Originally posted by Not a Number 
I've been wearing eyeglasses (nearsighted) since before I started using SLR cameras. Being further away never affected the sharpness of the view. What it does affect is not being able to see the entire viewfinder and stray light or glare entering from the side.
In actuality the viewfinder are set so your eye focuses at infinity for the least eyestrain. With age I've needed reading glasses or bifocals and if I use my reading glasses I have to change the diopter on the viewfinder (of my DSLR) from what is set for my "distance" lenses.
Since I can't stand bifocals setting the diopter for my reading glasses would mean having to swap between my reading glasses and "distance" glasses whenever I want to look through the viewfinder or see anything past reading distance. I just keep it set for my distance eyeglasses. It means I have to hold the camera further away from me if I want to look at the view screen (not a problem on film cameras) or the labels on the controls but at least I can see clearly anything I may want to shoot outside of macro distance.
I find it works better to use my distance lenses of my bifocals. When I use my DSLR (it's a Canon 80D, sorry gang, I betrayed the sacred trust) I set the diopter on it for my distance lens. Less fumbling and I can get my face right up on the eye cup. I tend to use my distance lenses with the split prism focus and/or best guess on my older slr cameras (Pentax) and only my readers on the ground glass viewers (Rollei, Graflex, Yashica, etc...)
Granted, I have astigmatism which requires only a comparatively light correction to most glasses wearers. I can understand the frustration, with swapping out all the time, which is why I finally sucked it up and got used to bifocals for normal walking around. I save the readers for computer use or doing things at the work bench.
Post #4 by Kerrowdown
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