Sony SLT-A77 Unofficial Quintessential Guide Book Review

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide by Carol F. Roullard and Brian Matsumoto is a 256-page soft-cover book describing how to use the Sony Alpha SLT-A77 digital camera. This excellent high-end interchangeable lens camera uses a semi-transparent mirror to give it unique capabilities. Unlike a DSLR which its shape mimics, the SLT-A77 uses an ultra-high-resolution EVF to provide a continuous view at eye-level during photography and video capture.

This is a complex camera which already comes with a hefty but dry electronic manual on CD in most countries. Like most manuals, the Sony one describes each feature concisely with little background to its use. The Sony Alpha SLT-A77 book, however, covers the vast majority of camera features starting from the simplest ones and advancing to more demanding controls with each chapter.

There is a lot of text in this book and a plenty of photos and diagrams to accompany it. The most praise-worthy aspect of this book is that the language is very simple and explanations reveal details incrementally. Its content is written from the author's recommendations on how they prefer to configure relevant settings at the end of most major sections. While this gives a personal touch, they recommend things which are always the best to use.

While both authors cover their experiences with the Sony Alpha SLT-A77 well, they do on several occasions demonstrate their lack of understanding of digital photography. There are only a few places where serious mistakes appear but it is impossible to recommend such a book for beginners who cannot tell what is correct from what is not.

Instead of giving more details about the book as we do for other such reviews, we recommend searching for another one which covers this camera like Gary Friedmans's The Complete Guide to Sony's Alpha 65 and 77 SLT ebook.

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide is available for purchase from Amazon.