Jim Church's Essential Guide to Nikonos Systems

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: A really good how to book for owners of Nikonos camera systems, with practical tips for Nikonos V and Nikonos RS users, although valuable for all. I really like the way that Jim Church has included Situations - UW photo scenarios and he guides you through his approach.

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: A really good how to book for owners of Nikonos camera systems, with practical tips for Nikonos V and Nikonos RS users, although valuable for all. I really like the way that Jim Church has included Situations - UW photo scenarios and he guides you through his approach.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Info for Beginner to Intermediate U/W Photogs.
Review: Easy to understand, yet comprehensive info for the beginning to intermediate UW photographers utilizing Nikonos V (slightly less info on the Nikonos RS). Organization by subject matter creates a reference that you can take with you for easy and quick, pre-dive brush-ups. Excellent example photos, charts and diagrams. It goes way beyond all Nikon manuals and publications.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic - Good for beginners and experts
Review: I used this book on a trip to St Lucia, with my Nikonos, with fantastic results. His sections on theory were clear and understandable. The sections on actually taking pictures are a must. On my next photographic expidition, I am going to xerox and laminate his checklists for use underwater. My pictures would not have been as good without this book. The only confusing part is keeping which flash, lens or camera you have in some of the examples, but a second read through the section clears this up.

Rating:
Summary: It really is essential
Review: Jim Church is the true professor of underwater photography. His book is comprehensive and fairly clear. His approach is almost too analytical at times. I would have liked more photos and text explaining what he did and why and how it worked out, although he did offer quite a number of photo examples. His tips on strobe useage and his "secret guide to strobe exposures" alone are worth the price of the book. For a looser and more intuitive approach, read http://scubadiving.com/photo/instruction/.
this is an addition to, not a replacement for Church's book.
Overall, I would give the book an A- with about half of it worthy of an A+ and the remainder a solid B to B+.
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: It really is essential
Review: Jim Church is the true professor of underwater photography. His book is comprehensive and fairly clear. His approach is almost too analytical at times. I would have liked more photos and text explaining what he did and why and how it worked out, although he did offer quite a number of photo examples. His tips on strobe useage and his "secret guide to strobe exposures" alone are worth the price of the book. For a looser and more intuitive approach, read http://scubadiving.com/photo/instruction/.
this is an addition to, not a replacement for Church's book.
Overall, I would give the book an A- with about half of it worthy of an A+ and the remainder a solid B to B+.
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Room for a lot of improvement, but still essential
Review: My first reaction when opening this book was that it was light on text. Not necessarily bad if it says what it needs to succinctly. Unfortunately, this book didn't do that. Procedures could be explained more clearly, and could be illustrated with more and better figures and photographs. This semi-pro photographer often found himself reading a procedure and saying, "huh?" "Change the f-stop which way?" The advanced photographer will gloss over reading the description of f-stops and shutter speeds while the novice will be left befuddled. The book leans toward giving recipes for a situation rather than trying to teach an understanding of photography.

More explanation and pictures could be given of the equipment and configuration. A new underwater photographer with a camera is overwhelmed by the array of arms and attachments, but there is one paragraph on arms and brackets that basically says, "Get the best," without as much as figure to show how one looks or attaches to the camera. Then you get descriptions such as "attach the strobe arm so it tilts toward the camera body." Tilt in what plane? What does a strobe arm look like?

There are statement and procedures that seem odd to an experienced photographer. It is suggested that manual strobe exposure, which is typically only dependent of distance and f-stop, is also a function of subject brightness. The procedure for using TTL flash starts with looking up the flash distance for a full-power manual flash to set the f-stop. If you're going to do that, you might as well not use TTL (although this method does maximize depth of field, but, of course, this is not explained.) The TTL electronics are then used as little more than a proper exposure indication, and if you don't get a proper exposure with your camera set to the edge of the exposure range, you're to burn more film at another f-stop until it works.

This books focuses on the Nikonos V and the now-discontinued RS. Even though the author considers the IVA to be "a dud," the III and IVA are still viable cameras that a beginner, the audience for this book, is likely to have because of the lower procurement cost. (Currently on eBay, a V with 35mm lens runs about $475 while a IVA with the same lens is about $250.) An appendix on the features, and how operating and maintenance differ for these models, would be very useful. Church has written on these models in previous editions, so it shouldn't be difficult.

So, what is good about this book? The color photographs are very good, but are more of result examples than actually showing the equipment, but are inspirational. The guidelines on positioning strobes and estimating distances is invaluable, as are the maintenance sections. If you bought a used Nikonos without a manual, note that Craig Camera sells the manuals for a IVA for $20 while the book currently retails on-line for less than that. If you're trying to decide between the two, I'd get this book. This book also seems to be considered by many to be the definitive guide to Nikonos photography, and my search shows few, if any, other underwater photography books dedicated to this one line of cameras. So, like the title says, even though I feel that there is a LOT of room for improvement, this book may be, indeed, essential for the Nikonos beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Room for a lot of improvement, but still essential
Review: My first reaction when opening this book was that it was light on text. Not necessarily bad if it says what it needs to succinctly. Unfortunately, this book didn't do that. Procedures could be explained more clearly, and could be illustrated with more and better figures and photographs. This semi-pro photographer often found himself reading a procedure and saying, "huh?" "Change the f-stop which way?" The advanced photographer will gloss over reading the description of f-stops and shutter speeds while the novice will be left befuddled. The book leans toward giving recipes for a situation rather than trying to teach an understanding of photography.

More explanation and pictures could be given of the equipment and configuration. A new underwater photographer with a camera is overwhelmed by the array of arms and attachments, but there is one paragraph on arms and brackets that basically says, "Get the best," without as much as figure to show how one looks or attaches to the camera. Then you get descriptions such as "attach the strobe arm so it tilts toward the camera body." Tilt in what plane? What does a strobe arm look like?

There are statement and procedures that seem odd to an experienced photographer. It is suggested that manual strobe exposure, which is typically only dependent of distance and f-stop, is also a function of subject brightness. The procedure for using TTL flash starts with looking up the flash distance for a full-power manual flash to set the f-stop. If you're going to do that, you might as well not use TTL (although this method does maximize depth of field, but, of course, this is not explained.) The TTL electronics are then used as little more than a proper exposure indication, and if you don't get a proper exposure with your camera set to the edge of the exposure range, you're to burn more film at another f-stop until it works.

This books focuses on the Nikonos V and the now-discontinued RS. Even though the author considers the IVA to be "a dud," the III and IVA are still viable cameras that a beginner, the audience for this book, is likely to have because of the lower procurement cost. (Currently on eBay, a V with 35mm lens runs about $475 while a IVA with the same lens is about $250.) An appendix on the features, and how operating and maintenance differ for these models, would be very useful. Church has written on these models in previous editions, so it shouldn't be difficult.

So, what is good about this book? The color photographs are very good, but are more of result examples than actually showing the equipment, but are inspirational. The guidelines on positioning strobes and estimating distances is invaluable, as are the maintenance sections. If you bought a used Nikonos without a manual, note that Craig Camera sells the manuals for a IVA for $20 while the book currently retails on-line for less than that. If you're trying to decide between the two, I'd get this book. This book also seems to be considered by many to be the definitive guide to Nikonos photography, and my search shows few, if any, other underwater photography books dedicated to this one line of cameras. So, like the title says, even though I feel that there is a LOT of room for improvement, this book may be, indeed, essential for the Nikonos beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Correction for URL given in Prior review
Review: The correct URL for the UW Photo tips is:
http://www.seapix.com/tips.htm
Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Book Summary
Review: This book by pioneer underwater photographer Jim Church takes you beyond the owner's manuals and teaches you how to get the most from the Nikonos V, Nikonos RS and Nikon strobes. The author distills his more than 30 years of experience teaching photography to cut through the jargon and speak to all skill levels. Step-by-step solutions to common shooting problems are easily found and cross-referenced in this well-organized text, which has gone through extensive review and field testing to arrive at this clear, easy-to-understand format. Packed with practical tips, it will help both beginning and experienced photographers shoot better pictures.Some topics covered: basics, films & exposure, V & RS features, lenses, extension tubes and framers, strobes, maintenance & testing