bessa r2m or r3m for glass wearer ???

i've never used a rangefinder before but have used a slr, and have never had any trouble with the viewfinder.

Ive read that glasses have a significant effect on the shooting experience with a rangefinder.

 

i can get a bessa r3m(1.0x) rignt now and im very temped to just go for it, but scared that i might not be able to properly use it properly. what do you guys think should i wait for a r2m(.7x) or just go for the r3m??

 

my vision is -3.5 and my glasses lens are relatively thin

Edited July 2, 2019 by billmillychillyilly

I've used rangefinders for over 50 years and worn glasses most of that time. As my prescription has changed it has been frustrating. My best avice is simply to ensure 2 things: first that you current prescription properly brings your eyesight to either +/-0 any you have sufficient accommodation to adjust to the the built in (usually) -0.5 diopter of the view/rangefinder, or that you you can get and easily use an eyepiece diopter (I use a 0 - which is camera specific bringing the slightly negative diopter to zero). As to glases thickness, people who have thicker lenses tend to have their camera slightly further removed from their eye, and therefore sometimes lose the edge framing marks in their viewfinder. IMHO merely an accommodation on the user's part. I strongly suggest before plunking down money for a rangefinder, that you visit a good dealer and try the camera/s yourself to see how comfortably you are. These days I'm ok w/ RF bodies, but really prefer built in diopter adjustments on my SLR bodies..although I do have clip on diopters where that isn't an option.

that you visit a good dealer

 

Good luck finding a dealer with Bessas. If you are concerned (and you are right to be) go for the 0.7X one. It's more likely to work for you.

Are you using a 50mm lens? The R3M has frame lines for 40mm, 50mm, and longer. With eyeglasses, I find the 50mm frame lines in my R3M easy to see. The 40mm lines are not easy (some eye shifting is needed to see them all: I'm used to doing it with the 40mm lens). I like the big viewfinder image of the R3M, compared to the 0.7x ones.

My glasses used to be thick as old coke bottles until modern technologies allowed for thinner lenses....it's something like -9.5 or -10....it's awful, and I use my Leica rangefinders all the time, digital and film. Today I'm headed out with an M4 setup. Tomorrow it might be my digital M262 or other film body, an M6.

 

If you want to shoot with a rangefinder, just do it. It works. The only issue I have is having to shift my eyes around in the finder to see the 28mm frame lines in the M6 and M262 when I use that lens since those finder lines are so extreme. It's not like those lines are all that accurate anyway, especially in the M6 since that finder was designed to show the frame lines at the closest focus distance so most of the time what's actually captured on film is much wider than what those lines show anyway.