You don’t want good pictures from your new Pentax K200D digital SLR camera—you demand outstanding photos. After all, this Pentax model is quite advanced for an entry-level camera, with 10 megapixels of resolution, blazing fast automatic focus, and cool new features like the anti-shake technology that steadies your camera to help eliminate blurry pictures. But your gateway to pixel proficiency is dragged down by the slim little book included in the box as a manual. You know that everything you need to know is in there, somewhere, but you don’t know where to start. In addition, the camera manual doesn’t offer much information on photography or digital photography. Nor are you interested in spending hours or days studying a comprehensive book on digital SLR photography that doesn’t necessarily apply directly to your Pentax.

What you need is a guide that explains the purpose and function of the Pentax K200D’s basic controls, how you should use them, and why. Ideally, there should be information about file formats, resolution, aperture/priority exposure, and special autofocus modes available, but you’d prefer to read about those topics only after you’ve had the chance to go out and take a few hundred great pictures with your new camera. Why isn’t there a book that summarizes the most important information in its first two or three chapters, with lots of illustrations showing what your results will look like when you use this setting or that?

Now there is such a book. If you want a quick introduction to the Pentax’s focus controls, flash synchronization options, how to choose lenses, or which exposure modes are best, this book is for you. If you can’t decide on what basic settings to use with your camera because you can’t figure out how changing ISO or white balance or focus defaults will affect your pictures, you need this guide.