Left handed left eyed photographers

<p>I am right handed, and VERY right eyed (my left eye is lazy) and I am so glad of this considering the cameras that most manufactures make. For the left handed, left eyed photographers out there, how do you manage? Would a dedicated left hand left eye camera tempt you?</p>

<p>I'm left handed and left eyed. I was right eyed but a minor injury to facial muscles meant I could not keep my right eye closed tight enough for long enough to keep light out, even with a hoodman eyepiece.</p>

<p>Decades of using various camera with RHS shutter release button and 'right handed' layout means I'm well trained to this sort of button/knob layout. </p>

<p>I'd be like a fish out of water trying to adapt to a reversal of ergonomics...... so essentially no. I freak out enough when I up grade bodies and there are minor changes to ergonomics. I've been shooting with my D700 since it was released and it it's truly the first camera I can honestly say I can accurately and quickly adjust most settings and access functions with sufficient dextrous efficiency whilst holding my eye up to the viewfinder. I'd be lost without a similar type ergonomic layout........ it's too familar for me now............</p>

<p>Most left handed people I know included myself can adapt themselves very well to most of the stuff made for right handed (music instruments, japanese sword technique for example) it has never crossed my mind that cameras were made for the right handed people, excepted some TLR with the focusing knob on the right. As long as your two eyes function well, using the right one or the left one isn't a problem to me, it's just a question of habit, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with being righty or lefty.</p>

<p>I think giving a 'Righty' a left-handed camera would be about as useful as one of those lovely 24-70mm AF-S Coffee Mugs!</p>

<p>The increasing availability of high-precision rapid prototyping will make it easier to mirror objects to cater for the 10% of the world who use left-handed control, through preference or need. </p>

<p>I commonly use both eyes. I often shoot horses jumping cross-country fences. Trouble is, when they go in pairs and are supposed to jump together and you're tracking the lead horse through the VF and the back horse goes out of frame. You can't move the already panning camera to relocate it, but my left eye can still see the whole scene. So, if they fail to jump together, I can re-frame after horse one has jumped to catch horse two. One eyed, I can't see the second horse.</p>

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<p>My right eye is a bit weaker than the left eye but I still use it mostly for viewing the viewfinder. With a high eyepoint viewfinder it is not so difficult to use my left eye to compose with the viewfinder; I do this at times. I am, however, right handed, so I wouldn't know how being left handed would affect things - I guess it would be good to have the left hand stronger as it is holding most of the weight anyway, under the lens.</p>

<p>I'm right-handed. My right eye is dominant, but has keratoconus, so I'm reliant on the diopter adjustment to make the finder comfortable to use (if I only want one copy of the image I'm looking at!) - when I used my rangefinder recently, which has no such adjustment, I actually ended up using it left-eyed.<br />

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There are a few TLRs with the shutter release on the left hand, as I recall. Other than the spoof by KR, I've not seen any sign than a manufacturer is really planning on making a left-handed grip/release, though I'd support the concept in principle, especially since I'm an advocate for moving <i>all</i> the (off-lens) controls to the grip hand.<br />

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Re. the eye dominance, there's Joe McNally's shoulder grip solution ("da grip"). I'm sure holding the camera via a hammerhead flash and using a remote trigger would be a workaround if absolutely necessary. There are plenty of people who aren't just left handed but actually can't use the right hand at all.</p>

<p>As a lefthander, I've adapted pretty well to right hand dominant products like scissors and things over time, but I've always felt perfectly comfortable with SLR cameras. It seemed natural to me in the pre-autofocus days to do the more critical task of focusing than pushing a button and moving a lever. It makes me wonder now whether a lefthander designed the camera controls to begin with - </p>

<p>Well at least modern digital cameras don't have a leverwind to poke you in the eye!</p>

<p>To echo what Mike said. There's a school of thought that says you should try and keep both eyes open at the viewfinder, so that you have some peripheral vision for someone or something moving into frame, anticipating sports shots, etc.</p>

<p>I'm right-handed and left-eyed, and I believe that all dSLRs and SLRs are tailor made for people like me. Everything is where it should be. Interestingly, I shoot a bow left handed/left eyed, but a rifle is shot right handed/left eyed (most awkward). Intelligent design, my ***!</p>

<p>My handedness is ambiguous at best, but on what is arguably the first, or at least the first significant, 35mm SLR, the Exakta, the shutter release is on the left front, the wind lever on the left top, and focus is done with the right hand.<br>

If you are first, doesn't that make all the others that followed "backwards"?</p><div></div>

<p>Well, it's on the right on a Leica. And on a sort of dangly cable thing or whichever way around you screwed the lens into the board, if you go back to older large format stuff. But interesting that the Exacta had it there.<br />

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I'm slightly confused by the vertical positioning of shutter releases. I would have thought that the front/back press of the Exacta and Rolleiflex (at least) would push the camera less in a direction that's likely to affect the image. Maybe I'm wrong to think of it in terms of translation, and that the rotating moment is more of a problem.</p>

<p>I'm right handed but I'm really looking forward to a left handed body. Because sometimes it's good to have two bodies in both hands.<br>

I'm right eyed, but I don't think it's too much a trouble. I use right eye to look through the viewfinder most of the time, although I would switch to lift eye if I want to keep both eyes open.</p>

<p>I've never actually tried it, but it looks a little as though it should be possible to use an integrated grip's button to shoot the camera left-handed and upside-down (if my caveman brow is a suitable stability substitute for wedging the camera against my fleshy cheek). In the absence of anyone offering to give me a D4, I guess I should give it a go with my F5. :-)</p>

<p>I'm left-handed but handedness on a camera is ambiguous - I like it the way it is with the left hand supporting the camera. But I do find being left-eyed a problem with DLSRs (wasn't a problem with my old Leica or mechanical film SLRs). The rear controls are nicely arranged for the right hand even of a lefty, but being left-eyed my face is in the way and I typically cannot readily use the rear buttons while looking through the viewfinder. And my nose smears the rear screen! </p>

<p>I now have some minor vision problem in my left eye that means it's difficult to see the readout at the bottom of the viewfinder, so I guess the time has come to train myself to use my right eye!</p>

<p>I have a disability which forces me to shoot almost entirely left handed, having limited use of my right hand. I recently had to start shooting left eyed due to vision issues with my right eye.<br /> Using my left eye has been more of an inconvenience than shooting left handed, probably because I was born left handed and my vision issue is recent. In any case I doubt I would have any use for a left handed camera, as I've been shooting right handed SLRs and now DSLRs left handed since I got serious about photography in 1995.</p>

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I am left handed and left eye dominant. I write, draw, and shoot left handed, but I most often use tools with my right hand.

I have never had an issue with cameras, except one. I used to have a Mamiya RZ67 with the left-handed grip. As much

as I loved that camera, I didn't likes shooting handheld with it, which I prefer to do whenever possible/practical. Not only

because it is a large and somewhat cumbersome camera to carry, but the left handed grip was just unnatural to me and I

could never get used to it. I really wish they had made a right handed grip with the shutter release built in and a way to

put the fine focus knob on the left. I would still own it if that were true. Instead, I traded it for a Pentax 67II and I couldn't

be happier. Honestly, since I focus with my left hand, I think I am more in tune with manual focusing than if I had to focus

with my right.

<p>I'm strongly left-eye dominant and essentially right handed with some ambidextrous habits. My left arm and hand are stronger with better stamina. My right is more nimble, agile and accurate, but tires more quickly. I learned to touch type in high school so I'm comfortable using either hand for most button-type devices. When playing video games I tend to assign most repetitive functions to my left. The right handles stuff requiring speed and reflexes.</p>

<p>I'm betting most touch typists and PC gamers have developed similarly near-ambidextrous capabilities and might welcome more mirrored, user-assignable controls.</p>

<p>Ideally, I'd like to have a camera with more user-assignable mirrored controls: buttons like the Nikon V1 on both sides; thumb and forefinger dials on both sides, especially the multi-function thumb dials like Ricoh uses, which serve as jogging/slewing controls and pushbuttons. Allow the user to assign the functions as desired. So a southpaw could assign the left side buttons as shutter/video release, and the right side buttons as function buttons for other purposes.</p>

<p>This would play to the soapbar design of cameras like the Nikon 1 System, which could easily become perfectly ambidextrous with minor modifications. Nudge the lens, LCD and EVF toward center. Even right handed photographers might find it useful to have mirrored, user assignable controls. As digital cameras add more capability for shooting not only stills or videos, but both simultaneously, it makes sense to mirror some controls and make them user assignable. It wouldn't be any different from handling video game controls.</p>

<p>I'm Right Handed and focus with my left eye, I got a Leica coming and am wondering if that is going to be a problem.</p>

 

<p>Jim - having been down that road many years ago (assuming you're talking about a Leica rangefinder rather than Leica R body), you'll either get used to a mashed nose or begin switching to use the right eye. I was left handed and left eyed, but got tired of the mashed nose, so worked on developing the right eye. Now, many years later I'm really glad I did, as my left eye has such a large blind spot that I can't use any camera with it.</p>

<p>I'm left-eyed (and right-handed) and use both AF Nikon SLRs and Leica rangefinders without significant problems. On some smaller Nikon AF SLRs, the Nintendo control can be a little more fiddly to use with the camera centred on your left eye, but it's fine on a D300 size body. Manual focus Nikon SLRs with a wind-on lever that needs to be pulled out to the standoff position to turn on the meter are much more irritating.</p>

<p>To me, the Leica, with its viewfinder on the left of the camera, seems almost designed for left-eyed use - it's easier to keep the camera stable with the body braced against your face (and nose!). I suppose one drawback is that you have to move the cameras a little away from the left-eyed shooting position to wind the film on an M (not an issue with the old screwmount cameras, which have a film advance knob rather than a lever). The left-eyed position also blocks the view of your right eye, which may or may not be a disadvantage, depending on whether you find the view from your other eye useful or just distracting. Some right-eyed users like to keep both eyes open and (especially with an M3, which has about the right degree of viewfinder magnification) see the framelines 'floating' in their field of vision. Finally, I suspect the infamous rangefinder patch flare issue might be more of a problem for left-eyed users, since your eye is probably a little further away from the finder, or at a slight angle to it (unless you have a very small nose!).</p>

<p>New poster here. <br>

I'm right handed but left eye dominant. I've always shot that way, so it has never felt odd or unusual to me. </p>

<blockquote>I'm betting most touch typists and PC gamers have developed similarly near-ambidextrous capabilities and might welcome more mirrored, user-assignable controls.</blockquote>

 

<p>Honestly, I'd be happy (when used to it) with controls on either side of the camera, though I am now pretty used to using my left hand as a pivot with its elbow wedged on my belly. (I swear that if I lose weight I'm going to be unable to hold a 400 f/2.8... Anyway, this is also how I used to shoot a bow.) My objection is generally that <i>one</i> hand has to be holding the lens and the other holding the camera, so - while I don't care <i>which</i> side the dials are on - I do want them only on <i>one</i> side. While I'm right-handed, I <i>am</i> pretty fast at typing, and I can play a piano; I've no idea whether that helps.<br />

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But I'd completely support the idea of more manufacturers doing a left-handed production run. I'm sure some right-handed people coming to photography might actually prefer the inverted configuration. It would involve a lot of internal design changes in most cameras, though. The short-term solution is probably one of the cameras which has a touch-screen shutter release, but there are certainly ergonomic compromises in those (they're just the <i>same</i> compromises for each hand!)</p>

<p>I'm right-handed and left eye dominant, however the left eye is weaker than the right one. On top of that, I wear glasses which pushes my left eye away from the viewfinder. I have tried to train my right eye to work with cameras but it hasn't gone well. :(</p>

<p>This is probably the wrong place to ask, but I'd be interested to know how many left-eyed people simply resort to using a camera with an LCD on the back for composition.</p>