Have you tried Back Button Focus & Diopter

[ROA44]

The Diopter I am aware of, and have adjusted and may have to again, is on the side of the view finder, (on my Nikon) and most DSLR's a lot of cameras but not all have one so need to check your manual, but I think some point and shoot cameras may have a software adjustment.

This helps to compensate for the variation in peoples eyes, so depending on the eye you use with the view finder for focusing, if you haven't adjusted give it a go. The adjustments are in small + & - increments.

As you are looking through the view finder and chosen your focus point, single centre point auto or manual focus the subject and then move the adjustment up or down until you can get the sharpest image possible try a few shots to check and adjust if necessary. This however may not resolve the situation for yourself, there corrective lenses for the view finder but you would need to try these before purchase. If you wear glasses then how you approach this is how you feel comfortable and what works for you

I know I have probably not covered this very comprehensively but is a start so over the next week for those who have not known about or tried it give it a go and let us know and or add to this as required.

With regards Back Button Focusing there is a thread currently running with a link to a site which give a bit more info on the subject , I will try to learn how to add the link unless some one beets me to it rather than extend this further.

So good luck and look forward to responses and as usual all CC accepted good or bad.

ROA44.

hope this ends up in the right spot.

[Granville]

It's here!!

Beat you to it.

I adjusted my diopter as soon as I got my camera due to me having old man's eyes. It makes it difficult for someone else to use my camera, but since I don't really like to lend it out, too bad.

[ROA44]

I refuse to accept old age but some say I'm already there BAH.

[ameerat42]

A Scottish (bg) neighbour of mine always tells me, [imagine Scottish accent]"Tell ya whort: utt ornly gets wurrse!"[/imagine Scottish accent]

And I'll see your "BAH" and raise you a HUMBUG
Am.

[Dazz1]

The Diopter I am aware of, and have adjusted and may have to again, is on the side of the view finder, (on my Nikon) and most DSLR's a lot of cameras but not all have one so need to check your manual, but I think some point and shoot cameras may have a software adjustment.

This helps to compensate for the variation in peoples eyes, so depending on the eye you use with the view finder for focusing, if you haven't adjusted give it a go. The adjustments are in small + & - increments.

As you are looking through the view finder and chosen your focus point, single centre point auto or manual focus the subject and then move the adjustment up or down until you can get the sharpest image possible try a few shots to check and adjust if necessary.

According to my manual, you don't need to take photos, just adjust it until the AF points in the viewfinder look sharp.

[arthurking83]

According to my manual, you don't need to take photos, just adjust it until the AF points in the viewfinder look sharp.

Actually the dioptre adjustment should be made so that all the information in the lower section of the viewfinder, such as No of image remaining, ISO, exposure meter indicator .. etc(as per availability within the viewfinder) should be sharp .. not so much the focus points, as they will be harder to get into perfect focus.

Of the three cameras I have at hand, I find that there are 3 click stops where the viewfinder info is sharp to my eye, and in if I see this, I usually choose the middle clickstop of those three good points.

Also be weary of eye fatigue.
Sometimes if you've been looking through the viewfinder for too long, you may find that you see a small amount of blurriness in your preferred eye whilst looking through the viewfinder, that may not normally be seen. This could be simple and temporary eye fatigue where it may be blurred one moment, and then after a short rest the vf may suddenly sharpen up again.

[ROA44]

Thank you Arthur, I do recall now reading about the info in lower screen now that you mention it and for some of the newer members as well as me this is the type of info that hopefully may be able to come out of this thread, not to say that it already isn't available but may be able to be linked back into the thread. Any web links that people may know of that may be relevant to each topic as it comes up as references that can be added to peoples Book mark list, so that they don't have to go through AP site all the time as well.

So not sure how this will develop but will see and go from there.

[fillum]

I recently bought a Nikon film body off ebay. First try with the camera I couldn't get it into focus, not even close. Tried AF, manual focus, different lenses - just wouldn't come into focus. Was starting to conclude I had a 'lemon' when I realised the viewfinder LED display was also out of focus . A quick diopter adjustment later and all was good...



Cheers.

[Dazz1]

Actually the dioptre adjustment should be made so that all the information in the lower section of the viewfinder, such as No of image remaining, ISO, exposure meter indicator .. etc(as per availability within the viewfinder) should be sharp .. not so much the focus points, as they will be harder to get into perfect focus.

Of the three cameras I have at hand, I find that there are 3 click stops where the viewfinder info is sharp to my eye, and in if I see this, I usually choose the middle clickstop of those three good points.

Of course, the digital display could be used to set the adjustment as well, didn't think of that. I think the Canon manual suggests the black dots of the AF points because they are scattered over the display, and even one is right in the centre, so if there are any aberrations you can at least set it so the centre is in focus.

I too find I need to pick the centre of about 3 clicks when setting it.

[ROA44]

Thank you all for your input. I know I have probably started with a fairly basic topic and at the moment and I will get a lot of things wrong with my initial intro to each topic but that will also be part of my learning and open the door for others to interact and hopefully I will get better as this evolves.
I will try to post a dot point explanation /reason for this thread so that some of the preamble can later be removed and make it easier for everyone else not to have to put up with my waffle.

The main point for me over the next month or so is to find out if this thread is worth pursuing.

The reason for a topic to last about a week, is so that people can see what the topic is, start to research and check how to activate the function and when applicable post results to see if it is working and get feed back and for where some may not be able to find the function then can ask for the help. I know this is already happening but thought this may help to consolidate things so let me know and will consider the viability after a few weeks.