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New prescription. 3 pairs of glasses (varifocals, distance, riding sunglasses). North of a grand. OOOUUuuooofff!
Pricey, but what price good vision?
(especially as an art/photography teacher)
As an aside, any tips for getting used to varifocals? They'll be my first attempt at anything other than single vision lenses.
Budget for min £450 to £500 or even more for a pair with varifocal or one that can let you see far and near.
The UK has just started introducing this lens one or two years ago, but I have a pair made in the far east nearly 6 - 8 years ago. You can go as thin as 1.72 or may be 1.64 if I can recall.
Just few months ago I went cheap with some locally made normal digital verifocal lens just to try out if they could be better, you know to safe some £££. Yes, they are rubbish by comparison to ZEISS. The "cheap lens" are very thin at 1.72 but I cannot see far (short sighted) as it is blur while reading and looking at monitor screen (long sighted) is fine. Not sure if it is the prescription that is wrong (paid £80 for eye check by the way) or the guy who made my prescription is lousy.
Regardless, I might need to fork out a pair with ZEISS lens again. Arrgghhh ...
Hoya lens are fine too but I am not sure about their varifocal lens.
p/s: my ZEISS lens when I first got them were like instant comfort to my eyes. Not even any slight pressure and instant clarity in all directions.
Also, the selection of frames in UK is very limited. They don't even have Porsche Design anymore (well, not at my local anyway but in London)
Why do you need separate distance specs? I thought that was the point of varifocals.
As a regular to Moorfields eye hospital I can categorically state your eyes are worth every penny.
I just t paid 715£ for top spec variofocals. My first pair so I wanted them to be good so i could get on with them ok.
I then bought a pair of single vision sports glasses onlone for 45£ for cycling and welding. The difference in optic quality is night and day,.
Getting used to varifocals:
Don’t over evaluate them, wear them as much as poss, lean into them.
Put my first pair on a few years ago now, couldn’t believe how easy they were to use, wondered what all the fuss was about after dispensing them for years.
As a committed speccy four eyes, the cost of glasses does hack me off a bit to be honest, especially the frames. None of it is particularly specialized stuff, really; we've been making lenses for hundreds of years, and frames aren't exactly difficult to design and construct.
Saying that though, what price good vision, so I spend good money and use my local optician for my all day every day varifocals (current pair were about £600), but buy prescription varifocal sunnies and riding glasses online (current pairs cost under forty quid each).
Oh yeah, getting used to varifocals - just keep wearing them and try not to think about it
My experience of VF. First pair stuck with for 6 weeks and felt generally dizzy and just odd. Couldn’t get used too. Got money back.
1 year on and tried again. Decided I just need stick with it. A few months before I’d say got used too. 2 years on and couldn’t do without.
not unusual experience per optician.
North of a grand
Each, I trust? Wait till you really need those ultra thin lenses (+6 here)
I have varifocals for daily use and a really nice pair of fixed focus for computer monitor work. That prescription is lower than my intermediate correction, and I tested various powers at the optician reading a monitor. If you find yourself tilting your head back with varifocals, get a pair of fixed focus computer glasses. Absolutely amazing as they also correct my double astigmatisms.
With lenses, you get what you pay for. With frames, less so.
Wait till you really need those ultra thin lenses.
I already do. Prescription is around +6 on each eye, so 50‰ thinner lenses are a must.
Second pair. Needed those to get a deal on both. Went for single vision distance lenses in the second pair just in case or for any activities they make easier.
Sunglasses were for riding. Melon Kingpins with Zeiss inserts. At 300 quid with an extra lens they were the bargain of the three pairs (the others were 600 and 450 before discount)!
Good to hear that the varifocals might well be OK to get to grips with.
Just persevere. Sometime the higher index comes up too high and you’ll see distortions. I still look down and think when did I bend my laptop! Just buy the best lenses, and if you really can’t get used to them, ask for another fitting with lower band.
I asked RxSport for a SINGLE bifocal for my riding insert and they would not do it. I don’t need varifocals for riding, but a single eye to read Garmin or sign on would be helpful. I’ve just gone back to contacts for time trial and track (visor not sunglasses).
Yeah, was asked about contacts but I've been wearing glasses since I was 7 and the thought of them has always horrified me. Mrs Noise used to wear them and I couldn't even watch her put hers in, let alone touch my own eyes.
Used to think my dads old glasses were expensive, used to have to order them in, custom ground as his prescription was well into double digits (-13/14). Last time i can recall, he was paying about a grand for a pair of lenses. (1990s).
But now, mine have just topped £750 a pair in the last 3-4 years. Thankfully the optician is a friend of my FiL, so i *always* get the two for one deals, even when they aren't running!
On the plus side, i'm actually getting less shortsighted now.
So i'll only have to deal with the kids glasses in a few more years. (After 45 years of being a glasses wearer!)
I'm pretty lucky, only in the 3's and 4's and mild astigmatism and was still paying over £500, and that's on a discount from my optician due to a membership scheme. So based on a thread on here I tried Glasses Direct for a pair recently - on a deal, with £50 frames they were only £120 in total for varifocals with I think their gold lens package.
IDK if the quality of lens is any different but I've found them perfectly usable, the frames aren't as good as the last pair of 'proper' ones but then again they were £50 frames and I could if I wanted go for a brandname - I think they have eg: Oakley, etc. OTOH, I then got a second pair with the next lens down for £93 so swapping between them from time to time, and have a spare if there is a problem in the future.
I reckon over the years I've spent probably in real terms £5-10K on glasses (new pair at £500+ or equiv every 2-3 years for 35 years = 10 or 15 pairs) and I'm not now convinced my eyes are any different now to if I'd been buying £100 pairs. I have just worked out as well - I said that was a discount but I pay £150 a year for the membership, which does include an annual check up and retina scans etc. So that's another £4K or so.....
So to answer the OP - yes, bloody expensive, has cost well over £10K and I'm still a speccy tw*t.
Secondary plea - we know how important being able to see is, and how it affects beyond 'seeing' - headaches, etc. so please recycle your old pairs, rather than bin or fill a drawer with them. They can then go out to improve seeing for others - Lions club are very active in this and have boxes in many opticians, beware of some recycling boxes that do 'recycle' but send then to be melted down and reused that way (not bad, but this is one area where reuse if far more useful)
https://lionsclubs.co/MemberArea/home/spectacles-recycling/
Yep £600-800 is about standard for my -10sh 1.74 index varifocals. Like chewkw I use to swear by Zeiss but in recent years I've had Essilor which were very good and for the past 5 years or so I've had Shamir (the same pair for that time - luckily my prescription hasn't changed at all in that time). I hadn't heard of them but were highly recommended by my optician. They have been excellent and still going strong with no discernible degradation of the coating.
Providing you have a good optician measuring you up for varifocals they shouldn't really take much getting used to. You need to move your eyes to look through the correct bit of the lenses for the work you're doing (as opposed to moving your head) but the brain is very good at sorting out stuff.
But yes, why separate distance glasses?