You and Your Glasses

[Ben Z]

I've been around a -4 since I was in elementary school. I never bothered with diopters on my cameras because taking my glasses off to shoot left me unable to see anything outside the camera until I put the glasses back on.

Finally the usual happened and I started to also need correction for close sight, so I got progressive lenses. The first pair I got were from Lens Crafters and I couldn't get used to them after months. Then a family friend who's an optometrist in another country told me to try Verilux Comfort lenses. Of course Lens Crafters assured me their lenses were just as good, but I went ahead and got Verilux anyway, and long story short, I was used to them by the time I left the store, and drove straight to Lens Crafters and got my money back.

But I digress. Now, I find that I need to use the middle of the progressive lenses to see clearly through a camera (that doesn't have an adjustable eyepiece). My close prescription is a +2 Add (effectively bringing me to a -2), but I find that with a +1 (on a Leica), +0.5 (Nikon F) or +2 (Rolleiflex) I can use the top part of my glasses, which is more comfortable for me.

The Leica diopters are, fortunately, rubber-coated. Before them, I replaced the eyepieces on my M4's with M6 eyepieces, which are the same optically but have rubber. They'll fit an M2 also. When I had an M3 (which requires different optics than the M2,3,4,5,6,7 etc.) I got one of the rubber-coated corrective diopters and knocked the glass out of it. That worked better for me than any of the other means of rubber or plastic coating the M3 eyepiece.

 

[Hacker]

I chickened out at the last minute and chose Intralase over microkertome. Recovering right now from yesterday's 10 minute procedure.

 

[Beemermark]

Can't even find my camera without my glasses -- been like that forever -- .

I had the same problem. Worse I couldn't find my glasses without my glasses. Both my eyes were the same 20/200. Once presbyopia starts things only get worse. If you wear contacts you can no longer see any of the camera settings. Very recently I had my right, dominant eye corrected to 20/20 with Lasik. My other eye didn't need correction to see things up close. With both eyes open I have 20/40 vision, not great but good enough to get around without glasses. Right eye is corrected for far vision, Left eye for near vision. I still wear progressive lenses for driving and the theater but 80% of the time I don't wear them at all. Vision is perfect for cameras.

 

[Richie]

I wear graduated bifocals. So I can't see the 35mm framelines in my M6 TTL 0.72 body. I use an external Cosina/Voigtlander 35mm viewfinder. And a 1.25x magnifier. This way I can focus very accurately and also see completely what will be on film. Its not an elegant solution, but it works for me (see the photos below).

 

[dmr]

I've worn glasses since my teens for distance only. The strength of the prescription has been creeping up over the years, and now at -3.something, spherical only. So far (knocking on wood) I haven't needed bifocals or glasses for near work.

The thing is, with viewfinders, I seem to be able to use them almost equally well with glasses or without them. I can RF focus and I have never scratched the lenses. I often shoot outdoors with prescription sunglasses.

The one issue is with the TLR. I have to hold this waaaayyyyy down to be able to focus with glasses, or up above the waist to focus without them. The comfortable waist focusing distance is right in the bad focus area for me. (The thought of trifocals depresses me!)

 

[Tuolumne]

I have -8 vision in both eyes, so I am very near sighted. It is impossible to focus my cameras without my glasses on. Not only that, but I have tri-focals as well. I push the camera up to my glasses and press as close to my eye as I can get, using the distance part of the tri-focal. This happens quite naturally and I don't have to think about it. I make damn sure all of my camera eye pieces are rubberized or I would be replacing the lenses monthly. There are various plasticized or rubberized accessories you can get for those stupid metal eye pieces on early Leica cameras to protect your glasses. I use them all. On later Leicas you can replace the metal eyepiece ring with a rubberized one from Leica for $99 dollars.

Since I am so near-sighted and use tri-focals, I usually peep over the top of my glasses to view any camera settings such as aperture, speed, ISO setting, etc. It all works fine, except that it's hard to see the wide angle frame lines with my glasses keeping the eye piece from getting close enough to my eye. I wish Leica had made high eye-point finders. Of course many Japanese camera manufacturers did, but Leica? Nah! 🙁

/T