How do the sinister manage?

I was proudly showing off my K10D to a lady, and she was suitably impressed until she held it in her hands.

"Hmm, not sure I'd get on with it like this, do they have a version with the battery compartment on the other side?"

Turns out she is left handed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinister). Do we have any lefties around here? How do you cope with modern digital SLR's which all seem to have theis "offset" design which favours us righties?

Left handed users might like Exakta cameras, which are left handed. Unfortunately these take film, are perhaps at least 40 years old and are not exactly user-friendly as we know it.

Since then, left handed users have not been catered for. There must be a few out there - indeed how does it affect you?

My two very left handed sons cope just fine with right handed cameras. They have left handed guitars, drumsets and mice but the cameras present no problem. My left-eyed husband on the other hand has more trouble looking through the view finder - his (not so delicate) nose gets in the way!

I can understand some right handed people getting used to a manual wind camera but with the advent of the autowind everthing, I am not sure it is that much of a problem. If you only use one hand, you do favour the stronger but if you are using both , it is more a matter of training. Apart from my intial flying training, I have spent nearly all my career flying trip and trip about from both left and right seat of the a/c and so as far as flying is concerned, I am completely ambidextrous. However, I know that some people, who have only flown single pilot a/c, find it difficult to adapt to flying the "wrong way" when they become instructors.

Carrying the camera would be different with the larger hand grips and offset lens mount. In these cases a wrist strap may help.

Kim

I'm not exaclty sure if count as been left handed, my brain doesn't really know what its doing.
I write left handed, use spoons left handed, do fiddly tasks left handed, use the hoover left handed (yes I am domesticated)
I eat right handed (apart from the spoon thing) I played the guitar right handed, I use my mouse right handed.
With everythin else i'm pretty much ambidextrous, but as for using a camera in my right hand I suppose it just came naturally simply because of the design, had I started my hobby with the previously mentioned Exakta then things may have been different, tho' humans are very adaptive, I think if a specific tool is designed for right handed people the lefties and misfits like me just adapt.

What gets me is the world is so geared up for right handed people so why does so much of it drive on the left???

I'm ambedexterous, (and dyslexic....), and gotta admit, that I love the feel of my ds2 (which I use right handed) but no camera I've ever used has the balance and fit of my sony hdr hc1 camcorder.
having said that, I imagine any lefties out there would benifit from a bracket with shutter release for left handed comfort.

I'm mostly right handed (and dyslexic) but left eyed, and I've recently discovered that my daughter is left eyed. Normally I'll put the camera to my left eye, but this usually leaves a greaasy mark on the LCD. My proboscis is obviously not so prominent as Gwyn's hubby.

If not using the Grip, which way do you all hold the camera for portrait? : Usually I hold it right side up, but for no apparent reason, sometimes I find I use it the other way up, probably because it fits to my left eye better. I am actually ambioptical??, as I have to shoot right eyed. I didn't realise until relatively recently that using my left eye like this was symptomatic of a left eye preference, I just supposed it was normal and everybody used either eye.

I'm right-handed (which is why I hated the Hasselblad 500C) but left-eyed.

So I constantly have the problem of my schnoz squishing up against the LCD monitor when shooting portraits.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Is it really a problem?

I'm left-eyed too, and it could occasionally be a little awkward in the good old days with my Super-A and ME-Super. Trying to wind on manually while still looking through the viewfinder was completely impossible.

But the motor-wind fixed that, and of course there's no winding issue with the digitals.

I wipe the LCD from time to time, but it's not an issue for me apart from that.

The Amazon lady archers had a problem with their right breasts interferring with their bow strings and affecting their accuracy.

They thought it was serious enough for major surgury.

Now Arthur, how serious is that nose squish again?

Maybe my face is a funny shape but I sometimes press the "Menu" button with my nose whilst looking through the viewfinder!

Strewth. It would have to be a pretty damn funny shape to hit the menu button with your nose... while looking through the 'finder with your left eye.

My right eye!



(But you knew that already!)

I am lefthanded as well, no problems with the camera however.
Sometimes I look through the viewfinder with my left eye, sometimes with my right eye. Allthough when using my left eye, the screen gets greasy .

I am quite used to right handed equipment. My mouse is on the right side of the PC, etc. The only left handed equipment I have is a pair of scissors...

Don't tempt me, LOL!!