Soft focus problems

[gll]

Just wondering how most of you focus, I'm farsighted, I can see wildlife so far off my kids just shake their heads, but I cannot see the settings on my camera without bi-focals, I can see settings inside the camera just fine without glasses, so I generally shoot without the glasses on. My 500 is manual focus and I have blown some great opportunities lately. I’m going to try shooting with the glasses on. Wondering about something I could attach to the eyepiece?

[AndrewCCM]

Depending on the camera, you should be able to get a diopter to attach.

[Jim Victory]

You might want to try this eyepiece if you shoot Canon.

http://www.thecamerahunter.com/Merch...tegory_Code=EY

[zeroendless]

what about camera diopters adjustment? does it help?

[WLPelzmann]

For wildlife, I generally use a single point autofocus and center it on the eye. If I let the camera chose the focus points, it frequently selects something other than what I want, ears, wings, etc., then I have to rely on DOF to bail me out.

Does your manual focus 500mm provide any kind of focus confirmation signal, or are you entirely dependant on your eyeballs ? In low light that would be tough, even with good eyesight!

[ShotInTexas]

Be sure there isn't a built in diopter setting on your camera. I had some trouble with soft manual focus when the diopter had been bumped from the neutral position without me realizing it. Make sure it is set a the neutral or zero setting, usually indicated in center of the dial or switch range.

[gll]

My D2x has a diopter, I have it set one notch to the +, seems sharpest there but I'm gonna recheck it in bright light, I have tried to use the auto focus indicator when I have time, on the bobcat it happened fast and when I realized he wasn't going to run I looked for the indicator and it showed way off from what my eyes were telling me, then I noticed I was on the wrong focus sensor, I usually keep it in the center. I guess this is when the bobcat realized he was dealing with a rookie and just left

[Jim Victory]

On my old manual focus cameras and lenses I just bought a diopter lens for my viewfinder that match my eyeglass prescription.

Now I use the AF to focus on a point then adjust the viewfinder controls until the image is in focus in the viewfinder. This way I don't have to wear my glasses and can still MF when I want to using the prefocused viewfinder.

Another option is to get a focusing screen that will help with MF.