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CHDK book due out end of this month

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Offline gsbergman

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #20 on: 02 / June / 2010, 12:18:24 »
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I received my copy of the book yesterday. I spent about two hours going through the book, and it seems to be a compilation of a good deal of the info available off the wiki. I'm not ready to rate the book yet, but I think it will serve a function as a single handy source of information when your not on the web.

Better than half the book is devoted to scripting and I personally have mixed feelings about the content. Not being a true programmer, but a would-be or want-to-be programmer, I do have a good deal of BASIC programming experience. That being said, I feel that the information within the book seems to be lacking. Not enough info for an inexperienced programmer to write a script, yet an experienced programmer wouldn't need the book in the first place. It's a bit early to judge the book having been a cursory read of the contents.

So call this an introductory assessment of the book.

More to follow.

Gregg
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Offline gsbergman

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #21 on: 02 / June / 2010, 12:25:18 »
Oops, failed to mention that the book in completly B/W, with no color pictures. Why?
The examples of edge overlays are difficult to see.

The book is well made, as are all Rocky Nook books.
The lack of color is beyond comprehension.
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Offline reyalp

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #22 on: 02 / June / 2010, 14:05:35 »
I got a nice email back from Mr. Daum. He mentioned that all the scripts and other materials that go with the book are available online at http://www.photozora.org/cchm/

From a quick look, it appears he has done some nice work on them, and made them available everyone. The lua test environment in particular is something that will be useful to many. Several of us have done similar things, but his is quite polished and worthwhile contribution on it's own IMO. I'll certainly be recommending it to people looking for a way to test their lua scripts.

Color photos from the book are also available on the site. I would guess they were excluded from the book to keep the price down. I cringed a bit at the one claiming ISO 4000(!) but otherwise some nice work.

Overall, it appears to me that Mr. Daum has put significant effort into this, and has a genuine interest in photography and CHDK. While I can't yet comment on the quality of the book, I don't feel he is unfairly taking advantage of my contributions to CHDK by selling it. Neither he nor the publisher are going to get rich off of this, and it may help some less internet savvy people enjoy the benefits of CHDK.
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Offline gsbergman

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #23 on: 02 / June / 2010, 14:29:19 »
Quote from: reyalp on 02 / June / 2010, 14:05:35
I don't feel he is unfairly taking advantage of my contributions to CHDK by selling it. Neither he nor the publisher are going to get rich off of this, and it may help some less internet savvy people enjoy the benefits of CHDK.

Reyalp,
I agree with your statement as well having stated myself "but I think it will serve a function as a single handy source of information when your not on the web".
I intend to be completely fair to Mr. Daum when I finish reading his book.

My assessment (so far) is based off of my initial impressions.

My mention of B/W was because I don't think I've seem a photography book written in the last several decades (seriously) that was not in color. It was shocking to open the book to see B/W. I have bought other photography books recently that were in about the same price range that were in color.

Nonetheless, I wanted to post my initial impressions because I felt other CHDK'er might be interested in the book as well and wanted to provide some information on the book.
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Offline an0n

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #24 on: 02 / June / 2010, 20:47:43 »
Quote from: reyalp on 02 / June / 2010, 14:05:35

Overall, it appears to me that Mr. Daum has put significant effort into this, and has a genuine interest in photography and CHDK. While I can't yet comment on the quality of the book, I don't feel he is unfairly taking advantage of my contributions to CHDK by selling it. Neither he nor the publisher are going to get rich off of this, and it may help some less internet savvy people enjoy the benefits of CHDK.

Acknowledged ;)
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Offline reyalp

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #25 on: 12 / June / 2010, 00:18:44 »
I have received a copy of the book, thanks the Mr Daum and the publisher. I haven't had time to do more than glance through it, but my initial impression is fairly similar to what gsbergman has said.

The content obviously covers information that's on the wiki, but the parts that I've looked at are definitely the authors own work, and in many cases a significant improvement over whats on the wiki. While I'm not sure I disagree with gsbergmans comment about the potential audiences, my initial impression of the scripting chapters is quite good. It looks like it combines reference, explanation, and worked examples in a clear and readable way. The author obviously spent a lot of time actually using CHDK (and SDM, which also gets a substantial chapter.) That said, I've already found examples where he would have benefited from getting more feedback from the community before going to print.

I will try to put up a real review once I have time to read it.

The book itself is physically very nice. Spending so much time with screens and electronic documentation one forgets how nice a good 'ol paper is.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: CHDK book due out end of this month
« Reply #26 on: 22 / November / 2011, 10:27:01 »
Quote from: reyalp on 12 / June / 2010, 00:18:44
I will try to put up a real review once I have time to read it.
@reyalp :  ..  bump ...  found the book online while looking for documentation on CHDK USB remote functionality.  Any update on what you found ?

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The book itself is physically very nice. Spending so much time with screens and electronic documentation one forgets how nice a good 'ol paper is.
The Kindle version is $10 .... the paper version is $30.   I agree with your comment but the $20 delta makes it a tough choice for a book that is now almost two years out of date.   But it looks like there are some "used" options.
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