Keeping Your Camera Manual Right On Your iPhone
One of my book readers, Tobias Gräning from Berlin, Germany, dropped me a note yesterday with a great tip, based on one of my tips in my Digital Photography Book, Volume 3. My quick tip was to make sure you download the free digital PDF versions of your camera’s user manual because they’re searchable, and you’ll find what you’re looking for a lot faster (I have PDF manuals for all my own gear).
He took the tip up a notch by telling me about an iPhone application called “Good Reader PDF” that is designed to let you download and read these large-sized PDFs (larger size PDFs than you can normally read on an iPhone or iPod touch). You can see a screen cap above how the PDFs are listed, and then how they’re displayed (it’s just 99¢ from the iPhone App Store).
You can’t imagine how handy it is having your camera’s user manual right out on location with you, without dragging the physical manual out in the field. Thanks Tobias for sharing this one with me (and my readers).
woah what a brilliant idea, is there no use for the Iphone! Thanks Scott
Here’s a link from iTunes app store for the reader.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=306277111&mt=8
Kinda free alternative if you already have MobileMe: Load all your manuals on your iPhone/Ipod touch for free with Apple’s iDisk app. Just upload them to your iDisk cloud. You don’t need an internet connection once you initially load the PDF files as the iDisk app caches up to 200MB of recently accessed files.
As an aside you can do this with Windows Mobile, as it includes a PDF viewer as standard. It’s a trick I’ve been using for the last 4 years from trying to remember obscure settings on the camera. Both Foxit and Adobe support WM natively.
Just a heads up to some visitors.
Thanks for this one. This will save precious space in my already over loaded bag.
This is an excellent tip! Most smart phones, PDAs, netbooks and laptops can store and view PDFs, so this is a great tip for anyone with a mobile device. I just downloaded the manuals for my camera bodies, my flash units and my Pocket Wizards. There are also great photography ebooks and PDFs available that might come in handy. For example the Strobist Lighting 101 Guide which is free for anyone.
Going out to help a novice with their new camera or other equipment? Maybe download the manual ahead of time just in case they don’t have theirs and you find yourself needing a reference!
For Canon 5D Mark II users, there is a iPhone app of a 5D Mark II manual called Handi 5Dmk2. It is a simpler manual to navigate through on the iPhone than the original Canon PDF version. This is such a great idea that all the major camera companies should copy the concept and put all their manuals up on the iPhone store.
I also carry your Digital Photography books ( 1 + 2 ) on my iPhone Kindle. While traveling, it is a big help to have the photo recipes available as a resource. I have some great July 4th photos of my family with the sun setting in the background only because I pulled out my iPhone, looked up the sunset recipe in your book and used it as my guide.
For a low-tech version, check out something like http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=594435&is=REG&noContainer=Y
googreader works awesome. I’ve got several cisco and photography pdf documents on my ipodtouch that I use in the field or read on the plane.
Great idea! However, could one do the same with an iTouch? The iPhone rates in Canada are ridiculous. If rumours are true about iTouch getting a camera, I would for sure get one. iPhone is not on my radar for cost reasons.
I don’t see why not since the iTouch is just an iPhone without the phone.
I have a copy on my Epson P5000 (much easier to read on its larger screen) and another copy on my Blackberry Storm (which has a similar PDF reader application).
FileMagnet for iPhone/iPod Touch (http://magnetismstudios.com/FileMagnet/) is also another app that lets you read pdf files, as well as Microsoft Office, and iWork ‘09 files.
I teach and do a lot of PhotoWalks with several photography groups. I took this a step further and downloaded every Nikon dSLR and Canon dSLR manual onto my phone. They only took up a little over 200 Mb of space and now I have a quick reference to virtually all my students cameras. This will be a big time saver as students and club members rarely carry their manuals with them. By now being able to look up menus and other operations in the filed this will really help the educational process. This is a great tip, thanks Tobias and Scott.
It may take a little longer but just photograph the instruction book and keep it on a small CF or SD card–insert it in the camera and read it on the camera screen.
This is probably a dumb question to most everyone on this site, but how can I get the pdf
camera manual, that was downloaded to my MAC, to my iPhone? (Or is it possible?)
Thanks!!
you have to transfer it via “wifi” from the instructions.
Instructions here: http://www.goodiware.com
There is a program called GoodReaderUSB which you can download and add to the applications which allows you to transfer by drag and drop without going through wifi
I also bring Scott’s Digital Photography books on my kindle. Great for a quick browse in the hotel room before I go out to shoot.
It is an awesome app! I have my D700 and SB-800 manuals on there along with the manual for my new Panasonic AVCCAM! It’s great and very handy. Now I can leave the phonebook sized manuals at home. I love that you can search for text and even bookmark your favorite pages. The horizontal view is also very handy. Make sure you get their USB desktop software for free. Then you just plug in your iphone and then open the USB software, drag your PDF over and it installs it in just seconds right where it needs to go! Excellent app to mention Scott, thanks!
Ryan
I think im still quicker to find a specific answer in a real book, and most Canon u.-manuals are pretty small. Therefore I hate it to search me through a pdf user maunual, in the size of a iphone screen. But thanks for the great idea!
There are also some neat little menu-guide-apps for some of nikons dslr called Min-U-Guide .
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318632334&mt=8
I have mine for my D90 and used it several times. It’s very handy to navigate. The PDF-manuals are useful, but you often have to scroll to read the pagees.
Scott,
I need to ask you a PS question. I have your CS3 book but the answer to my question is not in there. How can I contact you so that you can refer me to one of your books that may have the answer??? I’m sure it is simple enough for you but I am stumped!
Thanks so much.
Kym
Great idea! I have a new camera and don’t know it as well as I should, yet.
Scott, give all of us your cell number and we can just call you.
“Brilliant minds think alike”
Gearing up for a trek to Bhutan in a month and realizing I’d need a whole bag just for my user manuals, I had a sudden brainstorm to download these PDF files to my shiny new iTouch. First I did it through MobileMe (as someone already mentioned), but then downloaded Good Reader (we’re talking serious telepathy here Scott), which offers far more “maneuverability” than through MobileMe. This story does have a pt…and this is it: While successfully downloading a number of PDF files, including one for my SB-600 flash, I was unable to successfully download the one for my D-200. It gets downloaded, but then simply doesn’t open up – not through MobileMe nor through “Good Reader”. Any ideas anyone??
Did it. Totally worth it. Thanks a load.
Wow… great set of tips. First for the suggestion to load my camera manual on my iPhone and then for telling me how I can effectively read it.
Scott, I’m gonna add you as a friend on facebook right away!!!
I’ve been storing my manuals on DropBox. I can access them from my phone and they’re also on my DropBox connected laptop. Zumo is and SugarSync are similar systems
Awesome suggestion! This app is far much better than any other. What’s upsetting for me is I paid 5 times more for another app about a year ago and it doesn’t compare to the one recommended above. I have downloaded all my manuals & articles very quickly. The browser engine is the fastest. And so on and on…. Thanks for the tip.
The PDF Owner’s Manuals for my Canon EOS 1D Mark III and my EOS 40D have a big fat watermark “COPY” across every page. Does anyone know of a way around this?
downloading right now, thanks!
Does anybody know if these will open the protected PDF’s.. I’ve gotten one or two from PeachPit Press and have problems in the past getting them to open on some systems. I’d love to put the Digital Photography Books of Scott’s on there.. but want to make sure I can actually open them before I buy the ebook version
Thanks!
Dang, now if I only had an app to tell me what kind of mount Scott uses to attach two lateral arms to his Gitzo tripod then what the mystery clamps are that hitch to his Really Right Stuff ballhead and laptop platform. I’ve browsed through the Gitzo catalog till exhaustion and can’t find anything, now I’m wondering if they are some random Pro-Foto clamp. Anybody? An app for that?
As in the Mpix ad with Scott shooting a car.
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