Canon 550D - Best book to read??

[Big Worm 1]

I've had my Canon 550D for a couple of weeks now, and as it's my first DSLR, everyone has advised that the best thing to do a complete beginner is to get a book and learn all about it.

Now i've managed to get my hands on the following 3 books, but don't really want to read a combined 1000 pages of potentially the same information.

David Busch's Canon 550D - Guide to Digital Photography
Canon EOS 550D: From Snapshots to Great Shots - Jeff Revell
Canon EOS 550D Digital Field Guide - Charlotte K. Lowrie

Does anyone have any experience of these books? Is it worthwhile reading all of them (as they cover different topics), or are they all pretty much the same and will one of them cover most things i need to know?

Thanks

[muppetdave]

I can't comment on any of those, but when I started, I used the likes of "The Digital Photography Handbook" and "The Photography Bible", with my user manual in hand. That helped me understand what most of the functions were and their applications.

Once you have the gist of that, I'd suggest something like "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson as your next step.

Someone on here also did a good starter guide, if you ask nicely someone might pipe up as I (apologies to them) can't remember who produced it, and can't find my copy.

[Seight_Returns]

No experience of the 550 specific books but I bought the "From Snapshots To Great Shots" when I got my 7D. It's a pretty generic photography book - loosely tailored to a particular camera. If you want to fairly basic book to learn/re-learn basic photography then it's ok - but it's not a substitute for the manual if you would to become properly fluent with your new camera. I felt a bit ripped off - I got the impression that it's the same book they knock out time and time again with just basic editing to sort of make it camera specific.

I also bought the Digital Field Guide for my 7D. This on the other hand is a substitute for reading the manual, albeit in a much more readable and digestible form - but less empahsis on generic photography.

Both reasonable books - but with different emphasis.

[Simpo Two]

muppetdave said:

Someone on here also did a good starter guide, if you ask nicely someone might pipe up as I (apologies to them) can't remember who produced it, and can't find my copy.

Might have been me, but it's not camera-specific. Taking a photograph is the task, the name on the front of the box is largely secondary.