Eye adjusting to viewfinder?

[Chaotic Beds]

I'm a new user of DSLRs, and I've been having a rather unexpected issue.

After spending a couple minutes shooting, my right eye adjusts to focusing close to looking the viewfinder while my left eye keeps its normal focus... resulting in a weird blurred vision for a couple minutes. I can see the sharpness of my relaxed left eye combined with the blurry, still-wants-to-focus-close right eye.

It's not a big deal, just sort of weird and annoying. Does or has anyone else experienced this? Does it go away, like when getting used to your first pair of glasses (for the optically disabled of us)?

I've had the camera for a week or two, but haven't had much time to really dive into shooting with it... It seems like I'm slowly getting used to it, but I can't tell if my eye is getting better at switching focus or I'm learning to ignore the disconcerting feeling of it.

[jdepould]

Do you shoot with both eyes open or one eye open?

Also, how old are you? Not trying to be a jerk or anything, but it may just be an age thing.

[DannyF1966]

Is your viewfinder properly focused? On my camera (Nikon D40) there's a little slider than can adjust the "dioptre" of the viewfinder. The idea behind this is that if you need glasses and have a very weak prescription, you can adjust the dioptre of the viewfinder to match the dioptre of your prescription, and can then shoot without wearing glasses. If the dioptre of your viewfinder is slightly off, then your right eye is adjusting to compensate for it and you're noticing this when you look away from the camera.

[Chaotic Beds]

I'm 28, and usually shoot with one eye closed.

I'll have to check, and maybe readjust my diopter, when I get home... I messed with it when I was first learning all the buttons on the camera, and set it so it looked sharp - I'm pretty sure I did so without my glasses on... But, I can shoot with or without my glasses and it looks sharp either way, it's a medium-weak prescription... But, I'll have to look into it some more.

If that's not the problem, I'm thinking maybe my eye muscles are just a bit weaker than normal? When I got my first pair of glasses in my early 20's, it took several days to get used to them... My eyes felt like they were gonna explode from the strain of my eyes' new focus. But now I can take my glasses on and off whenever and not have to adjust, like I had to workout my eyes to stretch their focusing capabilities. I can kinda feel a bit of the strain in my eye from shooting now, and I haven't been able to dedicate much time to shooting.... So maybe my eye just needs a bit more working out?

Either way, thanks for the input guys

[Jim Poor]

You should really learn to shoot with both eyes open. It will reduce eye stress significantly.

[Chaotic Beds]

Indeed, I'll try that.

Or rather, try more whole-heartedly. I did try for a few shots here and there and it was distracting... but practice makes perfect, eh?