Wearing eye glasses and using a camera

[Manfred M]

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

Funny, I think that all contact wearers say that when they first get them; I sure did. They are great, especially in the rain, but are not so good in dusty or windy environments.

The other issue with them is that they never correct your vision as well as glasses, especially if you have significant astigmatism (in my case that was my main vision issue in one eye), and even with toric lenses, the correction was limited.

I found that my eyes tended to get dry and tired towards the end of the day (there are good technical / medical reasons for this happening), especially if you spend a good part of your day reading and sitting in front of a computer screen. I would usually take them out in the evenings and often on weekends.

Now it has gotten to the point where I only wear them when scuba diving. Here I wear one lens for reading in my left eye so that I can read my dive instruments at arm's length, and a toric in in the right eye so that I can see things that are farther away.

Contacts are great, but as with anything, they are not a panacea and they do have limits.

[JR1]

Funny, I think that all contact wearers say that when they first get them; I sure did. They are great, especially in the rain, but are not so good in dusty or windy environments.

The other issue with them is that they never correct your vision as well as glasses, especially if you have significant astigmatism (in my case that was my main vision issue in one eye), and even with toric lenses, the correction was limited.

I found that my eyes tended to get dry and tired towards the end of the day (there are good technical / medical reasons for this happening), especially if you spend a good part of your day reading and sitting in front of a computer screen. I would usually take them out in the evenings and often on weekends.

Now it has gotten to the point where I only wear them when scuba diving. Here I wear one lens for reading in my left eye so that I can read my dive instruments at arm's length, and a toric in in the right eye so that I can see things that are farther away.

Contacts are great, but as with anything, they are not a panacea and they do have limits.

As bike rider nothing is worse than glassers, in the rain, cant wear sunglassers, terrible for photography.

Since I stared wearing monthlies NOT dailies, keep them in all month, I have never looked back.

They are as good as glassers, and the benefits far far far outweigh any negatives.

[nimitzbenedicto]

As bike rider nothing is worse than glassers, in the rain, cant wear sunglassers, terrible for photography.
.

Sunglasses - eyeglasses?

What I do is get oversized sunglasses and wear them over my eyeglasses.

[Manfred M]

As a bike rider, I agree. Rain and glasses are not a great combination. Peripheral vision is also better with contacts. I tend to be a "fair weather" rider and generally end up wearing sun glasses; so the peripheral vision is compromised even with contacts. I find that I got dry eyes when riding, again not a pleasant thing with contacts, so I had gone with prescription sunglasses. Fortunately my vision is good enough that I can ride without glasses when I get caught out in the rain; back when I wore contacts and now.

I stopped with the wearing contacts all the time when I developed seasonal allergies. Contacts and seasonal allergies do not mix very well. The eyes are itchy and watery enough without the added irritation of the contacts. If I dose up the eyes with a topical antihistamine, I can get away with wearing them on a dive, even at the height of allergy season (which for me is the May through end of June period) when the trees and grasses pollinate.

[drjuice]

Hi, to both guys named John -

No, I don't mean he needs to wear eyeglasses. What he needs to do is to check whether his camera has a diopter and, if it does, set it up so he doesn't have to wear eyeglasses when he's taking pictures. He may still need to keep his glasses handy to get to where he's setting up the picture, but NOT while he's actually taking them if he has a diopter. I made a posting in the Digital Photography forum about setting up your diopter. On my Sony A700, it's a thumbwheel just to the right of the viewport.

For those who don't know, a diopter is effectively a little bitty lens built into the eyepiece (I think) that can change like the little lenses ophthalmologists use with the old "is 1 better than 2?" routine. I took my camera when I went for my annual eye exam and my ophthalmologist helped me get it set properly.

Hope this helps.

virginia

[Manfred M]

Hi, to both guys named John -

No, I don't mean he needs to wear eyeglasses. What he needs to do is to check whether his camera has a diopter and, if it does, set it up so he doesn't have to wear eyeglasses when he's taking pictures. He may still need to keep his glasses handy to get to where he's setting up the picture, but NOT while he's actually taking them if he has a diopter. I made a posting in the Digital Photography forum about setting up your diopter. On my Sony A700, it's a thumbwheel just to the right of the viewport.

For those who don't know, a diopter is effectively a little bitty lens built into the eyepiece (I think) that can change like the little lenses ophthalmologists use with the old "is 1 better than 2?" routine. I took my camera when I went for my annual eye exam and my ophthalmologist helped me get it set properly.

Hope this helps.

virginia

Unfortunately, the diopter adjustment has a fairly limited range (which means it is useless for my wife; it gets her from totally blurry to just plain blurry) and doesn't do anything for astigmatism (which in my case is the most significant correction my glasses make).

[tao2]

Like Virginia, ah have a Sony A700. Always used my left eye. My specs are 5.0 on the left eye. The Sony's dioptre goes tae 3.0 +/-. Bought a Sony dioptre eyepiece (strength 2.0) which simply clips into the existing viewfinder eyepiece. Sony goes up tae 4.0+/-with the separate eyepieces. The combo of dioptres works perfectly, have no problem at all viewing without glasses, though obviously still need them for settings etc.

Ah'm sure there are plenty other camera manufacturers who can supply the same.

PS - on an historical note, my 1961 Fed 2 rangefinder has an adjustable dioptre. At max adjust, ah don't need specs either...!

[Glenn NK]

I lucked in on a solution: The last two sets I've had have frames of (for want of a better word) flex-steel. They flex easily but don't stay bent. The frames are also quite thin which also helps.

When I push my eye up against the rubber padding of the eyepiece, they flex enough to allow me to be able to see the entire screen including the read-outs at the bottom if I move the camera around a bit.

The frames will flex, but not bend permanently thus not requiring constant trips to the optician for readjustment.

I set the diopter for the glasses.

Another solution is to remove the padded eyepiece surround which on my Canon bodies puts my eye about 2 mm closer.

Glenn

[Manfred M]

Of course, a full-frame camera gives you a larger viewfinder and is easier to shoot when wearing glasses.

This is one of the reasons I went full-frame. I never got used to or liked the teeny viewfinder on a crop-frame camera.

[davidedric]

Interesting. I also have glasses, with thin side pieces and rimless lenses, and I honestly don't have a problem seeing the whole of the viewfinder on either my crop frame or m4/3. Having had both eyes operated for cataracts and having astigmatism, I really need to keep them on the whole time. Even got used to then for binoculars.

I wonder why this thread got reactivated after a year!

Dave

[dennybeall]

Have tri-focals and a little astigmatism. The diopter on my Nikon adjusts very well for the tri lens designed for the computer screen (the middle lens).

[lewtashjosh]

Get Laser Eye, glasses are just a pain in the neck regardless what you end up doing ...

[Kyle]

Get Laser Eye, glasses are just a pain in the neck regardless what you end up doing ...

I agree. Glasses use to be really annoying for me. Laser Eye has been one of the best decisions of my life.