Eyes - Right or left?

[fishtek]

Left eye for horizontal shots, right eye for verticals. Not sure why, but I've been doing it that way for decades, with all sorts of cameras. TLR's excepted...except when using the flip-up eye-level finder for action stuff...then left-eyed.

Regards!
Don

 

[VinceC]

I'm a right-eyed shooter. It works out very well with Nikon RFs, because I can keep both eyes open.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Right eye.

If I were left-eyed, I would train myself to shoot right-eyed. So many rangefinders have the viewfinder all the way to the left side of the camera, so that your nose isn't fighting against the camera, and so that you can see the rest of the world with your other eye, that it just doesn't make sense to use the left eye. (eye performance being the exception)

This little ergonomic detail is one of the things I like best about rangefinders.

When shooting any kind of action, you will find that you get a higher percentage of well-framed shots if you keep both eyes open to better predict when & where the object will enter the frame.

Interesting tidbit: When I was Army basic training in the mid-1990s, they did a test on each troop to determine if we were left- or right-eye dominant. I'm right-handed, but they said I am left-eye dominant. So I took their suggestion and tried shooting the M16 with the left eye for the sight. I couldn't hit a barn that way, even after a full day of trying. With my right eye, I could hit the 300m silhouette pretty reliably. That may have to do with the extra difficulty of having the rifle in my right shoulder and having to crank my head all the way around to use my left eye...

With cameras, it is much easier to mix it up, (i.e. right-handed, left eye) as they don't usually have shoulder stocks to get in your way.

 

[meyman]

Left only, unfortunately. Surprisingly enough, I've also found my eyes see a different colour temperature, the right giving a definitely warmer picture. Maybe that's from being constantly poked with the wind lever🙂 Strange thing, that brain thing

 

[Doug]

With cameras, it is much easier to mix it up, (i.e. right-handed, left eye) as they don't usually have shoulder stocks to get in your way.

Quite right, in my experience too! If I wanted my dominant left eye on the rifle sights, that forced awkward left-handed shooting, and shooting right-handed by preference forced use of the right eye for the sights. Just no way around it that I could find, first time I just had to get used to using only my right eye. And it must be hell with shotguns. Not as bad shooting pistol left-eyed and right-handed.

 

[sigma4ever]

Left....It just seems natural.

 

[Nando]

Left due to an injury causing an existing small cataract to grow and expand in my right eye covering the pupil. If you noticed that I am from Canada you would probably think that I was hit with a hockey puck. Well, you would be right. It happened a long time ago so I've gotten used to being left-eyed. I'm probably going to have surgery soon to remove the cataract. I don't know if I will remain a lefty or will my right eye become dominant again.

 

[Tom A]

I am a left eye shooter and even when i have tried to change, it doesnt work. For several years I had to use Leicas without the Leicavit MP as they kept dying on me and kept stabbing myself in the eye or knocking the glasses off. The sheer frustrations got me working on the design for the Rapidwinder for the M6 and then later for the M2. I have even made foray's into designing rapidwinders for Nikon Rf's and the Nikon F.
The biggest beef i had with the M8 is that for a left-eye shooter, your nose is forever planted in the screen. During flu-season it will become a very expensive Petri-dish for biological experiments. Well. it stops people from borrowing it!

 

[PhotoMat]

For RF I use my right eye, but for SLRs I use my left eye - isn't that weird?! Yes, it is!

Hey -- same thing here! I'm right-eye dominant and use my right eye when shooting rangefinders, but I always find right-eye viewing awkward when shooting an SLR. I guess that I simply started viewing left-eyed with an SLR and it became an ingrained habit.

 

[Doug]

Interesting, PhotoMat... As basically left-eyed, I long ago opted for the "right-side-down" camera orientation for vertical shots. This still allowed sufficient body contact to steady the camera against my face. And my recent switch to being right-eyed works as well for this, perhaps better. But now I'm struggling with this issue with a Pentax 645, which is obviously designed for "right-side-up" for verticals... but shooting this way right-eyed has the VF ring either poking me in the eye or the camera hanging out a ways with no facial contact. Awkward, as accurate positioning relative to the eye is important to see the VF well, so I find it works better left-eyed!

 

[Samad Asad]

I shoot and read with my right eye. Left eye is a lazy-eye . 🙁

 

[jky]

Right eye during the day & left when dim... just easier to focus with my left eye when light levels are low. Hmmmm... I guess glasses might solve this....
Cheers

 

[wyk_penguin]

Left eyed. Since owning an R3A, I sometimes shoot with both eyes open. The 1:1 magnification helps. But I still find it easier to see the meter and the RF patch when I use me left eye.

 

[DougK]

I prefer and naturally use my right eye, although I can use my left eye if I get dust or grit in the right.

 

[pvdhaar]

My right eye is better than the left one (always has been too), but apparently that doesn't say much as I'm a left eye shooter...

I have tried to switch over sometime in the past when I had a Hexar RF that was very iffy about the position of the eye behind the finder, but I just couldn't make the switch. In the end, I poked the screwdrivers into the Hexar to adjust the RF to better suit the left eye..

 

[PATB]

Left Eye shooter, with glasses

Left Eye shooter, with glasses

I am right handed but left-eye dominant, so I shoot with my left eye. This is not a problem with my dSLR as there is no film advance lever on the right side. With the MP, I end up bumping my right side glasses with my right thumb all the time. Irritating as I have to keep cleaning the glasses.

I am trying to switch to shoot using the right eye. It is tough so far as I have trained to shoot rifles on the left side with both eyes open in the last 20 years. I end up just squinting the left eye -- not comfortable but I do not have to shoot several shots at a time, so maybe doable.

Incidentally, I thought shooting with the left eye wearing glasses is not going to work out until I saw the PBS American Masters video of Annie Leibovitz (?) shooting an M with the left eye and wearing glasses!

 

[JohnL]

I used to use my right eye all the time, but recently saw some shots of HCB using right for landscape, left for portrait (operating shutter with thumb). It keeps the viewpoint from being so high up. I've been trying it and I think I'll stay with it (unless I need the higher viewpoint).

 

[oftheherd]

Right handed, right footed (hence twice broke my right ankle), and (surprise), right eyed. If I had one, I guess I would be right brained.

 

[jaapv]

Right - I've got no choice - left one is a bit cloudy through a mistreated inflammation 30 years ago....

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

More than one eye on the right or the left?! Not me!