demonstrating the author's point and often had nothing to do with the text. Save your money and get your questions answered at the many online resources available. If you must have this book, I will sell you mine.
Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time and Money
Review: I purchased this book with the hope that it would provide me with greater insight into using my SB-28. Ha. I don't think that I have ever come across a more confusing, ill-conceived book. It's enough to make one want to go back to flashcubes. The book is poorly organized--headings and topics pile on top of one another without purpose or reason--at least none that I can discern. The explanations often leave one hanging, longing for more detail or at least greater clarity. Frustrating? Let me tell you. I would definitely NOT recommend this book. I only give it one star because zero stars isn't an option.
Rating:
Summary: Two-thumbs Down
Review: I purchased this book with the hope that it would provide me with greater insight into using my SB-28. Ha. I don't think that I have ever come across a more confusing, ill-conceived book. It's enough to make one want to go back to flashcubes. The book is poorly organized--headings and topics pile on top of one another without purpose or reason--at least none that I can discern. The explanations often leave one hanging, longing for more detail or at least greater clarity. Frustrating? Let me tell you. I would definitely NOT recommend this book. I only give it one star because zero stars isn't an option.
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