View finder diopter system

Gruyanidas

Senior Member
For those of us who wear glasses there is a question ☺ when you aim trough your viewfinder what do you do: remove your glasses and set diopter or set it to 0 without removing glasses? And for people who have dioptry range above or below given, what they should do, I mean obviously they won't remove glasses. I'm asking because I have blinking eye issue in the process...

Послато са SM-G903F уз помоћ Тапатока
 

Kevin H

Senior Member
I don't wear glasses but I look through the viewfinder and adjust the diopter till the numbers and letters at the bottom are clear :D
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
The problem I have is I had cataract surgery and now my distance version is great without any correction, but I need reading glasses to see anything up close. As a result, if I set the diopter for my distant vision, then the view through the viewfinder and normal distant vision is great, but I can't see the top and rear camera display clearly without my readers. If I put on my readers, then I can read the the top and rear displays perfectly, but my distance vision and view through the viewfinder is bad. If the set the diopter for my readers, then I can't see anything clearly through the viewfinder or the camera displays without my readers. Has anyone else found a good solution to this issue?
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
For those of us who wear glasses there is a question ☺ when you aim trough your viewfinder what do you do: remove your glasses and set diopter or set it to 0 without removing glasses? And for people who have dioptry range above or below given, what they should do, I mean obviously they won't remove glasses. I'm asking because I have blinking eye issue in the process...

Послато са SM-G903F уз помоћ Тапатока
This is the method for adjusting the diopter I have been told is correct:

Have the lens focus to infinity, doesn't matter what lens it is.
Push the diopter adjustment as far to the "+" end of the adjustment spectrum as it will go.
Looking through the viewfinder slowly bring the diopter adjustment toward the "-" end of the adjustment spectrum.
Once the image is sharp, stop. You want the diopter biased toward the "+" end of the spectrum as much as possible, while having the sharpest view as possible.

If you wear glasses while you shoot, you should adjust the diopter with your glasses on. If there is not enough adjustment range to accommodate your vision, you can order dioptric adjustment lenses that fit into the eyepiece of the camera that extend the adjustment options beyond that of the standard dioptric adjustment in the camera.

Nikon DK-20C Diopter -2.0
 

LouCioccio

Senior Member
I had to google this as I had a problem with my Bronica 6x4.5 FILM camera I could see image on the screen but it never looked sharp as my DSLR's that had adjustable diopters and not wanting to buy a better viewfinder I had to buy the glass diopters setting on one that magnified and the focus was tack sharp. I do wear glasses with a strong prescription. In fact when I went to Vietnam the US Army gave me 5 pairs which included one for the gas mask and sunglasses. The other enlisted were envious that I had military sun glasses. On my D7K and D500 (which has a brighter viewfinder) I can see both the numbers and can manually focus for sharpness with [FONT=georgia, arial, sans-serif]manual lenses. Th e D500 is much easier to focus manually than the D7K. Anyway here is the link that helped me order the proper diopter.This should help.
[/FONT]Lou Cioccio
[FONT=georgia, arial, sans-serif]"[/FONT]Joseph Wisniewski[FONT=georgia, arial, sans-serif][/FONT][FONT=georgia, arial, sans-serif], Aug 21, 2010; 02:37 p.m. Is image in viewfinder near or far? - Photo.net Casual Photo Conversations Forum[/FONT]
To elaborate on what Matthew said, it is pretty consistent from one camera to another. Most cameras without adjustable viewfinders are -1 diopter, which means the image looks like it's 1 meter (about 3 feet) away. Some cameras allow you to adjust from about +2 to -3.

  • -3 is 33cm (about 1 foot) away, very near, probably closer than a comfortable reading distance.
  • -2 is 66cm (about 2 feet) away, a sort of universal "near" distance: reading, cooking, working on small projects.
  • -1 is 1m (about 3 feet) away, a "compromise" between "working" near and infinity.
  • 0 is infinity, trees on the horizon, driving, etc.
  • 1 is "past infinity". If you're farsighted, the + numbers let you use the viewfinder without your glasses. As you get to higher numbers, you're farther past infinity."
 

litrattonijuan

Senior Member
I am wearing eyeglasses to correct for distance. Like Kevin, I look through the viewfinder with my eyeglasses on, rotate the diopter adjustment until i see the figures at the bottom clearest. With that, i can focus manually with ease under good lights, but when it's dim, i had to rely on the AF ability of the lens
 
I wear digital progressive lenses. (Bifocals that do not have a line) I wear them all the time. Lower part of the lens is for closeup work and top part is for distance and it changes incrementally from top to bottom. Great glasses although very expensive. I put the camera up to my eye where it is comfortable and adjust the diopter.
 

Danno

Senior Member
I wear the same kind of glasses [MENTION=6277]Don Kuykendall[/MENTION] does and I wear them all the time except at my desk... I have glasses for the monitor to spare my neck.

I wear the glasses when i shoot and adjust the diopter the same way as HF described. My fun new challenge is my dominant eye changed and learning to use my left eye to look through the view finder is harder than I would have thought.
 
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