Viewfinder problem, Can't crop perectly

[Sarmad]

I've a problem with my viewfinder. I wear glasses. When I shoot through my viewfinder, I often miss the corners of the shot. They are not perfectly visible to me. Numerous times after taking a shot, I find out there was some unwanted object poking in from one of the corners. Now I compose the shot, and one after other look at all the corners. but as I separately look at the corners, the crop is disturbed when I individually adjust the corners, because if I compose the shot by cropping some object off the first corner, I might later move the camera in some way to make adjustment for something in one of the other corners, thus getting unwanted objects back where they were. The problem in short is, I can't see the whole frame through my viewfinder (not LCD), probably because I wear glasses. Are there any adjustments I should make?

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts: (though you don't say what camera you're using - I'm assuming a DSLR, but if not some of the below might not work).

1) You can adjust the diopter on the side of the viewfinder and you can also get diopter adjusting eye attachments which can help if you wear glasses so that you don't have to wear them to look through the viewfinder.

2) Compose your shot a little wide, so that you know you've got the content you want and you leave a little around the edges as waste space. With most modern DSLRs you've got more than enough mega-pixels that you can lose some around the corners when touching up the composition in editing.

3) Use the back of camera LCD to help compose - not practical of course if you're using a larger lens unless you are using a tripod; but its another tool you can make use of when the situation allows.

 

[Designer]

Do your cropping on the computer.

 

[Sarmad]

A few thoughts: (though you don't say what camera you're using - I'm assuming a DSLR, but if not some of the below might not work).

1) You can adjust the diopter on the side of the viewfinder and you can also get diopter adjusting eye attachments which can help if you wear glasses so that you don't have to wear them to look through the viewfinder.

I'm using 600D. And I always thought dioptre adjustment was only to make focus points sharper. But now I get it, as it is the power of the viewfinder lens, I can adjust in a way that the rays of light converge at my retina and not in front of it. Not a very practical option as I wouldn't want taking off my glasses for each shot and I hate contact lenses, It might help in certain situations though.

 

[Light Guru]

I can't see the whole frame through my viewfinder (not LCD), probably because I wear glasses.

I'm using 600D.

It has NOTHING to do with your glasses.

Look at the specs for your camera the viewfinder coverage is only about 95%. Most cameras do not have full 100% coverage in the viewfinder.

 

[Sarmad]

I can't see the whole frame through my viewfinder (not LCD), probably because I wear glasses.

I'm using 600D.

It has NOTHING to do with your glasses.

Look at the specs for your camera the viewfinder coverage is only about 95%. Most cameras do not have full 100% coverage in the viewfinder.

Wow, I think this is the reason, that 95% viewfinder coverage. But point is I'm having problem looking at those 4 corners in the viewfinder. I think I'll just stick with my current shooting style and crop in the post.

 

[ruggedshutter]

They make different eye cups that you might be able to find one that works better for you.

 

[Designer]

I think I'll just stick with my current shooting style and crop in the post.

Very good. Since there is usually some straightening to do, and perhaps some other adjustments, you're going to be in each image anyway, so just frame wide enough to do your straightening and cropping on the computer.

 

[TCampbell]

A few thoughts: (though you don't say what camera you're using - I'm assuming a DSLR, but if not some of the below might not work).

1) You can adjust the diopter on the side of the viewfinder and you can also get diopter adjusting eye attachments which can help if you wear glasses so that you don't have to wear them to look through the viewfinder.

I'm using 600D. And I always thought dioptre adjustment was only to make focus points sharper. But now I get it, as it is the power of the viewfinder lens, I can adjust in a way that the rays of light converge at my retina and not in front of it. Not a very practical option as I wouldn't want taking off my glasses for each shot and I hate contact lenses, It might help in certain situations though.

Time for an analogy of what a viewfinder is.

Consider how a view camera works. View cameras -- still used by some fine art photographers but more common in earlier days of photography -- were focused by projecting light onto a piece of frosted glass at the back of the camera. The camera does not actually have any film in it while it is being focused. It would be difficult to see the image on the frosted glass in order to focus the camera (especially if there's bright light shining on the back of the camera) so the photographer has a light-proof drape (typically a piece of black cloth) that they drape over the back of the camera and stick their head under it to focus in the dark. Once focused, they close the shutter, slide in the film hanger, remove the dark-slide protecting the film from light, and and take the shot.

Now imagine you're a myopic photographer and you aren't wearing your glasses. You'd have problems accurately focusing the camera because even when the camera is in crisp focus, the image projected on the frosted glass will appear to be out of focus to you.

Compare this to how a DSLR works... the camera is STILL projecting the image onto a piece of frosted glass -- which modern cameras refer to as the "focus screen". The pentaprism viewfinder effectively is the "black drape" so that when you put your eye to the viewfinder, light from behind you is effectively blocked so you can get a clear view of the image on the "frosted glass" inside.

This means that what you REALLY need to manually focus a camera are two things: (1) as one might imagine, the lens needs to be focused to project a crisp image onto the focus screen but (2) your EYES need to ALSO have accurate focus on that focus screen.

If the focus points etched on the screen are out of focus then what it really means is that your EYES are out of focus (since we know the etched lines on the focus screen should be crisp). This is an indicator that ANYTHING that is actually "crisp" on the focus screen will appear blurry to your eyes.

It is important that, whether wearing glasses or not, you adjust the diopter dial on the corner of your viewfinder to make sure those focus points appear to be nicely focused. It's easier to do this by pointing the camera at a nice plain white wall so that there are no distractions in the background and you can nicely focus the viewfinder diopter.

Now that you know the focus is accurate between the screen and your eye, you can trust that anything that appears in good focus on the screen is also correctly focused for the camera.

 

[Derrel]

Eyeglass wearers have had the same, exact issue for decades. Years ago, in the early 1980's, Nikon premiered the F3 with the HP or High-Eypoint viewfinder, which gave a clear view of the corners with the eye positioned as far as 25 millimeters from the rear eyepiece, which made the F3HP one of the best 35mm SLR camera models ever made for eyeglass wearers. COmpared to regular, consumer cameras, the F3HP was a miracle as far as being able to literally SEE the ENTIRE viewfinder image, with a clear, black area surrounding the picture area. I shot the F3HP for about 15 years, because I could literally SEE better through the viewfinder than with other cameras, like the FE-2 or FM or FM-2.

Today, eye relief is still a little bit skimpy for many eyeglass wearers, with 16,17,18mm being considered "good". Something longer, like 22mm is substantially better than say, 18mm. The D3 has 18mm eye relief , the D2x had 19.9mm eye relief.

Not being able to SEE the corners of the frame leads to pictures that often have unpleasant surprises later, when reviewing the shots. Combine not being able to see the corners of the frame, and then getting an extra 40- to 60-pixels in the final image due to 95% finder coverage makes a compounded problem. You might just have to accept it, and resign yourself to cropping frames down a bit.

 

[Sarmad]

If the focus points etched on the screen are out of focus then what it really means is that your EYES are out of focus (since we know the etched lines on the focus screen should be crisp). This is an indicator that ANYTHING that is actually "crisp" on the focus screen will appear blurry to your eyes.

It is important that, whether wearing glasses or not, you adjust the diopter dial on the corner of your viewfinder to make sure those focus points appear to be nicely focused. It's easier to do this by pointing the camera at a nice plain white wall so that there are no distractions in the background and you can nicely focus the viewfinder diopter.

Now that you know the focus is accurate between the screen and your eye, you can trust that anything that appears in good focus on the screen is also correctly focused for the camera.

I've already adjusted the dioptre adjustment, and I'm having problems with cropping and not with focusing, but your help for clearing my queries about viewfinder is appreciated.

Not being able to SEE the corners of the frame leads to pictures that often have unpleasant surprises later, when reviewing the shots. Combine not being able to see the corners of the frame, and then getting an extra 40- to 60-pixels in the final image due to 95% finder coverage makes a compounded problem. You might just have to accept it, and resign yourself to cropping frames down a bit.

Yeah, I guess there's nothing much to do except making adjustments in the post.

 

[Scatterbrained]

As was pointed out, you don't have 100% coverage with that viewfinder. That means that what you see in the viewfinder isn't the full image. The image you see in the viewfinder is a cropped version of what the sensor sees, so inevitably there will be things around the edge of the frame that you couldn't see through the viewfinder. Put the camera on a tripod and use liveview, then you'll be seeing exactly what the sensor sees.

 

[bratkinson]

As one who wears glasses when shooting, I end up always shooting 'wide'. In fact, one of my photographer friends commented that all my shots are 'wide'.

So, as indicated by others above, I simply crop in post processing. I haven't figured out why, other than my getting older, a good number of my shots are tilted slightly. So I fix that at the same time as well. Problem solved.