If you've shelled out the money for one of Nikon's top-of-the-line pro D-SLRs, an investment in this book is a small price to pay to insure that you have the latest and most authoritative information on how to use your camera. Obviously, anyone with $5000 to $8000 to spend on a camera is most likely not a beginner, and Busch recognizes that in including much more advanced and detailed information in this book than you'll find in any of his other best-selling guidebooks(excepting his manuals for the Nikon D700 and D300s models.) Yet, even with the depth you'll find here, the author maintains his friendly tone and clear instructions. You'll feel as if Busch is there at your side, a shooting compatriot with both shared experiences and unique insight, offering tips on how to use each feature, and why you might want to use an option that is less understood.
For example, the very first chapter includes a section called "Changing Default Settings." Busch first shows you how to reset options to the factory defaults (he outlines four different levels of reset; a differentiation not pointed out in most guidebooks), then explains eight recommended changes from the defaults for both the Shooting Menu and Custom Setting Menu. If you purchased one of these cameras, and have changed only a few preferences, this section will be a real eye-opener for you.
Later in the book, you'll find 13 pages of tables listing every Shooting Menu and Custom Menu option, with Busch's personal recommendations for settings for Basic, Studio Flash, Portrait, Long Exposure, Sports Indoors, Sports Outdoors, Landscape, and Bracketing shooting situations. If any of these are your favorites, you can easily define your Shooting and Custom Banks to use the author's settings as a starting point, and then fine tune them to suit your exact needs. This is the sort of information that advanced amateurs, working pros, and wanna-be's need to refine and improve their use of these sophisticated cameras.
Busch addresses all the sticky points that cause confusion, even among veteran Nikon users. He clears up the mysteries of autofocus, with a full chapter devoted to the topic; there's a chapter explaining lens choices, including evaluations based on the author's own work with classic lenses like the 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, and 70-200mm f/2.8. (He even compares the "old" and "new" versions of the two latter models.) The lighting chapter, with a great deal of detail about Nikon CLS, has some interesting details on avoiding potential sync problems, including diagrams of how shutters operate.
We found this to be a refreshing and enjoyable look at Nikon's flagship digital cameras, and were pleased that the author took the time and pages to explain everything fully.