Can this book help you take better photos? Yes!
I bought this book after purchasing my camera, but didn't review it closely enough.
When I had a specific need to get some good shots, I went back to this book and studied it closely.

The learning and depth really occurs with the explanation of the manual settings on most popular brands.
Namely, White balance, ISO (film speed), shutter speeds, F stops and Burst mode, for quick sequential shots.

Understanding these settings, and practicing with your camera, will improve your photographs. You can then return to the book, for a better understanding of the tips.

Many times, I'm trying to recapture exactly what my eyes are seeing at the moment not end up with something that is starkly lit by a "flash bulb". These settings, with the help of the book will give you a good understanding (or at least a lot of practice will) of how to capture the moment.
I never realized how much better shots can be without the flash. Users really need to try to force themselves away from the "auto" setting on their camera, except for the MOST basic shots.

With storage space so cheap, it's so much easier than the days of film and film processing to get the practice you need.

The downside of the book is that it tries to cover almost too much info. (lenses, filters, kids & old people) I think some of this could have been left out, and focus around manual settings could have been covered in better depth.

I think the book is a very good starting point, and should also be used as an ongoing reference until you are comfortable with your brand of camera and its settings.

Go with a book the author recommends
After reading the reviews here on Amazon I have to say I was highly disappointed in this book. Instead I would recommend Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) which the author of this book recommends himself.

This book is full of lame jokes about shoving other photographers down and breaking their equipment to "get the best shot." There is no clear explanation of how shutter speed and aperture work together to give you the proper exposure. If any of my family or friends asked me if I thought this was a good book on photography, I would tell them to avoid it at all costs.

Great book if you wnat to improve your photography
This is a great book if you want to improve your photography. To move to the next level of photography, you need to read this book. Scott is witty and this book shows you different ways to really great shots. K. Frank

Easy to follow!
I had just purchased an SLR camera and was totally confused! This book is written in an easy to read fashion ...even easier that the "For Dummies" book! There are easy examples such as "If you want to take a photo that looks like this, then do this". I carry this book with me when I go out shooting now.

The Manual for Up and Coming Photographers!
This is a must have for anyone who is familiar with photography and wants to move up to the next level. Scott has a great way of explaining things in a straight forward matter and making you understand the more technical side of this sometimes confusing field.

I think I have bought this book 5 times for friends who are getting into the field and would recommend it to anyone.

It's so simple and makes you understand what you need to do to know your camera

flip video
This is the third flip video purchased this year. All recipients are thrilled with the clarity of the video and the quality of the sound.

Flip Video Camcorder
I love the Flip Video Camcorder! It is so easy to use and also easily plugs into my computer to view my video.It can also be used to watch video on my TV with the cables to do this included but I have not used this feature yet. I am not an expert in camcorders but I can tell you that I am very happy with my purchase and the quality of the video I've taken at special events is quite good. I would highly recommend this product to everyone!

Excellent little camcorder for the price
The FLIP Video ultra is so easy to use even I can do it! It's small and compact and features easy access to unload files to my computer. The only drawbacks I found were the audio pickup and having only 60 minutes of time on it. I had a ball taking video with it, and just shortly after I got it, I put together a video presentation for a co-worker who was retiring. It got rave reviews. Again, a great investment for the money.

Suddenly just stop working after less than a month!
I bought this for my daughter BD, she used it once on that day, and once more the next 3 weeks, only about 3 minute-used, suddenly the Flip stop working, thought it just batteries, changed fresh batt's, but NO LUCK!

SHE WAS VERY VERY DISSAPOINTED! NOT-RECOMMEND!

Nifty camera
Overall it works great - I wish I was more into doing videos, I take it with me and forget to use it half the time - LOL.

The only negative is that the movie-making software that is comes with really sucks - very limited.

Best consumer level video camera on the market
As the title states, I feel this is about the best you can expect from a consumer level camera on the market today.

I have been experimenting and putting it through it's paces for a month now, and am pretty familiar with it's capabilities and quality. I am currently on my family's second vacation trip of the year and and have taken some footage ranging from indoor/outdoor pet shots, the mountains and waterfalls of western Colorado, night-time 4th of July fireworks, indoor, well-lit cousin/family members and an indoor shot of mom covering a chocolate cake with meringue icing. Lots of good, typical, casual-user type footage.

With the recent purchase of a mini HDMI to standard HDMI cable, I was finally able to view all of this footage on a 45" Sony BRAVIA LCD TV in all of it's HD glory. Before, I had been getting by with the AV/Component cables and there is a night and day difference between those and the digital signal of HDMI.

A good part of my footage was shot in the lowest quality possible. I also shot a substantial bit in full HD. Honestly, the low quality looks darn near as good as the full quality, so for those who somehow shoot hours of footage on end without access to their computer to dump the material to, you can vastly extend your shooting time if necessary with minimal compromise. Besides, even at full quality HD, a 60 GB hard drive is like having a camera with SEVEN 60 minute tapes spooled end to end. At the lowest quality (HD) recording time is just under 23 hours. There's really no reason to upgrade to the SR12 unless you are some kind of shoot-a-holic, but shooting 120 GB of footage would be an editing nightmare anyway.

Viewing the full HD footage on the BRAVIA TV via HDMI, it looks about as sharp and clean as you could possibly ask for. You can pick out the individual strands of fur on animals cleanly.

I cannot comment on 5.1 surround sound, as I am not yet home from this trip, but as soon as we return (tomorrow) I will definitely test it out.

I recently handled the Canon HV30 in CC and was not very impressed with the build quality or the viewfinder - poor refresh rate and everything plastic. The Sony SR11 gives you a hefty chrome metal push-dial for adjusting focus/white balance shift and aperture. It's very effective for controlling focus when in low-light/indoor situations or the aperture. I find that the camera DOES lean toward cool colors by default, so I have the White Balance Shift set to maximum (+4) to bring a warmer, more natural tone to things. You may find that you need to do the same. Thankfully, when adjusting parameters manually, they are retained, meaning you can set White Balance Shift, Focus, AND Aperture all at the same time. It's about as good as it gets without jumping into the 00 dollar camera range.

The x.v. color is a new, wider color gamut that is supposed to give more life-like coloration to subjects. If you shoot in this mode, you will only see the difference when played back on an x.v color compliant product (new Sony BRAVIA TV sets). Otherwise, from what I can tell, it seems to produce a somewhat less saturated image. I am still trying to decide which look I prefer. I feel the normal colors look pretty accurate under most conditions. Occasionally, greens seem a little too bright (trees, grass), but overall, color reproduction is very good.

One thing I love about Sony video cameras is their smooth operation. The zoom is smooth but agile if you need to punch it in our out fast. The viewfinders are also very smooth, unlike many other video cameras. (I say 'video camera' because 'camcorder' just sounds too consumerish and cheap for my taste).

The build quality feels very solid, has substantial weight, and feels very secure in the hand, thanks to being able to get a grip on the top of the camera. I think people who lament over the weight of the camera and wish for something lighter are foolish. The WEIGHT adds INERTIA which means more RESISTANCE to SHAKING of the hand. This is a vital fact that most consumers seem ignorant of, and trust me, watching footage on a big screen, you better pray that your footage is as close to tripod-steady as possible.

This camera comes with a fun and cute DVD that goes through some of the basic filming techniques. Several of these concepts are taught in a typical introductory Film & Video class, so it is actually quite a useful video, and it is amusing (to me at least).

I think I could not have bought a better camera for what I desired in a camera, the price point, and what is currently available. I would have PREFERRED to save up and purchase a Canon XHA1 for the pristine optics, better manual controls, and extremely good light gathering (very low low noise even in challenging lighting situations), but I do not want to mess with tapes and the 1:1 tape transfer process again. Hard disk recording with a 3k HDV video camera is possible but expensive. This camera and it's accessories/cables fits perfectly in the very nice leather bag I already own, and is very well protected therein, so for me it was nice to not need to buy a new carrying case.

If you need to see some online footage of this camera in action, check out Vimeo and search 'sr11':

http://vimeo.com/1316737

Further comments/notes pending...

The dream machine!
This true Full-HD camcorder is close to perfection. Light but not too light, with excellent image quality (especially when viewed on a 1080p HDTV), impressive sound reproduction, large hard drive space allowing quick retrieval of well-organized clips. Great optical zoom, great image stabilization, great built-in flexibility of image recordings, excellent connectivity options. And it has a very convenient old-fashioned viewfinder too, (lacking from most competitors) in addition to the large LCD screen!
Manual could be a bit more detailed.
If you also need excellent still picture quality however, in spite of the 10 Megapixels, the final quality of the still images is somewhat lacking (but who cares? With about $ 1,000 you got a huge, unbeatable value for the camcorder anyway!)

Hard drive failure; Sony will not recover videos
Two months ago, I sprang for this much pricier camcorder than I normally would have because we were celebrating my husband's 50th birthday with our first vacation to Europe in 25 years. With the larger hard drive on this camera, it meant I didn't have to drag my laptop along for transferring the video.

In the middle of the trip, I tried to replay the video I had just taken, and I got a screen that read, "HDD format error." Nothing had happened to the camera -- I didn't drop it, there were no extremes of temperature, nothing knocked it. Mistakenly thinking that Sony was a stand-up company and would take care of this, I put the camera away for the rest of the trip and called Sony when I got home.

The news was not good. Sony reports that its warranty covers repairing the camera "to factory standards" but will not even attempt to recover the video.

Instead, Sony's customer relations recommended I try a third party hard drive recovery service. If all of the video is recovered, I will pay out of pocket about 00-1400, on top of the 00 I spent on the camera. Sony does not reimburse anything.

The customer relations representative was incapable of comprehending the bitter irony that Sony was willing to restore my camera to the very same "factory settings" that put my vacation memories at risk.

Unless you plan to back up each and every video clip as you take them, do not buy this camera. Do not assume that your experience will be any different.

Incredible!!!
I fell in love with this camcorder after spending countless hours on the web, doing research and reading every single review I could find...

I've had it for about a month now and I'm still discovering new features and experimenting recording in different lighting conditions. I'm really impressed with the playback quality on my 22" LCD screen (1680x1050 max resolution) but it really screams on my 42" LCD @ full 1920x1080i, never fails to put a grin on my face! :D I'm new to HD video and being able to record every moment in HD is truly priceless! I originally wanted the SR-12 but decided I could live with the 60GB hard drive on the SR-11 and got a really good deal elsewhere so it was a no brainer. The battery that comes with the camera lasts up to 1.5 hours @ everything turned high which is OK! As a matter of fact, I just purchased the NPFH100 H Series Actiforce Hybrid InfoLithium Battery from Amazon, which supposedly gives you something like 5-7 hours of continuous recording time which is ridiculously awesome!!

The 5.1 surround sound is also excellent, the nightshot feature is VERY cool, letting you record in complete darkness and cooler still, the SUPER night shot option makes objects in total darkness even brighter and lets you see farther! When this option is turned on, it drains a little more battery but it's negligible and I like to use the b/w picture effect when nigh shot's turned on...

This camcorder also takes 10MP pictures and 7MP stills on the fly, even while you're recording! I'm so very happy with this camcorder that I take it with me everywhere. Only 2 things I can find (and I have to look real hard) that I kinda don't like is the fact that you have to touch the LCD to access menu and options and it leaves fingerprints but I can live with that. The other thing is, the unit accepts a mini HDMI connector so I had to get a HDMI to mini HDMI adapter to be able to use it to hook it up to my 42" LCD and it's kinda lose, I don't know if it's the adapter or the camcorder itself, not to mention when the cable's plugged in with the adapter, it kind of sticks out, but again, a small gripe, nothing major.

I experimented recording leaves and insects in nature real close up, only an inch from the lens and it was able to focus no problem and let you see incredible detail, like a macro shot! 12x optical zoom and image stabilization are awesome as well, I can still see details pretty clear when it switches over to digital zoom and I can keep zooming in up to 150x!

There is no way I can put everything I love about this thing on here and there are still options I haven't touched or used on this camcorder... I highly recommend this unit to anyone who's serious about recording every passing moment as your own eyes see it and then some, guaranteed!

Five star video recording quality * * * * *
Recording playback on a 26" Polaroid HDTV (1080i) via composite cables (I have yet to buy a mini-HDMI cable) - awesome video quality; looks like you're watching a blu-ray movie. However, recording quality is seriously affected if shot under low lighting conditions. It's worth every penny and don't regret it even so. I gave it a four star rating due to its user interface which requires constantly smudging the LCD with fingerprints and how knows, in time maybe it will break from all your fingerprint's pressure.
The still picture is ok but nothing to get excited about. My wife's 10.2MP DSLR camera makes it look like a child's toy. (Or better yet, the analogy between a phone camera and a compact digital photo camera or maybe it's just me but who cares about pictures anyway, right?)
Another minus is the lack of a dedicated battery charger and a printed user's manual. The one that comes with the camera touches only the basics (the full-featured can be found on Sony's website though).
Another big plus is the memory stick support. If one has a 16GB+ it will be enought to store 1hr+ of HD (best quality) in rough conditions without compromising the HDD's integrity.

A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel
Very disappointed. Pictures are good but certainly not much about Petra which I was led to believe was the main interest. Books are for my kids that were in Petra and I thought they would make great gifts but doubt if they will be very impressed.

A Coffee-table necessity!
This book is just wonderful! It has the most beautiful photographs and commentary. I've been reading it to my children for bedtime story. I saw a television program where the author was talking about each picture. She gave even greater details about the stories and circumstances behind each picture! It would be great if that would have been included along with the book itself in CD/DVD format. I loved listening to her describe in detail all that goes in to getting the one perfect shot! Again, wonderful book. The photos are just breath-taking!

inspiring
After reading the book and seeing the world through Annie G. Belts stunning photos, I am beyond moved. Her story is funny and beautiful. She makes me feel like I can do anything in the world that I dream of doing and bring my children along for the ride. This book has enriched my life and opened up my heart to new possibilitites.

Amazing!!
A book to treasure! Simply magnificent photographs by the brilliant Annie G. Belt. Beautifully reproduced and narrated - a fascinating tour of the world and humanity by one of the top photographers in the world. Highly recommend!

Stunning photos, with stories to match
The photos grab you at first, but it's the words that will make you treasure this must-have hardback. Author Annie Griffiths Belt was one of the first female photographers hired at the National Geographic Society, and in these pages you can understand why. The 133 images soar.

Subjects range from Minnesota blizzards to Jerusalem Ramadan celebrations to refugee camps in Pakistan and Thailand. An image that sticks with me is a Biloxi Katrina survivor sitting alone in a bare room, holding her 81st birthday cake in her lap. Another indelible photo: dolphins playing at dawn in New Zealand.

Also in the book are Belt's stories about her travels and adventures. Accompanying each photo is a short narrative, in which the author describes what was happening before, during and after she took the shot. Throughout the book Belt describes what it was like bringing her two young kids with her while she traveled, often with her husband in tow, too. These tales are often funny, always interesting.

The dust jacket slips off to reveal a paisley-print cover with the title in gold letters on the spine.