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Do you cry when you use binoculars? (1 Viewer)

nacmancer

Well-known member
My eyes always seem to shed a significant amount of tears when I mount the eyecups of my binoculars to my eyes, and I just dont seem to know why. I dont have any headaches or eyestrains, my eyes just get really wet when I look through binoculars. I find myself routinely wiping my tears off the twist up eyecups.

It gets really bad on hot days because my tears evaporate and fog up the eyepiece.

I actually now prefer to use the eyecups on my binoculars in the fullydown postition, and I hover the eyepiece aprox 1 inch from my eye , since that doesnt cause any tearing in my eyes.
 
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That happened to me today but it was windy out. It might be from applied pressure around the eye from the eye cups being pressed up to the eye. That's a bummer, I hope you figure that one out.
 
That happened to me today but it was windy out. It might be from applied pressure around the eye from the eye cups being pressed up to the eye. That's a bummer, I hope you figure that one out.

Outgassing from rubber eyecups?

Bill
 
I have a lot of sympathy with this as my eyes have always been watery since I was a nipper and they are very sensitive to various substances that out-gas.

Substances that I have put on my face and have got on my eyecups and caused this problem include sun block creams, insect repellent, moisturising creams, aftershave colognes, and anticeptic creams. I could also imagine that if you routinely clean your eyepiece lens with lens cleaner fluid it could leave a deposit on the inside of the eyecup and cause this too.

Also take care that you wash your hands after applying any of these to anywhere on your person, if you don't it can end up on your bino eyecups or focus wheel and so close to your eyes.

I now use these in tiny amounts, don't go near my eyes with them and take care to not brush the bino eyecups against anywhere on my face that I have had to apply any of these to.

Good luck with this.

Lee
 
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i have also found an effect which seems opposite to what one would expect; if i go from dry central heating to moist outside with bins my eyes water a lot! i would expect the moister air to cut it down but tears literally run from my eyes like OP.
 
Only when I am trying to get the diopter setting on new bins right. My eyes emit steam that makes the whole thing impossible.
 
i have also found an effect which seems opposite to what one would expect; if i go from dry central heating to moist outside with bins my eyes water a lot! i would expect the moister air to cut it down but tears literally run from my eyes like OP.

I get this effect also.
 
Somewhat counterintuitively, excessively watering eyes is most commonly caused by eyes being too dry sort of. Meaning, when your tears no longer lubricate your eyes as well as they should, your eyes will begin to water. When we get older, the viscosity of our tears go down, whereby even a little bit of wind or going from warmer temperature to colder, the surface of the eye dries too much, triggering tearing up.

I have had this problem progressively worsening for at least ten years now, and when I updated my progressives this fall, my optician noticed my eyes watering and recommended non-prescription eye drops for dry eyes. He said to get the type that has no preservatives, as they work better and are more gentle to the eyes. The bottle needs to be discarded before three months from first use, but that's not a problem.

For me, these eye drops have made a pretty big difference, especially in cold weather. I now routinely apply them every morning, and sometimes again if I'm heading out to run or ski or go birding. The main active agent in these is Natriumhyaluronate.

I highly recommend anyone suffering from excessive wetness of the eyes to go discuss this with their farmacist and try out the eyedrops. What stopped me doing this before was that I hadn't realised that a product intended for "dry eyes" was what I needed for wet eyes.

Hope this helps.

Kimmo
 
Thanks for that advice Kimmo, I'll try it too. I developed 'watery eyes' about ten years ago. I later had lasik surgery in the right eye, and as a by-product the watery eye was cured on that side! But the left eye has become progressively worse, and sometimes (depending on conditions) causes my bino ocular or cycling glasses to fog up. But the real hassle is having to constantly dry my eye and surrounding area. I was prescribed antibiotic eyecdops but they didn't work. There's a lot of stuff online about various procedures to try clear the tear ducts, but they look a bit scary.
 
Yes, thanks Nac, and Kimmo! I've had some eye watering problems too not long ago, and I went out and bought lubricant eye drops. But I also use allergy eye drops though. But it's good to keep these things in mind-as well as the off-gassing that some may be sensitive to. Wouldn't be surprised if I was sensitive, as I've experienced some bothersome materials before to me.

The last time I was out glassing, it was cold and windy, and boy did my eyes water then too, like BC said! Yeah, it's fun getting old....
 
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