pdsdville Loc: Midlothian, Tx

Camera manual, trash can! Straight to Barnes and Noble and a real manual on my camera. Scan the table of contents and read the needed chapters. Go shoot. See what I got on the big screen. Then at my leisure, three times or so a year I read the new manual from Bush, Kelby, whoever. I've found that I learn something new every time, but I am rather hardheaded and I love to read. I know, a little over the top but that's just me. Like one old TV commercial said.....Try it, you'll like it.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Simple. When I purchased my D700, I read how to charge the battery first. After the battery was placed in the charger, I read the entire manual from cover to cover.

Once the battery was charged, I then read the manual again, but with the camera in hand. Again, cover to cover, but making, or looking at, the various adjustments, settings, etc.
--Bob

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Except David Busch is not currently publishing anything new and books for older cameras are increasing hard to find since his publisher stopped their photography division.

WALL

My sony came with a few pages. If the manuals where good there would be no market for books about the camera.

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Just received my David Busch's a6000 manual 3 days ago from Amazon so they are now available. I find that it is excellent with a ton of information in it albeit it's on the large size (9"x7.5"x almost 1" thick -- not to mention the weight) to take with me traveling. What will work for me is to take the (not very good) small manual that come with the camera with me and copy a few relevant pages out of David Busch's manual (like cheat sheets) and stick them in my wallet in case I want to refer to them. Good luck.

MMC Loc: Brooklyn NY

Thank you for your advice. I checked CreativeLive, they have lesson about my Nikon D750 and price is $49.00. I am not ready to pay this money now. I was watching few tutorials for free on Youtube. BTW did you buy tutorial from CreativeLive?

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I read multiple sources - manuals (parts of), videos, forums, especially when I get conflicting info which is quite often. A good manual crams in everything but I don't need to know everything, just the things I want to use. As with all self-study I often come across something that I don't use that piques my interest so I pursue that.

KarenKaptures Loc: New Jersey

I bought 2 DSLR's last year (Canon SL1 and Canon T3i). I purchased instructional videos for each one. They were more helpful to me than the manuals.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

It is important to know what the settings are and the manual will do that. However, the manual will not tell you what choices you need to make. For example, if you have two memory cards in your camera, will you set up one to shoot raw and other jpeg or one is to be a back up or an overflow. Which do you select?

You will find on line support for how to set up most cameras, especially if you buy a brand like Canon or Nikon. Some will walk you set by step on what to select and why. The manual will not do that. The site Photography Life has articles for how to set up your Nikon D810 and D750 for example. I am sure you can search on how to set up your particular camera on line as well.

Joecosentino Loc: Whitesboro, New York

A good 3rd party book is ok, but for that quick answer the manual is great. On a workshop the ones with all the gear questions still have their manual in the unopened plastic bag.

A good manuals one that is dog eared, cover all wrinkled. So many times there are questions like "how do I set back button focus?" Well the real answer is it's in the manual

So take a look on a rainy day

RobertW Loc: Breezy Point, New York

When get new camera with Manual (which isn't always the case) I put it carefully in the box and put it in storage. Then I get one of the good Manuals that usually become available within a week of a new product being available. The key information from that (because if you're a relatively proficient camera user already, you know what most of the instructions are)I rewrite in my own code language in a small notebook that goes with me at all times, covering my OMD EM-1, my Leica D-Lux 6, my GoPro Hero4, my old but handy small (belt-mounted) Nikon Coolpix, and I don't need notes for my Minox IIIS. Little notebook has become a treasure trove of info from "Understanding Exposure" Bush, etc. and then I give the camera Manuals to the local Library where they can happily collect dust

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Well, I think reading a manual cover-to-cover is very boring, and there is so much information in it that regardless of how good a mind/memory you have, you won't remember it all anyway. Yet, to me a manual is a necessity.

There are three approaches I use regularly after the initial set-up:

1. I sometimes hear or read about something I can do with the camera, or that others can do with theirs. So I grab the manual and try to find it. (This is where I wish the camera manuafacturers would all speak the same language: "VR" is meaningless to me, "IS" speaks volumes). Anyway, with camera in hand and manual on my lap, I read the section once I find it, and immediately try it out to see what happens.
The tv set inside the house, and the hedge outside the house are the two most photographed items here!

2. Especially when the weather is poor, I just like to sit on the couch, fireplace on, large mug of hot chocolate beside me to sip on (WITH whipped cream), camera beside me and manual in my hand. Then I just flip through the manual, reading a word or two here, and a whole sentence there, till I find something that catches my attention. I will then immediately try it out.

3. I printed the manual with large margins, so I can make notes in the margins. I've also got my manuals on my tablet and on my notebook. Neither lend themselves to "quick notes" in the field, so a small notebook and pen/pencil live in my camerabag. Back on the couch, or when we are travelling, back in the motel-room, I check my quick notes (hopefully my "shorthand" is still readable), and turn them into good notes in the manual.

And typing this all in takes more time than writing a note in the manual. Oh, well, I can do with the typing-practice...

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

And there are those who just can't read as well. Oh yes, they can read a word but put together several words like in a sentence and they are lost.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Trey Ratcliff did the same thing. He's the HDR guy. I'm sticking with Nikon for my main shooting.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

That's exactly what I do but then I've owned several digital cameras. I'd say reading the entire book might be good for someone who's buying their first digital camera.