[Closed] varifocal lenses - do you like yours ?

No idea what brand as I got the from my excellent high street optician who, being Indian, always expects me to ask and always gives me a hefty discount. They are simpy brilliant.

I started with Specsavers varifocals, because I needed new glasses, I needed them cheap, and I was using satnav in my car, so I had to be able to see that as well as what was in front.
I've now got some pretty fancy Shamir Multipoint varifocals in a pair of Ray Ban Lennon frames I got off eBay, and I love them, the only restriction is very close up vision, like reading, but I don't need glasses for that, unless I put contacts in, which I do at weekends; I have lots of sunglasses I like to wear.
Oh, and the Shamir's are photoreactive and work in the car, too; DriveWear I think it's called.

Love mine. They are from Specsavers but still cost about £500 - by the time you've got high RI, Transitions, all the various anti-scratch/anti-glare coatings. Although I looked last week and they seemed to have got a bit cheaper - I think they have a varifocal offer on.

I have Essilor physio which are pretty good but not as good as the Zeiss I had previously. Got a 2 for 1 deal on oakley frames + lenses so I can have a spare pair at work for when I cycle in. Cost a fortune but the BOGOF deal helped ease the pain!
I'm sure internet would be cheaper but Varifocals are very sensitive to pupil height/distance- or at least it is for me.

mrs rocket has had a lot of problems with hers. The main issue is that she wears small-framed glasses and there physically isn't enough room on the lens to make the variation comfortable.

Her original Specsavers glasses were very badly made but they replaced them without too much hassle but the lens is still too small and the variation is too critical. Have a look at their bronze/silver/gold varifocal lenses imo the only ones that actually work are the gold

On my second pair. First pair from Specsavers were OK but the frame was rubbish. Second pair from local optician in Chesham are excellent with Zeiss lenses.

The main difference was the amount of time and expertise he used to help me find frames that suited me and were big enough without looking stupid.

Rocketman makes a good point; my Specsavers glasses were fairly narrow rectangular ones, and the varifocal was at the limit, although mine were a simple prescription and one up from basic format.
The Lennon frame is nice and deep, and gives lots of room for a Multipoint lens to work properly.

Theses days you can get Varifocals into pretty shallow frames, but it all depends on where the frames sit on your nose. Off the top of my head the minimum fitting height from your pupil centre to the bottom of the frame is 14mm for the most compact of designs but even the you wont leave yourself much reading area.

Thanks guys,

I was told 16mm yesterday.

Been offered some Varilux from the local optician.
The small lens is a bug bear for me. I'm blind as a bat so went for really small frames & I still like them but been told they are too small for Varifocal.

Might see if I can get a BOGOF on the lenses & put some singlevision tinted in them.

If you go too shallow, the varifocal will be quite harsh, ie the change will be very quick, and have very little middle vision portion. There is also the danger you look underneath them when you look down to read.
Most opticians will allow you to return them if you don't get on with them, speccies do.

Really not sure about mine.
£500+ on Oakley frames and expensive (not ziess but next best from Vision Express) lenses

Fine for driving and reading when I can get everything in the right place.

can't watch tv lying down, and can't use them at work on vdu. This is the biggest bugbear for me.

V.E have changed the lenses to a wider central area which improved them but still think 2 pairs is going to be the better and cheaper option.

Love mine, but the first pair I had took ages to get right - I got through three sets of lenses to get them adjusted properly. But once they were right it was great, and have made a huge difference to me. Much, much better than swapping between two pairs all the time, although I'm with sturdylad in terms of using them with a computer - but I just take them off when I'm sitting at my desk.

When I replaced my first pair a couple of years ago I tried to save money by going for cheaper lenses, against the advice of my optician. It seems that in a triumph of marketing even greater than that of Shimano, the cheaper lenses have a narrower field of view, and the more you pay the wider the effective visual field. The optician let me upgrade for just the difference, and upgrade I did. I think they are Seiko; not sure, but they were the most expensive ones available.

I go to a decent independent optician. I guess I might pay around 20% more than I would at Specsavers, but I trust his judgement, I get excellent service, and he is completely unfazed by redoing my glasses until they are right. Perhaps I'd get that service anywhere, but I rather doubt it.

Start saving now though - they cost a fortune....

Off the top of my head the minimum fitting height from your pupil centre to the bottom of the frame is 14mm for the most compact of designs

Watersides infinity lens has as little as an 11mm corridor now, but havent used it as i think the graduation will just be too steep, but generally its as T666DOm said most frames will take a vari, just depends how the frame sits on you.

two general pieces of advice get into thenm early as it helps when there isn't as much difference between near and dist vision and first pair dont jump straight for the short corridor options for the same reason.

cheap vf's generally have a narrower corridor of undistorted vision as compared to a better quality lens unfrotunately most of the manufacurers (for a change not the opticians) make you pay for this convirenience.

11mm? I can't see that working!!! I'd agree that's alot of graduation to fit in!!!

Also I concur on your last 2 points Hustler!!

I wear bifocal contact lens and they're fine and can wear what ever sunnies I want 🙂