Glasses ....aaargh!

[ellisson]

To echo suggestions by others, I find that an auxiliary viewfinder can greatly help with 35mm and wider lenses. Agree that the Zeiss finders are bright and give a spacious view. Wearing glasses, I also find the goggled 35mm lenses preferable to having to pan around with the non-goggled versions. And as noted above, you get more space around the frame lines (50mm) for context.

 

[Pfreddee]

Just wait until you get cataracts! One of the more interesting aspects of them is what I would call "Age-enhanced Reading." (Most of us who have cataracts are of a certain age.) For example, I picked up two jars of Vita Pickled Herring for Thanksgiving, and got one in Sour Cream Sauce, and the other in Urine Sauce, which upon closer inspection turned out to be Wine Sauce.😱 Still, that did provide a light moment during shopping!😀

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen

 

[Uncle Brian]

Not sure what cameras you have but I have some issues using my film cameras when wearing glasses. I can't see enough of the viewfinder either and it's frustrating, if I take my glasses off I can use the diopter to view the image but need to put them back on again to make any manual adjustments.

I can set my Nikon F80 to P and let it do everything while I just compose and of course i can use the wheels on that camera to adjust f and speed too.

My OM-4T and Zorki-4 are very difficult to use but it can be done if I'm in the right frame of mind.

I'm considering getting a digital camera that will do everything for me and also allow me to view the back screen if the viewfinder image is less than ideal, something like a X100F maybe.

I also have a TLR which if I ever get used to the reversed imaging might also be the answer.

Don't give up the answer is out there 🙂

 

[RichC]

OP here...

Sorry, should have said earlier: I no longer use rangefinders but changed to SLRs for more accurate framing – which is why I'm so concerned abut not being able to see the entire view.

My two main cameras are

• Mamiya 645 (with prism finder)
• Sony A7R II (electronic viewfinder).

So, no auxiliary viewfinders...

 

[Uncle Brian]

Can you use a waist level finder on the 645? Maybe move to another big slr like a RZ67?

What about large format? That glass is huge!

Just tried my cameras with my glasses on and I can see the whole frame in the F80 most of it in the OM and bugger all in the Zorki.

 

[Darthfeeble]

I thought that multi focus contacts would be a good idea for shooting my M9. I got them and found that the near vision lens wouldn't work with the focus patch as that's a mirror and through some quirk of physics I needed the distance vision to see the focus patch. I went to the distance Rx for both and was happy as a clam. I haven't tried them on my digitals nor my MF film cameras yet. I'm assuming the same case will apply as they use mirrors for viewing as well.

 

[RichC]

I thought that multi focus contacts would be a good idea for shooting my M9. I got them and found that the near vision lens wouldn't work with the focus patch as that's a mirror and through some quirk of physics I needed the distance vision to see the focus patch. I went to the distance Rx for both and was happy as a clam. I haven't tried them on my digitals nor my MF film cameras yet. I'm assuming the same case will apply as they use mirrors for viewing as well.

I had no problem with my varifocal contacts with any of my cameras - well, the Mamiya 645, Nikon D800E (predecessed the Sony A7R II) and ye olde worlde Moskva rangefinder. Not sure if there are different types of varifocal contacts but mine used the "bullseye" concept, where the "lenses" were arranged in concentric circles. Worked fine accept in low light, when my pupils were too large and messed up my near vision!

 

[Uncle Brian]

Last silly suggestion on this sunny Sunday morning ... Do you have a local camera store that has a large variety of cameras that you can hold up to you eye? Might be the only way to find an answer and it could be fun.
I'm considering this as an option but camera stores are almost extinct around here 🙁

 

[Rob-F]

Lately I've been using the string on my eyeglasses and taking them off, when i have a diopter lens on the viewfinder. Otherwise, if leaving my glasses on, I use the bodies that have the .58 finders so I can see the whole frame--or mostly.

Using a Nikon F3 with high eyepoint finder could be a good idea, and/or the Zeiss Ikon with its large eyepiece.

 

[Goody]

I have a diopter on the camera and keep a pair of glasses on that I don't mind beating up -- tip the glasses up when ready to shoot. But as you've discovered it's a compromise -- for me that's better than than trying to shoot with glasses on. I like to see through the viewfinder without issues.

 

[Ronald M]

Same condition as you. Put a +1 diopter on the eyepiece and use top of bifocals.

If your eye doctor has an old fashioned set of trial lenses, use them to find exact + required or try reader at the drug store over regular glasses.

Possible to under correct one eye so you can see RF patch and have correct RX in other eye. Now no longer required to take glasses off/on, but only one eye will see distance perfectly.

No way to improve edge if you require glasses. Frame subject without glasses and locate center RF patch. Add glasses and put patch in remembered location.

Leica with live view can use visoflex or screen on back.

 

[Dan]

Monocle?

This is THE way to go!

 

[farlymac]

I need to count myself as lucky in a way. Been nearsighted ever since the eighth grade, and put up with the viewfinders because I always got glass lenses until I no longer could.



After that, I just started taking them off while shooting. It helps being right-eye dominant, especially since I just found out after all these years I have an astigmatism in the left eye.


Or, I'd use cameras that had rubber shields around the viewfinder, and do the scanning method of framing. It just depends. But my distance vision is not so bad that I can't frame up a shot before looking through the finder. It's just that I don't notice things that might affect the look of the scene in a negative way.


All I can say, Rich, is sometimes you just have to not think about it, and find some sort of workaround. Depending on which 645 model you have, one of the other finders (like the AE III) could have better eye relief. Or you could just go with the waist level one.



Don't know what to say about the Sony, except that you could get one of those attachable loupe hoods for the back screen.


PF

 

[CMur12]

I'm nearsighted, have significant astigmatism in both eyes, and I'm left-eye dominant.


I can see all of the image in the viewfinder with my old manual-focus 35mm SLRs (pressing the glasses lens against the camera's eyepiece). This isn't possible with a lot of SLR viewfinders. Compact, fixed-lens RFs have also worked well for me.


Being left-eye dominant, if an SLR has controls to the immediate right of the finder, I simply can't use it.


Even so, I found myself moving more to TLRs and waist-level finders, where the glasses weren't a problem at all.


Adding a DSLR to the mix now, I'm finding that there is so much in viewfinder that I can't see it all with glasses on. So, I have to take the glasses off, adjust the variable diopter in the finder for my myopia, and try to see around the astigmatism. It still remains to be seen if I will be able to make this work.


- Murray

 

[lynnb]

Relax your framing standards, scale focus and shoot from the hip 🙂

I wear multifocals and have similar issues. Lots of good suggestions here. I have minimal problems with F80 and OM1, maybe a little scanning around. I use external VFs on Barnacks. The biggest problem is the Bessa II, no cold shoe and the VF is squinty to say the least. Worst eyeglass-scratching VF of all time was Fed 3, until I put a ring of gaffer tape around the eyepiece.

 

[ebolton]

I use a combination of all those methods: the string, panning around, and diopter adjustment in the cameras I have that feature it.


I use the string all the time, even when I'm not shooting. The difference between my far and near correction is so much, the optometrist gave me trifocals. I hated those, because the intermediate section of the lens was tiny and I needed it a lot for computer screens at work and home. I ditched the trifocals and now have 3 pairs of glasses: a bifocal with the far and near prescriptions (standard bifocals), and two copies of 'screen glasses', bifocals with the intermediate prescription on the top and the near prescription on the bottom. I leave one pair of screen glasses at work and one at home, and wear the standard glasses with the string all the time. Switching is fast, and with the standard glasses on the string I always know where they are. It saves time and aggravation.


It's also economical: I no longer buy glasses at the optometrist. I get the prescription from them for standard bifocals, and translate it into the two bifocal prescriptions I actually need, and buy them online from Zenni. The three bifocals from Zenni cost less than one pair from the Optometrist and work just as well.


-Ed