Photographer's Guide to the Sony DSC-RX100 II Paperback – October 8, 2013

Anyone's who's read (or tried to) a typical camera manual knows how useless they often are. Enter this "Photographer's Guide" series by Alex White . . . This is the manual you've been waiting for. He writes excellent manuals for a range of different cameras. When I bought my Sony RX-100 II I went through the Sony-supplied manual but found it less than helpful. When I saw this guide on Amazon, I snapped it up, and was not disappointed. It goes through every single option available on this sophisticated "pocket" camera, and does a great job explaining how to access and use all the functions (a great many). Since getting this guide (I downloaded the digital version onto my Kindle and iPad Mini), I read a chapter a night with the RX-100 II right beside me. A great way to learn how to get the best out of this complex (but easy to use) the RX-100 II. Alex White's book does a first-rate job of explaining its full functionality, adding immensely to the enjoyment of using this top-of-the-line "bridge" camera. He writes clearly and to the point, and offers multiple images of the screens on the camera so you can follow exactly what to do.Halfway through studying the RX-100 II guide, I emailed Alex White asking him to write a similar "guide" for Sony's more recent RX-10 (another excellent camera). He responded immediately to say he was already working on it, and aims to have it complete by end of March (2014). I will be the first to snap it up. Even though I expect much of the detail will be similar, if not identical, to the RX-100 II, the two cameras are different enough to warrant a new manual.If you have any hesitation about whether to buy these guides—just do it. You will be glad you did. This guy creates superb manuals/guides, and I think Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, Canon etc. should hire him to write their manuals. He sets a new standard.

Sony provides very little ""How to" for a great camera with NUMEROUS MENUS AND OPTIONS.Would have given 5 stars but the copy I received was a bad print with blank pages. Due to unexpected events I didn't open it until after Amazon Return Rule. Talked with Mr. White, no problem, if Amazon doesn't replace he would, and, offered the eBook download while the replacement arrives.Talked with Amazon rep who got me an exception. Received the replacement THE NEXT AFTERNOON, UPS!The book starts as it should, gets you up and running with the really terrific three 'auto' choices and moves on into conventional Aperture and Speed modes. Covers ALL the myriad scene selection types from bright daylight to night with numerous specifics: portrait, landscape, etc. Hard to imagine a situation not covered if your choice is to let the camera do the work. Also, he extends great advice on Raw or jpg using all the features including ISO, DOF and special effects.As an aging "pro-amateur," I downsized from Canon DSLRs and numerous lens. Just too much to handle, but wanted to retain as much quality as I could.Really recommend getting the eBook to go along with the print. Great tool for Tablet or Smartphone.

I found lots of useful stuff towards the end, but there much too much material that one doesn't need to read in a book, such as which way to insert the card and the need to press it in until it clicks. Yes, someone who never before used a digital camera would need this, but that's a tiny fraction of the folks who have a $750 RX100.Another example: The treatment of the Eye-Fi card (or whatever it's called), with a comment at the end that one probably wouldn't use such a thing in a WiFi-equipped camera. This seems to have been taken from the earlier RX100 (pre II) book (which I haven't seen), but here is just confusing and fills up space for no reason.Anyway, what I hoped this book would be was advanced material not available in the Sony user's manual, and there's a little that, but mostly it's a very introductory primer for those who are completely new to digital cameras.That said, the book also has an occasional sentence that only an experienced digital photographer would understand, such as these: "The lens itself has a 35mm equivalent focal length range of 28mm to 100mm and an aperture range of f/ 1.8 to f/ 11.0. (The actual focal length of the lens is 10.4mm to 37.1mm; the “35mm equivalent range” is commonly used to state the focal length in a way that can easily be compared to lenses of other cameras.)" Here, "35mm" refers not to a focal length, as the other mm measurements do, but to the width of the film in a so-called 35mm film camera. Really, someone who needs to be told photography basics, which is what the author is apparently assuming, would have no idea what the heck 35mm is supposed to mean. The phrase "other cameras" just makes things worse.OK, didn't mean to come down so hard, but perhaps Mr. White could use my comments to improve as he continues to write books.

So I have used several books by Alexander White, and I would rate them all the same. They are extremely comprehensive, explaining everything you want to know about your camera and using it. However, the photography used to make these demonstrations is pedestrian at best. For example, most "portraits" are photographs of a mannequin head.Many photographers go to an interesting location to take compelling photographs to show you what the camera is capable of. The photos here look more like snapshots taken in his yard and house. They are shots similar to those I saw in the last book of his I used over five years ago.In short, the book is an excellent resource that really gives the user a full understanding of the device. It is a solid read and then a useful guide for weeks and months later to refresh. The images inside, however, fall short in showing what any camera is capable of doing. Most are pictures of subjects that no one would take and this lack of subject matter greatly takes away from the book.

Reviews often describe high-end compacts as 'ideal for those times when you don't want to tote around a DSLR'. Well, that's all the time for me. I decided, once and for all, to dispense with bulky cameras. I've had my RX100ii for a month and am delighted with the results. Although I am well used to digital photography, I keep finding features which had not existed on my previous cameras. Also, the RX seems to take a slightly different approach to some aspects of photography so I thought it worth spending a fiver on the Kindle edition. Mr White's book is an absolute must-have, even for an experienced photographer. He has experimented with every aspect of every feature, illustrated his results with clear pictures and explained it in a most accessible and readable style. I like that he does not dismiss automatic modes as only for beginners. I was out with my camera yesterday and decided to compare my efforts in program mode with the camera's result using the 'superior auto' mode. The camera won, even choosing to make a 5-frame composite, HDR style exposure for one picture. I was prepared for that, thanks to Mr White. This book is going to make a big difference to my photography by encouraging me to explore what this astonishing little camera can do. Highly recommended.

If you've just spent £500 on a Sony RX100 II what you've bought is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Its small (make that very small) size means that it looks and handles like a "point & shoot" compact camera but, as you know because that's why you bought it, hidden beneath this is a very serious, professional level piece of kit.Its deceptively simple, brilliantly engineered and superficially simple form factor hide a piece of state of the art photographic technology that deserves taking time out to understand exactly what it can do and how it can do it. And, for an additional £6 (in its Kindle format) you can find out because this equally brilliant guide will carefully take you through everything this camera can do with the minimum of fuss, jargon and techno-babble to place you in total control of all its huge number of features.It will tell you which features & options are useful, which might be, and which aren't and it will tell you how to set up the features you want from the host of options that can be accessed from the RX100 II's very clever programmable buttons & dials so that they're readily available in real time situations. And, as you read through it all, you'll gain comprehensive and invaluable insight into exactly what this amazing camera can do.What's more, the Kindle edition (at a fraction of the price of the paperback edition) is actually what you want because, in addition to being able to bookmark and annotate the parts of the guide that are relevant to how you'll actually use the camera, these and the book's comprehensive index of its features will be available to you on your phone or tablet to be called up when you need them.As another reviewer says this is "the book Sony should include with the camera" - it's miles ahead of what Sony include in the box or on their website and it's very difficult to see how it could be improved upon - for an additional £6 it's an absolute bargain.

A very useful, easy to read, comprehensive guide to the camera. Your camera does much more than you might imagine and is capable of taking astounding pictures. However, doing this, in all sort of conditions and circumstances will require you to understand how it works and how to control it. If you can work out how to easily set the camera to shoot pictures 3 stops down and then zoom into a shot picture to examine the sharpness of the picture, then you might not need this book. Otherwise, definitely buy the book. Your camera is very powerful, learn how to use its excellent controls.Also if you buy it on Kindle, and use Kindle on all your smart devices, then you will always have it available to hand as a useful reference book.

Everyone who sees this book reports in reviews that this is the 'missing manual' for the RX100-II. It is much more than that. It is the most clearly written and comprehensive guide you can get. Really it is all you need to get oriented with the camera in order to use its sophisticated features. If you have a Sony DSC-R100 xx you need this book. In fact, if you check out all the other guides Alex White has produced, I would say that, if he has produced a guide for your camera and you are a new user or inexperienced digital camera user, you need the Alex White guide.

I got the Kindle edition of this and have it on my tablet, so it's always available for consulting. Drop into the table of contents and the clear chapter headings point you in the right direction. I've found it especially useful for explaining the use of the control ring and setting up my phone as a remote control. There are lots of images showing the various camera effects and creative styles. I don't know how you'd get the most from this camera using the feeble guide Sony produced. I had expected there to be a full manual on the website, but no.