DVX100 Book?
 

Can anyone recommend the best book to learn how to properly operate the Panasonic DVX100?

The manual and practice is your best, and only, bet. To my knowledge no such 3rd party book exists for this camera or, for that matter, any other video camera.

RANT ON

That seems to be the trend over the last several years. I don't know how many technical writers were put out of business in the 90s but I would suspect that it is a lot. It is often the case that computer software/hardware manufactures and electronics manufacturers have went to skinny little "Getting Started" guides or sparse manuals. Originally, I felt the trend was just going to be a move from paper to CD-ROM. Once they got started with the elimination of the paper manuals they continued with making the manual smaller and smaller until it has reached present levels.

Some companies who continued to provide adequate documentation did by making the purchase of an additional book necessary. (i.e. The Official guide to... or the manual that should have been included with your product)

I feel that when you buy a complex product with numerous features that it should have accompanying documentation that explains every single features in detail.

Unless we as consumers stand up and demand this from the industry, I feel it will only get worse.

RANT OFF

Sorry. 8-)

Carl,
Your "rant" seems directed principally at primary and secondary documentation for software products, a topic very different from that of consumer electronics such as this Panasonic camera. So I'll just leave that alone.

I've never seen the manual for this camera but I've no reason to believe that it's incomplete. Canon's manuals haven't significantly changed for many years. They necessarily focus on "What does this button do?" answers, rather than "Why should I ever use this button?" answers.

So why have no 3rd party books appeared on, say, the XL1s, PD150, VX2000, et.al.? I actually have wondered about that. I suspect that there are two primary reasons.

1. The market is far too small. Publishers look at runs in the thousands, often tens of thousands, to make any money.

2. Books centered on consumer electronics have a shelf life similar to that of bread. Certainly you could make the same argument about software manuals, but that genre offerred a much larger market for titles.

Still, I think that supplemental "Why To..." materials on cameras could be somewhat successful for certain widely held models. Unfortunately, none of the cameras we generally discuss here would probably fall into such a category, and certainly not a newcomer such as the DVX100. There are 3rd party books on timeless still camera brands such as Hasselblad.

Ken, here is the link to the manual on the Panasonic:

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/manuals/OM_AG-DVX100.pdf

It's not bad, but it's not great either.

I suppose my rant could be seen as being more applicable to the software industry, but it exists to some degree in electronics as well.

Points taken.

My overall point should have been, when you spend thousands of dollars on a high tech piece of gear, I have expectations of the documentation being superb and complete.