FAO Glasses Wearers

[PeteRob]

I never thought it might have been because of my glasses but when trying cameras out I landed with canon ( over Nikon and Minolta) because the viewfinder was easier to read and have used them ever since. I am only concious of glasses now using a Bronica with WLF - hanging them round your neck means they are even more in the way!

[BrianWall]

You could always get a nose job!

Seriously as the problem (which affects me too) is not being able to get the eye close enough to the exit focus, maybe making the rubber eyecap less deep will work? Looking at mine, it would be possible to cut it down quite a bit whilst still providing a cushion for the spectacle lens to rest against.

[beejaybee]

Seriously as the problem (which affects me too) is not being able to get the eye close enough to the exit focus

Bad design. Modern eyepieces can have quite long eye clearance, in fact many astronomers complain that modern designs are excessive, allowing too much space for stray light to get in through.

Unless you really, really need glasses because your eyes are too far out of "standard" for the diopter adjustment to compensate for, or you have severe astigmatism, IMHO you're far better off getting rid of the glasses to use the viewfinder. Contact lenses might work better, or an astigmatism corrector in the viewfinder eyepiece (astronomers know all about these, it's one reason why expensive eyepieces made by Televue are so popular: they make special astigmatism correctors to fit them Dioptrix). If you want corrected vision in the eye that doesn't meet the viewfinder, try a monocle. Roger Hicks and Patrick Moore appear to have that preference in common.

[Bob Maddison]

Bad design. Modern eyepieces can have quite long eye clearance, in fact many astronomers complain that modern designs are excessive, allowing too much space for stray light to get in through.

Unless you really, really need glasses because your eyes are too far out of "standard" for the diopter adjustment to compensate for, or you have severe astigmatism, IMHO you're far better off getting rid of the glasses to use the viewfinder.

It is much easier to deal with too long an eye relief than too short! Astronomers spend a long time looking through their 'scope and can use a properly shaped lens cup if they need to exclude external light; whereas for a photographer this is only a transient activity, the VF is very bright c/f a 'scope and they need 'normal' vision to assess the view before using their camera.

It is easy for some of us to say "remove your glasses". However, many wearers would have great difficulty in managing the camera's controls without them. And, as has already been said: "what do you do with your specs whilst you aren't wearing them?"

Unfortunately, eyepiece design isn't simple. To have a long eye relief without making the whole eyepiece very large or comromising the relative size of the image is almost impossible. In the end it is a compromise although some makers seem to have favoured the long eye relief / large eyepiece over the more compact design with its inevitable limitations.

[beejaybee]

It is much easier to deal with too long an eye relief than too short! Astronomers spend a long time looking through their 'scope and can use a properly shaped lens cup if they need to exclude external light

Too much eye relief can make it very difficult to keep the right distance. Using an eye cup restricts air movement, and the combination of warm, moist eyeball and cold glass surface is a recipe for condensation which is best controlled by ventilation. It's a fairly serious issue.

Another point against using spectacles at the eyepiece is that it's very easy to scratch the spectacle lenses.

As for designing for sufficient eye relief: compromise, compromise, compromise: you either make the thing usable, or you don't; a compact, lightweight viewfinder that you can't use effectively isn't a sensible compromise IMHO.

[Bob Maddison]

n general I agree with BeeJayBee's comments. However, if the eye relief is excessive, it is easy to add a 'filler' such as an accessory eye cup. Many cameras do have some sort of soft eye piece surround that won't scratch your specs. It this is a problem, it is easy enough to cover any potential scratchy surfaces with tape, however, this does increase the eye distance if only by a small amount. I do agree about condensation and this is a matter of design!

In the end, if you wear glasses, then it is up to you when choosing a camera, to take its suitability into account. Some cameras are better than others for spectacle wearers yet without compromising their usability for those who don't! Most DSLRS are good, but most compacts (those that do have a VF) are poor. In the past, binocular users had little choice: models designed for spectacle wearers were few and far between and very expensive for their type. Nowadays, this has been recognised and most have a long eye relief that doesn't compromise field of view, but with a fold down rubber eye cup that won't scratch your specs and which sits comfortably against your face if you don't wear specs. Camera makers take note!

[BrianWall]

Too much eye relief

makes you blind!

[Graham_RM13]

If you have a camera that can stream a video signal to a TV then you can do what I do and buy a small LCD TV and use that. I got my one from eBay as there are a lot that will be of no use for TV once the Analog signal is switched off.