You and Your Glasses

R

ruben

Guest
hi Tom,

This is a rather personal question, but I am curious about how do deal with your glass wearing, reading camera and lens settings and view through your viewfinders.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
I wear them and put up with it usually. I also occasionaly wear contact lenses. On the Zorki I have tunnel vision, but the dslrs are much better. Even there contacts improve the viewin the viewfinder.

Mike
 
I loathe wearing my glasses while shooting unless it's with my MF with waist level finder. LOATHE it. I like getting right up to the viewfinder. As a result, the sharpness of the final photo is always a vast improvement over reality for me :)
 
I got contacts specifically for photography. When I'm going to go out shooting, I put 'em on.

None of us are Tom so far though. In fact, I'm shocked that Tom hasn't invented some kind of universal glasses-wearer camera hotshoe accessory that solves the whole problem.
 
Can't even find my camera without my glasses -- been like that forever -- and can't get fitted for contacts, says the doc. I wear lightweight lenses (bifocal fades) in Flexon frames (spendy) and use cameras with big bright finders like the Nikon F100 and the Minolta CLE. Stay away from cameras with scratchy eyepieces.
 
I wear glasses, but put a diopter on the camera eyepiece.. My glasses have cable ends so I just slide them up on my forehead where they stay easily and focus as if I did not have them on.
I shoot mostly with an M7 0.85 and can use my 35mm on it that way and still see outside the frame lines. Granted not much outside, But enough to see if I'm framing is the way I want it
I really keep a 50 on the M7almost always, but use the same set-up on an M4-P and leave the 35 on it.
Probably looks a little dorkie to see a guy with his speck's on his forehead, but frankly "I don't give a damn"
 
I wish I could solve this problem easily. Unfortunately I have very strong glasses (-10 to -12 diopters) and I am blind as a bat without them - and I lack the bats ultrasonice distance judgement!
One reason I have stayed with rangefinders is that over long time I have developed a tecnique for shooting with them. I do push my glasses up to the viewfinder (and scratch my left eyeglass - replaced every 2 years) until I can see the 35 frame in a M2 (this could explain my fetish for that model?).
The good thing was that I started wearing glasses at 3-4 years of age ( I had no idea that the leaves on the ground had anything to do with trees - never could see them "up there") and when I started shooting (at 14) it become natural to go to the M's.
I am not a canditate for contacts (tried it) or surgery either. By now I have resigned to my fate and keep replacing left lenses in the eyeglasses instead (almost Leica price, but made by Zeiss- $7-800 a pop). I had Zeiss Canada make them up for me as multifocals, but with the "infinity" line dropped slightly on the left one to correspond with the cameras "aerial image".
Yes, diopters could help, but as my vision is only a couple of feet longer on the other eye without glasses on - I would have no idea what I was looking at!
I think there is a correlation between bad eyesight and the desire to take photographs. Most of the shooters I know have eyeproblem, from before becoming photographers! Myopia is common. Could it be that we print something and then, dragging our nose on the print and studying the details we fulfill some desire for perfect vision?
There is also a correlation between left eye shooters and nearsightedness! Because of the Rapidwinder I have been in touch with 1000's of M shooters over the years and we seem to share the same affliction. Cant see worth a damned and heavily biased towards the left eye!
There is light at the end of the tunnel though. The President of Cosina, Mr Kobayashi is an eyeglass wearer and he judges a viewfinder by how well he can use it - with his glasses on. Hence the Zeiss ZI finder, the R3 finder and the wide angle R4 finder! Truth be told, I have never seen all four lines of a 28 finder in a M4P or 0,72 M6/MP at the same time. It does work in the 0,58 though!
How do the rest of you cope? Would be a great thread to as we are plentiful and as we advance in age, we will become more and more of a target market.
Tom - peering pathetically at the monitor.
 
OK, Ruben, I have glasses I have to take them off to focus any cameras. As it turns out I was shooting one of my stock shots for film-developer comparisons, and when I walked out of the tall grass to the gravel road I had my glasses off. I almost stepped on a snake. I had a wide angle lens on a SLR so without my glasses I had lean way over almost to the ground to photograph this snake.

2588042606_79a04072a0.jpg


I didn't realize what it was until I developed the film. That if you don't know is a Rattlesnake (do you have them in Israel?). Yikes!
 
I use glasses rarely and only for small print reading in dim light.
The eyes of Bedouins are excellent, so maybe I got a good gene?
Raid ... The Desert Photographer!
 
ruben said:
hi Tom,

This is a rather personal question, but I am curious about how do deal with your glass wearing, reading camera and lens settings and view through your viewfinders.

Cheers,
Ruben
Click to expand...

It's just one of several crosses I have to bear.
 
charjohncarter said:
OK, Ruben, I have glasses I have to take them off to focus any cameras. As it turns out I was shooting one of my stock shots for film-developer comparisons, and when I walked out of the tall grass to the gravel road I had my glasses off. I almost stepped on a snake. I had a wide angle lens on a SLR so without my glasses I had lean way over almost to the ground to photograph this snake.

2588042606_79a04072a0.jpg


I didn't realize what it was until I developed the film. That if you don't know is a Rattlesnake (do you have them in Israel?). Yikes!
Click to expand...

Is that a mohave rattlesnake? Looks like one. Could have turned out very badly indeed.
 
Ouch. I haven't had to deal with rattle snakes. I like your idea of taking a shot of it and then finding out what it was! True photographic spirit!
I once lost a car on a beach parking when my glasses got knocked off by a wave. My spares were in my Fiat Topolino (matching grey to the sand and brush it was parked in), Took me an hour to find it - somebody took pity on the guy wandering in circles and asked if they could help! It was a beach rarely frequented by humans. Plenty of sheep, but they were less than helpful!
Fred, if you think -12 is bad. At age 5 I had -14 and -15! My eyedoctor told me that as I grew older they will improve. Problem is that I have to reach about 280 years of age to achieve 20/20 vision - so, only 215 to go!
 
I wear small trifocals and I never even thought of it as a potential problem until reading this thread. I just slam my right eye with glasses on, up to the VF and shoot away. My eyepeice ring is rubber coated which might be why I haven't had to change my lenses in 14 years. I dunno may be I am screwing up somewhere on this but all seems well with me.
 
FallisPhoto, I was, of course, as cool as a cucumber, but I thought it was a common gopher snake. It was one of those desert rattlers. Very dry here this year so they are coming down out of the hills, at least that is what I hear. Interestingly, very little concern from my family, except recriminations on my intelligence. You know, 'you shouldn't have been there' or 'open your eyes,' 'is the estate in order,' etc.
 
I'm in a real sweet spot right now, I needed glasses to see any distance since age 12, but as I've aged that has improved, I now need no glasses at all, but as my vision continues to reach farther out I am just beginning to lose the up close, can still just barely read the phone book. A visit to the eye doctor friday, we'll see what he has in store for me.

Not being able to see the snake would have gotten me in a lot of trouble more than once- I've been close to several rattlesnakes over the years wandering around the high desert of New Mexico.
 
Yeh, the snake does reinforce my belief that it is better to wear glasses and never see those pesky 28 frames than not wearing them!
I have tried a variety of "soft" thingamajigs to save my left eyeglass lens, but they are usually more trouble than they are worth. On the M2 they tend to push the glasses a bit too far back and you loose the 35 frame. Easier to have the glass replaced once every two years.
I dont use SLR's much anymore, but for years my "commercial" stuff was done with Nikon F's and F2's and I usually had one or two bodies fitted with the large sportsfinder. Heavy bugger, but really great for 50's and longer lenses. Eyerelief from 4-5 inches away.
I still have one on a F that is used for macro work. Comfortable to focus and, though big, on a tripod it doesn't matter.
Only other SLR that I use is a couple of Leicaflex/Leicaflex SL's - they have one of the brightest finders of any camera, even today. Again mostly macro work, or when I feel like a longer view, the 180f3.4 Apo Telyt or even the 400/560 Telyts. The latter often used with a Leica to Nikon F adapter and the sports finder.
 
Myopia may have genetic influences, but definitely has environmental influences, as it has risen significantly over the past century and decades as reading and computer use (nearsighted vision) has increased.

Using glasses for myopia early, and constantly getting stronger glasses every few years is not an optimal solution, as it does not allow your eye muscles to strengthen naturally to retain some of their strength for further out clear vision.
 
Tom (and everyone): Get a can of Liquid Electrical Tape. It's rubber/plastic in liquid form. You apply it and it dries in a thin layer. I used it on the eyepiece of my M2 and M3, and now I don't scratch my glasses. It needs a little practice to apply well, as it's rather gloppy. It comes with a brush. I let most of the liquid drip off the brush back into the can before delicately flowiing it onto the eyepiece. I got mine in Home Depot. In comes in various colors, but I used black, of course. A very thin layer is all you need. I recommend the stuff!
 
I found this picture a friend took of me while shooting with my sadly departed R2A and Ultron 35/1.7 <sigh>

This is my usual shooting stance I think.. scrunched up face, glasses in my mouth. Yummy!

camera1.jpg
 
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