Left or Right?

[BillP]

This sort of survey has been done before. It is always risky to draw conclusions from statistics ("only sick people ride in ambulances so if you never ride in an ambulance you won't get sick"...) but it never fails to interest me that there appears to be a higher preponderance of sinistrals in photography (and particularly rangefinder photography) than in the general distribution. The handedness - artistic factor may well be coming into play, but, as has already been said, we would require a much larger, more granular (and non-self-nominating) survey to be able to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Regards,

Bill

 

[LennartW]

Left handed and left eye.
I just tried to shoot a couple of frames right eyed and it actually works pretty good, though it feels unnatural.

 

[Benjamin]

Also, I wonder how do you left handed folks feel about using right handed cameras? Has it ever bothered you?

Can't say that I've ever seen a lefties camera, other than the Linhof Press 70 which appears to have to the viewfinder on the right of the camera.

 

[sanmich]

Right hand and eye

I just tried to see through my M2 with my left eye and I'm sudenly full of respect for those who can.
If I ever have a serious vision problem on my right eye, the choice will be to move back to my F3hp or to cut my nose.

 

[BillP]

Also, I wonder how do you left handed folks feel about using right handed cameras? Has it ever bothered you?

Can't say that I've ever seen a lefties camera, other than the Linhof Press 70 which appears to have to the viewfinder on the right of the camera.

Yashica made something called, if I remember rightly, a Samurai Z, which also came in a left-handed version (the ZL).

Using a "right handed" camera is no more bothersome to me than driving a left-hand drive car. It is something you get used to, just like doors opening on the "wrong" side, knives being ground on the "wrong" side, scissors the "wrong way round" and don't get me started on fountain pens...

In fact the only thing in this right handed world that really bothers me is stubs in cheque books.

Regards,

Bill

 

[bucks11]

Left hand, Left eye.

I, too, have tried shooting with my right eye, and it's doable, just not my reflex action. I shoot everything from cameras to rifles with my lefty.

 

[januaryman]

Also, I wonder how do you left handed folks feel about using right handed cameras? Has it ever bothered you?

Right handed cameras, like right handed hammers, are just things that you get used to over time. 😉

 

[ItsReallyDarren]

Right handed, look with my right eye. I can use my left eye but it takes a few times to get used to it. Also my composition changes drastically when I use my left eye. Not in a bad way but very very different, almost like its a different person composing/shooting.

 

[januaryman]

Right handed, look with my right eye. I can use my left eye but it takes a few times to get used to it. Also my composition changes drastically when I use my left eye. Not in a bad way but very very different, almost like its a different person composing/shooting.

That's one of the most interesting remarks I've read here. Are you able to explain what changes in your composition? Subject's position in frame, more center weighted, or even what you decide to photograph? I ask because my digital pics are usually very different from my film pics. Digitals are more spontaneous, numerous, light, colorful and detailed. Could it be the same type of issue with left eye/right eye?

 

[RichardB]

Your idea for the detailed poll is a good one. When I started it, I was just interested how many like me preferred the left eye, this was prompted by my current eye injury that forces me to use the other. I really never considered left/right handedness to be involved, since I figured, as in the "real world" only a small (single digit) percentage of the population is left handed! This strong showing of left handed people here at Leica M makes me think. This is quite strange, is it not? Are we more artistic/creative/anachronistic? I wonder.

Should we do another poll with all options or is this getting old?

It is not just left handed/left eye Users but there are a number of Users who are right handed with left eye dominance.-Dick

 

[Richard G]

This is a complex area. I was a left eye shooter for years, being heavily left eye dominant, with an almost amblyopic right eye that I cannot read with for any length of time at all, although it has excellent acuity. I shifted to the right eye some time in the last ten years, possibly when I got a 35mm lens for the first time and needed to get closer to the viewfinder—I wear glasses. I now much prefer the right eye and feel the composition works better. I use the left eye quite easily for a vertical shot.

That there is equal traffic from each optic nerve to both hemispheres is correct as noted above, but it is also correct that eye dominance has some influence on hemispatial perception, and there is even cerebral hemisphere specialization for near space versus far space, with the left being dominant for near attention and the right hemisphere for far space. Left eye dominant subjects may have a reversal of the normal situation, such that the left hemisphere may de dominant for attention to far space. This might have implications for street shooters taking the very close shot, versus landscape and architectural photographers. See Roth HL et al Brain, Vol. 125, No. 9, 2023-2035, September 2002.

The result of the current survey is surprising, but would need to be more complex, even if only to include the occasional use of the non-dominant or non-preferred eye for vertical shots.

 

[Richard G]

And I am left handed. Many neurologists are left handed and one of my left handed colleagues opined that our academic achievements were naturally increased by the small amount of time we were needed for our talents on the football / baseball / cricket field. He may be right, but I suspect there is more to it.

 

[Vics]

Lost my left eye to macular adema, so I'm a permanent rightie!
Vic

 

[januaryman]

Lost my left eye to macular adema, so I'm a permanent rightie!
Vic

Vic, very sorry to hear that, but gladdened that you are still able to shoot. My current bad eye situation (torn, folded retina), should it become permanent had worried me badly, but knowing I can still get along is heartening. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Oculus Sinister]

I shoot with my left eye (oculus sinister 🙂) and I'm also left handed.

 

[januaryman]

I shoot with my left eye (oculus sinister 🙂) and I'm also left handed.

A great screen name, nickname, or whatever! I need to jot that down! 😀

 

[Oculus Sinister]

A great screen name, nickname, or whatever! I need to jot that down! 😀

😀 and right eye is oculus dexter, both eyes oculus uterque....common terms used in my ophthalmology practice 🙂

 

[Florian1234]

I'm left handed and usually use my right eye for Leica M shooting.

 

[Bnack]

Right hand/left eye. Found out I was left eyed when in boy scouts I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with my bow and arrow.

 

[januaryman]

We're running neck and neck just now! I find that incredible.