If he is astigmatic then he would have to wear the reading glasses over his bifocals.Originally Posted by cowanw
If he is astigmatic then he would have to wear the reading glasses over his bifocals.
Or over his loupe.
In which case he will need prescription reading glasses. But he can try cheap ones to start.
The only issue with bifocals is the need to tilt the neck back which is difficult if the GG is below nose height and that Bifocals are not getting close enough.
Thanks for the suggestions.
My closest distance I can get is around 12" (I measured with a ruler and moved closer until things started to go OOF).
My bifocals are not terribly strong. I really only need them for computer work (and sometimes reading or driving when I'm tired). I can get by fine without them out in the field and have been for years. I've just been moving the camera away from my face.
That's not as easy to do now and brings with it the problem that the farther away I move my head, the harder it is to focus details clearly. A loupe will help with fine details but won't really help me with composition. I sort of need a great big magnifier which is why I mentioned reading glasses specifically.
Sounds like I need to get some reading glasses with good magnification for when I'm focusing/composing. I can do without them any other time but I definitely need them for those operations.
Thanks for relating your experiences. It's sort of good to know I'm not the only one who is frustrated by this.
Solution: try as hard as you can to not get old!
It doesn't matter what the diopter rating is, they all are optimized to be used at about 14". My understanding.
Hi John,
Did you try focusing without your glasses? I have bi-focals too, pretty strong ones also (actually 2 of them, the general one is not sufficient for the computer, I have a special; one for that). Anyway, I focus and compose without my glasses. I hardly use a loupe any more (and if I do I have to put my glasses on again). Focus seems fine judging my prints.
good luck,
Cor
On eBay you can buy, from China, a pair of "reading" glasses rated +5.5 or +6.0 wear them instead of messing with the loupe and you can see all the frame and fine adjust the focus at the same time. It is far more convenient this way and another boon is that even when stopped right down you can still check the screen right into the corners. I don't take my loupe with me anymore since I bought some of these glasses...Now that I'm getting into using the Sinar F (with a roll film back currently, just because I'm moving up from MF) to learn how movements work and which knobs on the camera do what, I'm starting to notice that I have trouble composing and focusing on the GG because I'm farsighted. Even with my bifocals on (I'm only 42 for crying out loud!
I have a loupe around here somewhere that seems to have scurried off into a corner. I'll definitely be picking one up if I can't find it. But I was wondering if there's anything to do about this other than suck it up that I'm getting older and admit my eyes are rebelling against me? I have the same problem with digital, of course, in that I have to hold the camera away from my face to see the screen. I can't use a neck strap for that reason (the neck strap holds the camera too close...I need it farther away than that).
Will a fresnel help me here?
RR
I'm going to try to find some strong reading glasses around locally. If I can't find anything, I'll order from China but it'll take a while to get them. I'd rather have them this week if I can.
Lots of mentions of loupes here: what I've been using instead (although it's much heavier than a loupe) is an old M42 mount 50/1.4 lens I had sitting around. It's a fine lens but has too much flare so I can't really use it reliably on my digital. All I do is open the aperture all the way and turn it around backwards, with the mount facing the GG. Put your eye up to the front of the lens and you get a gigantic and very magnified loupe view. It's probably a little too much magnification to be honest since I can see the GG. But it works great when I need that level of magnification.
I could buy a "proper" loupe but I already have this. It's just a little bigger and heavier than I would like. If I can make the reading glasses work, though, it sounds like I won't even need to use that.
Without my glasses the closest I can get is about 14". With them on I can get a whopping 2" closer.
I used a t-shirt last night, shooting around the homestead and my kids said I was "soooo ghetto". ("A t-shirt?! Really?!") Other than being called ghetto for using it, I was at the end of the shirt, holding it to the top of my head because I couldn't be any closer.
Something's gotta give...
I wear progressive glasses most of the time. For focusing, I use +4 diopter readers alone, or a nifty pair of clip on readers like these: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Carso...er/1167559.uts These allow astigmatism correction from my normal glasses.
If you're too far from the ground glass, you just need to find the right diopter to get you close enough for comfortable viewing - not rocket science.
Note: you will still need a good loupe (I use 8x or 10x) for fine focusing, which can be done with your readers on, or without.
Best,
Doremus
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks