Prescription diopters

[blakemcguire]

Hey guys. I just got a prescription and a pair of glasses yesterday. Turns out I have astigmatism. To my understanding, the diopter adjustment doesn't do anything for this, nor do the normal diopters available from Nikon.

My question is, is it possible to get prescription diopters that would correct for my astigmatism?

[revi]

It might be possible, but keep in mind that astigmatism correction has a direction/angle. So if the correction lens you get is round, how are you going to keep track of
the orientation of the cylinder correction?

[blakemcguire]

It might be possible, but keep in mind that astigmatism correction has a direction/angle. So if the correction lens you get is round, how are you going to keep track of
the orientation of the cylinder correction?

As I shoot a D300s, this shouldn't be an issue. Any idea where I can go?

[DanK]

I think Remco's point is that if you had the diopter ground for landscape and then rotated the camera to portrait, the astigmatism correction would be wrong. Rotate your glasses 90 degrees, and you will see the effect.

I just went through this with Canon. They sell diopters, but they don't custom grind them to add correction for astigmatism, and they don't have vendors who do.

[Andrew76]

Yes, Blake - Dan and Remco are correct.

Unless it's a serious astigmatism, you shouldn't really have an issue though. I sell Rx lenses for another hobby/activitiy, and for at least 90% of the population, a stock ground lens is more than acceptable. I think you would find them to be readily available if it were more of an issue.

Or, a better solution - purchase the contact lenses that correct for astigmatism. 'Torrek' (I'm not sure of the spelling), work great.

[terrib]

Blake, you might find some useful information in THIS THREAD. It's not specific to your question, but about how different people deal with poor vision and the camera.

As an update, I have been wearing my contacts which correct for astigmatism and presbyopia. They are not the new bifocal contact lenses but the kind where one is for distance and the other is for near. They do not provide the overall clear vision that my glasses do but I wear them most of the time and especially anytime I'm planning to use the camera. The only time I plan to wear my glasses is if I'm going to spend most of my day on the computer because I still get the best vision at that distance with my glasses. (this can be tweaked but I've opted to stay with what I've got for now.) If you don't yet have presbyopia, you might not have that issue.

[zen]

Another problem to be considered, Blake, with corrected diopters, either stock from the mfr or custom ground, is that whenever you pick up the camera, you must remove, fold and store your glasses - a bothersome step. Then, if you want to check something between shots, out come the glasses again, for a few seconds, then back into the pocket for another shot with the corrected diopter camera. Best to set the stock diopter to your glasses and then just shoot away!! I suggest you forget about pocketing your glasses whenever you are shooting.

Went through this argument with myself a few years ago. Not worth the hastle!

Good luck, tho, whichever way you decide to go.

Z

[Manfred M]

Blake - most people have some degree of astigmatism, so to state that you have some is no great surprise. The issue is the degree of astigmatism and how that affects your ability to see and work with your camera. In my case, for my right eye, the largest part of the correction I get is actually for my astigmatism. I find that the diopter adjustment is good enough and that is all I do.

When I scuba dive, I wear one contact lens in the left eye to correct presbyopia (nicely said I can't focus on anything close up due to aging) and diving without being able to read ones dive instruments is not a good thing. I wear a toric lens in my right eye to correct the astigmatism and near-sightedness. As Terri says, it works, but not as well as glasses.

Remco and Dan are 100%; unless you choose to only shoot either 100% of your shots in landscape mode or 100% of your shots in portrait mode, getting a custom diopter eyepiece is not going to be particularly useful. I guess you could get a landscape camera body AND a portrait camera body, so long as you don't mix them up. Otherwise, Terri's suggestion of getting contacts is probably the only practical solution.

[Andrew76]

'Toric' - that's it! Thanks Manfred!

[blakemcguire]

Fair enough, thanks for all your informative answers!

I hadn't thought of when you rotate to vertical!

Luckily, I'm near sighted, so to use my camera without glasses isn't much of an issue - I can still see the screen and controls just fine. I may try getting one of the negative correction diopters either way (to my understanding they are pretty reasonably priced). I have the diopter set all the way to the negative side and it still seems a little blurry to me, but c'est la vie. It hasn't been a huge problem before, but if I can find a way to see more clearly through the viewfinder, it can't be a disadvantage.