[.ca] Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon Sb-28 (ISBN 1883403529)

Terrible!:
I purchased the SB-28 flash in Switzerland and wanted a guide in the English language. I already had a fair understanding of the flash and the various modes, but I still had a few outstanding questions that I hoped this book could answer. The book just confused me and raised even more questions. The author's run-on sentences and poor grammar made for difficult reading and comprehension. The examples did a poor job of demonstrating the author's point and often had nothing to do with the text. Save your money and get your questions answered at the many online resources available. If you must have this book, I will sell you mine.

Poor Exposure of the SB-28 Speedlight:
...I decided to buy this book. After all, the other Magic Lantern books were so well written and informative, I reasoned. I reasoned wrong! The writer clearly understands the many technical details of the SB-28, but utterly fails to communicate his knowledge in any remotely understandable way. A fine effort wasted, I'm afraid.

Minus Five Star!:
Advice: Don't buy it! Cons: Confusing, less useful than the instruction manual

A confusing book at best:
I read the instructions that came with the SB-28. I wanted more info. I bought the book. I became more and more confused. I re-read the instructions. I still don't understand the book, but I take good flash pictures.

A Waste of Time & Money:
Do not believe the promises made in the opening pages of this book. They are unfulfilled. Despite early protestations that this book will be better than, and different from, the instruction manual -- it is barely more than a bad rehash of the instruction manual with confusing additional information thrown in. When the author asks that "due to constraints of time and cost" we should excuse the "artistic and aesthetic aspects" of his illustrations, we should sense that this was a 'quick and dirty' effort. Forget the "time and cost" for photography! How about investing some conceptual and organizational thought -- and concern for the reader? (Isn't that what we are paying for?) In fact, this looks so 'quick and dirty' that it seems like different people actually wrote different parts, with little communication, and with no visible editorial control. Furthermore, the illustrations are often unrelated to the text. When related, I have seen many illustrations elsewhere that illustrate the point in the text much better. The book contradicts itself in places. For example, on page 30 it is claimed that "the SB-28 uses a combined CONTROL OF flash energy via flash duration and FLASH OUTPUT ..." \oemphasis, mine\c and then on pg. 140 we read "To my knowledge, complex electronic CONTROL OF the actual FLASH OUTPUT is presently not used by any camera/autoflash mode ...". Since the context of these two sentences make it explicitly clear that the points being made are completely contradictory, one begins to lose faith in the veracity of other claims in the book. I read this book from cover-to-cover, twice, thinking it was my fault. What a waste of time! Even with my Ph.D. degree, I could make little sense of the author's intent. A bunch of facts thrown together and often repeated several times throughout the book, with little useful organization or explanation, poor illustrations, and no index. I found myself trying to re-write the book as I fought for understanding. You should not have to buy a book like this and then have to re-write it in order to understand it. Save your time and money. It gets one star, because I can't give zero stars! Do not be tempted by this bad apple from the (usually good) 'Magic Lantern' barrel.