I’m a left-eyed shooter. I’ve just come to accept the fact that my LCD screen’s (assuming digital) gonna get covered in nose sweat and other crap when I shoot. It’s a pain, but I’ve dealt with it for 20 years, and I’ll just keep on dealing with it. One thing I haven’t had to deal with so far, though, is a camera with a touchscreen LCD. Photographer and YouTuber, Michael Andrew has strong feelings about it, though. He feels that left-eyed shooters are hindered by touchscreen issues when shooting the Canon EOS RP, causing it to throw off your autofocus point and miss a lot of shots. But it’s not just the EOS RP he has a problem with. He’s also seen this issue with the EOS R, EOS M50 and the Sony A6400.
The issue Michael describes has been noted by others, too. Shutterbug mentioned it in their first impressions of the EOS RP article, and their review of the EOS R. I’ve also seen this pop up from time to time in various Facebook groups, too. According to a poll amongst Michael’s audience left-eyed shooters accounts for approximately 35% of them.
Personally, for me, being a left-eyed shooter all these years has been fantastic. Particularly after discovering Joe McNally’s Da Grip video. The methods he mentions in that video have allowed me to get some very nice, stable, handheld shots at low shutter speeds. I typically only use the centre AF point to lock focus in single AF or to grab initial focus and then left it track the subject moving the point automatically when in continuous AF mode. So, if I couldn’t reliably do that on a camera, then that would definitely cause me some issues as a left-eyed shooter. As none of my cameras has a touchscreen LCD, as I mentioned, this isn’t an issue rune ran into personally yet. But Michael suggests some possible solutions and workarounds. So, if you’re also a left-eyed shooter, and considering a camera with a touchscreen, it might be worth having a watch.
