I am surprised by how small of type I can read without reading glasses with my monovision. Unfortunately my eyes still feel kind of strained by the difference in the two. My discomfort comes from the unevenness of my vision rather than an inability to see things. If on,y my brain could adjust to this, It wold be amazing. However, I just went upstairs and tried to thread a needle and I cannot do it With my reading glasses on, no problem. I also need a lot of light to see well. I also had great near vision before my cataract surgery. I'd always take off my glasses to read or work at my desk or at a restaurant. I had to put them back on to see far. I miss that too, especially being able to read in bed at night without glasses. If I could do it over, I would get good distance vision and use readers. You also can get bifocal type glasses where the top part is clear glass and the lower portion is your reading prescription, so you don't have to keep taking them off and on. Good luck with your choice. I use a magnifying mirror for makeup.

If I had to choose between a Polarizing filter (CP for circular polarizer) and a Neutral Density filter (ND), I'd definitely go with the CP first. But usually, or at least often, you buy filters in sets that include CP, ND and UV. I use the UV more as a protection for my lens than anything else. The CP comes in handy for popping color in water and sky and taking reflections off water and glass. The ND filter I have has not shown itself (yet) to be terribly useful for every day use. But ... check out this video I found the other day on extreme ND filter use. How to make traffic disappear. Very cool. Jodi- Here is a link that might be useful: Removing moving objects in bright sunlight

The lens on the E10 is 35mm at the wide end and 140mm at the long end. That's a 4x zoom. Your 1.45x tele-extender will increase the long end to 203mm. A 1.75x tele-extender (if there is one for that camera) would give you only 245mm at the long end. That's still not enough for bird photography. I think if you're serious about bird photography you'll need a camera with interchangeable lenses. A 400mm lens is probably the shortest that will give you satisfactory results.

Canon 300 f4.0 L IS prime with 1.4 converter is also good and probably sharper. The 400 F5.6L is another one worth consideration