focusing with glasses or without

[Andrew O'Neill]

I picked up a pair of 4+ from the dollar store a few years ago. They work great for composing and initial focussing. I still use the loupe to check out of habit and the focus is bang on.

[Vaughn]

If I drop my glasses I cannot find them. I have stepped on them more than once.

Playing basketball from high school until my 40s, I would have to ask someone to find my glasses when they would get knocked off my face!

Since I am very nearsighted, I can focus on things about 5 inches away very easily w/o my glasses (better than with my glasses and a loupe). I can not successfully use a loupe without my glasses.

[Tin Can]

Playing basketball from high school until my 40s, I would have to ask someone to find my glasses when they would get knocked off my face!

Since I am very nearsighted, I can focus on things about 5 inches away very easily w/o my glasses (better than with my glasses and a loupe). I can not successfully use a loupe without my glasses.

And I thought I was the only one who can focus without extra glass, loupe or goggles.

I was never a sport, but watched my giant, baby brother stop HS B-Ball games whenever he lost a contact. Both teams would look for it, 1971. He was their prize center. The odd thing is, I never saw him win a game. Every time I attended they lost and perhaps lost bigger when I shot them with Super 8. He scored an athletic full free ride for 4 years at Drake University. First semester he also scored Mononucleosis. They pulled his scholarship. Career over.

[Graham Patterson]

I use flip-up magnifying lenses over my regular prescription glasses. Good enough to check camera settings as well as 90% of the ground glass work. Really fine work requires something stronger than the +2.5s I use. The nice thing is I can flip them up and actually see something over a few feet away!

I use them at work, too - I sometimes have to work with fine wiring. I have enough astigmatism that simple magnification does not help - I need a prescription in the mix.

[D. Bryant]

I had my optometrist make a pair of custom lenses which is about the equivalent to +5 reading glasses. They weren't too expensive since they already had my eye prescription on hand.

[Peter Gomena]

I use a loupe with a threaded eyepiece that allows me to adjust focus. My progressive lenses are +2.75 diopters. I don't need them if I use the focusing loupe. It's one used for the screen on digital cameras, can't recall the brand at the moment. I appreciate that it has a rectangular viewing area that allows me to see right to the edge of the ground glass.

[Randy]

I can focus / compose on my 8X10 ground-glass with just my reading glasses but when I move to my loupe, I have to take the glasses off. BTW, for my 8X10 loupe I use a RB67 chimney finder - it has an adjustable eyepiece plus a flip-up magnifier for critical focus.

[Bruce Watson]

Do those of you who use glasses simply take them off and focus with the loupe?

If you've got sufficient astigmatism, that would be... pointless. If you've got, say 1.0+ D of cylinder correction (that's about 28% of the US population), you'll really want that corrected before you try to do any critical focus tasks. Otherwise, you'll be beating your head against the wall bemoaning your inconsistent focus results. Just sayin'.

[Jmarmck]

If I drop my glasses I cannot find them. I have stepped on them more than once.

That is me as well or could be except for that fact that they are never off my head unless I was sleeping or bathing. So I rarely stepped on them. I have found very creative ways to break them. But now that old age has hit, my cornea are so inflexible that there is too large of a correction between close and far. Progressive lenses makes the sweet spot of the reading portion so small that I cannot function. I now have two pair of glasses, one for computer work and one for distance. Makes it difficult working with the camera and subject.

So a focusing loupe is used, then comes sticking my nose on the gg sans spex.

[Bruce Barlow]

I used to buy cheap reading glasses at the dollar store when I wore contacts. Now I have glasses, which I keep on a string around my neck. At 3.5 diopter, my naked eyes work well for focusing, and, no longer being nimble, I can't step on the glasses around my neck.