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Author Topic: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?  (Read 987 times)

kevs

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Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« on: March 16, 2022, 02:32:30 pm »

I'm on the Canon 5D series   II,   I can't remember what this thing is again and how often you should deal with it thanks.

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mcbroomf

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kevs

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2022, 03:35:05 pm »

Thank you thank you hopefully someone else can help.
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John Hollenberg

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digitaldog

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2022, 07:47:07 pm »

Adjust diopter of viewfinder.
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kevs

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2022, 07:52:01 pm »

Thanks Dog.  Love your answers, never condescending / or snarkey; just helpful.
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mcbroomf

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2022, 06:51:12 am »

Take it easy man .. just trying some humor which apparently didn't work ...

But (seriously), the link to the manual wasn't helpful?
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kevs

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2022, 10:56:04 am »

Andrew, I just tested it and you know I set that so many years ago, I couldn't remember what it was, but a student asked about it and I just looked at it and turned the wheel a little bit -- and it does a manual focus by your eye, (subjective); yet later auto focus will take over (supercede it) so I still don't even get the point of it to be honest.

Is it just basically a starting gate point, that helps the auto focus in some way?
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digitaldog

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2022, 11:30:36 am »

It has nothing to do with autofocus. It is for adjusting the viewfinder for your eyes to see 'correctly' by adjusting the diopter. Kind of like when you get your eyes examined and the doctor moves the settings to make it appear sharper or less sharp. It is to compensate for those of us wearing glasses who may wish to shoot without them or adjust the view with bifocals etc. It has no effect on the lens itself or the auto focus of that lens.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #9 on: March 17, 2022, 12:48:48 pm »

Thanks Dog.  Love your answers, never condescending / or snarkey; just helpful.

 ;D ;D ;D

TechTalk

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #10 on: March 17, 2022, 02:17:19 pm »

One additional tip on making viewfinder diopter adjustments quicker and easier with optical viewfinders in SLR cameras...

The only purpose of viewfinder diopter adjustments is to bring the camera body's focusing screen into focus for your individual vision. The lens and any image from it seen in the viewfinder is irrelevant. I've found it helpful to remove the lens when making adjustments as it eliminates any background image distractions and facilitates in focusing your eye's attention on the focusing screen itself. Getting the focusing screen sharply focused for our eye is the only thing we're looking to accomplish with this adjustment.

Remove the lens; point the body's lens mount opening toward a light source to give a bright contrasty image; then adjust the diopter focus control to bring any of the black frame or focus indicator lines, circles, brackets, boxes, etc., contained in the screen, into sharpest focus; and you're done.
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kevs

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #11 on: March 17, 2022, 03:18:38 pm »

Thanks dog, and techtalk;  yes great info if you haven't paid attention or even forgot about this thing for a long time you almost don't remember has no effect on image or the lenses.  That's great
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Rajan Parrikar

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Re: Plus/ minus thing at the top of the camera is what again?
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2022, 09:01:51 am »

On Canon DSLRs I have to use the dioptre lenses for correction ( see https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/dioptric-adjustment-lens-e--2 ) and that allows you to tune it to your vision. I understand that on the mirrorless R5 there is an internal adjustment that covers a much wider range.

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