This book is clearly the definitive guide to using the Canon EOS 50D. It's filled with the information you need to get up and running with this camera quickly. It devotes several chapters to familiarizing you with the 50D, with large full-color illustrations that show the location of every control, button, and dial, and descriptions that help you understand how they work, and when they should be used. I recently switched from another brand of camera, and found this information very helpful.

I really liked the two very long chapters that spelled out exactly what each of the 50D's menu choices are, especially the Custom Functions, which are not that easy to understand. It explained what each option did, and gave examples of why you'd want to use them, and how your results would look when you did. Basically, the author has taken the dry listings of functions that you find in the manual packaged with the camera, and explained those features in a much more understandable way, with examples.

The rest of the book explains exposure, lenses, electronic flash, and "troubleshooting" the camera if something bad happens. Although these chapters all relate directly to the 50D, you'll find that you can learn about photography as you're learning how to use your camera.

While it's possible to learn what you need about camera operation from the manual, this book makes the process easier. And you'd never learn this much about picture taking without it.

I don't really mind that much of the material is copied from other books the author has written. But, given that this came out 6 months after the 50D was on sale, a better job could have been done scrubbing the material to make sure it was correct. I'm only 1/2 thru, and have noticed quite a few errors.

In several places, the author refers to the H1 ISO mode as 3200 ISO. That may have been true on the 40D, but on the 50D, H1 is 6400, and H2 is 12800.

There's also a picture that I recognize from the book in the series I had for my Canon XTi. The caption has been changed to say it was taken by the 50D, but it clearly wasn't, since the 50D wasn't out when the other book came out! Makes me wonder if it was even taken with a DSLR, much less a Canon.

This book is definitively a way that makes your Canon camera more accessible, especially if you're a first-time dSLR owner.

The book even starts from the ground-up, leaving nothing to assumption in terms of even telling you how to charge your battery, how to insert it, and how to place your Compact Flash card (and which options are available to you) in your camera. And it's not just text either! He includes photos to explain what he means at times where it's appropriate and even occasionally shows you examples of failed pictures (i.e., lighting of a shot versus the histograms that your camera can display).

From bare minimum knowledge to experienced photographer, David tackles the issues from fully automatic picture-taking to fully manual adjustments and even goes so far as to cover ground on every mode that the silver-topped dial on top of your camera has to offer and every menu screen that allows the minute adjustments of noise reduction, etc. to occur.

He'll offer you some advice regarding lens selection as well should you purchase the camera as a body kit alone or if you want to purchase additional lenses. There's even full discourse regarding flash photography should you chose to augment the camera with a coveted 580 EX Speedlite flash.

If you find your camera manual to be detailed but not overly-helpful in the "well what happens if I DO use this?" department, this book is for you.

If I had to dock it half a star, however, it would lie within David's occasional tongue-in-cheek ramblings about various scenarios like "why you would need extra batteries." Yes, we get it, but we don't need nearly an entire paragraph about maybe you're hiking and you're too far from an AC power source, ad nauseum. It tends to be a little annoying although that I can see that he's trying to write to an audience that is very broad in nature and may feel that the diatribes will make the inexperienced a little more comfortable with his "fireside chat" style approach. Apart from those minor detractions, this book is an excellent starting point specifically written for YOUR CAMERA. Enjoy!