This is a mammoth book at 550 pages, and has everything you could possibly want to know about the Nikon D7000, including many topics not covered in the other guides I looked at. I upgraded to the D7000 from my D90 and was very pleased with the author's D90 book. Although I had to wait a few extra months for this one,it was worth the wait. The most useful part for me was the 100 plus pages devoted to explaining every function of the menus, with plenty of detail on why you should select a particular option. The other books I looked at just repeated the information in the Nikon manual.
I also loved the entire chapter on autofocus, which on the D7000 is a bit different from the D90 I had before. Busch has information on exactly how autofocus works, both the "phase detection" system used with the optical viewfinder and the "contrast detection" system it switches to in Live View mode and when shooting movies. The chapter on shooting D-Movies also helped me a lot, because I never had fully explored the D90's movie capabilities, and the D7000 is much better. Thank you! David Busch's Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography, 1st Edition
I have had my D7000 since Christmas of 2010. I've read the User's Manual which came with it several times (the User's Manual is several hundred pages long in its own right).
The problem with the D7000 documentation is that, while thorough, it does not explain the "why" of various settings, and how they can be used together to get better pictures. I've been looking for a clearly-written book which is not just a regurgitation of the user's manual (as many of them are) and yet doesn't go into extreme detail about the concepts of photography in general. I needed something that was worth the money, because it was full of information about the camera. This is the book. While there are certainly some quick discussions about things like what an f-stop is and how that number relates to the position of the aperature mechanism in the lens, those discussions are written to lay the foundation for extremely clear descriptions of all the camera's functions and how they actually work together. The intro section is rather long, but the book is huge, and if it doesn't answer your questions, probably nothing but a very experienced D7000 user will. This book is HUGE. It's large and thick (550 pages) and full of full-color illustrations and diagrams that will have you saying, "Ohhhh! So THAT's how that works!" over and over again. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is not a pro photographer. Since the camera is not a pro camera, that would be pretty much anyone who owns a D7000. The only downside of this book is it's size. It's not something you're going to want to lug around with you when you go out on photo shoots. Read it at home, make notes in the Nikon User's Manual and take THAT with you. Just as an aside, if you decide not to buy this book, beware when you look at others. Many are either just rehashes of the User Manual or books about photography with a few pictures of a D7000 to get you interested in them.
Just published and only recently available on Amazon.Com is this rather informative book by David Busch called Nikon D7000. Unless you are a very experienced Nikon photographer and have used similar late model Nikons, this will be quite useful and possibly save you disappointment and money both.
In order of what I've learnt so far:
1) Shows how to clean the sensor without damaging it.
2) Set it not to shoot if there is no SD card in either slot.
3) SD card recovery software.
4) Firmware update procedure.
5) Software recommendations such as Capture NX2 and Camera Control Pro 2 (of course) along with the usual suspects: DxO Optics Pro, C1 Pro, Bibble Pro, BreezeBrowser Pro, and PhotoShop.
6) Lighting gear and techniques - a long chapter on the most vital subject including flash and studio lighting.
7) Getting the most out of your lenses - unless you are a pro, you could always learn more.
8) Setup menus including that surprisingly versatile Retouch menu - the menus are where the action is on a complex camera like this - get to know them.
9) Initial setup is important - pay attention to this and much of the rest of your shooting will be much more productive.
10) Recommended settings chart and the use of advanced techniques and gear like GPS.
11) Live View, Movies, and editing.
12) Getting the most out of the auto-focus - not as easy as it seems.
13) Exposure and extensive descriptions of the physical camera and its menus.
In the camera use itself here's a strange tidbit. An additional caution: Some reviewers complained the resolution was not as high as they expected. Turns out, you have to go into the menu system and tell the cam to use not the Medium resolution, but the High resolution! Maybe just on Auto, but you should investigate this thoroughly or you won't get the 16MP you paid for. Bizarre, but true.
Well written and illustrated. Recommended.
The D7000 is more sophisticated than the D70, D80, and D90, which I was already familiar with. I had looked at the D7000 Nikon manual for answers to specific questions that I had, only to get very frustrated and not find an understandable explanation. I had read a Peter Innova ebook as well as a Thom Hogan ebook for two of the previous Nikon DSLRs that I owned, but the David Busch book is by far my favorite. I also like the portability of having a book with me. I find that he explains things well, but not to a point where it is condescending to the reader. Although I'm only around page 60 right now, I feel I have already learned a lot. I like the full color pictures of the camera as well as how menu items are displayed in full color and cover most of the page. He gives practical reasons why you should/shouldn't use certain settings. When I own a camera, I want to know how to use everything on the camera. Although this is going to take a very long time to read, I feel it is well worth my time. - Nikon - Beginners Guide - Digital Slr - Photography'
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