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does focusing an M improve eyesight?

gooomz

Member
in theory, does manual focusing your M strengthen your eyesight over time or does the squinting and trying to get focus right on a fast lens actually weaken your actual eyesight over time?
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
I doubt that it had much effect on me, but over the years it has become more difficult for me to focus an M.
I think that your eyes will do what they will do whether you shoot an M or not.
-bob
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I'm with bob. My eyes have done whatever they've done ... I have no problems focusing an M now, and never did in the past either.
 

gooomz

Member
wasn't sure if focusing in difficult light was in theory bad for your eyesight kinda of like reading in dim light.
 
I think you get better to guess you metering in the street if you shot without putting the camera to you eyes, thats my experience ..
 

cam

Active member
actually, yes. but, also, no.

i seem to be in the minority, but it has changed mine... my prescription for both glasses on contacts changed around, to the extent the eye doctor checked me a few times to verify (what had been a very stable prescription for several years). my weak eye (the one i'm comfortable focusing with) became stronger, but the other languished... in essence, my prescription switched around.

go figure?
 

kanzlr

Member
actually, yes. but, also, no.

i seem to be in the minority, but it has changed mine... my prescription for both glasses on contacts changed around, to the extent the eye doctor checked me a few times to verify (what had been a very stable prescription for several years). my weak eye (the one i'm comfortable focusing with) became stronger, but the other languished... in essence, my prescription switched around.

go figure?
funny, that happened to me also. I am short-sighted, but the rangefinder-eye improved...but I think that's rather coincidence :wtf:
 

jonoslack

Active member
I doubt that it had much effect on me, but over the years it has become more difficult for me to focus an M.
I think that your eyes will do what they will do whether you shoot an M or not.
-bob
Hi Bob
I'm with you about your eyes doing whatever they'll do.

But I wonder whether finding it more difficult to focus an M is more to do with doing it less often?

I find that it's really practice, lots of practice and it gets easier - put it down for a week and it's more difficult again - for a month and it's really tough.
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Bob
I'm with you about your eyes doing whatever they'll do.

But I wonder whether finding it more difficult to focus an M is more to do with doing it less often?

I find that it's really practice, lots of practice and it gets easier - put it down for a week and it's more difficult again - for a month and it's really tough.
I shot Ms regularly for several years and had pretty good results. Then :)eek:) I found that critical focus was harder to get with my MP and M8.
several trips of cameras and lenses to DAG and Leica New Jersey maybe tweaked up the gear but my hit rate continued to go down.
I was averaging around 5-10k frames per year.
-bob
 

jonoslack

Active member
I shot Ms regularly for several years and had pretty good results. Then :)eek:) I found that critical focus was harder to get with my MP and M8.
several trips of cameras and lenses to DAG and Leica New Jersey maybe tweaked up the gear but my hit rate continued to go down.
I was averaging around 5-10k frames per year.
-bob
Ah yes - clearly not practising enough :ROTFL:

I really do stand around in the kitchen snapping away and then checking the focus . . . . but to be honest, the real revelation for me was to use different strength contact lenses in each eye - with a 1.75 in my right eye which I use to focus - don't use magnifiers or dioptre adjusters as they only seem to make things worse. Trying to focus with glasses is a nightmare, and with vary-focals it's even worse:bugeyes:

I've certainly got old-git eyes!
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Ah yes - clearly not practising enough :ROTFL:

I really do stand around in the kitchen snapping away and then checking the focus . . . . but to be honest, the real revelation for me was to use different strength contact lenses in each eye - with a 1.75 in my right eye which I use to focus - don't use magnifiers or dioptre adjusters as they only seem to make things worse. Trying to focus with glasses is a nightmare, and with vary-focals it's even worse:bugeyes:

I've certainly got old-git eyes!
Contacts might be an option however my eyes require hard lenses but due to another issue with Blepharitis I can't wear them either.
So I am stuck with glasses. I usually wear vari-focals but I even had a single focal set made expressly for shooting, but it really didn't help all that much.
-bob
 

Double Negative

Not Available
I think the finder peeping has little effect on eyesight. If it's going, it's going. And mine... Is definitely going. Though I don't wear glasses to shoot.

If you have astigmatism, there's a new product coming to market - the Walter RX Eyepiece. Custom made for your prescription, primarily targeted at astigmatic shooters. Since I have some mild astigmatism and generally "less than ideal" eyesight, I have high hope for it... I'll be doing a full review on La Vida Leica soon if anyone's interested. It's being made up right now and should have it soon.
 

dhsimmonds

New member
I could never get on with rangefinders. Many years ago I used an Olympus rangefinder and just couldn't be 100% sure of getting the focus either in time to get the shot or be sure that it would be a keeper!

However as I was also using both MF and 35mm SLR's as my primary and serious cameras, both of them manual focus, I felt sure that it was something to do with being more comfortable with a reflex viewfinder.

Heresy for the rangefinder buffs I know! I developed my technique for zone focusing and it was OK, but then I sacrificed bokeh and all of that stuff....I couldn't win with it. So I gave it to my wife who used it by zone focusing and the sunny F11 (UK light!) rule for exposure and she very successfully used it for many years to snap the kids as they grew up and for her other requirements in running various women's organisations.

I have tried many times to "like" both the M8 and M9 but whenever I try it at a Leica dealer or the Leica Fellowship meetings, I could never really take to that darned rangefinder! I determined that I must be a 'died in the wool" reflex user, until that is I tried and even purchased the lovely little Fuji X100 with it's OVF/EVF....bingo, that is what I really needed all along!

I can't wait until Fuji introduce their promised interchangeable lens version unless of course Leica beat them to it! You never know, pigs might even fly!:ROTFL:
 

Photojazz

Member
Let's see, Julia's movie was Eat Pray Love I think?

For me, my Leica means "Shoot Pray love", or substitute hope for love. LOL. but I still love it.

That said, if it's motion photography, I cannot fathom using Leica. For me, it's still image photography only, or mostly still anyway, or stopped way down to increase depth of field if I have a field of view with some movement.
 
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