http://www.oreilly.com/catalog//9780596 ... index.html
Here's a quote from the Imaging Resource Newsletter -
http://www.imaging-resource.com/IRNEWS/
EdBook Bag: Sony Alpha A100, A Better Manual
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Some people think -- briefly -- that manuals don't matter. It's no surprise to see the high school grad who thought his laptop documentation annd CDs were as disposable as the box they came in. But we've also seen the Ph.D. who didn't think they were worth archiving either. After all, what could happen?
Then there's the used equipment purchase where the manuals just aren't part of the deal. We get a lot of email asking where a manual for an old digicam or printer can be found. The answer? Visit our Drivers Project page (http://imaging-resource.com/ARTS/DRV/DRV.HTM) for the customer support link for your equipment. There's often a PDF you can download.
And as a hardware reviewer, we know manuals are, if often inaccurate or incomplete, essential. We rely on a lot of sources to find out what's under the hood for each piece of equipment we review, but a camera without a manual isn't really ready for the store shelves yet.
But you don't need us to tell you that manuals are mostly difficult reading. They're poorly organized, obscurely written, badly translated, typeset too small and indexed inadequately. We don't love manuals, but we do need them. Eventually.
O'Reilly is doing something about this situation with its new Better Manual Series. The first title -- Sony Alpha dSLR A100, A Better Manual -- has just been released as a $9.99 illustrated PDF (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog//9780596 ... index.html). If you must, you can print it out on letter-sized paper (91 sheets of it), otherwise it fits compactly on your computer as a 4.7-MB file.
It's a model of organization, starting with just the thing you always open a manual to find: Quick Answers, which is a sort of FAQ for the camera, listing the top two dozen questions you might have, all of them linked to the answers in the book.
That's followed by 10 topics, including Introduction, Putting It Together: Assembly and Charging, Getting Familiar with the A100's Exterior, Setting Up the Camera, Basic Shooting Techniques, Instant Feedback in Playback Mode, Advanced Shooting, All About Flash, Your A100 and Your Computer. Bing, bang, bong. Why aren't all manuals organized that way?
Not only are the topics nicely laid out, but each discussion is heavily illustrated. One illustration, for example, shows you everything that comes in the box, all laid out on one page with arrows pointing to each item to describe it. Others include screen shots of menus and close-ups of dials and controls with critical points circled in red. There's even a sequence on how to attach the strap correctly.
One of the best things about this title, though, happens to be the author Ken Milburn, who has written three other titles for O'Reilly (and over two dozen total) in addition to a career shooting stills for Universal Studios, covers for Capitol Records, editorial shots for various publications and advertising shoots for even more.
Ken interjects helpful personal advice you just don't see in most manuals. "Don't do what I did when I was playing with this and choose Reset just below File & Memory," he warns. "If you do, it will start the file numbering system all over again and you'll have duplicate numbers for some of your images."
He also doesn't hesitate to recommend third-party solutions to sticky problems. Discussing alternatives to the viewfinder, he notes Sony's right angle and magnifier viewfinder attachments but also suggests Hoodman's solution, which is nicely illustrated. You won't find that in a manufacturer's manual.
If we have a quibble (and our Quibble Meter is always holstered to our belt, whatever we're up to), it's with the illustrations. It's not a big thing and probably to be expected when you have a white page and a black camera, but quite a few of the closeup images of controls and buttons are too heavily manipulated to make the objects clearer. And screen shots seem to be photographs rather than video out captures (so the lighting isn't even and there is some distortion). None of this really gets in the way, but it did surprise us.
On the other hand, for $10 (a dime a page), we can't complain (just quibble). It's a great idea, sure to be appreciated by any camera owner as a quick reference guide. And a pretty inexpensive gift, too.
TITLE: Sony Alpha DSLR A100: A Better Manual by Ken Milburn, published by O'Reilly Digital Media, 91 pages, $9.99.