[jeffshaddix]

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Hey guys,

I'm wanting to find a good magnifying eyepiece to use on my K-7 for better manual focus control. The OME53 looks great, but from what I've read it doesn't work well for glasses wearers.

I don't really have an option of contact lenses or lasik right now, so does anyone know of a good eyepiece with a bit of magnification (Pentax or offbrand) that works well with glasses?

Thanks in advance!

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Last edited by jeffshaddix; 12-30-2010 at 02:55 PM.

[Ira]

I just take off my glasses and use the diopter correction.

I can't get my arms around wearing my glasses and shooting.

[SOldBear]

The magnifying eyepiece makes the viewfinder dimmer. There is only so much light. If you spread it out to a larger area, it will be dimmer.

The magnifying eyepiece makes the image larger. Since the image is larger, the edges of the image require more effort to see.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint), these are just physics. I doubt if there is anything better than the OME53.

[DAKS]

I use that eye piece, and I think it's great.
However, I still prefer to take off my glasses and set the diaptor adjustment.
By the way, it is easier to get to the diaptor adjustment with that viewfinder.
David

[eddie1960]

Don't know what your prescription is but for reading my right Eye (the one I shoot with ) is +3 so I picked up the Pentax M +3 diopter correction adaptor. Got mine through Pentax parts department for a measly $26
it's excellent, offered in -2 to +3 in one step increments
My Manual Focus hit rate has improved dramatically
with the built in diopter adjust i figure I have a couple more years before my eye is worse than I can correct

[jeffshaddix]

Thanks for the comments guys. I just tried looking through the viewfinder without my glasses without much luck. I'm nearsighted and have an astigmatism, so I don't know if that's correctable through adapters.

Typically (with my glasses) I keep the diopter adjustment at one from the far right (-). Without my glasses, I had to move it one more notch to (-), which is the limit for that direction. It helped a little bit, but it still wasn't near as clear as with my glasses. Moving towards plus made it much much worse.

I guess the best solution would be to find adapters to fit my bad eyesight if they exist!

[Just1MoreDave]

A lot depends on your prescription; glasses could be correcting lots of different issues. I'm around -5 diopters nearsighted. In real-world terms, without glasses, about a foot away is good. So going without glasses doesn't work for me*.
I used a magnifying eyepiece from Nikon, this one:

Amazon.com: Nikon DK-21M Magnifying Eyepiece for Nikon D200 Digital Camera: Camera & Photo

It's slightly less magnification than the Pentax, slightly cheaper, fits but not that smooth, but otherwise quite similar. It projects a bit when mounted, which might affect how the camera fits in a bag. I had to "look around" to check the status line and corners. On the *ist DS, that was fine. On the K-7, I thought it wouldn't work well due to the 100% coverage, so I left it off. I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

*Wife: "Can you tell what color that stoplight is from here, without glasses?"
Me: "Without glasses, I can't even tell there's a stoplight."

[jeffshaddix]

Hmm...I shouldn't be that bad, I'll have to call me eye doctor to figure out my prescription (edit: looks like I'm about a -3.25). I doubt I'd be able to fix my astigmatism though.

BTW, check this out: TENPA 1.22x Viewfinder Magnifier for Pentax DSLR Camera - eBay (item 220676077267 end time Jan-27-11 00:13:19 PST)

Looks interesting...although I'd prefer a flip-up style I think.

Question: If I add a Viewfinder correction lens, does that prevent me from using an eyepiece or magnifier of any kind?

[Frogfish]

Jeff - have you considered wearing contact lenses ?

My eyes are 'variable' - without my contacts I can see fine through the viewfinder with my right eye, so when out shooting I often leave my left lense in (for distance) and take the right one out (for the viewfinder) !

A rather more extreme solution would be Lasik !

[jeffshaddix]

Jeff - have you considered wearing contact lenses ?

My eyes are 'variable' - without my contacts I can see fine through the viewfinder with my right eye, so when out shooting I often leave my left lense in (for distance) and take the right one out (for the viewfinder) !

A rather more extreme solution would be Lasik !

Yikes, I think that would make me dizzy! I guess I could look into contacts; call me crazy, but I just don't like the idea of sticking something in my eye. As for lasik, I don't think my eyes have finished adjusting, so I wouldn't make a good candidate.

Maybe I should get over being stubborn about contacts. Thanks for the comment!

[Frogfish]

Jeff : Eyes not finished adjusting ? Are you under 21 years old ? If so then your eyes may still be growing after that our eyesight never stops changing. I wore contacts from 16 years old (1974) and was delighted at the change.

However Lasik is amazing - I had it back in 1985 when it was only available in 3 places in the world (actually it was KT laser surgery, but for our purposes similar) and rather primitive compared to today's superb surgery. I didn't need contacts again for around 15 years.

[xjjohnno]

A silly question perhaps but seeing as I'm interested in the magnifier, does it crop the image in the view finder or does it retain it's origianal framing?

[jeffshaddix]

Jeff : Eyes not finished adjusting ? Are you under 21 years old ? If so then your eyes may still be growing after that our eyesight never stops changing. I wore contacts from 16 years old (1974) and was delighted at the change.

However Lasik is amazing - I had it back in 1985 when it was only available in 3 places in the world (actually it was KT laser surgery, but for our purposes similar) and rather primitive compared to today's superb surgery. I didn't need contacts again for around 15 years.

Hey Frogfish, I'm 26, but so far every year I've gone to the optometrist my prescription has changed (for the worse). I'm planning on going again soon so hopefully I've stayed the same.

I may try one of these magnifiers, and if that doesn't work then I'll resort to contacts.

[jeffshaddix]

A silly question perhaps but seeing as I'm interested in the magnifier, does it crop the image in the view finder or does it retain it's origianal framing?

As best I can tell the ome53 and other low power magnifiers keep the original framing, but you may need to tilt your head around to see the whole frame (especially with glasses). In contrast, the 2x magnifiers crop the frame in the center, but most will have a flip up option so you can see the framing.

[Kerrowdown]

I use 'em on all my bodies and yes I wear glasses, IMHO any disadvantages they give, are more than made up by the advantages they bring.