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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> tired of squinting
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Showing posts 1 - 21 of 21, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 01/06/2006 03:35:25 PM · #1
Ok, I admit this is somewhat of a trivial post but when looking threw the view finder, especially when waiting a while for the perfect shot (like my daughter's ballet recital) my other eye (the one not looking through the view finder) gets so tired from squinting. Anyone have any tips or tricks on how to avoid this? I've thought about an eye patch but quickly dismiss it as I'm not sure I want to be known as Captain Dan - Pirate Photographer
 01/06/2006 03:36:38 PM · #2
Either just close your other eye naturally or keep it open.

That or practice saying "ARGHHHH Matey!"

Message edited by author 2006-01-06 15:37:33.
 01/06/2006 04:08:21 PM · #3
Originally posted by Spazmo99:
Either just close your other eye naturally or keep it open.

If you keep both eyes open, use your "master eye" for the camera.

Rant: When will Canon make a battery grip with the buttons on the other side for those of us who are "left eyed"?
 01/06/2006 04:17:10 PM · #4
Keep both eyes open. As Hankk said, be sure to use the dominant eye at the viewfinder. There are many benefits to keeping both eyes open, including more consistent focus. It's soemthign that can be learned through practice, even if it feels awkward to begin with.

Need to find your dominant eye? Hold your thumb out at arms length with both eyes open and psotion it over some smallish object in the middle distance; a doorknob at 10 feet, say. Then alternately close right eye/left eye. The eye that keeps the thumb over the object is the dominant eye. When you view with the other, non-doiminat eye your thumb will appear to leap to one side of the object significantly.

Robt.
 01/06/2006 04:17:15 PM · #5
When will any company make something that is at least ambidextrous let alone left handed...EVERYTHING is right hand oriented.
 01/06/2006 04:30:46 PM · #6
Originally posted by Alienyst:
When will any company make something that is at least ambidextrous let alone left handed...EVERYTHING is right hand oriented.


I don't mean this in any belittling way, truly; but out of curiosity, how would you go about creating an ambidextrous dSLR? I mean, I have to push the button with one finger or another, right? And I have to use the viewfinder with one eye or the other. Viewfinders are offset to the left so that the right eye can be pressed to the finder and the face isn't smushed utterly against the back of the camera. With the viewfinder on the left, the controls need to be on the right; where else will they fit?

I'm a man of limited imagination, probably, but all I can think of is to create both right-handed and left-handed models of the same dSLR, which would be economically absurd given the natural preponderance of right-handers in the population. But that's an old story, right?

R.
 01/06/2006 04:34:39 PM · #7
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
I don't mean this in any belittling way, truly; but out of curiosity, how would you go about creating an ambidextrous dSLR?


Maybe something with a pistol-grip & trigger coming off the bottom-centre, and viewfinder top-centre?
 01/06/2006 04:39:54 PM · #8
Keep it open. You can concentrate on looking through one eye. This is what people do when looking through a microscope or telescope.
 01/06/2006 04:46:09 PM · #9
Originally posted by Strikeslip:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
I don't mean this in any belittling way, truly; but out of curiosity, how would you go about creating an ambidextrous dSLR?


Maybe something with a pistol-grip & trigger coming off the bottom-centre, and viewfinder top-centre?


Just put buttons on the both ends of the grip :-) I know that would not help with landscape but I find more of a hassle with vertical then I do with landscape. While I would like a mirror reversed camera model, it's not going to happen.

As for the squinting just keep both eyes open or as earlier, practice the funny sounds.
 01/06/2006 11:16:51 PM · #10
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by Alienyst:
When will any company make something that is at least ambidextrous let alone left handed...EVERYTHING is right hand oriented.


I don't mean this in any belittling way, truly; but out of curiosity, how would you go about creating an ambidextrous dSLR? I mean, I have to push the button with one finger or another, right? And I have to use the viewfinder with one eye or the other. Viewfinders are offset to the left so that the right eye can be pressed to the finder and the face isn't smushed utterly against the back of the camera. With the viewfinder on the left, the controls need to be on the right; where else will they fit?

I'm a man of limited imagination, probably, but all I can think of is to create both right-handed and left-handed models of the same dSLR, which would be economically absurd given the natural preponderance of right-handers in the population. But that's an old story, right?

R.

You don't have to replicate all the controls; keep the camera as-is, but put a second set of controls on the left side of the battery grip (or vertical grip on the 1D series) for vertical shots with the viewfinder to the right. I'd be willing to use my right hand to trigger horizontal shots, and the left one to trigger vertical ones.

01/06/2006 11:24:08 PM · #11
In the few hundred years of violin making, i've never come across a left handed violin. (I've heard they exist though...)

Just a thought.
 01/06/2006 11:27:20 PM · #12
I cross-sight. Always have. When I was a kid I took archery classes, been around gun ranges since I was little, shot much much much more than just cameras, but always shot right-handed/left-eyed (cross sighting). People tried to "cure" me for years, but I won :P I sight my camera with my left eye, right eye open watching the action.

btw, i write right handed, but eat left handed, wear my watch on the right hand, etc.... fully ambi.
01/06/2006 11:34:08 PM · #13
I always keep both eyes open. I usually want to be aware of what may be happening out of the corner of my eye that may make for a more interesting photo!
 01/07/2006 12:33:02 AM · #14
I don't have a problem keeping both eyes open while shooting, but then again I'm blind in my left eye so it's a natural patch :)

Deannda
Work on keeping both eyes open though, you will focus better
 01/07/2006 01:05:58 AM · #15
Originally posted by Alienyst:
When will any company make something that is at least ambidextrous let alone left handed...EVERYTHING is right hand oriented.


Like the Leftorium?
 01/07/2006 02:35:28 AM · #16
Do what I do, close both eyes, that way thet don't get tired
 01/07/2006 03:12:37 AM · #17
Bathe them in Scotch, the soft focus effect is rather relaxing
 01/07/2006 04:19:55 AM · #18
I'd go for keeping both open..

I try to do this most of the time, for two reasons..

I got hit by a ref at a rugby game during the winter because I wasn't watching the game as well as the viewfinder.

And I find if I am shooting for a long while (a rugby game, about 90 minutes) my left eye wont focus properly if I've been squinting through the viewfinder for too long.

I don't find it a problem with telephoto lenses (longer than about 80mm equiv) but for wide angle my brain has difficulty with the act, so I try to 'just' close my left eye to avoid the eye-ball squashing squint effect.

:-).
 01/07/2006 05:10:10 AM · #19
I got into the habbit of keeping both eyes open when using a video camera, although that's a little more complicated because then I'm actively trying to pay attention with both eyes! Seems to transfer to regular photography quite well (in fact it's easier because I can disregard the external view then).

I'm blessed with not having a dominant eye (or, I suppose, I'm eye-ambidextrous!) so I can consciously supress or focus on either eye - which obviously makes the video camera trick a lot easier!
 01/07/2006 05:34:36 AM · #20
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
... Need to find your dominant eye? Hold your thumb out at arms length with both eyes open and psotion it over some smallish object in the middle distance; a doorknob at 10 feet, say. Then alternately close right eye/left eye. The eye that keeps the thumb over the object is the dominant eye. When you view with the other, non-doiminat eye your thumb will appear to leap to one side of the object significantly.

Robt.

I must be dense or something -- when I focus on my thumb, there are two doorknobs (one on either side of the thumb), but when I focus on the doorknob there are two thumbs (one on either side of the doorknob). If I focus between them I get two of each, with each thumb superimposed over a thumb of it's own. When I close one eye or the other I am left with only one thumb and one doorknob, but neither doorknob is covered by a thumb.

David
 01/07/2006 06:45:34 AM · #21
Sounds like you don't really have a dominant eye either.

When you focus on the doorknob your thumbs are unfocused and can't be resolved into the depth-perspective vision that your brain is generating from the two eyes.

As I understand it, "normal" people's brains will pick the vision from one eye (the dominant eye) and suppress the confusing extra information from the other eye. Lucky people like you and me get both image streams which results in the 'double thumb' thing you've noticed.
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