So as we all know the GH2 manual that comes with the camera is pretty bad. And this is a fairly complex camera. So I was very happy to see this new book and waited a month for it.
But what a disappointment.
1. The publisher wanted to make a few pennies more profit by going cheap on the printing. This book is small - about 5x7 inches. And the average picture in this book is literally about the size of a box of matches. Inside each picture may be 20 tiny icons and they do not show the icon in the text or point out the icon in the picture. Good luck guessing which icon does the function. Sometimes I look at a picture and I cant even tell why the picture is there and what I am supposed to be seeing. Additionally there are no larger demonstration photos showing the effects of various photo adjustments - just matchbox sized LCD screen images. There are only a handful of matchbox sized demonstration photos, including one of a cat showing how he squints his eyes if you don't bounce the flash. Seriously.
2. Bad layout designer: It is badly laid out. At times it will talk about some control or screen and the small picture is not even on the same page! Or there is no picture at all. Sometimes there are pictures that add nothing to the text.
3. Not enough advanced stuff: The book doesn't deeply cover advanced topics such as video. This camera is not generally a beginners camera. It is bought by many mainly because of its great video capabilities! You can figure out the basic stuff from the manual, this book needed to give more coverage to the more advanced topics.
4. It tells you to look at appendix D for a list of the many menu commands - but there is no Appendix D in the book. There is a footnote telling you to go to a website to see it. Again the publisher trying to cut costs. If I want to read about this camera on the web why buy the book?
PROs?
Well the writing is fairly clear for the material they cover. There ARE many basic topics that are explained clearer here than in the camera manual. And there are sections on basic general photography topics not covered in the manual. But people need a book to focus on the GH2, not basic photography. In general, the shortcomings are not due to the writers. The book does provide wide-shallow coverage of all the functions in the camera. And for some things the small pictures are all you need and are definitely adequate.
So should you buy this book? Maybe. Get it if you are a photography beginner or are new to this Lumix G camera line and need a basic introduction to the controls. If you are an experienced photographer, or have had a previous version of this camera dont bother.