Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS 20d

by Rob Sheppard

The superb Canon EOS 20-D single-lens-reflex camera (SLR) has professional features at a consumer-friendly cost, and that's why it's bound to become a bestseller. Rob Sheppard, PCPhoto's digital... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579906923
• ISBN13: 9781579906924
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Lark Books (NC)
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Canon 20D Owners Need This

Although the Canon 20D is being replaced by the new 30D, there is a lot of life left in this camera and, I expect, many owners who could use a boost in their knowledge. This book is much more than an expansion of the owners' manual. There are lots of tips and techniques in here that will help any owner of the 20D improve his photographic skills.

Kudos to Magic Lantern

This book is very effective at familiarizing the novice photographer. It gave me invaluable assistance in familiarizing myself with the camera.

Good starting point

I had read several reviews of the book with both pros and cons. I set my expectations of this book as a glorified re-hash of the owner's manual. Honestly, for the price I paid for this camera...another $20 (about the price of a lens cap) to learn how to better effectively use the camera was not wasted money. I found that it really was better than the owner's manual and went beyond the expectations I set based on other reviews. Not using an SLR for almost 20 years but using a point and shoot digital, I found it was a very good at bringing me back up to speed while explaining the basics of the controls and how to use them (not at in the owners manual in this format). It gave some good, solid, straight forward examples, clear pictures (all in B & W), and interpreted the owners manual to a much better format to understand without talking down to you. The book starts off by stating what to expect from it and how to best obtain information from the pages. I found that it did not just meet these, but contained enough little tips and pointers that it exceeded what I thought it was capable of. As a matter of reference, I also read the 20D manual cover to cover before this book and yet was still able to pull information from this book. This is a good reason to give it 5 stars. The recommended reading of the book is not cover to cover, but to read the basics and then the area of interest and user needs...then use the book as a reference. Follow the explanations of the automatic modes; use your camera to reinforce these. Then go back and learn more about the manual functionalities of the camera. Because it is easier to read than the small manual that is provided with the camera, it is more understandable and easier to refer back to. I intend to keep it with me when I am out shooting just because it is a quick way to get answers to understanding the camera. And no it does not get in to the in depth technical specs of working around certain issues, but then again the book never claimed to do this either. I would recommend this to anyone moving up from a point and shoot or older film SLR. If you are already very familiar with how to use the camera and pulled all you can from the owners manual, then get a book more on certain aspects of digital photography.

This is a 5 star book as long as you know what you're buying!

I read the reviews of this book from other members. And they hovered around the, "this book is a rehash of what you already know" or, "a wordy version of the owner's manual." Maybe so, and this is precisely why I have to give this book 5 stars. I had a very nice 35mm SLR about 20 years ago (I'm 37 as of this review). I long since sold it and have not held anything other than some form of point-and-shoot for nearly two decades. But now I am getting back into photography again. I did a LOT of research and ended up on the EOS 20D. After reading the instruction manual that came with the book I realized I had more questions than answers. The instruction manual reads as though you already know everything it's mentioning. It's a large reference guide, but hardly a well-written instruction book for the EOS 20D. So, despite the reviews, I bought the book. And am VERY happy I did. I suspect the negative reviews are written by people who didn't really need to read this book in the first place. But if you're like me, and you're fairly green to all of this and are a virgin to the digial SLR world, then this book is a must for you if you have a 20D. The book is NOT an instruction book on how to take better photos. But it explains in very plain English how every single feature works, what it might be used for, and in a few cases, how to utilize some of the camera's features. I personally found this book to be invaluable. And without it I would have remained lost. Trying to decipher the hard-to-read instruction booklet that comes with the camera. After reading the book front to back I was confident in adjusting the camera's settings, using the 20D's onboard menus and screen-controlled settings. The book is written as though you're completely new to the 20D. And in the case of some professionals I can see how this almost might be condescending. But if you use the book for it's intended purpose (a more easily understood instruction manual) instead of what it isn't (How to get the best results from your 20D) then you'll be happy with the book. Hope this helps. I see 1-star bashes about this book and I am left to assume it's from people who never needed to read it in the first place.

Great book for amateurs

I read the manual and still had troubles understanding basic photography. I have never owned an SLR and did not have a clue about aperture and shutter speeds. About half way through the book the light went off and I now love my 20D. I am currently reading advanced books on exposure and becoming proficient with Photoshop Elements.