The Panasonic GX8 Menu System Simplified Paperback – December 12, 2015

The book is potentially good. The lack of proofreading and the mistakes makes the book really a rough draft. I can not understand why the author did not take the extra, at most a day of work, to make the book something that shows some pride and care. Nevertheless the book has value. I have read the Advanced Manual and this book. The combination of the books was useful. I would recommend this book, but the lack of care undermines the credibility of the books information. Get and editor and finish the book and you will earn five stars.

I bought one of these from another author for the Olympus E-M10 (camera NOT RECOMMENDED). It helped a great deal. I decided to try this author after reading his background.Yes, this book is written in such a way that it is easy to follow. For this alone, I want to give it five stars. I have yet to read it while holding the camera in my hand as I did with the not recommended model above. I am sure that when I do, I will love this camera even more than I already do.The book is well written and organized and walks you through the process step-by-step of setting up the camera so that it does what you want it to do. The detail is not too voluminous or technical. It is not too brief or shallow. It is just right. Yes, I could just as well have used the manufacturer's instructions, but the manufacturer's instructions give directions while this book (and others like it) gives guidance. I like how the author gives his personal view of the different options, e.g., in the "Recording" chapter, he characterizes the "Vivid" setting as "Lurid". In this he verbalized my own impression of this setting after only a few months with the rig. It is good to see the honest input of someone with far more experience affirm my far less experienced impression.If you are looking for something to help you to the next level in your photography, this is an excellent choice. If you are looking for a primer on this level of photography, i.e., how aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focal length affect the final image, this is not the book of choice. The book, like the camera, is great for someone like me, a semi-professional photographer from the days of film who is finally able to buy a digital interchangeable lens camera that allows them to continue developing their craft.I love the camera. This book is making me love it even more.

Very clear explanation of every setting available in the GX8 menu system plus identification of all the buttons and wheels. You could get the same information from the manufacturers manual, but digging through the over 400 pages of the Advanced Manual takes much longer than reading this to-the-point book,

The kindle version of this book is poorly formatted. Many words run together without any spaces. The section at the back of the book that lists how the author has set up each function of his camera would be very valuable information, but it's very difficult to follow along because it's just one long run together list. There is no white space on the page. This is my third Lumix camera. I am very familiar with the general material. Each time I get a new camera, I get a book such as this one. The books I have for my LX7 and FZ300 are much better presentations of the camera menus.

All the info needed is here but could have been formatted better

A very helpful document that answers many GX8 questions!

For those who don't want to wade through the camera's 403 page user manual, this is a huge help. It's pretty basic, but has all the essential information you need to decipher the camera's many controls, plus some useful tips on which settings work best. However, I did find about five errors, and I only got my GX8 a week ago, so I'm no expert. But you can spot these quickly because the control in question doesn't do what Thorpe says it does, (There are also numerous spelling errors, and a generally primitive layout that could have been a lot clearer. But maybe this is only in the Kindle edition.) I bought Thorpe's GX7 manual when I owned that camera and found it helpful. I'd recommend this one too.

Great Reference, comes in handy.

I had purchased the Kindle version of the previous GX7 Simplified book and thought it was great.Really helped me understand all the variety of options offered by the GX7.So, when I got my even more complicated GX8 I waited for David to provide the same magic for the GX8.Overall, I would say he has more or less achieved that - but there are a few caveats.1) The kindle version is easier to read than the Printed version (I bough the GX8 Kindle version first and then decided to purchase the printed copy to for easy page skipping). The layout of printed version does not seem to match the Kindle version, sometimes when I am reading, it is not obvious if a bit of text refers to the previous menu option or is a standalone comment.2) David has succumbed to cut and paste and a few notes which dont apply to the GX8 have crept in e.g. a reference to the built in flash - which the GX8 does not have.3) Half-heartedness in a couple of places e.g. the end of the book where David shares his Menu setup (My Example Menu), the GX7 version was very neatly laid out and easy to read. With the GX8 version David has just dumped all his menu settings in few paragraphs and made it look very messy and difficult to read!!Overall still a highly useful book, but I wish David had applied the same level of attention to the layout as he has done (mostly) to the actual content.

Read the reviews before buying and thought the negative ones couldn’t be that bad surely, but they were!!There is very little in this book that isn’t in the manufacturers user guide. The formatting of the book is bland and lazy, with very little cross referencing and scant added value. The index is appalling!! This book could have been so much better. Was also hoping it would cover details of dependencies, e.g. if a menu option shows “grey out”, what other settings could be affecting it to give a starting point to make the changes required to allow you to use the setting you need. Too often I try to make a setting quickly in the field and something I have used before is not available or working as it should, which can take a time to figure out what else needs to be changed, resulting in the photo opportunity having come and gone. Coming from a Nikon SLR background and the numerous decent books available to guide you through the settings, this book is extremely disappointing.The only plus side for me is having a hard copy book to keep in my bag to flick through for a quick reference of a setting instead of relying on the manufacturer’s soft copy. Shame Panasonic didn’t provide a hard copy of their manuals with the camera as would be much better a s easier to find what you needed quickly.

My Lumix GX8 replaced a well-worn Canon S90 which has given years of service. The GX8 has an almost bewildering array of menus, sub menus, & configureable controls. Therefore, I needed something to guide me through setting the camera up & explain some of the features. This book is very good at doing just that.The User guide seems to assume that you are already very familiar with the camera & jargon (a common mistake with most manuals or help desks). However a few more friendly suggestions, as to appropriate settings or advice on what to choose in different circumstances, as pertaining to the camera, would not have gone amis.

David Thorpe Has done an excellent job of making a complex bit of kit like the Panasonic GX8 understandable. He goes through the menu step-by-step, each item being explained in an un-wordy stile. He keeps things simple and is not afraid to say when a section is likely to be of little use to a photographer.With this book you can get so much more out of your new camera. I admit I was a bit lost before I got it.

I purchased this download as I was finding with so many different function buttons that could be reassigned to suit my photography I did not know how to even approach this task. I am in my 70's and my brain is not quite what it was in learning new tricks. This book took me by the arm and showed me in easy to understand language all about the function buttons, from where to find them on the camera (some you would not even guess were function buttons), what they do and how to change them. Thank you David Thorpe for you book,it may be very specific but that was just what I needed.