The pitch for this book is that there are lots of hidden features that you would not know about without reading this book. I am by no means a techie but there was only one thing in this book that I didn't already know, and I never read any instructions. The program is very intuitive on its own and you will learn everything you need to know just by simple observation.

Excellent! Very plainly written. Easy to understand. A must-have if you would rather refer to a book instead of electronic help. I really like the Missing Manual Series and/or anything written by David Pogue.

The book was as advertised, arrived in very good time and in excellent condition.

Do not buy this book unless, for some reason, you are determined to use an obsolete version of iPhoto. The newest version of iPhoto is iPhoto 6 (SIX!!!) and it is VERY different from iPhoto 5. (Sorry David, I wish your book was for iPhoto 6. I would buy it then. I do have your Mac OS X Tiger Edition, and it is GREAT!)

Picking up this book, the first thing you notice is how great is looks. It's printed in full color, with screen shots on nearly every page. I started the book expecting to jump right in to using iPhoto, but found that the entire first section of the book covers buying the right digital camera and a a guide to taking great looking pictures. I skimmed this section rather quickly as I already owned a camera and understand the basics of lighting and composing pictures. What I did read looked very useful for someone getting into photography for the first time.

The second section covers using iPhoto to organize and edit your digital pics. I was surprised how many handy ways iPhoto 5 has to organize and find pictures easily. The chapter on editing demystifies all the controls and sliders in iPhoto's editing mode. Perhaps the best tip though is the advice to use the enhance button quickly and automatically adjust photos suffering from the affects of being taken in sub-optimal conditions.

Section three details the many ways to share your photos with others. This falls primarily into 2 categories: printing and electronic distribution. These chapters have great tips for getting high quality prints wether you use your own printer or send your photos to a third party printing service. The section on electronic distribution shows you how easy it is to create a DVD you can send to friends and family; a format that even grandma will understand how to view. If you want to post your pictures on the Internet there are lots of useful tips on optimizing your photos for on-line viewing.

The last section covers advanced uses. One of the most valuable explains how to get all those spontaneous photos off of you camera phone an into iTunes. And if you take a lot of photos; more than iPhoto can handle easily, the authors explain techniques for managing multiple iPhoto libraries.

Summary: iPhoto 5 The Missing Manual is a great guide to getting the most out of iPhoto. In addition to covering iPhoto's many non-obvious features, the book includes a guide to buying the right digital camera, and techniques for taking the best quality pictures in many conditions. Best of all the book is beautifully illustrated in full color. iPhoto 5 The Missing Manual is well worth the $30 cover price ($20 on Amazon).