Canon -2 Diopter E for Most EOS Cameras

Comments about Canon -2 Diopter E for Most EOS Cameras:

I am using a EOS Digital Rebel XSi with Canon 60mm macro lens to take closeup shots, mostly of flowers. Focus is critical and my aging eyes (59 years of wear and tear) need -2.5 diopter glasses, but I prefer not to shoot with them. Using the built in adjustable correction has not worked well for me. After adding the Canon -2 diopter I fine tuned with the built in. I am now finding it much easier to get a sharp focus on fine detail.

Comments about Canon -2 Diopter E for Most EOS Cameras:

I have a Canon 40d, so does my wife. Coincidently we both have very similar vision. We have many L-series lenses. Using the diopter adjustment on the camera with its 18 available positions set all the way to the negative didn't get true clarity through the viewfinder without my glasses. With my glasses on, I could not clearly see the info at the bottom of the viewfinder, so had no choice but to not use my glasses and never really see if I had true focus or not. I had to trust the camera to get it right. Without any written reviews, I had no clue how to select the proper diopter, and was instructed by the voice on the phone at B&H to talk with my eye doctor to determine which to use. Here are a few things you need to know. First, look at the plastic eyepiece that comes with the camera. It has no lens in it. A diopter of -2, for example, has a lens. That is what gives the change. You still have the 18 positions to fine tune after you've inserted the -2 or whichever you pick, replacing the one that came with the camera. The rubber piece that comes around the eyepiece with the camera was virtually impossible to remove from my old eyepiece without assuming it would snap. There were no instructions with my two -2 diopters explaining any of this. The shape of the new -2 diopters seemed slightly different than the original so I imediately ordered the rubber part to go around the new -2. Now that I've got my old eyepiece and rubber frame off and replaced with my new -2 and new rubber piece, I can look through the view finder without glasses on and see perfectly. It amazes me how often now I realize that the camera has chosen to focus on something just off the DOF I'm looking for. For example, I zoom in on a face with the aperature at 2.8 and the camera gives me a perfect tip of the nose when I really need the eyes to be perfect. With the L-series lenses, I can still adjust focus after the camera has locked focus when set to one shot, so both my wife and I finally are getting the type of sharp focus that too often has eluded us.