Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Text!!!
Review: I don't think you can write a more student-orinted text on the subject. *Everything* is spelled out! All the math details (eventhough it's not hard math)are there. The fourth ed. has a wealth of problems with about half of them solved, and the other half for homework. Some of the problems are re-do's of previous ones with an obvious change, but still good for practice.
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Summary: The best book on optics, ever
Review: I first came across this book when a good friend of mine, dr. Sigurður Mæjónes, showed it to me when we were doing experiments in optical physics. He had just recently bought and simply couldn't let it down. We had an extremely boring textbook, whose name I can not (and will not) remember, but ever since I got a copy of Hecht's book I stopped using the other one. This book has everything you ever wanted to know about optics and has the best chapter on the "Hornafjarðarljósbjögun" I have ever seen.
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Summary: Clear
Review: I like this book. It explains things well. It's very well written and easy to read. It has a lot of data, well organized.However, I think students ought to be disturbed by the outrageous $108 price tag. I happened by accident to have purchased instead a brand-new version of the special "low cost" edition - intended for distribution only *outside* the US and Canada - that, even with the secondary dealer markup, cost me under thirty bucks - and still presumeably left them a profit. Feeling ripped off yet?
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Summary: Difficult to learn from.
Review: I used this book as an undergrad and found it difficult to learn from. I thought the book lacked enough examples and I often found myself reading a section several times and still not feeling confident that I understood it.
Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: I used this book in my undergraduate optics class. It was mostly self-taught and we met to ask questions and turn in homework. I found this book challenging but not impossible. The text is very well written and the end of chapter problems didn't require a Ph.D. to solve. I learned the most from any of my classes from this book (partly due to the teaching style of the professor). I highly recommend it if you want to learn optics.
Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: I used this book in my undergraduate optics class. It was mostly self-taught and we met to ask questions and turn in homework. I found this book challenging but not impossible. The text is very well written and the end of chapter problems didn't require a Ph.D. to solve. I learned the most from any of my classes from this book (partly due to the teaching style of the professor). I highly recommend it if you want to learn optics.
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Summary: bad book!!! wasting time!!!
Review: it is difficult to learn from. NO examples are found and I often found myself reading a section several times and still not feeling confident that I understood it.
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Summary: A good book if you're not in a hurry...
Review: The best thing about Hecht's book are the long and thorough discussions about every topic. This makes the book very adequate for self studying. On the other hand, it can be very incovenient if you're using to book to study for your exams (as I did). So I do recomend Hecht as a first reading in Optics, but be sure that you're not in a hurry...
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Summary: Theres alot in this book
Review: This book contains nearly everything you could want to know about basic optics. The solved problems are great. Most of it is well written - I found parts of some chapters confusing (as did my classmates) - however considering the complexity of the material and the amount of material included, Hecht does a great job. It would also be good to have a list of symbols used in equations at the back of the book like some other texts have. I remember tearing throught the book looking for a definition of a symbol on more than one occasion. Having not used another book, I can make no comparisions, but according to most people, this is the book to get.
Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction To Optics
Review: This book is great for the beginning Scientist/Engineer. It good for the Junior/Senior Undergrad with some training in vector calculus. The Concepts are easy to pick up and the derivations aren't too rigorous. The book also has a good chapter that introduces you to the mathematics used throughout the book. This is more a classical optics test: Refraction, Diffraction, Polarization, etc.
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