Wearing eye glasses and using a camera

[davidedric]

I now use variable focus lenses, and I realized while reading this thread that I didn't actually know which region of the lens I use when I focus

Nether did I! I just had to go and check. I look through the upper part of the lens. I suspect that looking at the viewing screen is like looking in a mirror - you focus on the distance the reflected light comes from, not the surface of the mirror.

[rpcrowe]

I have the same conundrum! I don't need glasses for distance work but, I sorely need glasses to see my camera controls. I use a pair of very sturdy, plastic framed over-the-counter reading glasses in a cord around my neck.

However, another problem is that my eye doctor strongly recommends me weaning polarized sun glasses outdoors. The polarized sun glasses do strange things to my eye level viewer and my LCD screens!

I am caught between a rock and a hard place. I hate to take off the sun glasses to replace them with the clear reading glasses. However wearing a photo vest with one top pocket dedicated to my sun glasses seems the best compromise.

[LocalHero1953]

When I wear glasses they are the triple varifocal variety - distance, computer screen and near reading. I can manage viewfinders with these (but also have no idea which part of the lens I use!). Most of the time, however, I use varifocal contacts - I believe these have lots of patches each with one of two different focal lengths, and the eye and brain sort out for themselves which ones they focus through. Magic really, and a bit expensive, but I much prefer photography with contacts to glasses.

[Brody]

Got nothing to add that will help, but it,s very comforting to know I'm not the only one who struggles with glasses, optical. I find through the viewer easier than the screen in most instances, without the varifocal specs.

My cameras displays are kept in focus, as well as the shot, so it becomes a memory game for the fingers for adjustments.

[revi]

(...)

However, another problem is that my eye doctor strongly recommends me weaning polarized sun glasses outdoors. The polarized sun glasses do strange things to my eye level viewer and my LCD screens!

I am caught between a rock and a hard place. I hate to take off the sun glasses to replace them with the clear reading glasses. However wearing a photo vest with one top pocket dedicated to my sun glasses seems the best compromise.

That your polarised sun glasses don't play nice with LCD screens is to be expected: those things are basically 2 polarisers: one is fixed, and the pixels are the second, with the polarisation angle depending on the tension. Add a third (your glasses) and you can get strange effects.

[Stagecoach]

Well us eyeglass wearers certainly have some problems

Anyway, totally off topic (possibly) but here's the latest eyeglass problem I have come across in the past few months relative to photography that some may find useful.

I have a 'general' use pair that I have to wear to set controls (unless using the LCD) that I wear on a cord and have to remove to use the viewfinder, no problem. I now find that I have to use a 'stronger' pair if I want to critically view the image after taking on the LCD generally with macro tripod work, no problem.

On about three occasions now I have removed the 'stronger' pair after reviewing the LCD image totally forgetting that these are not on a cord and they have ended up on the floor, luckily no damage yet.

Wondering if this is suggesting something to me

[jcuknz]

I sometimes use contacts, since setting the camera's diopter adjustment for my eyes is impossible. It only goes to -3, and I'm -7.25. .

Can I remind people that the dioptre is merely a thin lens and just as with close-up photography you can increase the dioptre power by stacking.... I am not sure about the minus signs in Lex's message ... are you talking about negative lenses? I have not struck them at my local discount store but plastic positive reading glasses abound ....easy to cut and sand to required size Judicious small amount of CA glue to afix.

When I had my Rolleiflex I found a lens for viewing the screen in my 'junk box' but then organised a small plastic dioptre for the shutter/aperture readout. I think in those days I simply needed glasses to read.

[drjuice]

Hi, John - I'm with shadowman and, fortunately, my astigmatism is in my non-shooting eye. About a week or so ago, I wrote a longish piece about setting up the diopter in the main title called Digital Photography. This main title has a thread inside it wherein a guy is complaining about a BUNCH of pictures (like 1000s) having been shot out of focus. He didn't give enough information for us to definitively be able to define the actual problem and since I hadn't seen anything about diopters lately, I figured to toss that piece in. Hope this helps.

virginia

[jcuknz]

Hi, John - I'm with shadowman and, fortunately, my astigmatism is in my non-shooting eye. About a week or so ago, I wrote a longish piece about setting up the diopter in the main title called Digital Photography. This main title has a thread inside it wherein a guy is complaining about a BUNCH of pictures (like 1000s) having been shot out of focus. He didn't give enough information for us to definitively be able to define the actual problem and since I hadn't seen anything about diopters lately, I figured to toss that piece in. Hope this helps.

virginia

I'm a John too ....
You mean he needs to wear the correct glasses when viewing the images or he should use AF more? It is a serious subject I know .... BUT! The other suggestion is to get a camera with a small target focus area and learn to use it instead of the archaic practice of manual focusing*. A couple of soft shots but 1000 ... Geeez! He should give up photograhy. It is no good having a wizz bang 60Mb camera if you cannot get the shots in focus when you want to , and where you want to.
*At least you use AF in a very similar way to the way one manually focused in decades gone past.

[Manfred M]

I am not sure about the minus signs in Lex's message ... are you talking about negative lenses?

minus sign = Negative diopter = concave lens and corrects for near sightedness (something I know all too well). Fortunately for me (-0.75 in one eye and -0.50 in the other), my vision is far better than Lex's.

plus sign = Positive diopter = convex lens and corrects far-sightedness and is found on reading glasses

[jcuknz]

Richard ... when I wore glasses I had polarised clip-ons which folded up.... I also had a second pair for driving with the bottom third or so cut off so I could read the speedometer ... when one gets old the eyes do not adjust for different brighness levels as when one is younger.

I did consider but never got around to doing it fixing the 'plastic hobby glass' lenses to the flip-up sunglasses after removing the sunglass part ... cheaper than the Hoodman variety I'd guess. Also somewhere in my various drawers I have a pair of cheap asian flip-up dioptres but never remembered to take them with me .

[RustBeltRaw]

.... I am not sure about the minus signs in Lex's message ... are you talking about negative lenses?

minus sign = Negative diopter = concave lens and corrects for near sightedness (something I know all too well). Fortunately for me (-0.75 in one eye and -0.50 in the other), my vision is far better than Lex's.

Manfred got it. The + sign you see on reading glasses indicate that they use convex (converging) lenses, exactly like a magnifying glass. - signs to correct nearsightedness are the opposite (concave or diverging lenses).

Incidentally, my vision's bad enough that no one carries contact lenses strong enough. -6.5 seems to be the common maximum. So part of the reason I don't use contacts much is that I use the -6.5 strengths, since the rare -7.5 strengths I actually need are roughly 4 times as expensive. Fine for diving and sports, but I need my glasses to resolve fine details. I'm considering LASIK, but my vision's so bad that correcting it would put me outside US safety standards. If I want the operation, I have to go to Canada, where eye lens minimum thickness limits are lower. But yeah, without corrective lenses, I basically can't function.

[jcuknz]

LEX ... your explanation, thank you, I had a feeling I was getting into dangerous territory where I didn't know what I was talking about .... but your explanation suggests to me that perhaps if you got a contact lens and added it to the amount of adjustment the camera has you could find the answer you need? I don't know if contact lens would be big enough to cover the camera's eyepiece, or enough of it to work for you? I guess I am fortunate that I use MFT with EVF readout to cover the essential adjustments I need though I think my old DSLR went a fair way in that direction.

When I think of some peoples situation I begin to appreciate just how lucky I am with my small troubles. And a health service which paid for one operation.

[drjuice]

Hey, jcukunz,

That's why I generally refer to people by what I consider their handles. ;~) If I'd been the first person to add a comment to the guy who took all the out of focus images, I would have told him to work out a process, BEFORE he was doing something that "counted", to check out all his equipment and learn how to use it properly.

I still have images in my head from 50 years ago when I was taking a cartography course at University. The particular assignment was to learn to draw using a railroad pen and a contour pen. I'd learned how to use both when I was a senior in high school, so I came into the laboratory where the rest of the class was present trying to learn how to control the pens. (If you've never used them, they are like ruling pens except that, to a newcomer, the business end of the railroad and contour pens rotates out of control regardless of how careful you are about using them when you're just starting out with them; a railroad pen draws two parallel lines and a contour pen gives a smoothly curving line as though drawing contour lines on a topographic map.) I completed the assignment in about two hours, turned in my assignment, and prepared to leave the lab.

Two of my classmates noticed and asked how I could complete the assignment so quickly. My answer was that I'd learned how to use my tools in high school and so I didn't have a huge learning curve to learn how to work with the pens in this particular class. This brings me to ...

The lesson for me that day? Ever since, whenever I get a new tool and need how to get the maximum use from it, I spend a period of time learning how to make it do what I want and then add on the skills that I don't know so I can do more things with it. This principle applies to cameras, ruling pens, offset screwdrivers, voltmeters, and most everything else I've ever had to learn how to deal with!

virginia

[russellsnr]

Hi, OK I'm going to jump in here with a question.
If anyone watches those CSI TV series there is one of the examiners and he has a pair of glasses that come apart at the nose bridge, never seen them before and just wondering anyone here seen or tried them?.
Thanks
Russ

[RustBeltRaw]

http://www.readingglasses.com/clic-reader/

[Manfred M]

http://www.readingglasses.com/clic-reader/

Interesting - we developed a piece of equipment for work that uses some powerful, off-the-shelf rare earth magnets. When the design was evaluated by a third party medical specialist consultant, they recommended that we put a warning label on the device telling people to stay at least 5 cm / 2 inches away from any medical implants as a precaution.

Based on where these are sitting in the down position in the demo video, the location could be within this distance of a pacemaker. Interesting...

[jcuknz]

Hey, jcukunz, .......virginia

Who?

[Splatsworth]

Just buy the strap that goes on the arm and around your head, camera up, glasses down - sorted

[JR1]

I have started wearing eye glasses and I am having problems using them while photographing. I have lost or broke two pairs of glasses already by constantly taking them off to look through the view finder. If you have my problem, how do you deal with it in the easiest way? I have seen ads for the Hoodman flip up eyeglasses for photographers, but have never seen a pair. They are expensive. Has anyone used these and can you give me your opinion of the quality and the ease of use. Thanks, John

I used to wear glassers until I found MONTHLY wear contact lenses now I will never wear glassers ever again