Depending on the survey and the country, about 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 people have eyeglasses, even if not used all the time.
Most adults over age 45 have presbyopia, or the inability to focus at close range. They use reading glasses.
For those with distance vision and/or astigmatism or other corrections, they wear eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Most DSLR cameras have a diopter adjustment to enable one to look through the eyepiece viewfinder with or without wearing glasses or contact lenses.
My photo hobby involves 2D, 3D and video photography at events such as historical re-enactments, air shows, and character photography at comic-con.
All of these are “fast action” scenarios – taking off and putting on glasses in between photos has not been a great option. Consequently, I have been looking at other options.
I am fortunate in that I have had good vision all my life and did not get my first reading glasses until late 40s, and first distance vision correction in mid-50s, for use while driving. My distance vision correction is small enough I am not (yet) required to wear glasses while driving, although I do wear glasses as it is more relaxing on my eyes to do so.
Glasses and Photography
When I have been photographing at air shows, I tend to keep my glasses off so I can quickly put my eye up to the camera viewfinder. More recently, due to wanting to wear sunshades over my glasses, and making it easier to spot aircraft in the sky, particularly when they fly out aways before returning to the airfield, I’ve been wearing my glasses – then removing them rapidly into a shirt pocket so I could use my camera’s eye viewfinder.
But I have found this is not practical.
- One, its time consuming to swap glasses off to take photos.
- Two, lenses become dirty, quickly.
- Three, I occasionally drop my glasses when doing this maneuver. Very bad.
I have myself carrying 3 sets of glasses.
- Generic dark glasses
- Distance vision glasses with or without clip on sunshades.
- Reading glasses
- And no glasses when using the camera.
At the last air show I attended, the “clip ons” for my prescription glasses broke. Then I dropped my generic dark glasses, scratching the lenses.
Juggling 3 sets of glasses and 2 cameras has become a fiasco – and I began looking for better solutions.
Continue reading Wearing Eyeglasses and Using Camera Eye Viewfinders