Adjustable diopters (was: Re: [Leica] R8 focusing problems, now what to shoot?)

[Doug Herr <71247.3542@compuserve.com>]

On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, Harrison McClary wrote:

> Saturday, February 20, 1999, Eric wrote:
>> I  had  the  R8s  diopter  setting wrong. One day in the middle of a
>> basketball  game,  I  recalibrated the diopter in the viewfinder and
>> shot  the  rest  of  the  game.  I  was amazed at how much better my
>> focusing just got.
>
>I  want  to know why on earth all camera manufacturers now think it is
>necessary to include this stupid adjustment on cameras today?
>
>This one thing causes me more trouble than any other aspect of today's
>camras.  The  damn thing is always getting twisted one way or another.
>When my eyes are tired I can never tell when it is adjusted right. And
>on  every  camera  I  have  ever used with this damnable adjustment...
>Leica,  Nikon,  Canon...  the  image  ALWAYS  looks funny through the
>screen  Like  looking through a wide angle lens or something. There is
>curvature  on  the focusing screen, or something that makes a world of
>difference from looking through the old pre adjustable diopter days.
>
>All  in  all I HATE the adjustable diopter and wish they would do away
>with  the damn things.  In the past I paid $200 per camera to have them
>taken  out  of my EOS 1's and I guess I am going to do that again soon
>to my new ones. Gads the thing ought to be an option.


This is a big reason I like the SL so much - it does what I want AND NO
MORE THAN THAT!!  I don't have to check the AF mode, AE mode, exposure
compensation, motor/winder mode, diopter setting, IS mode, custom functions
and flash mode every time I pick the thing up.  Most of that stuff is
useful to me at most 5% of the time and the other 95% of the time it slows
me down making sure it's turned off or disabled.  Not to mention I don't
miss carrying all those extra batteries everywhere I go.

With the SL it's just a quick focus, line up the needles and click!  And
Peter no need to get picky yes I do carry a spare battery for the SL but
it's only an ounce or two and I have to replace it only every few years.

IMHO feature-itis is the bane of the modern SLR!

Doug Herr
Sacramento