Manual Focus and Aging Eyes

dave lackey

dave lackey

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No idea if anyone else has crossed the line when AF makes much better sense than MF....

Apparently, the time is coming sooner than later for me. But I have a plan!🙂
 
That is exactly what brought me to buying an M3 in 1990. I can get focus where I want it when I was having difficulty with slr manual focus. It has been a slippery slope. I now have several M cameras and mostly use a pair of Leica IIIc's but I recently got a Canon IVSB2 and that has a really nice finder. I hope you find what works for you. Joe
 
I have mixed results - I really struggle with my M8 for example. I find modern EVIL SLRs better in MF mode though, because they have the ability to enlarge the image and often have focus peaking technology. Its a bit slow to enlarge an image to focus then switch back but it's effective. My M8 is not good even by comparison with older M cameras due to the 0.68 image size through the finder. (Apparently the M10 is much better). But the bottom line is this. As much as I love my M8 to look at and fondle, when time comes to decide which camera to take with on photo expeditions, 90% of the time it is a modern DSLR or EVIL camera. Note, I will sometimes use autofocus lenses especially if I am shooting the street (my eyes make manual focussing too slow) but when I can do so, I still like to use MF (with focus peaking etc) e.g. for landscapes or city scapes.
 
For years I've claimed (and really believed) that I could focus equally well with or without glasses.

Now, in reference to my thread on SLR focusing issues, I'm questioning whether one of the factors is or is not my ability to accurately focus without glasses.

For a test the other day, I did find it much easier to find the exact focus point at or near infinity with glasses on.
 
I have better luck with my F2 DE-1 than my Df go figure...I must have my glasses on no matter what. I have a dozen or so Nikkors I use all of the time. Only one is AF. Auto anything just ruins photography for me personally. Ripe old age of 47. Getting older sure does suck in some ways.
 
DIOPTERS!!!

About five years ago I started to struggle with fine focus with my old film cameras. Figured it was age and there was nothing I could do about it. Really pained me as I loved using this old M2, but the focus was just getting too difficult. Happened to visit a Leica store and asked if I could try a magnifier for the M2. The guy there said, "Not a magnifier, try a diopter." So I did, and WOW!!! It was like I was twenty years old again. Everything was sharp and crisp, just like the old days. Now have diopters on my Leica rangefinders, and my Nikon F's. Can't live without them.

Best,
-Tim
 
Contact lenses are what work best for me. Glasses don't allow me to see all of the viewfinder, without them is just a joke. I thought at first I would want the bi-vision thing with the close lens being the one to view the focus patch. Turns out that because it's basically a mirror, you are seeing at the distance and the far vision Rx is the one needed.
 
My wife had to give up her Pentax K1000 when she could no longer
see aperture and shutter speed markings without reading glasses.
Her distance vision isn't too bad so the full-information viewfinder
of a Pentax MX kept her in the game. Now she has a Pentax K20D.

I have always used glasses for distance, but never for reading.
They say us nearsighted people get a slight advantage with age.
I'm doing okay using manual focus cameras, still about -1.0 diopters.

But you can keep your dim rangefinder patches though.
Instead give me a scale-focus viewfinder camera any day.

And I have zero interest in plastic fantastic AF cameras and lenses.
When I can no longer use manual focus gear I'll take up watercolors.

Chris
 
Livesteamer said:
I have to wear glasses to read but otherwise see well. Can anyone tell me what diopter I should put on my Nikon F to help? I have found the G series screens of the Nikon F to be helpful also. Thanks. Joe
Click to expand...

I believe that Nikon finders default view is a -1.0 diopter. I wear reading glasses marked +1.5x, and the eyepiece diopter I've found best is marked +0.5. This allows me to see the display and focus clearly without having reading glasses on.

I would guess if you wear reading glasses marked +1.0, you would use a diopter marked 0.
 
Livesteamer said:
I have to wear glasses to read but otherwise see well. Can anyone tell me what diopter I should put on my Nikon F to help? I have found the G series screens of the Nikon F to be helpful also. Thanks. Joe
Click to expand...

You will need a positive power diopter lens. If you know your reading glass strength, I believe I would start with a diopter of the same power. You might eventually select one perhaps a half-diopter weaker or stronger; but matching your reading glasses, I think, is a good way to start.
 
I find wide angle lenses hard to focus precisely on the Hasselblad. Using the highest magnification finder, which is 4x, helps. It is a comfort to focus the SWC, since it is done entirely by scale (guess) focusing!
 
I wear glasses for myopia/nearsightedness (with reading compensation) and I'm left-eye dominant.

Glasses make it hard to see the whole finder (so I've come to love waist-level finders!) and I got focusing shifts peering into a viewfinder wearing contacts, so I couldn't focus at all wearing them.

My eyesight has definitely deteriorated. I don't shoot street or anything that requires me to focus quickly, so I can take my time. As my need for reading compensation in my glasses has increased, my myopia appears to have decreased, and I can once again compose and focus without my glasses on. The screen isn't in perfect focus for my eye, but I'm able to see the whole screen and I can focus the lens reasonably well. I think that I could focus faster with practice, but I have never felt any need for it.

No auto-focus for me, yet.

- Murray
 
At almost 72, I find the older, non-metered Nikon F series cameras easier to focus than the newer F3s, even with H screens. That said, I can get what I want with an M or even a Barnack. I've been wearing glasses since fifth grade and cannot see well enough without them to go about my daily life. Since I use DSLR Canons at work, I suspect part of my inability to focus manual SLRs is that I don't use them every day.
 
I am 55 and have more trouble seeing the settings on the camera without reading glasses. Focussing is not an issue yet espescially as the Nikon F5 and F100 have dioptric correction built in. Rangefinders still work fine for me.
 
dave lackey said:
No idea if anyone else has crossed the line when AF makes much better sense than MF....
Apparently, the time is coming sooner than later for me. But I have a plan!🙂
Click to expand...

I definitely crossed that line.

I am currently using multi-focal contact lenses. For me, cataract surgery is in my future.. Allegedly corrective lens implants can make a huge improvement.

The issue is what implant strategy is optimal. There are several choices for corrections - distance only, mono-vision and multi-focal lenses. It's not clear what would be best.

At any rate I use AF all the time now. The X100T OVF has a small, zoomed, superimposable EVF window to confirm focus region. I use this most of the time. My X-T1's EVF has several focus confirmation modes. I use the most appropriate one as situations change.
 
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