My eyes are dim, I cannot see....

Malcolm M

Malcolm M

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Does anyone know of a source of +1 dioptre eyepiece correction lenses for Nikon F/F2? With increasing age, my eyeballs have ossified, to the extent that I can't judge clear focus away from the split image/ microprism. Secondhand lenses are all -4, +5 or similar extremes. Neither have I found any Chinese website selling copies. Anyone any suggestions?
 
My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me...

I have mentioned this before but an ugly and cheap solution involves chopping up supermarket specs of the right prescription. Plastic is best.

Did this with a Leicaflex and stuck it in place using car trim tape, that black double sided tape with a thin layer of foam in it.

Not pretty but effective.
 
As I understand it the Nikon F through F3 have a built-in correction of -1. So you might want to try a 0 which should theoretically add +1 to what is already there. Can anyone with more experience in this correct me?

Personally I would need a -2 (nearsightedness) and the Nikon Fs have always been passable for me to use without glasses (slight improvement in sharpness over my normal eyesight) due to their inherent -1 correction.

Edit: I think the KEH solution above is going to be the better bet.
 
The Nikon literature (if you dig deeply) will reveal that there was never a -1 diopter made in that size, oddly enough. I used to purchase the -1 diopters from Voigtlander through Camera Quest or Photo Village, but those have dried up, it seems. Recently I needed another one for a new FE2, and finally wound up purchasing one through B&H as a special order. It is a Zeiss diopter (same as the Voigtlander), and they were made for the ZI and Zeiss' accessory finders. I don't know how long these will continue to be made, so I would recommend stocking up on a couple, even if they aren't cheap at about $30.00. I had absolutely no luck scouring ebay.
To somewhat contradict bluesun267's response, the Nikon finder is already at -1. My eye needs a -2.25 correction, so the -1 of the finder plus the -1 diopter lens gave me a -2, which is just about perfect. All terribly counterintuitive!
 
Oh dear. I just re-read your original post and saw that you need a +1, not a -1. The +1 should be readily available. For anyone else needing -1, what I wrote still applies. My apologies for my error!
 
Cutting up cheap reading glasses works well. You could install the lenses into the ring from a diopter that's wrong for you or attack them some other way. Put tape on the glasses before you start working on them to prevent scratches.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
The Nikon literature (if you dig deeply) will reveal that there was never a -1 diopter made in that size, oddly enough. I used to purchase the -1 diopters from Voigtlander through Camera Quest or Photo Village, but those have dried up, it seems. Recently I needed another one for a new FE2, and finally wound up purchasing one through B&H as a special order. It is a Zeiss diopter (same as the Voigtlander), and they were made for the ZI and Zeiss' accessory finders. I don't know how long these will continue to be made, so I would recommend stocking up on a couple, even if they aren't cheap at about $30.00. I had absolutely no luck scouring ebay.
To somewhat contradict bluesun267's response, the Nikon finder is already at -1. My eye needs a -2.25 correction, so the -1 of the finder plus the -1 diopter lens gave me a -2, which is just about perfect. All terribly counterintuitive!
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I believe the reason there is no -1 diopter is that the eyepiece lens comes factory set to -1, so that the screen appears to be at 1 meter. If you can focus on a eye test chart at 1 meter without glasses then you should be able to focus a manual focus SLR without glasses. Until SLR’s started to have adjustable diopter eyepiece’s in some models then Japanese camera designers just assumed that many of the population were slightly nearsighted. I have never found any published data on this and the camera companies don’t include what specifications they used for fixed diopter eyepiece’s on their cameras. It is just that when I sold cameras at a camera store in Chicago in the 70’s one of the things I used to do was ask the customer for their glasses so I could get a idea of what their correction was, plus or minus. (Couldn’t do anything for astigmatism so if it was really bad they just had to wear their glasses when focusing.)
I would also hold a printed sheet at 1 meter and ask them to read it, both with and without their glasses. Ideally if they could use the camera viewfinder without their glasses and get consistent sharp negs that was best.
Also found that when customers complained about not getting sharp pictures back from their fancy $2-400 SLR that the main reason was they could not focus accurately. That accounted for 2/3 of fuzzy pictures, the other 1/3 was motion blur, either the camera (mostly) or subject motion.
Of all the salespeople at this large store, I sold by far the most supplemental diopter correction lenses.
 
zuiko85 said:
I believe the reason there is no -1 diopter is that the eyepiece lens comes factory set to -1, so that the screen appears to be at 1 meter. If you can focus on a eye test chart at 1 meter without glasses then you should be able to focus a manual focus SLR without glasses. Until SLR’s started to have adjustable diopter eyepiece’s in some models then Japanese camera designers just assumed that many of the population were slightly nearsighted. I have never found any published data on this and the camera companies don’t include what specifications they used for fixed diopter eyepiece’s on their cameras. It is just that when I sold cameras at a camera store in Chicago in the 70’s one of the things I used to do was ask the customer for their glasses so I could get a idea of what their correction was, plus or minus. (Couldn’t do anything for astigmatism so if it was really bad they just had to wear their glasses when focusing.)
I would also hold a printed sheet at 1 meter and ask them to read it, both with and without their glasses. Ideally if they could use the camera viewfinder without their glasses and get consistent sharp negs that was best.
Also found that when customers complained about not getting sharp pictures back from their fancy $2-400 SLR that the main reason was they could not focus accurately. That accounted for 2/3 of fuzzy pictures, the other 1/3 was motion blur, either the camera (mostly) or subject motion.
Of all the salespeople at this large store, I sold by far the most supplemental diopter correction lenses.
Click to expand...

Brilliant. Pity there was likely no bonus for that. What a great service you offered.
 
bluesun267 said:
As I understand it the Nikon F through F3 have a built-in correction of -1. So you might want to try a 0 which should theoretically add +1 to what is already there. Can anyone with more experience in this correct me?

My experience has been that Nikon marks their eyepiece lenses with the power to which your eye really needs to be corrected; the same power as your eyeglasses. There is no need to figure in the -1 diopter of the prism; that's exactly what Nikon was trying to save us having to do.

While on the subject of correction lenses, it actually is possible to achieve some astigmatism correction with a spherical diopter. All you do is add one-half of your cylinder correction to your spherical. Example: I need spherical -2.75, and cylinder -0.5. Half of -0.5 is -0.25. So I need -2.75 + (-0.25) = -3.0. My eye doctor verified this method. And I can vouch for it: It works great for me! I don't know if it will work quite so well if the cylinder correction is very strong. Obviously it can't be as good as a proper cylinder correction, but for me, at least, it's good enough! Try it, I think you'll like it!
Click to expand...
 
Rob-F said:
bluesun267 said:
As I understand it the Nikon F through F3 have a built-in correction of -1. So you might want to try a 0 which should theoretically add +1 to what is already there. Can anyone with more experience in this correct me?

My experience has been that Nikon marks their eyepiece lenses with the power to which your eye really needs to be corrected; the same power as your eyeglasses. There is no need to figure in the -1 diopter of the prism; that's exactly what Nikon was trying to save us having to do.

While on the subject of correction lenses, it actually is possible to achieve some astigmatism correction with a spherical diopter. All you do is add one-half of your cylinder correction to your spherical. Example: I need spherical -2.75, and cylinder -0.5. Half of -0.5 is -0.25. So I need -2.75 + (-0.25) = -3.0. My eye doctor verified this method. And I can vouch for it: It works great for me! I don't know if it will work quite so well if the cylinder correction is very strong. Obviously it can't be as good as a proper cylinder correction, but for me, at least, it's good enough! Try it, I think you'll like it!
Click to expand...

Yes, the marked diopter on eyepiece correction lenses are the total correction when attached to the eyepiece. Thus, if Nikon has it marked +1 then the actual lens is +2, which with the eyepiece leaves a correction of +1.

edit; In my opinion one of the great improvements in camera operation was when adjustable eyepiece diopter was built in. Too bad it did not become universal till the DSLR and Mirrorless came along.
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Rob-F said:
bluesun267 said:
As I understand it the Nikon F through F3 have a built-in correction of -1. So you might want to try a 0 which should theoretically add +1 to what is already there. Can anyone with more experience in this correct me?

My experience has been that Nikon marks their eyepiece lenses with the power to which your eye really needs to be corrected; the same power as your eyeglasses. There is no need to figure in the -1 diopter of the prism; that's exactly what Nikon was trying to save us having to do.
Click to expand...

I've read this too, and went for a long time using a -2 diopter on my Nikons (my eyeglass correction is -2.5). I always seemed to be straining; once I ordered another -2 and was shipped a -1 by mistake. I figured I'd use it and make do; instead, it was perfect! All of my Nikon cameras got re-fitted with -1 diopters. However, the -2 was perfect for my Fuji medium format rangefinders, and for my ZI and Bessa rangefinders as well. Again, confusing and counter-intuitive.
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like cataracts. Cataracts and getting older go hand in hand. I finally had surgery to remove mine, now I have 20-20, and removed my diopters from my cameras.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Rob-F said:
bluesun267 said:
As I understand it the Nikon F through F3 have a built-in correction of -1. So you might want to try a 0 which should theoretically add +1 to what is already there. Can anyone with more experience in this correct me?

My experience has been that Nikon marks their eyepiece lenses with the power to which your eye really needs to be corrected; the same power as your eyeglasses. There is no need to figure in the -1 diopter of the prism; that's exactly what Nikon was trying to save us having to do.



I've read this too, and went for a long time using a -2 diopter on my Nikons (my eyeglass correction is -2.5). I always seemed to be straining; once I ordered another -2 and was shipped a -1 by mistake. I figured I'd use it and make do; instead, it was perfect! All of my Nikon cameras got re-fitted with -1 diopters. However, the -2 was perfect for my Fuji medium format rangefinders, and for my ZI and Bessa rangefinders as well. Again, confusing and counter-intuitive.
Click to expand...

Well, the function of the finder's negative power, -1 diopter, is to present the finder image at a virtual distance of one meter. So it seems to me that there are two issues going on, one having to do with focusing our vision on the image; the other thing is the apparent distance of the image. So by reducing the overall power by one diopter, is it possible you have achieved comfortable focus by moving the image further away from the eye?

And another thing: do you have astigmatism? Astigmatism that is uncorrected by the diopter lens might account for the one diopter discrepancy.
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Click to expand...
 
Malcolm M said:
Does anyone know of a source of +1 dioptre eyepiece correction lenses for Nikon F/F2? With increasing age, my eyeballs have ossified, to the extent that I can't judge clear focus away from the split image/ microprism. Secondhand lenses are all -4, +5 or similar extremes. Neither have I found any Chinese website selling copies. Anyone any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I have not checked beyond finding this page but try here. They certainly have stuff for Leica diopters.

Accessories :: Viewfinder (japanexposures.com)
 
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