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Photo Forum / Digital Photography / DSLR Cameras / January 2007Nikon D80 diopter adjustment
New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon D80. The Quick Start guide and the manual both say to adjust the viewfinder (diopter). There is a small wheel to make this adjustment near the viewfinder. Turning the wheel doesn't seem to make much (if any) change on the way the brackets look in the viewfinder and the knob is difficult at best to turn. Do I have a problem or is the change so subtle I am just not seeing it? Any help would be appreciated. RS > New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon D80. The Quick > Start guide and the manual both say to adjust the viewfinder (diopter). [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Any help would be appreciated. Sounds like a problem. Is the camera on when you try this? (it should be). Doc >> New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon D80. The >> Quick Start guide and the manual both say to adjust the viewfinder [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Doc Hi Doc, Yes, the camera is on. I even remembered to remove the lens cap! <g> Using some of the other suggestions offered I now can see a difference. The small wheel is still difficult to turn but with a little practice it comes easier. Thanks for the response, RS For practical purposes the diopter adjustment is not useful for most people. The range of adjustment is quite limited anyway. If you have a significant refraction error without corrective lenses the diopter adjustment will not make up for this. You are better off using glasses even if you cannot see the entire focusing screen at one glance. Even if the diopter adjustment can compensate for your eye when you look away from the camera you will have to put your glasses back on. This is a guaranteed way to induce eye strain or worse. The only exception for this would be for critical manual focusing with the camera on a tripod. Alas the viewing screen of the D80, while tremendously bigger and brighter than the D70, is virtually useless for critical manual focusing--that will require bracketing exposures around what you think is correct focus. At least I have found no other way to achieve critical manual focus of stationary objects. > For practical purposes the diopter adjustment is not useful for most > people. The range of adjustment is quite limited anyway. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > around what you think is correct focus. At least I have found no other > way to achieve critical manual focus of stationary objects. I agree. Thanks! I think due to the groups suggestions I am on the right track. RS > For practical purposes the diopter adjustment is not useful for most > people. The range of adjustment is quite limited anyway. If you have [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > when you look away from the camera you will have to put your glasses > back on. This is a guaranteed way to induce eye strain or worse. <snipped> Both my eyes have stabilized at about -1.75 so most cameras with diopter adjustments are fine. Astigmatism in my right eye seems to get a little worse every year. Left (dominant and shooting eye) seems astig. free. Knock on wood. She noted that my close up focusing ability was better than she expected for my age (I can read quite well at about 7" from my eyes) and I attribute that to always reading w/o my glasses... the 'glasses on/ glases off' DOES NOT induce eye strain. It is better to exercise the muscles in the eye in order to conserve their range for the long term. I recently had a full eye exam as it seemed to me that while reading that there was a spot in front of my right eye. The opthalmologist attributed this to the 'dead spot' or 'floaters' in the eyeball jelly. I drove home with my pupils chemically dilated. It was bright and sunny. Ouch! talk about RAW... Cheers, Alan  Signature-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch. >> For practical purposes the diopter adjustment is not useful for most >> people. The range of adjustment is quite limited anyway. If you have [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > drove home with my pupils chemically dilated. It was bright and sunny. > Ouch! talk about RAW... Wow, I thought it was negligence on my opthamologist's part the one time I had this happen. It was a bright day and I couldn't see a thing but I was young and ignorant. My two other opthamologists since then have provided throw away sunglasses which I turned down because I had brought my own skiing sunglasses for those two visits. Greg Signature"All my time I spent in heaven Revelries of dance and wine Waking to the sound of laughter Up I'd rise and kiss the sky" - The Mekons Today, Roadsign made these interesting comments ... > New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon > D80. The Quick Start guide and the manual both say to adjust [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Any help would be appreciated. RS, the diopter adjustment wheel alters the focus of what you see in the view finder, not what markings the camera shows on the "ground glass". The main purpose of this control is to adjust for individual vision, e.g., near-sighted, far-sighted, glasses, etc. In the case of my Rebel XT, I need to set mine to near one extreme if I am shooting without my reading glasses on and near the other extreme when I have them on. One of the problems with getting old is that I cannot see to read without my glasses, thus I cannot read the text in the viewfinder nor on any of the camera's many controls, hence I wear my glasses most of the time. Can't speak to the difficulty in turning the little wheel. Mine is somewhat stiff, possibly because of its small diameter giving it little mechanical advantage. Incidently, as a hint to see if you do or don't need to adjust it, try running the wheel quickly from one extreme to another and note whether you see a difference, rather than trying to make very minute adjustments. One other comment, that some might disagree with: if you can read all the controls on the camera and can trust its auto-focus system, then it doesn't much matter if the image in the view finder is crystal clear or not, but if you're trying to focus manual, having the diopter set correctly can be crucial to being able to judge when you are or are not in-focus. SignatureHP, aka Jerry "HEMI-Powered" <none@none.en> wrote in news:Xns98A76CE59CAE4ReplyScoreID@ 140.99.99.130: > Today, Roadsign made these interesting comments ... > [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > manual, having the diopter set correctly can be crucial to being > able to judge when you are or are not in-focus. Hi Jerry, Thought I would find you in here! I think you nailed it with that description. I can see a very small difference in the small brackets when rapidly turning the wheel. Sort of like when the eye doc asks you if 8 is better than 9 about 6 times! The wheel is stiff to turn but I think I have it now. Thanks for the assist! RS, aka Tony Today, Roadsign made these interesting comments ... > "HEMI-Powered" <none@none.en> wrote in > news:Xns98A76CE59CAE4ReplyScoreID@ 140.99.99.130: [quoted text clipped - 55 lines] > > RS, aka Tony No problemo, Tony! I monitor a large number of NGs but seldom post these days for reasons we've talked about on the phone. But, since you're an old-time photographer like I am, you can also see the "wisdom" in making large-scale changes to a subtle control like diopter, else you fool your own eyes and can actually set it to a non-optimal setting. Minor tip: you should generally only have to go thorugh this process once unless somthing changes, e.g., you get new glasses, so just pick some typical "subjects" to aim the finder at whilst you're twiddling the diopter control and "see" (pun intended!) if there is or isn't a difference. Sometimes, lighting can be a factor, but so is experience. Of all the things you've got to learn el quicko with your new toy, I wouldn't be all that worried about having the diopter 20% off from "right". SignatureHP, aka Jerry > Today, Roadsign made these interesting comments ... >> New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon >> D80. The Quick Start guide and the manual both say to adjust >> the viewfinder (diopter). There is a small wheel to make this >> adjustment near the viewfinder. Turning the wheel doesn't seem >> to make much (if any) change on the way the brackets look in >> the viewfinder and the knob is difficult at best to turn. I'm not sure how this works on your camera, but with the F100, it is necessary to lift the wheel outward before turning it, then press it in when properly adjusted for sharpest view. I find it easiest to do this by using a wide angle lens on a mid-far subject with lots of details and letting the AF find the focus - after which I adjust the diopter for best sharpness. >> Do I have a problem or is the change so subtle I am just not >> seeing it? Possibly. "Older" eyes have greater problems adjusting to inexact focus compensations and if you are young, your eyes may just compensate over a wide range of errors... > RS, the diopter adjustment wheel alters the focus of what you see > in the view finder, not what markings the camera shows on the [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > I cannot read the text in the viewfinder nor on any of the > camera's many controls, hence I wear my glasses most of the time. You may find this useful -- www.ferrario.com/ruether/articles.html#glasses - it describes a four-distance glasses arrangement that I devised that does not result in "mono-vision", but does smoothly provide sharp vision over a very wide range of distances and ideal compensations for camera use without the negatives of "lineless bifocals" or "progressive lenses". It is not ideal for long-term reading (I use specialized glasses for this), but for general seeing, it provides sharp vision from under 2' to infinity without the focus breaks that bifocals (or, ugh!, even trifocals) have. > Can't speak to the difficulty in turning the little wheel. Mine > is somewhat stiff, possibly because of its small diameter giving [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > manual, having the diopter set correctly can be crucial to being > able to judge when you are or are not in-focus. Yes - but it is always nice to see the DOF and focus the best you can. I fault recent cameras for having unsharp viewfinders (even the Nikon N90 and N70 were inferior in this respect, especially to the N8008 and F3, and later ones were TERRIBLE!). A good, sharp VF is fundamental to a good SLR - otherwise one of the main reasons for using an SLR is lost. -- David Ruether DRuether@twcny.rr.com rpn1@cornell.edu http://www.ferrario.com/ruether >> Today, Roadsign made these interesting comments ... > [quoted text clipped - 67 lines] > rpn1@cornell.edu > http://www.ferrario.com/ruether Tremendous info David. Thank you! I'll check the websites you offered. It certainly is great to have a group of people offer opinions and suggestions to a guy with a new camera. Happy New Year, Tony > New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon D80. The Quick > Start guide and the manual both say to adjust the viewfinder (diopter). [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Do I have a problem or is the change so subtle I am just not seeing it? The D80 and the D200 have pretty much the same diopter adjustment. You adjust for the center bracket, which is projected onto the ground glass. If the bracket looks clear and sharp, then the diopter adjustment is right -- for you. If the diopter adjustment is not right, the center autofocus bracket will look fuzzy or slightly doubled. You will have a tendency to want to hold the camera slightly away from your eye so that you can see the viewfinder better. The wheel is deliberately stiff so that you do not have to constantly reset it. I find the diopter adjustment to be critical at my age. >> New to the group and have a quick question about the Nikon D80. The Quick >> Start guide and the manual both say to adjust the viewfinder (diopter). [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >The wheel is deliberately stiff so that you do not have to constantly reset >it. I find the diopter adjustment to be critical at my age. Thank you C J, Due to the help of the group I have found that what you say is exactly right. I too have the age thing making the adjustment critical. After rotating the wheel back and forth I see exactly what you describe and now I understand it is a correction for MY eye, not the camera. Happy New Year to you and thanks for the response, Tony > Due to the help of the group I have found that what you say is exactly > right. I too have the age thing making the adjustment critical. After > rotating the wheel back and forth I see exactly what you describe and > now I understand it is a correction for MY eye, not the camera. If you still experience some degree of problem with the eye piece, here is some information from Nikonusa, and this appears to be applicable for the D80 and other models. Nikon eyepiece correction system Prescription+4+3+2+10-1-2-3-4 Nikon correction lens+3+2+10-1-2-3-4-5 Note: Cameras without eyepiece correction sytems built in such as the FM3a have a -1 diopter setting as standard. In these cameras the viewfinder eyepiece supplied has no value and is plain glass and should not be confused with a correction lens. Use the above table to calculate the correct Nikon eyepiece for your prescription. The rubber viewfinder eyepiece of some cameras may need to be removed when using diopter adjustment lenses. These accessories can be ordered through a Nikon Professional Dealer. Part # 2948 NCP correction -5 Part # 2947 NCP correction -4 Part # 2946 NCP correction -3 Part # 2945 NCP correction -2 Part # 2944 NCP correction +3 Part # 2943 NCP correction +2 Part # 2942 NCP correction +1 Part # 2941 NCP correction +.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a link for a selection, other dealers should have these as well. http://www.adorama.com/NKDP2N.html http://www.adorama.com/Cameras___Lenses_35mm_Film_SLR_Cameras_Accessories_Nikon.html >> Due to the help of the group I have found that what you say is >> exactly right. I too have the age thing making the adjustment [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > http://www.adorama.com/Cameras___Lenses_35mm_Film_SLR_Cameras_Accessori > es_Nikon.html Good stuff Jimmy. Thank you. I think I've got it now, but will keep this info in my Nikon folder. Happy New Year, Tony >....................................................................................................... > The wheel is deliberately stiff so that you do not have to constantly > reset > it. I find the diopter adjustment to be critical at my age. [Sigh...] Yup, I know exactly what you're talking about... |
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