Owners Manual should come with the camera.

[Ralph]

This is one thing that bugs me now. We are spending more on our camera's and Sony for one is giving us the cold shoulder.
Spend more and they take away from us like the owner manual. I like getting them with my camera's and now they tell us no.
Even though we pay more they give less.

Yes I know we can read it on line but I am one who needs that hard copy in my hands.
Reading it on my computer just doesn't work.
When I got my RX10 iv I found the manual for it and took it to Officeworks and got it all printed up.

The cost was just over $80 Australian. And now I have got the Sony a7ii I have had to do the same.
lucky for me it was I think $31.80 for close to 300 pages.
But now I will be able to learn it better than looking at youtubes and reading it on my laptop.

I hope that Sony one day comes back to it senses and puts the full manual back in and I should say the wall battery charger as well.

 

[gfcphotography]

100% agree with you on manuals - although it is sometimes handy to have a version you can quickly reference when out I usually download a copy to my phone. But there is no substitute for reading a printed manual.

 

[Ralph]

My wife took in a usb with the manual for my camera into Officeworks and we could have got it yesterday but with all the restrictions we left it till today.
It cost us $34.95 Australian for 290 pages to be printed both sides in a binder thing.
So now I can open up to what ever page I want any time that I like.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Definitely agree with this. Just saving themselves a few dollars on printing and packaging. That said, I tend to use the online manual most of the time as it's easier to search.

 

[Kazza]

I share your pain. As I get older I find I can hold less info in my head so like having a printed manual to take with me. I did manage to find a copy of my Olympus OM D10 manual on eBay for £10 when I bought that a couple of years ago.

One thing I do now is create little prompt cards with info that I know I will need when I am out and about. I print these onto 4x6 photo paper which means they last a bit longer and take them with me in my camera bag. Alternatively, print onto normal paper, double sided and laminate it but I would far prefer having a full printed manual for my Sony A6500!

 

[Mike Renny]

Agree 100% - the other thing that really annoys me is where Sony again save money by not supplying an external charger with the majority of their APS-C and compact cameras meaning you have to charge the battery in camera which takes far longer!

 

[Mike Renny]

This is one thing that bugs me now. We are spending more on our camera's and Sony for one is giving us the cold shoulder.
Spend more and they take away from us like the owner manual. I like getting them with my camera's and now they tell us no.
Even though we pay more they give less.

Yes I know we can read it on line but I am one who needs that hard copy in my hands.
Reading it on my computer just doesn't work.
When I got my RX10 iv I found the manual for it and took it to Officeworks and got it all printed up.

The cost was just over $80 Australian. And now I have got the Sony a7ii I have had to do the same.
lucky for me it was I think $31.80 for close to 300 pages.
But now I will be able to learn it better than looking at youtubes and reading it on my laptop.

I hope that Sony one day comes back to it senses and puts the full manual back in and I should say the wall battery charger as well.

David Busch has produced some really good books for a number of Sony Camera models. AFAIK they cover pretty much everything that's in the manuals and are in many respects easier to follow as they include plenty of pictures and as they say a picture paints a thousand words!! They may well be worth a look:-

David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon Australia
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon UK
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon USA

I'm sure you can buy them at retailers other than Amazon too - GIYF!

 

[Ziggy]

Dunno.
There's been two firmware updates since I got my A9 so I wouldn't be carrying the supplied hard copy manual any more.
I'd be happy with competent technical writing in a PDF.
Sony doesn't respect the long-established technical vocabulary of photography. On-camera menus use tortured abbreviations and the hints are often woefully unclear.

 

[Ziggy]

David Busch has produced some really good books for a number of Sony Camera models. AFAIK they cover pretty much everything that's in the manuals and are in many respects easier to follow as they include plenty of pictures and as they say a picture paints a thousand words!! They may well be worth a look:-

David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon Australia
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon UK
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon USA

I'm sure you can buy them at retailers other than Amazon too - GIYF!

Thanks for the Busch references. I wasn't aware of him and he looks good.
I've used Gary Friedman's ebook on the A9 which taught me some useful stuff. But his material on video is a fail. When you want to know what format to use and get no guidance on it, just get told you'll have your own preference, then you wonder what you've bought.

 

[Mike Renny]

YouTube wise you could do a lot worse than watch Mark Galer. His E-Books are excellent also.

 

[Ziggy]

His delivery sends me to sleep I'm afraid.
His A9 ebook is mainly vids so not very useful as a reference.
And I prefer my guide writers to be independent.

 

[Mike Renny]

Big fan then eh?!!!

 

[Kazza]

David Busch has produced some really good books for a number of Sony Camera models. AFAIK they cover pretty much everything that's in the manuals and are in many respects easier to follow as they include plenty of pictures and as they say a picture paints a thousand words!! They may well be worth a look:-

David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon Australia
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon UK
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon USA

I'm sure you can buy them at retailers other than Amazon too - GIYF!

Thanks! Just purchased book for my A6500, am sure it is going to make a lot of mysteries crystal clear for me!

 

[Ralph]

David Busch has produced some really good books for a number of Sony Camera models. AFAIK they cover pretty much everything that's in the manuals and are in many respects easier to follow as they include plenty of pictures and as they say a picture paints a thousand words!! They may well be worth a look:-

David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon Australia
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon UK
David Busch Sony Guide Books - Amazon USA

I'm sure you can buy them at retailers other than Amazon too - GIYF!

Thank you for this link I will get on the good side of the wife and try to get a copy of the one I need.
It takes a while for info to sink in so I need to read things a few times sadly.
And it will take awhile to read it all as I am bad with this and again sadly.

I have watch the youtubey things and like them.
But some times I find if you watch a few they can be different opinions on a thing or 2.
So I now tend to pick a few people and watch them like Froknow and some other fella who is so knowledgeable.
They seem to follow along the same lines most times.

 

[Ziggy]

My memory isn't what it used to be and I find it helps things to stick if I have the camera on my lap and go through the moves at the same time as the guide or vid.

 

[Ralph]

This in what you have said is how I go about it but I am a little slow on uptaking of information.
No matter what I do it always takes a little longer than most as much as I try.
I will keep at it as I want to get better at this game and I don't like to quit.

 

[Clix Pix]

I, too, would prefer a printed manual in the box when one buys a new camera, but alas, that's not happening these days. I did promptly find and download the online manual and that is useful to have on my computers and on my iPad and iPhone. At the time I bought my A7R IV there wasn't a whole lot out there yet from others, but I did find a few online tips and that helped me through the initial setting-up and getting-to-know-you phase. Eventually Gary Friedman released his eBook and I also bought David Busch's paperback book, so now I've got the best of all worlds! Mostly, though, I find that I do pretty well by the good old trial-and-error system, trying out different things and seeing which works best for me. Sometimes I do get stymied, though, and that's when I reach for answers in one of my available sources.

 

[Ziggy]

Busch is available in Kindle - at least the A7R III - but the monochrome format loses some info at one point in my reading so far.
It also has no index.

 

[Ralph]

Thank you Ziggy for the extra info.

 

[GaryTX]

I couldn't agree more. I also like having a PDF version of the manual I can readily access from my iPhone or iPad, but at the price we pay for cameras, I want a printed copy (which I'll always use, PDF availability nonwithstanding.) When the a6600 came out, there wasn't even an online version of the manual, let alone "third party" versions. For all the good things I have to say about Sony's cameras and innovation, this is a real missing element.

 

[RandomPhoto]

I just happened to notice this post from a while back. I recently purchased two Sony a9ii's, and both of them came with the full printed manual (book) in a very compact but convenient size that I love.
And I agree - all bodies should come with the printed manual - much easier to quickly find something than screwing around with an online or electronic document.
I assume Sony has changed that older policy of not providing manuals with their cameras, or did I just get lucky purchasing them in the US for US distribution?