Slr to use with glasses

[peterm1]

After running this post with the question about a 35mm lens for m mount i had a great disappointment. I borrowed an m6 for 1 week to test the waters and i cant see the framelines of the 35mm with my glasses on well. I also started thinking that maybe sometime i will want 28mm( you know how these things change). What will i do then ? I am very sceptical to throw 2k for a camera and a lens that doesnt make me happy 100%. Is there any film slr with a good viewfinder for glasses and easy focusing too ? I had the nikon f3hp 3 years ago, great camera great viewfinder but i couldnt focus 100% accurate, maybe more 70-80% most of the time and the camera with lens were for sure heavy. I wouldnt mind the weight if the viewfinder was very good for my needs( be able to see whole frame without moving eyes around, be able to get tack sharp focus easy). What would you suggest ?

I had much the same problem with my M8. What I did was to buy a screw in variable diopter / magnifier from Japan Exposures store. They have some variety of these - 0.85x magnification; 1.15x magnification; 1.35x magnification and 1.8x magnification. All of these also allow diopter adjustments between -3 diopters and +1 diopter which of course is the most important thing for the wearers of glasses. So as long as your eye glass correction is between these parameters you should be able to adjust the viewfinder so as to be able to use it without your eye-glasses (I just push mine up to my forehead when composing a picture then slip it back down to the bridge of my nose when ready to view the results). Its a bit annoying I suppose but much better than the alternative.) Speaking personally, I bought the 1.15x magnification as the M8 has unreasonably small inbuilt viewfinder magnification - only 0.68x and I felt it could use some help in this department but did not wish to go too far in case it compromised my ability to see the framelines for wider lenses. But other Leica M cameras are better equipped mostly with high magnification - especially with film cameras. So you probably could choose another option if you wished.

Here is their store page listing the 1st one or two of these. Accessories :: Viewfinder - page 2

And here is what they say about them

Key features:

• x1.15 magnification of the viewfinder image
• four lens surfaces multicoated for bright optical image. The only product of its kind to feature this.
• stepless variable diopter adjustment facility (-3.0 ~ +1.0)

On cameras with 0.85 magnification (e.g. Leica M3, Leica M6) this magnifier will result in natural view allowing shooting with both eyes open.

On cameras with 0.72 magnification (e.g. Leica M2, Leica M4, Leica M6) this magnifier will result in an approximate 0.85 magnification for comfortable and accurate focussing.

Frameline visibility on Leica M8 (0.68 native magnification; without eyeglasses):

1.15x magnifier - all frames (24*/28/35/50/75/90)

1.25x magnifier - frames 28*/35/50/75/90

1.35x magnifier - frames 28*/35/50/75/90

* may require moving your eye around the viewfinder slightly to see the frame

A customer comments about the use on the Leica M9:

The x1.15 on the M9 0.68 M9 viewfinder provides about a 0.78 which is a little better than the standard M 0.72 on the film Ms.

The x1.35 provides a 0.90 viewfinder which is a little better than the 0.85 mag finder available for the film Ms.

 

[splitimageview]

Are they still in business?

 

[Spavinaw]

The Canon finder attachment I referred to in my earlier comment is the EP-EX15. Google it.

 

[Streetmaniac]

I was talking to a friend today about this problem and he suggested the nikon f801 because he said the viewfinder is glasses friendly and has focus confirmation. How does that work ? Is that effective and quick or should i forget about it ?

 

[splitimageview]

Well focus confirm is a little green dot on the edge of the viewfinder, but this camera is autofocus so with AF lenses it’s not needed.

Not sure how much of the view can be seen with glasses.

 

[peterm1]

I was talking to a friend today about this problem and he suggested the nikon f801 because he said the viewfinder is glasses friendly and has focus confirmation. How does that work ? Is that effective and quick or should i forget about it ?

As a matter of fact I only just sold my f801s a few weeks ago as I was no longer shooting film after hanging onto it for many, many years (first bought by me in the mid '90's. It seems they are still in some demand among film shooters as at the same time I tried to sell my Nikon D200, offering both to a photo retailer - they took the F801 gladly (and surprisingly) but declined on the D200 as there is apparently buyer demand for the former, but not really the latter. The finder on the old film camera is large and clear - apparently Nikon anticipated that many would want to use it with manual lenses. I recall the green dot focus confirmation working fine with manual focus lenses and from memory it is also possible to swap out the focus screen for a split prism or other manual focus friendly screen which could help further. While I never used my F801s with glasses insofar as I recall (back then I did not need to) I do think its finder had very useful viewfinder eye relief - i.e. you could view the image quite well from some distance back which of course is useful for use with glasses. Also I might add that Nikon offered a range of screw in diopters for their cameras and although these might be hard to find today in the specific diopter you need if you could get one that might facilitate your use of it without glasses.

 

[Freakscene]

I was talking to a friend today about this problem and he suggested the nikon f801 because he said the viewfinder is glasses friendly and has focus confirmation. How does that work ? Is that effective and quick or should i forget about it ?

The focus confirmation is about as good as the autofocus - not that good. And the focus screen is an autofocus one, so it looks bright but makes critical focusing hard.