We bought ourselves the Canon 600D as an early Christmas present. Having never owned an SLR camera we stuck to the reliable 'Auto' mode for a week before realising this was a waste of a great camera! Having purchased a few photography books we became increasingly frustrated with author's who told you how to get the best light, when to use f5.6 and when to use f22.... This all meant nothing to us!! However, the manual that comes with the camera is far too technical and didn't tell us WHEN to use these functions! This book marries the 2 perfectly! The author talks you through all the functions of the camera before introducing you to phrases such as 'aperture' 'f-stop' etc in a way that means not only do you understand them...but you also understand how to mange these factors on your camera...AND when you should change them. We have taken the camera out to several locations and have been very impressed with the results versus our week of taking photo on 'auto'. Very much recommended for the amateur photographer!