[Sakura]

I am thinking of getting me an extra diopter glass for my K7 and was thinking of the following.

The default diopter setting is (as far as i know) from -2.5 up to + 2.5.

That isn't enough for me as my glasses are around -3.75

I really don't know if i am talking total nonsense, but hopefully someone on this forum can help me.

Lets say i buy myself a click-on diopterglas of -2.0 Is this something that you can add to the default settingsrange of the camera?
Then the range would be from -4.5 up to + 0.5, making it possible that i can use the camera without my glasses for manual focus, and with my glasses for autofocus, just by simply sliding the default diopter to the required setting.

Again, maybe it is total nonsense, but the idea seems tempting.

[Lowell Goudge]

I am thinking of getting me an extra diopter glass for my K7 and was thinking of the following.

The default diopter setting is (as far as i know) from -2.5 up to + 2.5.

That isn't enough for me as my glasses are around -3.75

I really don't know if i am talking total nonsense, but hopefully someone on this forum can help me.

Lets say i buy myself a click-on diopterglas of -2.0 Is this something that you can add to the default settingsrange of the camera?
Then the range would be from -4.5 up to + 0.5, making it possible that i can use the camera without my glasses for manual focus, and with my glasses for autofocus, just by simply sliding the default diopter to the required setting.

Again, maybe it is total nonsense, but the idea seems tempting.

NO Please don't take offence

As the title implies, I think you have gone completely mad, but don't get upset about it,

I too have a high negative diopter perscription, and have been using a camera for 30 years now.

in the early days, I tried shooting with my camera viewfinder corrected with slide on diopters, and found it impossible to use.

At -3.75 diopters, your vision is so bad you cant read a bu8ilding exit sign from more than about 10-15 feet, before the letters are complete blobs, trust me, I know.

If you correct your camera for eyesight, then as soon as you take the camera away from your eyes, you can't see a damm thing. It is frustrating as hell, and you are constantly flipping your glasses on and off.

It is much better to get used to shooting with your corrective lenses in place, and adjust your camera so you can see and focus with your glasses on

[RioRico]

Lowell is quite right. I've been shooting, and wearing glasses, for about 55 years. I always shoot with my glasses on. Trying to shoot bare-eyed just isn't practical.

[patrick9]

Lowell and Rio Rico are right I have worn glasses for 30 years I leave them on to shoot

[Sakura]

No offence taken by anybody
I have no experiance at all with added diopterglas to a camera.

I am also wearing glasses for some 40 years, and in the last few years i also need reading glasses, or take my glasses off when reading. (reading just with my right eye, my right eye is only +0.5, left eye is +2.25).

But with the K7 i am missing a lot of very good manual shot because they are sligtly of out of focus. so i was wondering of an added diopterglass would improve my shooting. Putting my glasses on and of isn't really a handicap because i would only take pictures without my glasses in special circumstances like makro shooting.

But when you would have to take the added glas on and off of you're camera it really would be a handicap. So that is the reason i wonder if you can add diopter classes so you could set it with the diopter slider when taking makro shots without you're glasses.

[RioRico]

I don't shoot without glasses so I can't help there. But I can recommend CIF (catch-in-focus). My vision is deteriorating. I often depend on CIF with manual lenses. With CIF enabled, the shutter only snaps when a subject is in focus. This may solve your problem.

[conradj]

What abt contact lenses? Do those help or hinder?

[Lowell Goudge]

No offence taken by anybody
I have no experiance at all with added diopterglas to a camera.

I am also wearing glasses for some 40 years, and in the last few years i also need reading glasses, or take my glasses off when reading. (reading just with my right eye, my right eye is only +0.5, left eye is +2.25).

But with the K7 i am missing a lot of very good manual shot because they are sligtly of out of focus. so i was wondering of an added diopterglass would improve my shooting. Putting my glasses on and of isn't really a handicap because i would only take pictures without my glasses in special circumstances like makro shooting.

But when you would have to take the added glas on and off of you're camera it really would be a handicap. So that is the reason i wonder if you can add diopter classes so you could set it with the diopter slider when taking makro shots without you're glasses.

I also take my glasses off to read, in and also when working on the computer, but I guess I am young enough (i'll leave that debate for another time) that my correct reading perscription is still somewhat negative in diopter, so that is a significant difference between our situations, and a slip on diopter may be appropriate, but I am not sure where you can get one.

I had one for my old Ricoh XR-2s which was actually a canon part, I am not sure what attachments are made for newer pentax cameras, but here is another idea.

What about a viewfinder magnifier, for the macro work. I have for example, a rignt angle viewfinder that has it's own built in diopter adjustment in addition to the viewfinder, and that I do use without my glasses when doing copy work, and adjusted to my natural eyesight without glasses.
I know there are some who use an eyepeice enlarger, so maybe they can chime in, In that case, set the camera for your glasses, and the eyepeice magnifier for the difference

[reeftool]

I'm wearing tri-focals and have had to adjust myself to using the camera with glasses. My distance vision is pretty good so I don't have anything like a -3.75 to deal with. I didn't start needing glasses until my 40's so the adjustment has not been easy. For years I couldn't adjust myself to wearing glasses when using the camera. As time has gone on, I have slowly begun to shoot with my glasses on. I wear them all the time when shooting AF. The tricky thing with bi or tri focals is making sure you are looking through the upper part of your glasses when looking through the viewfinder. With bifocals it probably won't happen. My glasses has the medium distance lens ( computer screen ) almost in the center of the lens so it's possible to use the camera looking through that part of your glasses. This is a situation where the regular lined glasses work better because you will see the cut off plainly. The glasses on/off routine gets old. The LCD is a total blur with my glasses off.

[patrick9]

I have astigmatism, without glasses nothing is in focus for me. I wear lineless bifocals/trifocals. I use the center part for shooting with a camera. I just have to make sure they are up where they belong and not slid down my nose. My DL has a diopter built in to the view finder, as does my ZX7. I assume by the question that the 7 doesn't ? I still havent bought a diopter to be used on any of my cameras that don't have one already on it ( there are two) . I have been considering a magnifier as Lowell suggested.

[Sakura]

Today i went to the oldest photoshop in our city, you know the type, older guy with huge experiance with almost all the brands that ever existed.

He also didn't know for sure if adding diopter glass would be as simpel as 2+2=4

He didn't had diopter glasses on stock, but was able to try to fit diopter hoods of several camera's on my K7.
Conclusion is that the diopter hood of the Nikon D7000 fits like a glove. He found the -2.00 diopter glass for the D7000, but it don't seems to be orderable, so that was a dead end.

But he had in his famous drawer still some diopter glasses for some old film-type cameras. He found two Canon diopter glasses of -2.5 and -3.0. I could buy those 2 for a couple of bucks. The -2.5 full plastic with soft rubber lining, and one -3.0 with metal bracket and hard plastic front.
The plastic one wasn't possible to make a nice fit, it was to large and covered the diopte adjuster totally. The one with metal bracket was much better and rather easy adjusted.

As of now, i can simply slide the diopter adjuster depending of i am using my glasses or don't use them.

And judging at the possible settings, it seems that the default diopter setting is a bit more than from -2.5 up to +2,5, i still have some adjustment space left when using my glasses.

[Klaus]

Lowell is quite right. I've been shooting, and wearing glasses, for about 55 years. I always shoot with my glasses on. Trying to shoot bare-eyed just isn't practical.

I don't find it practical to shoot with the glasses on. With glasses, I cannot see the whole viewfinder, light is coming in from the sides… no, no way I can make photos that way. I need to see the whole scene, and as I am focussing manually, see it very well. I have a small bag attached to my camera bag where I can leave my glasses when I am looking through the camera. I need about +2 diopters adjustment, and that's easy to adjust with K10 and K5. If I remember correctly, Pentax sells some lenses to attach to the viewfinder for people that need more then ±2,5.

Cheers - Klaus

[DaveHolmes]

-4.5 in my shooting eye (-5.5 in the other)... Shoot with glasses on and diopter all the way to the left...

[pacerr]

Two comments:

- I've successfully cut a rectangular plug of the correct size from cheap, plastic reading glasses lenses and affixed it in the view finder window of a few of the older film bodies like the MX and K1000 that don't have internal diopter adjustment. You can easily try it just by holding a lens tightly against the VF frame.

- I was up to +2.75 diopter reading glasses and +1.5 for distance with 65 year old eyes when I got the courage to try Lasik about three years ago. Worked great and set the optical clock back about 15 years. I now only use +1.5 reading glasses occasionally and the internal diopter adjustment on the DSLR's works fine for the rest. Costwise, I believe I've more than saved the price of the prescription glasses and eye exams I'd have gotten over the past years if I hadn't had the Lasik treatment and the convenience of not needing distance optics has been greatly appreciated.

H2

[Michaelina2]

I don't shoot without glasses so I can't help there. But I can recommend CIF (catch-in-focus). My vision is deteriorating. I often depend on CIF with manual lenses. With CIF enabled, the shutter only snaps when a subject is in focus. This may solve your problem.

Agree...

Another option is to set the AF to AF,C. Activate AF with half-press of the shutter using "Focus priority" on center point focus. In this configuration, the shutter fires only when the camera determines it has a focus lock. The downside is that sometimes the lock is not precisely on your desired focus point. The work around is to tighten your aperture so the general scene is in the focus zone created by the expanded DOF (say f/8). Also, with AF,C, sometimes you can quickly "pan" the subject in an attempt to get an AF lock on different subject parts while ripping off several quick images holding down the shutter button. Usually, one of these in the series will be OK.

Cheers...