Glasses+rangefinders=Problem

[jaapv]

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Given that the M10 has a considerably improved eye relief, your post appears  to be a few years behind time... However, welcome to the forum.

[UliWer]

Well, even with the M10 having more eye relief than former models the frames for 28mm remain awkward.

An optical rangefinder has some advantages but at the same time many disadvantages. Reducing the magnification so that you may have more space for wide angles increases the problems for longer focal lengthes and vice versa. It is no wonder that the rangefinder system was more and more replaced by SLR cameras in the past and  EVF-systems have much more importance on the market today.

Customers have chances to make their choices. 

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[Jeff S]

12 hours ago, David8 said:

Why Leica refuses to increase the eye relief of its M series cameras is beyond me. Zeiss did an excellent job with the ZM and Leica still refuses to change the eyepiece of its long line of Ms including MP and MA. 

10 year old thread.  The M10 VF DOES  HAVE better eye relief (with higher magnification and larger diameter opening). 

Jeff

[250swb]

As the Zeiss Ikon was built by Cosina this could be a case of infiltration by a weeb?

[jdlaing]

But it wasn’t designed by Cosina.

[jaapv]

11 hours ago, Jeff S said:

10 year old thread. 

Yep- revived yesterday by a poster who disappeared after his first post...

[Herr Barnack]

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On 7/5/2011 at 5:13 PM, 250swb said:

I just disagree with the whole idea of 'glasses+rangefinder=problem'

 

Its not a problem for me, I use varifocals and they are fine with any of my Leica rangefinders. So lets not over egg the pudding and get hysterical, if it is a problem it's a problem for you. Try the options to see which works, one of them will.

 

Steve

I wear progressive lens glasses and it is an annoyance for me but not an actual problem - there is a difference. 

As someone else mentioned, "There is no perfect camera."  Yet for some reason some M users demand perfection from their M camera and go ballistic when the M (in their opinion - key words there) is "only" 97-99% perfect.  I think we can safely say that damn few photographers can match that level of perfection.  Constantine Manos:  "Taking good pictures is easy.  Making very good pictures is difficult.  Making great pictures is almost impossible."

Quote

Best for M is using contact lenses instead of glasses

I had a talk with my eye doc about that.  She said that glasses will give me significantly more focusing accuracy than contacts will, so I stuck with my "problem" glasses.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Herr Barnack

[zeitz]

1 hour ago, Herr Barnack said:

I had a talk with my eye doc about that.  She said that glasses will give me significantly more focusing accuracy than contacts will, so I stuck with my "problem" glasses.

No, you are not stuck with glasses for photography in your case.

Your eye doctor is absolutely right for focus accuracy across all vision distances.  However, to optimize for a Leica M you need 20/20 focus accuracy only at the distance used by Leica for the rangefinder/viewfinder.  So you want contacts for 20/20 vision at infinity allowing viewing of the entire frame.  When you are not looking through the rangefinder/viewfinder, you then put on new pair of progressive glasses ground from 0 diopter to -2.5 diopter (or whatever is best for you close up).  This is how my eye doctor solved the problem and it works great.  Even after recent cataract surgery with B&L Crystal lenses, I still wear trifocals (0, -1.25, -2.50) when I want focusing accuracy across the entire vision range, without having to take readers on and off.

[masjah]

4 hours ago, zeitz said:

No, you are not stuck with glasses for photography in your case.

Your eye doctor is absolutely right for focus accuracy across all vision distances.  However, to optimize for a Leica M you need 20/20 focus accuracy only at the distance used by Leica for the rangefinder/viewfinder.  So you want contacts for 20/20 vision at infinity allowing viewing of the entire frame.  When you are not looking through the rangefinder/viewfinder, you then put on new pair of progressive glasses ground from 0 diopter to -2.5 diopter (or whatever is best for you close up).  This is how my eye doctor solved the problem and it works great.  Even after recent cataract surgery with B&L Crystal lenses, I still wear trifocals (0, -1.25, -2.50) when I want focusing accuracy across the entire vision range, without having to take readers on and off.

I have high myopia (-15D  spectacle prescription in my worst eye). Contact lenses offer an incomparably better correction at any distance other than close enough to be affected by the usual age related far sightedness. That is to say, they correct me to exactly what would be expected in a person of my age without myopia. Compared with contact lenses, at these powers spectacles (a) have a reduced image size on the retina because of the separation distance between the spectacle lens and my eye lens and (b) suffer dreadful aberrations, both spherical and chromatic, off axis, by virtue of being a simple meniscus lens.

I therefore have contact lenses to sort out my far vision, and then I wear supplementary "reading" glasses, of various kinds, just like nearly everyone else of my age.

 

[jaapv]

6 hours ago, Herr Barnack said:

I wear progressive lens glasses and it is an annoyance for me but not an actual problem - there is a difference. 

As someone else mentioned, "There is no perfect camera."  Yet for some reason some M users demand perfection from their M camera and go ballistic when the M (in their opinion - key words there) is "only" 97-99% perfect.  I think we can safely say that damn few photographers can match that level of perfection.  Constantine Manos:  "Taking good pictures is easy.  Making very good pictures is difficult.  Making great pictures is almost impossible."

I had a talk with my eye doc about that.  She said that glasses will give me significantly more focusing accuracy than contacts will, so I stuck with my "problem" glasses.

That took youi a while to work out - 250 SWB said that ten years ago

[zeitz]

5 hours ago, masjah said:

I have high myopia (-15D  spectacle prescription in my worst eye). Contact lenses offer an incomparably better correction at any distance other than close enough to be affected by the usual age related far sightedness.

My eyes were -9D and -14D, a strong and large difference.  The eye doctor put me on contacts with trifocals (0, -1.25, -2.50) not because of Leicas, but because it cured the strong distortions from the prescription lenses.  The side benefit was seeing the full frame of a Leica M.  Cataract surgery is a true miracle; both eyes are still better than 20/20 after 9 years.  You can get cataract surgery without cataracts; ask for Refractive Lens Exchange.  It is expensive because insurance won't pay for it.

[Herr Barnack]

7 hours ago, jaapv said:

That took youi a while to work out - 250 SWB said that ten years ago

I didn't see his post until yesterday...

[Kit B]

Having used many M cameras, film and digital over the years, I agree with glasses is a problem.  The answer?  I finally moved to a Q2, end of problem.  Plenty of eye relief, no problem with the 'uncropped' 28mm and you get nice bright line frames on the 35, 50 and 75.  I use the 35mm mostly.  The very high resolution sensor and superb lens still gives stunning images on the cropped settings!    

[roydonian]

For many years, a series of ever-thicker spectacles made the M finder impractical, so I focussed with the rangefinder, then moved my eye to a shoe-mounted Carl Zeiss turret finder.

After cataract surgery, I was able do without glasses, and had no problems with the M finder. But I was so conditioned by my former practice that if I fitted a 21mm brightline finder just in case I'd need to that focal length, a 'conditioned reflex' moved my eye to the external finder once I'd used the rangefinder with any lens! The old dog couldn't unlearn his trick.

I'll need to go back to glasses soon, so that Zeiss finder will probably be dragged out of retirement.

[Graham (G4FUJ)]

Split prisms on SLRs can have their own problems for spectacle wearers, particularly with longer focal length camera lenses.One half of the prism blacks out unless the eye is very accurately placed to the centre of the viewfinder.

[Jeff S]

On 6/12/2021 at 9:17 AM, Graham (G4FUJ) said:

Split prisms on SLRs can have their own problems for spectacle wearers, particularly with longer focal length camera lenses.One half of the prism blacks out unless the eye is very accurately placed to the centre of the viewfinder.

Tends to happen with slower lenses or when stopped down, irrespective of glasses.

Jeff