[Leica] Changing eyes, M focusing

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

Up until recently, both my glasses and contacts prescriptions were fine 
for focusing an M camera. When I got the M8, the smaller magnification 
made focus a little more difficult, but still quite doable.

My latest prescription has changed all that. I can still focus the M8 fine 
in bright sunlight. But in standard room lighting and dimmer, I'm having 
difficulty focusing at about 2 meters and closer. The viewfinder image is 
slightly blurry--just enough to throw me off.  The issue is the same with 
both glasses and contacts.  All this is after I looked at my optometrist's 
eye chart through the M8 viewfinder with various corrections, and he 
adjusted my prescription accordingly.

My optometrist says my eyes are healthy, I'm just near-sighted and 
middle-aged.  :-)

It seems like a single screw-in diopter correction for the M bodies is not 
the answer, as the viewfinder itself seems fine for 2 meters and farther, 
but I need something different as I get closer.  A couple of solutions 
come to mind:

1) Progressive lenses in my glasses
2) An adjustable diopter correction for the M8

Progressive lenses might work. I guess you just hold the camera lower on 
your glasses for focusing on nearby objects. Since I do computer work, 
progressives might mean I could get by with only one pair of glasses.

Now, I tried progressives about 10 years ago. I used them for about a 
month, but couldn't quite get used to them. I was perceiving varying 
barrel distortion and other weird effects like the image "following 
sligthtly behind" as I turned my head from side to side, and it drove me 
nuts.  I much preferred ordinary bifocals, so I ended up with them, plus a 
additional single vision pair of glasses for computer work.  Maybe now 
that I've had the experience of adjusting to monovision contacts, I might 
be more adaptable(?)

The Megaperls magnifiers have an adjustable diopter correction. Their 
1.15x magnifier would bring the M8 image up from .68x to .78x, and I could 
probably just leve it on the camera for lenses from 28mm to 90mm. It would 
give me a diopter adjustment I could tweak between near and far. This 
would work with contacts as well as glasses.

So, calling all middle-aged dudes and dude-ettes with M cameras!  How have 
you coped with creeping presbyopia? Have you tried progressive lenses, and 
how do they work for you, both with M cameras, and in real life?  Have you 
adjusted well to them?  Do you get a stiff neck from pitching your head up 
and down to "focus," or is it pretty natural after a while?

And does anyone have experience with the Megaperls magnifiers?  How usable 
are they with glasses, and is the diopter adjustment useful for dealing 
with near vs. far focusing?

Thanks, all!
--Peter