Left eyed woes

[herbkell@shaw.c]

I had almost forgotten I was one of the unfortunate left eyed photogs - using DSLR's the worst thing a leftie encouters is a smear from nose/skin oil left on the rear LCD.

Now I am back in the manual camera world all the memories of sticking myself in the eye with the film advance lever have returned.

A quick question : Can you train yourself to become right eyed or is a Rapidwinder in my future?/

 

[clarence]

I'm left eyed as well, but I have a relatively small head, so I haven't encountered any problems with the lever yet; but perhaps that's because I don't usually wind / advance the camera when it's put to my eye.

 

[sf]

I don't have trouble with the winder, but then I'm not shooting fast consecutive shots with my RF, and I don't like to have my face smashed against the back of the camera for long periods of time, all steamy.

Buy a Hexar AF, and don't worry about it.

 

[VinceC]

Try verticles.

 

[wyk_penguin]

I am left-eyed as well. To train yourself to go right-eyed is difficult, but not impossible. The 1:1 finder of the R3A helps. But why change??

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi...

I'm "left eye dominant" as well, and have simply gotten used to it.
A rubber eye cup might get your eye a few milimeters away from the camera.
If being left-eyed is the way your body works, I'm not for retraining it.

The only trouble I've ever had in being left eyed, was in sighting a rifle, when in basic training in the Israel Defence Forces.

Cheers,
Mike 🙂

 

[back alley]

i think we had a poll for left vs. right eyed shooters and the lefties were more predominant.
there are more of us than them😉
i just pull the camera away for advancing the film.
if i wanted to shoot in rapid sequence i'd get a slr with a winder.
joe

 

[pvdhaar]

I had almost forgotten I was one of the unfortunate left eyed photogs - using DSLR's the worst thing a leftie encouters is a smear from nose/skin oil left on the rear LCD.

Now I am back in the manual camera world all the memories of sticking myself in the eye with the film advance lever have returned.

A quick question : Can you train yourself to become right eyed or is a Rapidwinder in my future?/

Who cares about nose smear on the LCD. It's the least of my worries. It's the autofocus selector that's the problem, it only takes a minor nudge from the nose to jump to an off-center sensor, and you get an out of focus shot..

I also had problems with the Konica HexarRF. The finder is at the extreme left, and is very finicky with respect to centering the eye. I really tried and tried to switch to the right eye, but couldn't make the mental adjustment. I had to reallign the RF to match the left eye...

Given what Joe says, I'm amazed that given the sheer number of left eye dominant people, there are still so many cameras that don't work well with the left eye..

So I guess it's time to get a winder..

 

[kully]

I'm a leftie-eye and I've got the T-winder. However, I've become so used to taking the camera away from my face and then winding on that I have to force myself to use the blasted thing.

 

[Finder]

I have never poked myself in the eye with the winding lever on any camera I have used. I do wind on when the camera is not in my face, so may be it could happen. But it is a fact of life that cameras are designed for a right-handed / right-eyed world.

Maybe a TLR or view camera is in your future.

 

[wyk_penguin]

I wonder if any company (top of the list, Leica) would make, say 500, "lefty cameras" on comission.

Well, the technical challenge is great, but I don't mind having a "mirror-imaged" RF for the price of 3 "normal" camera bodies.

 

[Finder]

It would cost a lot more than 3x. Especially for a production run of only 500. Personally, lefty cameras would feel strange after using righty cameras all my life. I can't imagine the shutter button being on the left and focusing with the right hand. It would be easier to learn to use your right eye (and you would still have both your arms and legs).