Just got contacts.

[mjm]

I have had glasses for about 80% of my life, I _just_ got contacts today (about an hour ago). I plan on using them when I shoot. Will they move around at all when my eye is up against the viewfinder? Is there anything special I need to do to ensure I don't mess my eyes/contacts up while shooting?

Any suggestions/tips appreciated.

[Peter_AUS]

My suggestion to you would be to get used to wearing the contacts properly before relying on them for photography. Being a wearing of glasses as well, and not for most of my life but the past 8 years, I miss not having to wear them for close work. It is real problem taking photos, especially digital ones, and looking at the LCD screen with glasses. In as much as removing them to shoot and then putting on to see the LCD screen.

I have tried contacts but they messed up my long vision as I mostly need glasses to read. But they have made many advances since I last tried them and am considering discussing this with my eye doctor soon, as they have multi-focal contacts now.

Maybe after a week or two of wearing the contacts and your eyes have adjusted to them you will find you won't even notice you have them in and will have no problems, is what I really think will be your experience. Good luck.

[another view]

I started wearing contacts about five years ago. At the moment, I'm wearing glasses because it's pretty early - but always wear contacts when I shoot. With glasses, I also had the diopter for the eyepiece that had the same correction as my glasses, but that was a hassle too - you could see fine through the camera, but look away and you have to put the glasses back on (I'm nearsighted). Contacts made life so much easier!

[Asylum Steve]

...especially when you get to THAT AGE (and some of you here will know what I mean, heh heh).

Peter's advice is good. At the very least, get used to wearing your contacts for reasonable lengths of time. The biggest problem I have with mine is them drying out, which REALLY gets uncomfortable (always have your wetting solution with you!).

Once you get used to them, it will be like you don't even know you're wearing them...

No, shooting with them should be no problem. Your eyeball doesn't touch any camera surface normally (at least god I hope not), so the contacts won't get in the way of anything either.

Like AV Steve, I usually wear contacts when I shoot. My problem (and this is where the age thing comes in, grrrr!) is that I'm nearsighted, but now have trouble seeing CLOSE UP too, so for me, there is no perfect way of working.

With my contacts in, I see fine to focus, but really have trouble reading my camera settings, especially tiny numbers in low light. This is actually much less of a problem with DSLRs, because I can read the LCD screen fine, but film cameras with their small dials are tough.

All I know is, the one thing I CAN'T do is shoot while I'm wearing my glasses...

[mjm]

thanks guys.

i wore them last night for ~6 hours. they were great till about hour 5 when they got rather uncomfortable (itchy & dry). i was putting drops in every 20 minutes. this morning my eyes were a little red.

i did shoot a little bit while they were feeling good. WOW!!! being able to see everything out of the viewfinder is great

[Jeff82]

..from my point of view. My right eye has a contact adjusted for distance vision, and my left eye is adjusted for close-up vision. I shoot through my right eye. For photography contacts are the only way to go in my opinion.

--Jeff