ulvdemon Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
habu2 Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ulvdemon Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 That's good to hear. I was looking into getting the F-14 and maybe the F6F Hellcat books at least.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gator52 Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Highly satisfied with the four Schiffer books I own that were authored by Don Logan (B-1, C-135, ACC Bombers, and T-38). I believe the YF-17 book Habu mentioned is also by Logan. Chris Quote Link to post Share on other sites
habu2 Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 24 minutes ago, Gator52 said: I believe the YF-17 book Habu mentioned is also by Logan. Yes it is by Logan. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
breadneck Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 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 😉 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
habu2 Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ulvdemon Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sierrascale Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 (edited) 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 February 26, 2022 by sierrascale Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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