Jump to content

Question regarding Schiffer Publishing books


Recommended Posts

Afternoon all, had the chance to see a few titles by Schiffer Publishing that I am interested in, but does anyone have any comments on the books?  Pretty good, so-so or such?  While I am still looking around for reviews, I've found that my knowledge base on books is somewhat lacking so better to ask.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have five Schiffer books in my reference library, my opinion is that they are a mixed bag.


The YF-17 book is excellent, and the only book I know of dedicated to that subject.

 

The F-14 book by Gillcrist is excellent but my copy is missing pages.  I bought it used so I can't say for sure this was a publisher problem.

 

Two XB-70 books, one full of color pics, the other all black & white. Minimal captions, no text in either.  All pics I've seen before in other books. 


The Blackbird book (A-12, YF-12, SR-71) is, IMO, terrible.  Poor photo reproduction throughout, either blurry, grainy or or washed out (low contrast).  No excuse as they lifted most of the pics from the NASA website.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Schiffer is a top namebrand for me. Choose wisely as there are many of them out there. This is good because it means the price isn`t usually too high. I much prefer the hardcover books that have several hundred pages of material. I always do some research upfront so i have an idea of what i`m getting. If you`re thinking of the David Doyle title i would be somewhat apprehensive from the fact that these litter ebay right now and none of the listings give any idea of the contents (basically just the image of the cover, nothing else) That is a dealbreaker right there at least for me.

 

Be critical and try to understand your specific needs and what aspects you would like to see more of. Many books are very generic and don`t really emphasis on anything special. Books are also heavy so ask yourself do you really need this extra weight in your life?       

 

If you`re on a budget, the Squadron Signal titles is an affordable way to start a book collection. And once again, research is KING 😉    

Link to post
Share on other sites

If shopping for books on Amazon and eBay be aware of POD - Print On Demand books. These are titles that are out of print and what you get is a black and white scanned copy of dubious quality. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you for the suggestions, and I will definitely be mindful of the print on demand books.  I have a good number of Squadron/Signal books, ecspecially when they started their $5 sales before Squadron.com went out of business.  What I've noticed is that they can be hit or miss in regards to information on the exact type in regards to subject I am looking into.  Always seems that there will be 2 pages on the variant I would like to build, yet 20 pages on the variants before and after! 🙂  Plus I just like reading about interesting subjects on airplanes and helicopters that I missed out while growing up.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Poor editing, poor layout, poor photo reproduction. Other than that great books.

I had the United States Naval Aviation 1910-1918 book. The photo reproduction was awful - super high contrast, blurry; hard to actually make out anything but a silhouette in many photos.
But the clincher: someone had stamped the back of each photo with a "property of..."  rubber stamp and then stacked all the photos before the ink had dried, so the stamp on the back of one transferred to the face of the next, etc. Well, instead of cleaning up the photos, they just went ahead and scanned them, so the faint rubber stamp is visible on the published photos. Amateur hour. Ruined a $60 book. I couldn't stand paging thru it so sold it off. 

Edited by sierrascale
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...