Can't wink my left eye

1:1 viewfinder or get a nose job so you can fit your face behind the camera shooting left-eyed? Or shoot portrait and bend your neck sideways? Shoot left-eyed turning your head to the right?
 
You might try using a Bessa R3A or R3M, which has a 1:1 finder. With everything in the viewfinder appearing at life size, you can easily shoot with both eyes open, and with all the advantages that brings.
 
The easiest solution is to get the RF cameras which have a 1:1 viewfinder. Then you can look at the world through both eyes.

My M7 0.85 with a 1.25x magnifier achieves 1:1 (life size) magnification.
I know some of the older Canon and Nikon RF cameras had this, as well as one of the new Bessa RF (R3a, R3m).

When you do this, you have a sterioscopic view of the world, with a frameline and RF patch suspended in space. It's a rather cool effect!
 
MarkoKovacevic said:
I can't wink my left eye, which makes it annoying to shoot RFs, which are all designed for right eye.
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Are they? Arguably, right eye shooters are at a slight advantage as their nose fits left of the camera - but the situation for left eye shooters is no worse than that for either eye shooters with SLRs and their central finder. And given that DSLRs generally follow the traditional film SLR layout even though they could have placed the mirror box to one edge of the camera, having the nose against the camera seems to be very low on the list of photographers annoyances...

In any case, you should first of all determine which is your primary eye - there is little point in putting a patch on your left eye if you see better with it than you would with the right...
 
sevo said:
Are they? Arguably, right eye shooters are at a slight advantage as their nose fits left of the camera - but the situation for left eye shooters is no worse than that for either eye shooters with SLRs and their central finder. And given that DSLRs generally follow the traditional film SLR layout even though they could have placed the mirror box to one edge of the camera, having the nose against the camera seems to be very low on the list of photographers annoyances...
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It is if you're eastern european and slightly larger nosed like myself. I shoot DSLRs for work stuff and it still feels rather unnatural using the left eye. Additionally, my left eye is a bit less sharp.

Feels like my right is my primary but I can only wink my right, and when im shooting I like seeing only through the VF, especially with DSLRs
 
I'm very strongly left-eyed, which is one reason why I use a digi with a foldaway screen. When touch screens come in, heaven knows what settings my nose will be programming in!
 
A 1:1 finder is a good idea, as you can leave your other eye open. You could consider a Kontur finder, which are designed so you have both eyes open.

Or perhaps you could develop a technique of holding your camera so that you can use your hand to encourage your eye to close.

Failing the above, perhaps a camera with ground glass like a Rolleiflex is worth a try. Or one of the few 35mm cameras with waist level finders.

Finally, some clip on finders can stick out a bit, so you're not squishing your nose against the back of the camera, you could check that out.
 
sevo said:
Are they? Arguably, right eye shooters are at a slight advantage as their nose fits left of the camera - but the situation for left eye shooters is no worse than that for either eye shooters with SLRs and their central finder. And given that DSLRs generally follow the traditional film SLR layout even though they could have placed the mirror box to one edge of the camera, having the nose against the camera seems to be very low on the list of photographers annoyances...

In any case, you should first of all determine which is your primary eye - there is little point in putting a patch on your left eye if you see better with it than you would with the right...
Click to expand...
Right-eyed photographers can usually keep the camera up to their eye when winding on, which is a useful bonus when one is shooting in a hurry.
 
I'm strongly left-eyed. Vision is actually fine in both [I wear very mild glasses for driving only], but the left is completely dominant. I don't find shooting left-eyed with a rangefinder a problem. My nose [not a tiny snub nose] is against the back of the camera slightly, but I can't ever really remember finding it a huge issue.

I'm so left eye dominant I couldn't use a Kontur. Tried it, but it didn't work.
 
I used to be right eye dominant, but I found that shooting a Leica, I could use my left eye for framing and leave the right eye open behind the camera. Works just fine, and now after some forty years of that, I find I'm left-eye dominant now. I even shoot SLRs left eyed.
 
I used to be left eye dominant, then I switched myself (not willingly) and now I'm right eye dominant.

I shoot with my M2 with both eyes open from time to time. No problems.
 
That's because your dominant eye is your left (stating the obvious, I know). I'd say it's much better to use that to frame. I've trained myself to use the right eye for some silly reason (indeed most cameras are set for right eye'd users- see Canon Rebel series, my nose punches the function button if I use my left eye). Now I'm slowly getting back to using my left eye on my M6. Bit awkward but not a deal breaker.
 
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