Camera and bifocals.....

[MiniMoke]

Yes, I'm past half a century this year, and I have got the matching dreadful old-man-glasses i.e. bifocals.

The problem is, when looking through the viewfinder of my Fuji X20 (and the X-E1 too) and adjusting the diopter correction I have a choice:

Do I want the picture real sharp, or the on-screen information in focus?

The difference is not huge, just one or two clicks of the diopter wheel, but it's there. And what's more, of course it depends on the angle you are looking into the finder.... the part of the glasses you're looking through.

Does anyone else wish he or she'd never bought bifocals!

P.S.: without glasses I can't see anything at all, and the diopter control does not correct enough for my vision!

 

[Tejasican]

I have progressives, but none of my cameras currently has diopter control. I did read recently from another forum the advice of an optometrist on this matter. He wrote that you should dial down the diopter correction and move it up a click at a time until the text on the screen becomes clear and sharp. for those with progressive lenses he recommended the center portion of the lens. Having no camera with this feature I have not tested it out.

Hope that is of some help.

 

[MiniMoke]

Thanks, will try..... but I guess I'll settle for both normal glasses and reading glasses next time,I hate those bifocals, but our social security only pays glasses (partly) every 3 years 😎

 

[sevo]

1. Use the finder with glasses - you can't always put your glasses off and on.
2. With cameras with dial-in correction, set the finder to wherever you see best.
3. For cameras without, get correcting dioptres for 0dpt (many cameras default to -1, no good even with glasses if you are far-sighted).

 

[dct]

I am shocked they are not in the same focal plane.

Nothing new. The viewfinder informations of analog cameras are neither on the same focal pane as the object you are photographing.

Re bifocals/progressive: I have progressive glasses since 2 years and they help very well photographing without additional diopter corrections. If there is a diopter correction I will keep it straight to have the far sight spot on. To have a closer look to the VF camera informations I move my head slightly upward (down the spectacles) using the near sight part.

 

[Godfrey]

Been wearing progressives for over a decade.

I set the viewfinder up so I can see best to get sharp focus with SLRs and TTL-electronic view cameras. And I wiggle my eye around until I can see sharply ...

Spend some time with it and the problems just go away as you learn to use the progressives/bifocals.

G

 

[Scrambler]

The issue here is that the info is not (as mentioned above) on the same optical plane, and your vision, as happens to everyone, no no longer adjust to the difference. It's not the bifocals that are the issue, its the NEED for bifocals (or graduated, or reading glasses...) that is causing the problem.

The only elegant solution would be a bifocal for the viewfinder: a lens which would correct the display separately to the distant target (or vice versa).

 

[MiniMoke]

Guess i'll have to adjust and get used to those glasses.

Thanks all for your help

 

[sevo]

Well the last optical viewfinder SLRs I used were the Nikon F3h, and the F4, and the information, what little there was, was definitely on the same focal plane.

SLRs that put the information into a frame outside the ground glass can do that. What is impossible is to superimpose the ground glass with information without creating a displacement - and at a viewing distance of 30-40mm, that one mm does make a difference.