Transitions Eyeglasses (Page 3): When you say Transition lenses, do you mean continuous focus from near to far, or glasses that turn into sunglasses when outside? I've been wearing...

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

When you say Transition lenses, do you mean continuous focus from near to far, or glasses that turn into sunglasses when outside? I've been wearing progressive lenses for years and have no problems with their continuous focus and photography. But, the glasses that turn darker when exposed to sunlight are a different story. They drove me nuts when I was out shooting. I was constantly shoving them up on my forehead, over my hair. I've found that sunglasses and photography are NOT a match made in heaven.

tomcat

rjaywallace wrote:

George, I had a BIG problem with Transition eyegla... (show quote)

I wear them and I never saw that disclaimer. I also got a pair of clip on sunglasses when in the car because they don't always tint down 100% to dark. But overall, I really like the tinting to sunglass dark outside. It is a bit scary when I go into a darkened hallway for the first few minutes.

tomcat

mizzee wrote:

When you say Transition lenses, do you mean contin... (show quote)

I shoot high school soccer in spring and fall and have never had an issue with my Transition and Progressive lenses. They do tint down perfectly dark so that I can see the fields and players easier without any glare (obviously no shade). For action photography I have the shutter release set to "release" rather than "focus" priority so that I get the shots whether they appear in focus to me or not. I had to adjust the diopter on my D500 for the angle of view through the central part of the lens for those shots like portraits or stills where I have time to acquire focus and I also set the Beep to mid-level so I can confirm that focus is locked on, even if it looks out of focus in the viewfinder. I just don't trust my eyes now

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

ronichas wrote:

I have transition glasses. When looking thru the viewfinder, the image looks darker because the glasses are so dark. I do check the histogram often. I have also started to use older glasses when I go out shooting.

Your post reminded me that there are a few things I should add to my original post. I only shoot in RAW. As I said, I have been using Transition trifocal lenses for over 20-years and have not had a problem with interference with the viewfinder, but I should add that I only use the viewfinder for composition. I do not use it to judge color. I look at the histogram after every shot or group of shots and do place a grey card, white card or color standard in key exposures. If the exposure is correct, I know that all the color information has been captured and that I can properly recover it in post-production. Therefore, a tint on my glasses is not problematic.

One thing I have avoided is progressive lenses. When I first got bifocals ## years ago, they were just coming on the market. I tried a pair and returned them within a month because my eyes could not adjust to the narrow closeup area of the lenses. I have never tried them again because I see no advantage to them for me; even with the improvements in the technology.

Festus Loc: North Dakota

gorgehiker wrote:

It is time for me to get new prescription eyeglasses. I am wondering if any photographers have experience with trying to look through a viewfinder or at the LCD screen with transition lenses for their eyeglasses. Thanks for any advice.

The "Transition" lens pose no problem looking through he viewfinder. Its when you also have a polarized lens that it is difficult to view the back monitor.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

gorgehiker wrote:

It is time for me to get new prescription eyeglasses. I am wondering if any photographers have experience with trying to look through a viewfinder or at the LCD screen with transition lenses for their eyeglasses. Thanks for any advice.

I have transition eyeglasses since the 60's, so that's the only kind of glasses I ever used when photographing. I never had any issues of any kind, maybe when its real cold ( in the cold they are always dark) it makes the viewfinder a bit darker!

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Well the OP has not commented since, well, the OP. So I guess I will just go with I misunderstood and though he was talking about progressive lenses since I do not understand why anyone would want to have glasses that interfere with seeing the VF image with as little distortion as possible. I would never even consider wearing transition lenses while shooting. In fact I would rather wear sunglasses with a constant predicable level of shade than one that changes from second to second.

JimBart Loc: Western Michigan

Transitions screw me up every time I set ISO and when I try and set aperture. Always dark on a bright day and overexposed on cloudy days. I am trying to revert to my old glasses when carrying around a camera. Good luck!
Love them or hate them for photography.

cameranut Loc: North Carolina

I had them for a while but was terribly disappointed in the length of time it took for them to lighten up after coming indoors.
I used an older pair (non-transitions) for photography to prevent over exposing my shots. I tend to go by the way a subject appears through the viewfinder, rather than the meter reading though.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

Had them, hated them. Went back to standard Progressives. Never used any glasses when looking thru the viewfinder, simply adjusted the diopter control.

Dwolfe1941

I use transitions with no problem since they are not polarized but still keep the sun under control. Transitions are much better than polarized sunglasses while shooting pictures which will distort your camera view finder and make it unreadable. I use fit-overs over my transition glasses while driving which are polarized and work well in the car.

tomcat

JimBart wrote:

Transitions screw me up every time I set ISO and when I try and set aperture. Always dark on a bright day and overexposed on cloudy days. I am trying to revert to my old glasses when carrying around a camera. Good luck!
Love them or hate them for photography.

One way around this is not to look at your camera viewfinder. I find that most of them come from the factory set too bright. I use the histogram to tell me if I am close.

ecurb1105

gorgehiker wrote:

It is time for me to get new prescription eyeglasses. I am wondering if any photographers have experience with trying to look through a viewfinder or at the LCD screen with transition lenses for their eyeglasses. Thanks for any advice.

I tried transition lenses in the 1970s when I was an assistant photographer doing architectural and annual report work. The lenses never got dark enough for bright sunlight and once they darkened they didn't clear quickly enough when going from outside to inside.
It ended up being quicker to fumble with two pairs of glasses or give up on sunglasses while on the job.

Don7752

I agree here. Polarized sunglasses are a pain when shooting and when looking at the viewing screen. They also affect my perception of the color.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

gorgehiker wrote:

It is time for me to get new prescription eyeglasses. I am wondering if any photographers have experience with trying to look through a viewfinder or at the LCD screen with transition lenses for their eyeglasses. Thanks for any advice.

After reading some of the posts in this thread I think many people are confused as to what transition glasses are. On extremely bright sunny days my transition lenses get very dark. As a result looking through the viewfinder is significantly darker, especially when trying to see the shooting parameters displayed on the bottom of the viewfinder screen. In those instances I need to take my glasses off and change the viewfinder's diopter to compensate for the fact that I'm not wearing them. It's really not unlike shooting while wearing a pair of prescription sunglasses.