Dioptre: look through the viewfinder without glasses

Thursday 8 August 2019, 14:41 by Michelle Peeters | 7,438 views | 6 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Are your eyes getting worse? A viewfinder becomes less comfortable then. How can you tell whether the camera has focused correctly? And can you read all the important information projected at the bottom of the viewfinder?

You can easily solve this with a small dial right next to the viewfinder. This is where you adjust the dioptre.

You can use it to set both positive and negative correction, which makes the image sharp again. Whether you are near- or far-sighted. That is a real relief.

It is also useful if you wear glasses, because you can often look through the viewfinder without them after all, giving you a slightly wider field of view. The dioptre can be adjusted on both an optical and a digital viewfinder.

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About the author

Michelle Peeters is fotografe en oprichter van DeuxBleus Fotografie. Michelle herkent het bijzondere in het gewone en het gewone in het bijzondere. Ze heeft zich nooit willen specialiseren en is daardoor van alle markten thuis.

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6 comments

hypofocus wrote on Sunday 11 August 2019 at 10:26 | reply
I always make sure to let my course participants who wear glasses know that they can adjust the diopter in the viewfinder.
And I always explain it to the participants who don't wear glasses too, because the diopter setting on many cameras can easily shift when you take the camera in or out of your bag.

People who wear glasses for a prism or cylinder correction don't get any use out of it, though. I have glasses myself for a cylindrical correction. And I actually don't have any diopter correction. Still, I prefer to use the camera without my glasses. Fortunately, my eyes get used to it quickly.
Translated from Dutch.

Frouke Ringenoldus wrote on Tuesday 13 August 2019 at 13:57 | reply
It is important to first turn the knob all the way towards the plus side, then let your camera focus automatically. Once both of these have been done, turn very slowly towards the minus side until it is sharp, then stop turning immediately. If you turn too far or start on the minus side, your eyes can accommodate this minus correction themselves and you will have the opposite effect of correcting your prescription. In addition, this knob has nothing to do with your eyes deteriorating or being bad. If you need corrective=glasses, you do not have bad eyes but merely a construction flaw in your eyes, they are too long or too short.
Translated from Dutch.

Heleen wrote on Tuesday 13 August 2019 at 14:21 | reply
The diopter range goes from -2.0 to +2.0. What if you have a more severe refractive error? Are there still solutions for that.
Translated from Dutch.

Mac wrote on Tuesday 13 August 2019 at 16:07 | reply
People who wear glasses with a high prescription don't benefit from this either, as the diopter can only be adjusted to a limited extent.
Translated from Dutch.

els van asten wrote on Tuesday 13 August 2019 at 17:31 | reply
Even with lenses in, it works for me.
Translated from Dutch.

Stefanie wrote on Wednesday 14 August 2019 at 14:44 | reply
Even for many people who don't wear glasses, it's still useful to know what that little wheel is for, I've often pointed out to people that this could be the reason they don't see sharply through the viewfinder, the wheel gets accidentally turned
Translated from Dutch.

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