ronaldh Posted October 31, 2006 Share #1 Posted October 31, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) Pity the left-eyed shooter who, when looking through the M's viewfinder on the left side of the camera, cannot see the surrounding scene with his other eye. He will be at a further disadvantage with the M8 because his nose will press against and smear the screen. I do not know how many of us are left-eyed but presumably it would be wholly uneconomic for Leica to produce a left-eyed version. Has anyone with a naturally dominant left eye successfully trained himself to use the right one instead? I believe that a century ago left handed children were forced to learn to write with their right hand and that this gave rise to psychological problems; the army too does, or did, not recognise such a thing as a left handed shooter. Has anyone else found this a problem with the Leica and been able to solve it satisfactorily? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Hi ronaldh, Take a look here the left-eyed photographer. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
albertwang Posted October 31, 2006 Share #2 Posted October 31, 2006 Either an upside down Leica or periscope can solve that I suppose? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrc Posted October 31, 2006 Share #3 Posted October 31, 2006 I have a dominant left eye, but learned from firing a right-handed rifle (using a scope) with my left eye open, that my eye "selects" as dominant the one that is looking at crosshairs. The same thing works with a Leica --- since only one eye is looking at frames, your brain selects that view. It's automatic, or, at least, it is with me. You can also train your eye a bit by letting the left eyelid droop while keeping the right eye wide open, until you've adapted. A bigger problem than dominant eye is "weak" eye. Sometimes you prefer one eye for shooting because you can see more clearly with it -- it's better corrected, or just plain better. That's a more complicated problem, that sometimes can be fixed with a special diopter in the viewfinder. Another problem is habit -- I shot Nikons for a very long time and with those, it didn't matter which eye I used, because the right eye couldn't see much anyway -- the lens was usually in the way. So I shot with my left eye. Then the DSLRs came along, and I found that if I used the left eye, and had forgotten to lock the multi-selection switch, I could push the switch with my nose and shift the focus area without realizing it. Not good. I have a number of portraits which are precisely focused on the wall behind the subject due to poor nose control...I sent an e-mail to Nikon suggesting that they add Nose Ninja to their software suite... 8-) JC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddp Posted October 31, 2006 Share #4 Posted October 31, 2006 I'm a left eye shooter....and I have always shot with my right eye closed for the most part. I don't know any other way....and that's fine with me. Never really occured to me that I was missing out on the surrounding scenes. I tend to raise and lower my cameras as needed... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnastovall Posted October 31, 2006 Share #5 Posted October 31, 2006 I'm left eye dominate and it's never been a problem for me when shooting with Leicas or any other range finder. I have my style and I'm sure you have yours. Neither is to be pitied. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted October 31, 2006 Share #6 Posted October 31, 2006 Pity the left-eyed shooter who, when looking through the M's viewfinder on the left side of the camera, cannot see the surrounding scene with his other eye. ---- Has anyone with a naturally dominant left eye successfully trained himself to use the right one instead? I believe that a century ago left handed children were forced to learn to write with their right hand and that this gave rise to psychological problems; the army too does, or did, not recognise such a thing as a left handed shooter. I am a left-handed but right-eyed revolver shooter! Now, shooting a large-caliber revolver with a hand on the opposite side from the eye you aim with is a bad proposition: The hand will not absorb the recoil in a straight line, and you will have a sideways move of the point of impact, often right off the paper. My solution was a pirate-style black patch over my right eye. It took only a few sessions at the shooting range to fix the problem. -- I do however shoot rifles from my right shoulder, exactly as per regs. The reason why armies turn a blind eye on lefty shooters is that automatic weapons usually eject sizzling hot empties from a port on their right side. If you shoot from the left shoulder, you run a risk of catching one of them in your eye. I recommend the black patch. You can always practice in the seclusion of your home. Lars Bergquist, the old badger from the Age of Flashpowder Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted October 31, 2006 Share #7 Posted October 31, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) I'm a left eyed shooter and not being able to see out of the right hasn't ever really bothered me. I did however buy a Rapidwinder for my M6 as I could then advance the film without removing the camera from my right eye. One less problem with an M8 :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmskov Posted October 31, 2006 Share #8 Posted October 31, 2006 I am left handed and therefore left eyed as well and don't see it as any problem. However I have started to change to the right eye which isn't that hard after all. Just takes a little practise. And with the delivery time for the M8 there should be plenty of time... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frc Posted October 31, 2006 Share #9 Posted October 31, 2006 My son frequently "borrows" my MP because he favors it to his DSLR despite his lefteyeness. Yes he cleans the camera before he returns it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted October 31, 2006 Share #10 Posted October 31, 2006 I am a left-handed but right-eyed revolver shooter! Now, shooting a large-caliber revolver with a hand on the opposite side from the eye you aim with is a bad proposition: The hand will not absorb the recoil in a straight line, and you will have a sideways move of the point of impact, often right off the paper. My solution was a pirate-style black patch over my righteye. It took only a few sessions at the shooting range to fix the problem. -- I do however shoot rifles from my right shoulder, exactly as per regs. The reason why armies turn a blind eye on lefty shooters is that automatic weapons usually eject sizzling hot empties from a port on their right side. If you shoot from the left shoulder, you run a risk of catching one of them in your eye. I recommend the black patch. You can always practice in the seclusion of your home. Lars Bergquist, the old badger from the Age of Flashpowder ever so slightly Off Topic: the availability of ambidexturous weapons has seen some changes to that agenda, and the training regime reflects these changes operationaly there isnt any difference, as a soldier could always specify a chosen weapon, or buy the thing himself, with the proviso that it feeds available ammunition On Topic: I see no reason that a camera with the quality of a Leica couldnt be organised ambidexturous, or be available left and right hand. some 15% of persons are left handed, a somewhat greater proportion of left handed persons are more artisticly inclined Riley Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry Posted October 31, 2006 Share #11 Posted October 31, 2006 I'm blessed with the best of both worlds: I'm left-handed and right-eyed. ;-) Larry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronaldh Posted October 31, 2006 Author Share #12 Posted October 31, 2006 I'm left eye dominate and it's never been a problem for me when shooting with Leicas or any other range finder. I have my style and I'm sure you have yours. Neither is to be pitied. As mentioned in my original post the greater problem arises from grease on the screen when holding up the M8 to the eye (as I was able to try out the other day). Perhaps I should wear a bandanna. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTD Posted October 31, 2006 Share #13 Posted October 31, 2006 Left eyed, right handed, left footed, play pool with either. Smear my dSLR screen have learned to live with it. If I use my right eye and keep my left eye open I really can't focus the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveEP Posted October 31, 2006 Share #14 Posted October 31, 2006 I am both left handed, and left eyed, although have been happily using my right hand for the shutter button for 30 years. As for nose marks, well, it's something you get used to. It's been like that on all my DSLRs..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnastovall Posted October 31, 2006 Share #15 Posted October 31, 2006 As mentioned in my original post the greater problem arises from grease on the screen when holding up the M8 to the eye (as I was able to try out the other day). Perhaps I should wear a bandanna. A black balaclava works better and coordinates with the Leica black. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike prevette Posted October 31, 2006 Share #16 Posted October 31, 2006 I'm left handed, but bat right, shoot guns right handed, and can photograph with either eye. I work with large movie cameras and they are predominantly set up for right eyers. But I've trained myself over the years to be able to do both. If I'm in a crowd with the leica I tend to 'hide' behind the camera and use my left eye. I also go left eye when I'm very carefully framing something, right I is for more sloppy seat of my pants stuff. _mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
neila Posted October 31, 2006 Share #17 Posted October 31, 2006 Left handed for everything except golf for some strange reason! The RD-1 has a swivel screen to protect from nose oil!! The M8, well I'll have to see, I'm not too worried. Interestingly I've never felt at a disadvantage with my MP to be left eyed - but I don't post too many pictures here. I wonder why?!! :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted October 31, 2006 Share #18 Posted October 31, 2006 forgot to mention generally right brain people are left eye dominant and this is because due to the lenticular properties of the eye, as it only has one lens the image is inverted, your creator ( (enter your gods name here, )atheists your on your own:)) cleverly turned both eyes upside down hence the connections cross from the left eye to the right hemisphere of the brain, and from the right eye to the left. this ensures the image is always upright. common knowledge has it that the brain automaticly inverts the image, this is of course quite wrong. hence left brain people are right eye dominant, and the inverse for right brain Riley Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmr Posted October 31, 2006 Share #19 Posted October 31, 2006 Could this be the one advantage of a C-Lux? Being left-eyed, I've noticed that the screen certainly keeps a lot cleaner than the one on my Digilux 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rona!d Posted October 31, 2006 Share #20 Posted October 31, 2006 It´s not a big deal, simply turn the camera on the top Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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