Glasses and focus

[donlavange]

Do most people that have the farsightedness that comes with age (or any other condition) shoot with glasses on, or with a diopter adjuster to compensate the view?

I tend to want to take my glasses off when I focus, but then, I am having to replace the glasses to see my settings etc.

Additionally, do glasses which leave a gap between your eye and the viewfinder allow light to sneak into the eyepiece, thereby fooling the internal meter reading?

[Tom W]

I keep my glasses on, so that I can find the camera. :)
Well, it isn't quite that bad, but I do leave them to shoot.

BTW, the only time the light 'sneaking' in the viewfinder becomes an issue is when you're shooting long exposures in very low light. Astrophotography comes to mind. The mirror serves to block light from the viewfinder from entering the mirror box, but a tiny bit can sneak through.

[PacAce]

I just wear contacts so shooting with them on is not a problem. But that's not what you were asking about, so... When I used to wear glasses many, many years ago, I just kept the glasses on. The only inconvenience was the fact that I couldn't see the viewfinder in its entirety and had to shift my eye position on the eye piece often.

As for the light "leaking" in from the eye piece, unless you're direclty under the sun with the sun shining on your face, I don't think that's a problem either or at least, it's never was for me when I used to wear glasses.

[Jon]

Until you're so far-sighted that you can't focus on something 1 m away you won't need a correction, if you're nominally 20/20. I have contacts to correct for myopia, and need about +1.25 reading glasses for my presbyopia, but I only use the glasses to read the back display (another means of controlling chimping!). I use the viewfinder diopter corrections in-camera.

[flyfisher]

I keep my glasses on and have never had any problems with lite leaking thru, although
I now need bifocals I'm not sure if leaving them on is better as I have to take them off to see the camera settings. (don't have bifocals in yet)

[Scottes]

What PacAce said, except for the part about contacts.

But even though my glasses bring me back to 20/20 I've found that the diopter needs 3 clicks to be the sharpest. This seems weird to me.

[Tim McNamara]

I am a novice, so please be patient.

I used to take pictures with manual focus cameras years ago and decided to get back into it. I bought a Nikon FM and later, a Canon A1. I now wear bifocals and assumed that if one focused with the "non bifocal" part of the glasses, everything would be OK. Recently, however, I read somewhere that the focusing glass in the SLR is only about 5 inches or so away. I was wondering if I ned to make some sort of accomodation with my glasses to focus correctly. For example, do I need to look through the bifocal part of the glasses, get a diopter, or what?

Thanks for helping a newbie out!

[liza]

Tim,
I know how you feel. I not only wear contacts to correct nearsightedness but now also wear magnifiers for the "middle age" factor. Have you ever considered going that route?

[skyphix]

Im not "older" but Ive never actually found anything that worked to correct my vision (except my own glasses)... so, I shoot with my glasses on. I wouldn't be able to shoot without them anyway... I cant really get around that well without them ;)

I'll do contacts as soon as I have time to get them.

[flyfisher]

I always wear my glasses and have not had any problems, but I also need bifocals or longer arms
to read camera settings.