Trouble Viewing Meter Readings on Pentax V Spot Meter (analog) - my eyes!

[holmburgers]

I'm curious if anyone else experiences this. When looking thru my analog Pentax V spot meter, I sometimes find myself quite literally unable to focus on the scale and the numbers. I can see the subject just fine, but for the life of me I can't focus on the viewfinder information.

It's very weird indeed... I have great eye-sight, don't even wear glasses and I've never had any trouble with something like this before. Adjusting the dioptrics doesn't seem to have any effect. It's so bad that at times I literally can't tell what the reading is. It seems to be more pronounced in low light and with close subjects; though I haven't tested it extensively.

The feeling is totally foreign to me; no matter how hard I try, I can't see it. It will come in and out of focus, but to get it to stay there is nearly impossible at times.

Sincerely,

Flabbergasted in Kansas

 

[Diapositivo]

That's what I would do:

First attempt: try to put the dioptres to the 0 position if one is marked.

In adjusting the dioptres you should first relax your eyes (let's say you don't use your glasses for one hour, you don't use them anyway) then you look inside your spot meter and you adjust the dioptres very fast, even if not accurately, while looking very far. You repeat again later and see if another fine-tuning is necessary.

If you look at the information you are already focusing "nearer". Now if you adjust your dioptres after focusing with your eyes, you do it after your eyes have "adopted" which is IIRC not optimal. You will impose some strain to your eyes any time you look inside the light meter.

Anyway any test must be done with a very fast glimpse, before the eye has had time to adapt. That's what I read on magazines many years ago.

Fabrizio

 

[holmburgers]

Thanks Fabrizio, I'll try it out.

 

[paul ron]

Did you turn the eye piece in n out to focus it?

 

[holmburgers]

I just tested it, and it was inconclusive. I adjusted the diopter, and for me the scale appears sharpest with it screwed in all the way. I tried to do this quickly. The problem was, I couldn't get the phenomenon to occur. I looked at close objects and far objects but had no trouble reading the scale, even in low light.

Next time it rears its ugly head I'll reach for the diopter and see if it helps at all.