[Leica] Vision problems, the saga continues

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

Thanks, Jim.  I too have both vertical and horizontal misalignment, 
which is one reason the issue has taken so long to pin down.

I must admit that being a Leica shooter is more important to my 
self-image than maybe it oughta be.  :-)  I'm going to have to figure 
out whether I'm hanging on to the past beyond its expiration date, or 
whether this is just an engineering problem with a solution out there 
somewhere.  I do feel like I'm too young to have to give up Leica RF 
just yet. So the implications of yesterdays' diagnosis hit me pretty 
hard emotionally.

All this would be less of an issue if Leica had an adjustable diopter 
setting in its eyepiece.  Or if I could walk into a camera store and try 
Leica diopters, which one can't do except in certain very major cities.  
Just getting the diopter right is only part of the equation.  Whatever I 
do also has to work with my glasses, and it's important to have both 
sufficient eye relief something that won't scratch the glasses.

--Peter
---

Jim Nichols wrote:
 > Hi Peter,
 >
 > I am familiar with your problem.  My wife has been dealing with double
 > vision for the last fifteen years.  The prisms have been gradually
 > increased in strength, and she has also had cataract surgery. With one
 > eye covered, her vision is excellent.  With both eyes open, she has
 > frequent problems.  In her case, the misalignment is not only lateral,
 > but also vertical, requiring prisms in two dimensions. Fortunately, our
 > ophthalmologist is fairly knowledgeable in this area, but it still seems
 > to be just trial and  error.
 >
 > Good luck in getting it right.  The entire process can be very 
frustrating.
 >
 > Jim Nichols
 > Tullahoma, TN USA
 >
 > On 5/24/2014 3:09 AM, Peter Klein wrote:
 > > Some of you may remember my travails with over the last three years
 > > with two cataract surgeries and several complications. One lingering
 > > issue is that while I now have good distance vision, I also have
 > > double vision when looking to the right.  Several ophthalmologists
 > > have slowly converged on the problem but never completely solved it,
 > > despite many appointments and several different changes of glasses.
 > >
 > > I finally had my appointment with a doctor who specializes in this
 > > issue, which is called strabismus. To make a long story short, my eyes
 > > are slightly misaligned. I had eye muscle surgeries as a kid which
 > > pretty much fixed it for most of my life, but with age it's
 > > reappeared. The cataract surgeries changed my vision from nearsighted
 > > to normal,  which made the misalignment more noticeable. The prism
 > > corrections in my glasses that the other eye docs prescribed are
 > > reasonably good, but could be improved.
 > >
 > > The verdict is that I will never be free from glasses despite now
 > > having good distance vision. I am not a candidate for surgery--the
 > > misalignment is not serious enough to be worth the risk. I have to
 > > wait another month and a half for an appointment with the "ortho"
 > > person, who will mess with more prism corrections and get it as right
 > > as they can.
 > >
 > > All this directly affects my use of Leica rangefinder cameras. Since
 > > the cataract surgeries, I've found that I can focus my M6 and M8 much
 > > more easily bare-eyed than with glasses (I think the glasses'
 > > astigmatism correction simulates some degree of diopter change). So I
 > > need to take my glasses off to best use the Ms.  All of this fiddling
 > > with glasses gets in the way of using the Leica quickly to photograph
 > > people, which is one of the reasons why I use RF cameras in the first
 > > place.
 > >
 > > What's maddening is that I know I can get the viewfinder right. I can
 > > do it with the little Megaperls 1.15x magnifier, which has an
 > > adjustable diopter (unfortunately, it's not calibrated). But I can't
 > > use it for real shooting with glasses, because it has insufficient eye
 > > relief to see the full normal lens frame, and the metal eyepiece with
 > > fingernail notches (for focusing) will scratch my glasses. Leica
 > > diopters have flat metal eyepieces, and I can't try them locally, so I
 > > have no idea what the eye relief will be or if glueing felt on them
 > > would work for me.
 > >
 > > I'm not giving up--eventually I'll find out what diopter I need, and
 > > risk having to sell it if it doesn't work.
 > >
 > > The good news, of course, is that I still can see.   :-) And I will
 > > continue to make images somehow.  But I am really bummed out by the
 > > possibility that I might not be able to be decisive-moment Leica RF
 > > people-shooter any more. I don't want that to happen.
 > >
 > > --Peter
 > >
 > > _______________________________________________
 > > Leica Users Group.
 > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
 > >