Improving view through viewfinder

[holmes]

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I wear glasses as I will guess that that statement perhaps applies to you, or some time in the future. I was digging through my Leica boxes. On one I had noted it contained 2 or 3 M diopters. Well it contained two. I know that I completely forgotten even having them. Now I also have three of the 1.25 magnifiers. So I thought, why not screw in the diopters and then the 1.25 magnifiers? Everything appears clean and in focus. I set up two of my M 7s with this combination.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to this viewfinder setup?

[thetooth]

i wear glasses and use a leica brand -2 diopter . love it . i buy diopters for all my cameras . the only way to shoot for eyeglass wearers .

[Xmas]

Not so practical if you need >5 dioptre, then you need contact lenses, but that means the dials all go fuzzy, if you have too many candles, on bcake...

 

Noel

[hoppyman]

The dioptre adjustment eyepieces and the magnifiers are made to be usable like this if desired.

If you have a dioptre that works and is comfortable for you (and replaces your spectacles for photography) then it makes sense to use it. (No way I can bear to use my spectacles ). You are losing a little eye relief vs. the naked eyepiece but MUCH less than if you wear your spectacles.

Once you have that decision, then you can elect to use a magnifier as well. They do different things.

The magnifier's advantages are that the focusing patch (and the framelines of course) are shown larger and hence it is easier to be precise with your focusing/framing.

The disadvantages are that you are losing significantly more of your eye relief, you cannot see the wider framelines and you must be losing some portion of the transmitted light.

Leica recommends the 1.25x for fast fifties especially and the 1.4x for longer. I have both. The 1.4 is quite a deal thicker (inevitably) so eye relief and frameline visibility suffer.

I think that you can obtain some aftermarket models that may have different magnifications and possibly variable dioptres added. I have no exposure or experience with those.

[tobey bilek]

The trick is to find the correction that allows you to wear your glasses and still see thru the viewfinder.

 

My correction for distance is -.5 , 1/2 diopter. + 1 seems to allow me to see the viewfinder and retain my glasses.

 

All this is difficult because local dealers never stock correction diopters. I don`t want magnifiers because they position your eye too far away. They need some adjustable function like the R series has. My Nikon digitals have it also.