First signs of old age - what to do....

I was out at the weekend trying to take some LF photos for the first

time since before xmas and was horrified to find that I could no

longer focus on my ground glass screen to be able to focus (sorry for

the bad english). My eyesight has always been damn good such that I

havent needed a loupe to fine focus but now I need something to be

able to focus at all - in just a few weeks and I'm only 42. I may be

in denial but dont feel the need for glasses as anything above about

10inches is still just fine so reading etc is not a problem. A loupe

seems too high magnification for gross focussing - Does anyone have

this problem and has found a good solution ? Time to see the eye

specialist....

David, I had the same problem getting out the 4x5 for the first time in years. I purchased some reading glasses at the drug store with a fairly high power, like 300. This allows you to focus on the ground glass with your face a few inches away under the focusing cloth. Experiment and measure how close you need to be focusing you eyes. Test various strenghs of reading glasses at the eyeglass rack and buy the ones that work at that distance. They are usually $10 to $15. The annoying thing is that to look anywhere else with these glasses is impossible, so get the slim ones you can drop down on your nose and look over the top. Hope that helps.

It happens to us all, some earlier than others, but our close focusing

ability gradually reduces throughout adulthood.

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If your eyes are otherwise fine, some cheap drugstore

reading glasses can act like a +1 or +2

close-up lens for your eyes. Not as powerful as the loupe, but

they'll allow you to see the entire ground glass. Put them on

when you go under the focusing cloth and nobody will have

to see that you're using them. :-)

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Of course, you should see an eye specialist every year or two

anyway, even if your vision seems perfect, if for no other reason

than to check for glaucoma and other degenerative eye diseases.

I agree with Richard. It just happened to me at age 50. One week I could read easily at arms length and the next week I needed glasses. The eye doctor confirmed that age really takes a toll on eyes. So yes, go see the doc just to make sure its nothing serious and go from there.

Get a loupe and you'll be 42 the rest of your life!

Yep David, happens to all of us, 44 and already had to get bifocals. Thats life...

Once you turn 40 you need to visit an opthamalogist at least once year. The change in your eyes may just be age related or it might be something else. Unless you have a spare set of eyes stashed away someplace (shades of Hannibal Lector!) you need to take care of your vision. This from a guy who is getting ready to turn 46 later this week.

Have you considered Hemlock?

David, I had the same problem and went the reading glasses route and that works fine. You should also consider spending $2.00 and getting a tether for the glasses, so you can let them hang from your neck while you use a loupe. This system has really helped me, and most of the time with my f5.6 lenses the 3X glasses work well enough that I don't have to use the loupe.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-Jerry

What to do? A practical solution would be to let you assistant take care of the focusing! If he cannot do it let him buy his eyeglasses, it could help.

David,

 

We're all in denial. I'm 56, wear glasses but pull them down to get a compositional look on the ground glass, then back up for loupe focusing, then down again because I've tweaked the frame and the ball head was too loose when I unlocked it so the camera flopped over.

 

Then it is too dark to see to focus in the early morning so I'm holding onto the loupe, the dark cloth, my glasses, which have slipped to a position too low to focus but not low enough to see the composition, my gloves I've removed and my ready load holder.

 

All this while standing on the edge of some precipice where just one mis-step would send me hurtling into space, where all these pieces would scatter to the four winds for someone to walk upon and it would appear as if I had been beamed up to a spaceship.... but looking over the edge, they would see my crumpled, lifeless body a hundred feet below on the rocks and think to themselves, "I wonder if he needed to have his vision checked?"

 

No, I don't have that problem.

As you age, the curvature of your lens changes, and you tend to get more farsighted: that is, your arm is too short to read your watch, and around 40 is typical. Pardoxically, nearsighted people's vision may actually improve a bit when this happens. I need glasses for the first time at about 42, and needed several adjustments until catracts set in around 60. Now I have plastic lens implants that do not focus, so I had to choose a distance to lock in on. I chose normal reading distance, and wear classes for distance, but they are bifocal so I don't have to remove them for reading. TAKE CARE OF YOUR EYES!!!!!! As mentioned above, there's more to find ouy about than just needing glasses, trust me.

Drink pyro! Straight! Never a problem with your vision again!

 

Meaning = A good opthalmologist and a couple of pairs of cheap drugstore glasses will do the trick! Its a fact of life!

As the other have said, you are experiencing the beginnings of presbyopia. This is caused by the crystaline lenses in your eyes become less flexible so you can't focus close up. It will only get worse. Pretty soon you will need glasses to read or even to see labels in a store.

 

But probably your eyes are not really any worse. You just need help to focus close up. With such help you should see as well as previously. The best suggestion for the present is the one already made. Get some drugstore reading glasses. Try different strengths. Since you still have some accomodation, you can probably get away with a +3.75 or less. But ultimately you will have to get specially made glasses.

 

As you age you may also have other problems such as cataracts. But don't worry that you may have to give up photography. With my cataracts out, I now see very well at age 69, and with my +5 diopter focusing glasses I can get closer than 7 inches from the gg.

It hit me at 48. Just tell everyone that you like soft focus photography. Its arty.

David, First, see the Doc. If you're going to need specs, get yourself a loupe. The good ol' 8x Agfas work good enough. If you don't need glasses by all means try the drugstore magnifying glasses. Reason? Who wants to be futzing around with two pairs of glasses in the field! When you get old enough, you get real thankful just being here and no matter how many times you think theres nothing left worth seeing something will come along and BAM!(usually either a rogue Buick running amok on the highway or a really good landscape!) Good Luck!

We're all much too into our hobby! I always believed that when the first signs of old age appear, then you either buy a new flashy sports car, or have an affair with a young hottie.

 

:)

Solution: Rocking chair, cane, shawl, bifocals, nice, friendly retirement community. It will do wonders for you, really!!!!!!!!

If you don't care much for the bifocal idea, there is always a Porsche and a

Trophy.

 

Mike

Middle age is a series of indignities. Oy.

I was diagnosed as nearsighted at age 14 and began wearing eyeglasses full time. I was required to wear them when driving. Around age 50, I realized that I didn't need eyeglasses for driving, anymore. Since then I have been able to pass the eye test without them, when renewing my driver's license. I don't wear eyeglasses around the house or for watching TV. However, I do need to use a pair of reading glasses, that I bought at Wal-Mart, for close-up vision, looking at this monitor, and composing on the groundglass. I still need to use a loupe for fine focusing. Neck cords for both the reading glasses and the focusing loupe are a bit of hassle, but workable. Stronger reading glasses seem to be difficult to use for composing and not quite strong enough for fine focusing. At age 72, my eyes are O.K. But, there are other body parts that don't seem to function as well, anymore. I'm glad I don't need them for photographing.

D.,

 

Kevin (above poster) has it right - OY!

 

Not to "out-optical" the rest of you -- but try this: I've been very nearsighted since I was a wee kinderlach (that means a small child in Irish/Yiddish). I was 20/750 in both eyes - corrected with specs to 20/20. No clear (uncorrected) distance vision, but sharp vision was possible at about 4" (yes inches). No real problems until the age of 42 when I went to contact lenses. My eye doc verified my age when I first put in the contacts and asked me to read the print on a brochure in the office. I told the doc, "Hey doc, I can't read." He said, "Shuch (sp?), the newspapers will get hold of that info and report that contacxt lenses make you stupid." Not really of course. The contacts lenses corrected my distance vision but my aging eyes could no longer focus at close (+- 16-18") reading distance. The only cure was reading glasses on top of the contact lenses.

 

But I still use a loupe to focus on the gg. But I still haven't figured out whether to use the readers or not on the grain focuser in the darkroom.

 

Yes, the indignities of it.

I'm 48, almost 49 and my eyes went when I was about 43. I now use bi-focal contact lenses. They're amazing!. Still use a loupe for fine focus though.

 

Hey Eugene they have pills for those other parts that don't work so good anymore, to bad they don't have pills for the eyes! ;}

 

I can sure relate to the gentleman trying to balance everything at once. I'm sure we all look like mad scientists thrashing around under our dark clothes.

I too have presbyopia (age related lack of ability to accomodate or focus on close small dim items). Many solutions have been discussed above. I have found that my folding Horseman relex viewer has made work Sooooo much more comfortable for me. It has a 2.5? stereo magnifier face piece which is large enough around the outside to allow my glasses to stay on while using it. The images are easily focusable with this magnification and I rarely need to use a loupe except in dim light. What a delight this has been. Also I get the added features of no dark cloth and an upright image.

 

PS: the image is from another member of the large format group who kindly sent it to me when I was investigating buying it.

 

Scott<div></div>

I'm a very young and horny 61, but I can't find a pair of glasses that are worth a damn.

 

In all truth, my eye doctor told me to use my perscription glasses and buy a set of big 125 diopter drugstore glasses to put over my perscription glasses (wearing two sets at once!) when I use the computer...Hey...it really works!

 

And...you ask me why I'm using a Holga now days!

 

But...I'm still horny and I don't really care if I can see what I'm doing or not! ;>)