Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS 7D Multimedia Workshop Book with DVD

2011-11-22T19:00:00

Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS 7D Multimedia Workshop Book with DVD Use it when I need to.

Larry

2010-04-17T21:00:00

This was a disappointing purchase. It's basically a book and 2 DVDs. Of the three, only one item is specifically about the 7D. And that one item was not all that informative for the average person using a 7D. I'm a new 7D owner and an intermediate level SLR owner. I was excited to get a guide that would help explain and unlock the advanced capabilities of the 7D. Boy was this the wrong book to purchase. If you own a 7D, chances are, you are: 1) You are not new to photography, and the baseline concepts (ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed) are second nature. 2) You probably did not purchase the 7D to use as a video camera... there are plenty of dedicated devices that do a far better job. Given these two basic premises - here is why this package is of very little value. 1) The Book: the book is a generic book about photography and covers the basics/principals that people who buy a 7D probably already know all to well. This book is the same book included in all Lantern multimedia packages - it just has a different sleeve on the exterior. Take the sleeve off and it's the generic book. It never mentions the 7D or included images of the 7D's buttons or menus. 2) The "Great Photos" DVD: Generic. It may help some with basic concepts but, there are books that are dedicated to this subject - I want to learn how to use the 7D 3) The 7D DVD: This is actually well done - production-wise. The instructor moves along at the right pace and when I started the DVD i was pretty excited... Right up to the point where he said "The custom function menus are more advanced than you will ever need to use and will not be covered on this DVD." WHAT!? The custom functions on this camera are the very things that the photographer uses (and buys the 7D for) to get the best results out of the camera. You can use these functions to tailor the camera to your specific use - they're hugely important. To just blow off covering almost half of the menu options in the camera is inexcusable. Then, the narrator spends fully 1/3 of the time covering video usage!? This was just unbelievable to me - in the footage, they have the 7D dressed up in this full video gear (a giant lens hood rig and an external microphone - along with a bunch of other video capture gear - it's absolutely bizarre and 99.9% of 7D users will never go this far to shoot video). The DVD goes into a huge amount of detail about how to take video with the 7D. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. You blow off covering the custom functions of the camera and deep dive into shooting video. WOW.... Save your money and consider another resource - this slapped together group of generic and incomplete guides is not worth your time or money. Also - to the publisher - the presenter in the 7D DVD explains the "Live View" mode incorrectly. There is a Live View mode - for taking pictures - leave the switch aimed at the camera icon and press Start/Stop to begin shooting pictures in Live View. AND there is a video mode - move the switch over to the video camera icon - yes, you can shoot pictures while taking video if you want to. The narrator incorrectly explains this feature and tell users to switch to video mode to shoot pictures in live mode... Ugh.

Charlie

2010-02-20T19:00:00

The EOS 7D "How TO" disc is well thought out, logical in approach and each segment of instruction is to the point. The presenter does an excellent job of explaining camera options and controls without getting bogged down in technical details.

William H.