M8 Dioptre

[stunsworth]

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the viewfinder is calibrated for infinity. this means that people that need reading glasses do not benefit from dioptre lenses. It's when you have trouble seeing objects that are far from you that the dioptre lenses will help you.

 

In that case could you explain why the viewfinder is blurred when I don't use a diopter lens and is in focus when I do? I have a lens that matches my reading glasses - +2 diopters.

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[truando]

In that case could you explain why the viewfinder is blurred when I don't use a diopter lens and is in focus when I do?

 

I can't. I was just repeating what my dealer told me.

[stunsworth]

Fair enough, you can tell him he was wrong :-)

 

Sorry if my response sounded a bit abrupt, it wasn't meant to be

[Shootist]

If all of the rangefinder window is at a viewing distance of 2 meters then I might not need a +2. My biggest problem now is with the +1.5 Leica diopter lens everything near and far is just slightly blurry, making it hard to get the RIGHT focus. But with my +1.5 glasses on and NO diopter near objects are fairly clear and far objects are way blurry. But if I take my glasses off for far distances things are a little more in focus but not what you would call clear.

At 2 meters, about 7 feet, I see not to bad. So I'm wondering if I really need a +1 or +.5 to bring the 2 meter image in the viewfinder into good focus.

I'll know later today, hopefully.

[carstenw]

Thanks for all the help and yes I am farsighted. I seem to be able to focus ok, but have to look real intently. I am not sure if this is normal for a range finder or not. I suppose I am just hoping that focusing will be a little easer. I have been spoilt by auto focus on the Canon 1D,s for quite a while, not that I am not enjoying using a rangefinder again. I just need to improve my speed of focusing .

 

Jeremy, you seem to be in the U.K. from your link, so I would recommend getting to a Leica dealer and simply trying out the different diopters. I did this myself. On my right eye, I am -1, and I tried both -0.5 and -1.0, and found both about the same, perhaps the -1.0 a little clearer, so I got that. It may be that the way we focus our eyes through a camera is not the same as the way we focus our eyes when reading, so I would really test the diopters themselves.

[truando]

Fair enough, you can tell him he was wrong :-)

 

Sorry if my response sounded a bit abrupt, it wasn't meant to be

 

that's ok, your response was fine the way it was. maybe I should have a talk with him after all.

 

I do need reading glasses, but I have no problem whatsoever with focussing, so the 2m theory could indeed be the reason why. or maybe I just have no idea how a sharp viewfinder should look, really. I'll find out. But the problem is that they don't have dioptre lenses to check, you have to order them.

[stunsworth]

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Christian, I used have +1 dioptre reading glasses and had no problems with an M6. I haven't used an M much for a couple of years and currently use +2 reading glasses. When I got my M8 it was obvious from the beginning that there was a need for a correction lens. So perhaps it depends on just how bad an individual's eye's are?

[danielt]

I am farsighted: I wear glasses with +2.75 on both eyes

I have a + 3 diopter attached to my M8 and I have NO problems for focussing

[truando]

Steve, I guess that's how it is.

 

After all, you get used to the way you're seeing, only when things get really bad you start noticing something's wrong. or when you put someone else's glasses on, and suddenly realize how things should really look - that's what happened to me...

 

I'll definitively have to check that dioptre thing out. Although I must say that my photos *are* in focus.

 

Beautiful photographs on your site, btw! The one with the curé and they keys is killing me

[drjon]

no problem guy, you helped me on lots of issues, I've been reading this forum for a while.

 

now chetccox, regarding the reading glasses, I do have reading glasses, and I went to my dealer for dioptre lenses, and he was the one who told me about this infinity thing, he knows what he's talking about because he has sold tons of leicas in the last 30 years he's in the business.

 

So unless someone else proves him wrong with hard evidence I will stick to what my dealer told me.

 

So unless someone else proves him wrong with hard evidence I will stick to what my dealer told me.

 

Your dealer is apparently correct. I am mainly far sighted, wear contact lenses, -2.75 correction for the right eye which I use to focus. I use the 1.25 magnifier with the M8 permanently. If I remove my contact lens then I have to dial in some + dioptre correction on my 5D to be able to focus; no correction on the 5D necessary with my contact lens in. This supports the contention that if you are far sighted and try to focus without your glasses/contact lenses, you will need some + dioptre correction. I hope this helps; I wrote this without my contact lens so I have no idea what I typed - some English humour, excuse me.

[Cindy Flood]

OMG, if you read this whole thread, your head starts spinning. The case has been made for a diopter and one for no diopter (with reading glasses). I hope someone can sort this out.

[Bob Ross]

In that case could you explain why the viewfinder is blurred when I don't use a diopter lens and is in focus when I do? I have a lens that matches my reading glasses - +2 diopters.

Hi Steve,

I wear reading glasses and now I also have "driving glasses". My optician broke it gentley to me by asking if I was having trouble reading street signs at night... My distance prescription is around +1.5, so a +2.0 diopter fixes that and like you is an approximation of my reading correction. A confusing coincidence? I think that the -0.5 diopter of the finder is just enough that my eye's distance strength can't quite compensate and the +2.0 covered the compensation (accomodation) better. I did the selection in a camera store.

The M8 might be giving you a hint that you, too, might need "driving glasses:eek:

Bob

[SnapperJ]

Jeremy, you seem to be in the U.K. from your link, so I would recommend getting to a Leica dealer and simply trying out the different diopters.

 

Sound advice, thanks Carstenw

[carstenw]

Sound advice, thanks Carstenw

Remember to try to relax your eye while focusing. Trying to focus with your eye can significantly change the diopter required.

[stunsworth]

The M8 might be giving you a hint that you, too, might need "driving glasses

 

You may be right Bob, I do find myself getting lost quite a bit these days :-)

[lars_bergquist]

There's quite a bit of confusion here obviously. So maybe I should reiterate what I wrote earlier: Progressive specs are a total solution, because with these, you can see sharply both at infinity, at middle distances and close up -- through different parts of the lenses.

 

I am pretty badly presbyopic nowadays, so that I can't see even things on the horizon sharply; my eyes are permanently focused beyond infinity! So the upper part of the lenses I wear are corrected a little bit + for infinity, whilst the focus comes progressively closer as I lower my eyes, until it reaches reading distance. So whatever I have to scrutinize, I can see with good acuity -- including the M8 wiewfinder image, the rangefinder patch and the bright frames. In fact, this is not all at exactly the same optical distance, the finder image is a bit further away, so a compromise is necessary. But just as when you shoot a rifle or a pistol, the most important thing is to focus on the front sight, i.e. the rangefinder patch.

 

Now the only thing I had to learn when I took up RF Leicas again after getting specs, was at which attitude of the head (relative to the camera) I got sharp vision. And that took all of three minutes and has never worried me since then.

 

I experimented with correction lenses but found them a pain. Every time I had to change a setting, I had to don the specs, and this 'specs on -- specs off' drill doesn't go well with action photography. There is less of this with an auto exposure camera, but as soon as you need to change a manual shutter speed you have to have close-up vision. And changing speeds by touch is even more difficult with the M8, because of the in-between detents, and because there is no stop, where you can start counting even in pitch darkness. So do try out progressives -- you may come to prefer them, after an initial bout of seasickness, maybe.

 

The old man from the Age of Hit-and-Miss Focusing