Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: mrcharly-YHT on 02 March, 2018, 09:01:48 am
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Currently I have two pairs of glasses; one for general use and one for computer work. The computer pair have 'blue light' filter lenses and cost a lot because of that. They are optimised for screen distances and hence a bit pants for reading. They are also no good if I need to look up and read something off a board or speak to someone for example.
So I'm thinking of getting a pair of bifocals or varifocals. I did get 'measured' for these a while back but was quoted something like £600 for the lenses, which put me off a bit.
What are people's experiences of these like?
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Worn them for years. Some people have difficulty getting used to them, I suppose much depends on your prescription but mine are pretty strong. £600 seems awfully expensive.
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Varifocals are a good compromise for everything but not good at specifics, but if you already have computer optimised specs
you are in good shape.
I use bifocals for the bike, and reading glasses for close work, but can manage with just varifocals if I have to.
Congrats on new job BTW.
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I've been wearing varifocals for years. I've never paid anything like £600 for them though.
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I got a pair of varifocals for the first time last autumn. I find that I can't use them for using the computer as they bit of the lens optimised for that distance is very small so I have to move my head around a lot in order to be able to focus on each part of the screen, I also need to have my head tilted back so that I am looking through the lower part of the lens so I gave up and bought a pair of single vision(?) glasses optimised for screen use and they are fine. I do like the varifocals for everyday use as I can see to read and look into the distance without changing glasses but I think that the problem I had is that the bit optimised for mid-distance, ie screen use, is to small to be useful for all day.
A friend of mine has two pairs of varifocals; one for general use like mine, and one pair for screen use. The screen use pair will focus between close up for reading and mid distance for screen use, so the screen area is much larger. He says that they are great and also initially had the same problem as me with not being able to use his general pair for screen use over a long period. I'm too tight to pay for two pairs of varifocal glasses though! Mine cost about £330 from a local opticians, I think the likes of Specsavers would have been cheaper.
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As per Nick. You do sometimes have to tilt your head a bit, but not a lot, when working on a screen but good positioning offsets that. I have shallow lenses, something like 22mm, so not much tilt required to change zones, which helps a lot. Cost varies a lot of course, but I think my last two pairs - one spare, one on - were £500 in total from Specsavers. That’s for short sight, slight astigmatism, medium quality plastic lenses, no tint or filter other than anti-glare. I’ve worn them for 10+ years, ever since I found multifocal contacts were no good for me. I work 60-70% of my time on screens what with email, pdf docs etc. etc.
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Adding the filter bumps the cost up a lot, and I need very specific lenses for my prescription.
Only a few opticians offer the filter option and, funnily enough, they happen to be the most money-gouging ones.
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I've had varifocals for several years and got on really well with them. My prescription isn't very 'strong' though. I have heard that some people don't like them at all, but I'm not sure of the reasons why.
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The only problems I've had with varifocals are coming down the stairs at work too quickly (solution - slow down!) and one pair of sunglasses where the alignment was wrong, so I couldn't focus through both eyes simultaneously. I should have done something about the latter, but it was far too late by the time I realised.
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I have the Specsavers' medium option; i.e. not the cheapest, but mid-range. I used to have the next step up, but didn't get an NHS voucher last time, so had to drop down a notch.
The drop makes a significant difference. The focal 'sweet spot' on my current pair is a lot smaller, so I have to move my head more nowadays to focus. I will bite the bullet next time and pay the extra. It's only another £30 IIRC.
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I like mine and couldn't be doing with the faff of several pairs of glasses, they took a few weeks to get used to and then I just forgot about them. If you've just started needing a prescription that would benefit from varifocals, be aware that the deterioration of that part of your vision is likely to be ongoing (presbyopia?)
This was my experience, my first pair of varifocals lasted a year, 2nd three years and I'm on my third pair which are five years old and will probably need changing at my next visit. My single vision prescription hasn't changed much in thirty years.
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I really need something. ATM, say if I need to work on a bike, or do any DIY, I have to put on my computer glasses, just so I can see if an allen key or screwdriver fits. Then if I want to read the size on a drillbit, or look at how something is fitting together, I have to take glasses off and stick my face 4-5" away from the object.
At work, if I'm in a meeting room I need computer glasses to look at a notepad or my computer, then to see a whiteboard/screen I have to switch glasses. It's annoying and embarrassing.
Might try online opticians.
Vision express nameless brand £ 280
Online Essilor Premium lenses £100
That's lenses only
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I got mine from the ASDA optician - £70.
They are good for cycling, for the first time I am able to see the GPS; but useless for working on the PC as I need to be lying on my back in order to get the right part of the lens to focus on the screen.
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I've worn them for years, but they are not a solution to all problems. You do get used to them, but they do have drawbacks, and maybe only personal circumstances will dictate if varifocals or two or 3 pairs of 'ordinary' glasses would be better.
FWIW, I find using a screen, watching TV, driving etc. is fine. But sometimes close work in building my model aeroplanes, or doing something fiddly overhead (like wiring a ceiling light) and the varifocals are all wrong - you are just looking out of the wrong part of the lens.
Similarly, riding a recumbent is out, because in looking down your nose into the distance the road is out of focus - so I wear either distance glasses or none at all (except safety glasses) on the recumbent. But you have to take your varifocals with you to read the cake menu......
And finally, I find reading music can be difficult out at the edges of the page, and sometimes turning your head (I play the sax) is not so easy as you can upset your mouth position. I need to see the optician about a different design for reading music.
IIRC I paid about £200 at Specsavers for mine, including a 'free' pair of distance sunglasses (good on the recumbent when we get a sunny day......)
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Mrcharly, I work as a computer systems engineer. Several years ago, like you, I found that my normal distance glasses were not able to be used when I was working at my desk on a terminal.
I was taking the glasses off and either peering at the screen or putting simple reading glasses on.
I got varifocals and they transformed my life. My varifocals were very carefully measured by Boots optician, and I have never had problems with them. They align the lenses with the centre of your eye - so you really do have to get a god optician to fit them.
Mine are very narrow rimless lenses, with titanium legs and fittings. Very nice - and I was surprised that you could get varifocals in glasses which do not look like milk bottle bottoms.
One thing they did tell me though - there is a classic injury of new varifocal users who trip on the stairs. SO make sure to always look down on the stairs!
Seriosuly though - go for it. You will be glad of the varifocals.
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I've had varifocals for years and usually end up shelling out around £400 for cheapest possible frame + antiglare coating. I'm not sure if I had high-index, lightweight lenses last time.
I am moderately myopic and astigmatic.
The optical 'sweet spots' are small, both horizontally and vertically and constant head movement can be a pain in the neck.
I am mostly wearing my 4 year old specs, which under-correct the extremes of both close and distant vision but are comfortable for computer use and round the house.
I think you need to consider precisely what you'll be doing with every pair of specs you buy. Single vision lenses are relatively cheap and have a much better vertical sharp focus zone. David has 'keyboard specs' for piano and computer and 'distance specs' for outdoors. He goes without specs for reading.
BIG lenses are unfashionable at present but the vertical pitch they offer for varifocals is very useful. The chap I know with the largest spectacle lenses is the son of an optician who has hoarded large spectacle frames for this reason. He is known to many members of yacf.
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I'm going to have to make this decision in the near future too.
Unfortunately I already pay a small fortune for single vision specs because I am a very myopic git and have the 2nd best high index lenses with a photochromatic tint to deal with the Furrybootoon Grey Glare of Doom. I also choose small frames to cut down the depth of the edge of the lens. All of which I can see adding up to pain and $lots. Fortunately I have a very good optician so I hope she will be of help.
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I couldn't get on with varifocals at all. Never seemed to have the right bit of lens in the right place for the job at hand, so I'm now back on two separate pairs.
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I couldn't get on with varifocals at all. Never seemed to have the right bit of lens in the right place for the job at hand, so I'm now back on two separate pairs.
Me too. I am tempted by bi-focals though.
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Conversely I had no problems at all with varifocals, not even falling on the stairs.
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Been re-tested today, ordered lenses and frames
£280 for frames
£300 for lenses (zeiss premium thin with drivesafe)
this being a speccy-four-eyes is expensive
Here is the really irritating bit. Boots, and other opticians, have ceased offering the 'blue filter' coating. The reason given is that the benefits are being disputed.
Those of us who have light sensitivity really feel the benefits - the person serving me said she uses glasses with the coating and it helps her cope with the (bloody awful) fluoro lights in the opticians. But some jerk has decided that the blue coating benefits are disputed and maybe not worth the cost - so they've pulled the offering.
'drivesafe' is the nearest I can get to it, but it isn't quite the same.
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Those frames are extortiate.
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They all are, these days.
There does seem to be a difference between the cheap ones and expensive ones - I have both atm, the cheap ones are years 'younger' than the others and are in crap condition.
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I buy cheap frames because I am not vain and don't see the point of reglazing specs for a change in prescription.
Last year's specs are good, workable spares. Loose lenses are useless.
I put good lenses into cheap frames so I can see as well as possible.
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Here is the really irritating bit. Boots, and other opticians, have ceased offering the 'blue filter' coating. The reason given is that the benefits are being disputed.
Those of us who have light sensitivity really feel the benefits - the person serving me said she uses glasses with the coating and it helps her cope with the (bloody awful) fluoro lights in the opticians. But some jerk has decided that the blue coating benefits are disputed and maybe not worth the cost - so they've pulled the offering.
'drivesafe' is the nearest I can get to it, but it isn't quite the same.
How about the Cerium tints? https://ceriumvistech.com/precision-tinted-lenses/
Prices from BloodyHellHowMuch, obviously, but you may find a colour that works better for you than the 'blue filter' tint.
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They all are, these days.
There does seem to be a difference between the cheap ones and expensive ones - I have both atm, the cheap ones are years 'younger' than the others and are in crap condition.
Back in the dim and distant, when I had a proper job, part of that job was testing spectacle frames. Back then, at least, there was often little difference in quality between cheap and expensive (as in the shops - wholesale prices were often similar) frames. Mark-ups could be as much as 1000%.
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They all are, these days.
There does seem to be a difference between the cheap ones and expensive ones - I have both atm, the cheap ones are years 'younger' than the others and are in crap condition.
IME the difference between the cheap ones and the expensive ones seems to be that, through a combination of murphy's law and random variation, the ones that fit your face best are inevitably the expensive ones. Unless you're barakta, who jammily managed to fit one of the children's frames best.
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They all are, these days.
There does seem to be a difference between the cheap ones and expensive ones - I have both atm, the cheap ones are years 'younger' than the others and are in crap condition.
IME the difference between the cheap ones and the expensive ones seems to be that, through a combination of murphy's law and random variation, the ones that fit your face best are inevitably the expensive ones. Unless you're barakta, who jammily managed to fit one of the children's frames best.
That is something I found - the ones that fit my face are the expensive ones.
The problem I've found with cheaper ones is coatings failing and then the metal corroding and reacting with my skin. Also screw mountings failing. When that happens and the replacement means new multi-hundred-pound lenses, saving a bit on the frames is a false economy.
I've had the occasional problem with 'designer' frames, but raising merry hell about it has gotten me free replacements.
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No specs made of Man fit my face properly due to a nose bent in a bizarre dodgem accident in Brighton in the early 1980s. But my super-lightweight bendy Ti distance ones are better in this regard than the reading ones, and would be even better if they still had the original size lenses instead of the varifocal-sized jobs they currently sport.
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They all are, these days.
There does seem to be a difference between the cheap ones and expensive ones - I have both atm, the cheap ones are years 'younger' than the others and are in crap condition.
Well my Specsavers ones were I think from their £20 range. Flimsy but acceptable - particularly if you’re not taking them on and off every 5 mins. The last ones lasted 5 years and I expect these to last at least as long.
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I'm in the "varifocals have really changed my life for the better" camp. Specsavers et al don't do my weird prescription, I get mine from a local one man band optometrist (well he used to be local, but now I've moved 200 miles away!) and I usually get frames at around £120-150, and pay a total of around £600. He is VERY thorough, and I refuse to compromise in the hope of saving a few bob, those are the only set of eyes I have, and my life depends on them.
They have been a revelation to me, and I wear them for everything, and the learning process only took a day or so. I drove away from the optician thinking "hey, this is good, I can see the outside world, AND the instruments!"
I actually had to wear my sunglasses ones last week, but then it was effing sunny on No2 beach in Sierra Leone! I'm currently suffering from sunburn due to poorly applied sunscreen, in a bungalow in Wales, surrounded by snow...
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I'm in the "I hate my varifocals" camp. Like Wombat I paid >£500 and they fit perfectly but the style I have is not particularly deep (top to bottom) which means the area suitable for reading/close up focus is pretty tiny. I mainly need them for driving, and they actually make reading the satnav or speedo worse than without. Perhaps I need to spend another £300 and get the prescription changed or another £500+ and get a different frame style. I wore them to a conference yesterday to give me a sporting chance of reading the Powerpoint presentations and after a day wearing them my brain was exploding. I really don't seem to be able to get on with them at all. >:(
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The opticians emphasised that I needed deeper lenses than I normally wore - by at least 10mm - to get the areas. They picked out frames that had minimum lens area needed.
There is a chance that I won't be able to get on with them - I can return them and get my money back (30 day trial period).
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Sounds like you've had some good advice and have a fall back position. :thumbsup: Worth a go then.
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Finally picked these up. Mixed impressions.
Fine for walking around. Being able to see while walking around, then read a label is fantastic.
Pretty poor for computer use, the 'middle distance' sector is tiny. I paid for the best Zeiss lenses, which promised to be ground to have an expanded middle distance section (two week wait for them to be individually made in Germany). The area is minuscule, I have to move my head to read on one screen, let alone two. I'll try them out at work tomorrow, but initial impressions are really not good.
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Get single vision 'keyboard' specs for middle distance. They're not usually very expensive.
You could consider buying online.
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Get single vision 'keyboard' specs for middle distance. They're not usually very expensive.
You could consider buying online.
I have some now - and for my scrip they cost £200 just for the lenses.
It's just disappointing as the varifocal description promised a large middle distance area. It doesn't exist on these, despite buying the expensive lenses.
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I am having all sorts of problems with my varifocals.
We have wall mounted computers which were mounted by a jobsworth who had no idea at what height to fix them. Therefore when i am sitting down with a patient and want to look at results or X-rays I have to look through the bottom of my glasses.
I then find that at the end of a clinic I have a painful neck which takes two days to settle!
I really need to get this sorted but am annoyed at the need to buy extra glasses when it is the hospitals fault.
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If people think varifocal glasses are difficult to adjust to, it's nothing compared to multi-focal contact lenses (RGP in my case). The world went dizzy for about a week, periphery vision narrowed considerably and it took about a second to focus on anything, near or far.
I persisted (with lots of support from my local Specsavers - they sent off for countless replacement lenses in a trial-an-error effort). Finally they have settled down (brain adjustment?) and while far from perfect compromise - still takes a while to focus - it's a price worth paying IMO for not having to carry around and leave dotted about the house countless pairs of reading glasses.
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If people think varifocal glasses are difficult to adjust to, it's nothing compared to multi-focal contact lenses (RGP in my case). The world went dizzy for about a week, periphery vision narrowed considerably and it took about a second to focus on anything, near or far.
I persisted (with lots of support from my local Specsavers - they sent off for countless replacement lenses in a trial-an-error effort). Finally they have settled down (brain adjustment?) and while far from perfect compromise - still takes a while to focus - it's a price worth paying IMO for not having to carry around and leave dotted about the house countless pairs of reading glasses.
I tried - and failed - with those before opting to wear varifocals after 25 years of contacts. Reason given (and this from the highly regarded Contact Lens Practice in Brum) was that my dominant eye was too dominant ::-).
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I am having all sorts of problems with my varifocals.
We have wall mounted computers which were mounted by a jobsworth who had no idea at what height to fix them. Therefore when i am sitting down with a patient and want to look at results or X-rays I have to look through the bottom of my glasses.
I then find that at the end of a clinic I have a painful neck which takes two days to settle!
I really need to get this sorted but am annoyed at the need to buy extra glasses when it is the hospitals fault.
Sounds like a job for occupational health.
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not sure if of any use for those looking at progressives/ varifocals my preferred online glasses supplier has just recently sent an email promoting their new workspace progressives, I thought the visual in the middle of the article of the types progessives was very good at expaining the different options.
https://www.zennioptical.com/workspace-progressives
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My optician mentioned that special varifocals are made for pilots, with the near vision area at the top of the specs so they can read the overhead gauges.
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not sure if of any use for those looking at progressives/ varifocals my preferred online glasses supplier has just recently sent an email promoting their new workspace progressives, I thought the visual in the middle of the article of the types progessives was very good at expaining the different options.
https://www.zennioptical.com/workspace-progressives
That's very interesting. I have something like the diagram to the right - standard progressives - but with a larger mid range.
I'd challenge their 'near range' prescription. My prescription for reading (something 30-60cm away) is very different from my prescription for computer screen (90cm away) and completely different again for over 2m away. It is why I can't use off-the-shelf reading glasses (that and astigmatism).
It has taken me a while to get used to the varifocals I have, but I'm (reluctantly) accepting that they do work for me. Yesterday I wore them as my sole glasses all day. Used computer for several hours on the train. Read phone. Obviously engaged in general life around places and people. Just taking me a while to adjust to moving my head and looking through the (more than three) 'zones' in the lenses. The prescription transitions, so I have to pick the area. I've driven a car in them now and they work for that as well.
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Having now turned 40 and my body rapidly falling apart for no discernible I ended up with varifocals for computer work and reading, having a different prescription for monitor work and reading. The glasses were fairly bog standard from Boots but have actually suited me fairly well, with a large section straight ahead for computer work and the lower portion for reading. I have noticed a difference and now get fewer headaches when working at the computer.
I just dread the day when my distance vision goes...
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Your distance vision is unlikely to get much worse if you've passed 40 without problems.
Myopia mostly develops in young folk. Mine has actually improved a smidgin!
You might develop some astigmatism.
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I have been wearing trifocals for the last 4 years now.
First lot were from Boots at an eye watering price.
2nd and 3d lots are from ASDA at £90 for 2 and more recently £115 I think it was for two. The eye test they do includes the retina photo and the whole affair came across as very professional and there was no rushing at all.
I am typing here wearing them so not on the floor? FFS if they are that bad take them back as they are self evidently not fit for purpose and will only be sorted if someone says something?
Further I do one job that requires ultra good vision and for £40 they made me a pair for that task which work perfectly. Namely grafting 1mm translucent grubs from a bed of white royal jelly into queen cups. As each queen is worth £40 a pop it is money very well spent. :)
Yes I rate ASDA and happy to say so.
PH
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They are actually very good - just they don't have the field of vision that was suggested on the diagrams. Given the eye-watering price I'm not impressed.
Part of the huge price is getting high-refractive lenses (pretty much obligatory for my strength of prescription; normal lenses would be over 1cm thick at the edge) and a filtering for computer use/driving. Those two added a lot to the price.
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I buy my varifocals from ASDA. My most recent pairs were £120 for two including one with a light tint for computer work. They are a good fit and work beautifully.
I also asked them a few years ago now to make me a pair for a very specific job which greatly intrigued the optician. The result is I can easily graft larvae into queen cups and so produce queen bees. Said larvae are smaller than this: c are white and translucent lying on the bed of white royal jelly so pretty challenging. Delighted with the specs and the help I got from them.
Back in the day I paid over £500 to Boots. Never again am I getting ripped off like that.
PH
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So I thought, I would seek some advice.
I have worn varifocals for years >10. Recently I had a new pair made and while they seem to work ok, I get a dull ache in my left eye only. Optician cant work out why. They changed them for an upgraded pair of lens but the problem persists.
Oddly I had another pair made for computer use, which does not have the same problem and my old prescription is OK and does not have the same issue. Other than the prescription about (0.25 difference between old and new) my new frames are more rounder than the original square shape.
Could this be causing the issues in the single eye only? The eye test was redone as well.
thanks for any advice
cheers
sam
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Could it be something like my experience?
I have a pair which I should be using, as my near vision has got worse, but the visual centre of the right lens is marginally wrong and this just makes them unpleasant to wear. Things are in focus only if I point my nose a little left, and then the left eye is out.
I ought to get it changed but it was over a year between having them made -- the first lot of lenses had to be sent back as the CYL angle was bizarrely wrong -- and my working out what was still wrong. And the varifocal lenses are fantastically expensive.
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I think it maybe, but they have changed lens twice and 2 pairs have the same issue but 1 pair doesn't which confuses me (although they are different opticians!)
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A totally circular lens can get optically set up incorrectly, causing eye muscle strain...
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A totally circular lens can get optically set up incorrectly, causing eye muscle strain...
I have moved from square to round lens and maybe they are just not working for me.
Two different opticians, same issue - could my eyes be taking awhile to adapt?
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Just been to see opticians who recommend varifocals. I am confused by a couple things:
1. their image of how the glasses work at different price points suggest that a big portion of the glasses don't allow you to see at all. Is this normal eye behaviour? Seems alarming for looking about while cycling.
2. I have incredibly short vision (-7/8 and then 1.25 reading), I am unconvinced that I could see short distance with reading glasses because I expect it to be too far.
3. Could I get around it with contacts and reading glasses?
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Just been to see opticians who recommend varifocals. I am confused by a couple things:
1. their image of how the glasses work at different price points suggest that a big portion of the glasses don't allow you to see at all. Is this normal eye behaviour? Seems alarming for looking about while cycling.
2. I have incredibly short vision (-7/8 and then 1.25 reading), I am unconvinced that I could see short distance with reading glasses because I expect it to be too far.
3. Could I get around it with contacts and reading glasses?
I do no 3.
My prescription isn't as bad as yours (-5.25 but 1.5 reading). Generally I do OK without glasses for close 'work' (reading my phone, to be honest) and where I need both in quick succession (garmin-horizon-garmin-road surface) I wear reading glasses and contact lenses.
I would probably appreciate bi/varifocals for knitting while watching the telly, but I tend instead to knit and listen, lens free. It's much cheaper and I don't think I'm missing much.
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My reading glasses issue is really only a problem when reading ingredients on food packets.
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This thread has been interesting for me. I currently have long distance vision in my left eye, following a cataract operation about 10 years ago, and very short distance vision in my right eye. The right eye has been deteriorating rapidly and I now have a date for a cataract operation on my right eye (end of the month).
When I had my left cataract removed, the medical staff discussed the new lens with me and recommended the long distance lens, saying that I might be able to get on without spectacles after the operation on account of being able to see at all distances with either one eye or the other. At the time, I found this caused too much strain and my optician recommended varifocals (with the 30 day change-your-mind option).
I tried the varifocals and couldn't get on with them at all, really struggling to get anything properly in focus and using a computer screen was almost impossible - I struggled to get a whole long word in focus and was having to move my head left to right to read a line. After reading this thread, I am now wondering if the lenses weren't aligned properly. Anyway, I persevered for about a week and a half before going back to the opticians (Boots) and they weren't happy, telling me that I hadn't given it long enough to get used to them - the truth is that I couldn't work with them on and resorted taking them off for computer work. They also tried to tell me that I couldn't change my mind and if I wanted replacement glasses, I would have to pay again. After some "discussion" they agreed to swap the glasses for bifocals for reading/distance and single vision glasses for computer work (I can't remember if there was any redress for the new cost against the varifocal cost).
Now that I've got a date for getting my right cataract removed, I realised that I never had the discussion at the pre-op examination/consultation about the lens they will put in my eye and so I don't know what my vision will be like after the op. I'm expecting that I will get long distance and I'm hoping that it'll be something similar to the vision I have in my left eye.
If this is the case, I have been considering trying half-moon single vision glasses (hopefully cheapo off-the-shelf "reading glasses"), one pair for reading, the other pair for computer work/reading the Garmin on the handlebar - this would enable me to see the road when on the bike and see other people in the office when I look up from my screen.
That's the idea anyway, I'll have to wait and see how things go.
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When I got varifocals a good few years ago the technician at Boots took great care in measuring and aligning them for me.
This is the person you see after the optician, who fits the frames for you. Maybe they can have different attitudes to the job.