Canon EOS 6D: The Guide to Understanding and Using Your Camera Paperback – August 24, 2013

We have the only Canon EOS 6D guide book you should consider to go along with the full Manual available for download from Canon.I have reviewed three other of this genre without being able to recommend them, coming away with the feeling that those authors didn't really get into the camera, and didn't take many (if any) pictures with it. This guide serves up a full page picture to introduce each of the 19 chapters, all taken with the 6D by the author and two other published photographers. Not convinced any are "suitable for framing" to my personal taste, but they do show what can be done with the camera.First of all, no other guide book points on a picture to 102 external components of the camera, with a paragraph or more description for each that was not a repetition (about 30%) due to the button, dial, control or feature showing up more than once on the eight pictorial rotations of the 6D. This is how a guide should get started and others should copy it.How do I know the author was into the camera, even though he is an experienced photographer and undoubtedly has many other cameras? I provide this anecdote. On page 112, in discussing the manual cleaning of the sensor (perhaps a dubious idea for an amateur), he notes that if the camera is on battery power, the mirror will come crashing down if the battery runs out of juice. Before that happens, a high pitch beeper goes off. The author notes that he could not hear it due to the frequency, but that his wife did. I don't recall this high pitch beeper even being mentioned in any of the other books, much less an actual experience with it.The bulk of the book will take you through the operation of the 6D, with a generous portion of the authors' recommendations from personal experience and use of the Canon EOS 6D. He even notes one of the glitches in the camera, that being that if you leave GPS enabled and turn the camera off, the GPS stupidly continues to search for coordinates, and thus drains your battery. Again, this is mentioned in various on-line discussions, but not in the other guide books I have reviewed. While the author did discuss the Wi-Fi capabilities, it seemed to me he downplayed the usefulness of controlling the camera wirelessly with your smartphone, one of the truly useful advances the 6D provides, in my opinion.By Chapter 18 we are done with all the menus and dials, and the author takes a short diversion into the Characteristics of Lighting, a nice summary backed by science and experience, leading up to a discussion of Speedlites. Especially useful was an up-to-date discussion of the latest members of the Canon line-up, the 600EX-RT and Transmitter ST-E3-RT.If you have the 6D and would like a very good guide book, or you are considering the purchase of the 6D, this is the book to have.

For all the referencing I do with this book since purchasing my Canon EOS6D, I cannot add to the glowing reviews others have written. A review of a specific-model camera should book should, in my opinion, begin with a comparison to the manufacturer's supplied manual. This book in some ways compares favorably to Canon's manual, and unfavorably in other ways.If you are a visual learner, the Canon manual far outdoes this book in visual imagery. The downloadable PDF manual contains excellent tables, screen graphics and color photo example representations that in quality and number, far exceed the screen graphics found in this book. If you are a prosaic learner that thrives on lengthy paragraph-form explanations, you'll prefer this for-purchase book. But even if you prefer lengthy paragraph explanations, this book makes ominous references to the free Canon manual--practically directing the reader to go there for more information. In that vein, it seems the author just didn't want to be bothered with camera features that didn't interest him, he didn't wish to explore, or he felt were just unworthy of treatment.A review can't criticize this book for not being a digital photography tome, because a prerequisite for reading this book and operating such a complex camera is strong familiarity with the craft. However, I am left confused. On one hand, the author misses several critical features of this camera and offers very little insight into best practices, and on the other, he spends the last 2 chapters discussing lighting theory and other such mundane subjects as how to get your photos to the computer (pull out the SD card and use a card reader in your computer because using the USB cable connection wastes battery power...{Really?!}). In another example, he states how the Shoot Menus change contextually with each setting, but fails to discuss why certain menu features are missing from certain shooting modes. As for this book's applicability to the Canon EOS 6D, the author completely omits any discussion of Creative Auto shooting mode, which is intrinsic to the Canon EOS, but instead provides an elaborate discussion on storage cards, which have nothing to do with the Canon EOS 6D--info that can be found in a simple Internet search. The author also includes great info on accessories available for this camera, but irritatingly refuses to take a stand, by making sound recommendations. Sometimes authors do this to avoid the wrath of corporate interests, but the brave ones thumb their noses at the manufacturers and give readers the dirty lowdown truth.Were this book $10 or $13 and claiming to be an addendum to the Canon manual, I would've rated it 5 stars. But for close to $30, it falls way short of expectations. I would consider this book an extension of information already provided in the free manual. This book, in conjunction with the Canon manual, make a decent pair. But without it, you don't miss much. If you don't have $28, the free manual and other free Internet resources will be all you need to learn your Canon EOS 6D.

This is a good book to sit down with and read through when you first get the camera. However, once you are familiar with the buttons etc. you then need a reference work and this is not it because the index does not have any of the topics you are likely to need, e.g. what pages to go to when you are contemplating portraiture, for example. It is better than the basic manual Canon provides which has no index at all but after your first look at the camera and it range of functions you will need a book with a better thought-out index.

A good informative book, easier to read than the manual! I am familiar with Canon cameras but moving to a more sophisticated model I felt I needed help and have dipped into the book on many occasions. The author is obviously very familiar with the use of the camera and you feel like he is instructing you as you read the text.

This is the book that should have been in the box.