electrical and optical

This is an excellent how-to book. It's the Home Depot of optics. But the almost complete lack of references (at least in the edition I reviewed) is a HUGE disappointment. This general text could have been so much more useful with a few selected hooks into the specialized literature. I hope the author and publisher consider this seriously for future editions.

I believe I have one of the largest personal libraries on electro-optics, how in the heck did I miss this book?

Highly recommended!

When I meet someone new-to-me in the field, I have taken to the habit of eyeing up their bookshelf, looking for the books that they use. Whenever I see this incredible tome from Phil Hobbs, I know they have an excellent resource. Frankly, I believe that you should be embarased if this book is not on your shelf. This book is simply too good to miss. I recommend that you stop reading this review and buy it!

Phil has managed to cram information of a 100,000+ academic pages into this 727 page gem. His mastery of separating the chemicral from the root of the information is truly amazing. This guy understands what it takes to make a system work and astutely put it into this work. He gives pointers for lab rats as to the number of "post-it" notes to use to elevate an optical component, as well as detail theoretical discussions of detector sensitivity and the practical impact of the electronics.

The writing is sometimes folksy and hip. I find this an incredible relief from the academic 3rd person passive forced by many publishers. Phil occasionally gets funny and at least a few times, his folksy style is only used to clearly underscore the salient point that he is making.

My negative criticism of Hobbs is primarily why it took him until 2000 to publish this book---I could have used it 25 years ago, and whis I had this book in college! Also, a glossary would have been nice to include.