Reply to: Varifocal lenses and computer screens, any issues or advice?

[TheFaQQer]

Looks like Costco is working out to be the cheapest for Ziess varifocals at £262 which includes transitions + thinner lenses

If it's your first pair, make sure that there is an option of decent support. My dad's first pair had to be remade because they kept making him sick - every time he moved his head, the room took a while to catch up with him

[css_jay99]

Slight correction. Your eyes are +2.5D overpowered, requiring a -2.5 prescription for full distance correction, hence you'd need around a -1.5D correction for reading distance, not +1.5 as I said above. That would leave you 1D short-sighted, which is ideal for looking at things 1m away. So the solution wont be cheap 'readers' that you can pick up yourself, but an under-prescription that an optician would need to prescribe. The exact under prescription that would suit you best depending in part on your age, as something leaving you closer to -0.5D (slightly shortsighted) after correction would give more distance flexibility, as human eyes can provide more + power, but not -, and that accommodative ability decreases with age. The closer you aim to 0 though (a point you've already passed), the more often you'll need new 'readers' as you age though and the more opticians will love you.

thats a lot of info to take in!

What is the 'Add' part of your prescription?

it is +1 for both sides.

Looks like Costco is working out to be the cheapest for Ziess varifocals at £262 which includes transitions + thinner lenses

lets hope its good

css_jay99

[Old Greg]

I have just had new prescriptions and was informed that my near reading is not so good hence i should think of varifocals.

I am also short sighted. (left & right are -2.50)

Can any one using varifocals let me who how they get on with them in front of Computer screens and laptops?


Also which is best? Boots with Zeiss Lenses or Specsavers with Pentax ? .... or it just does not matter ?

cheers

css_jay99

What is the 'Add' part of your prescription?

[TimberWolf]

At -2.5D, infinity for your eyes is about a foot (1/2.5m), which is where your eyes will be comfortable for reading. Never tried varifocals, but I'd have thought a (cheap) pair of +1.5's, to get you up to about -1D and 1m, for extended reading sessions would be more comfortable than varifocals. You want to look down your nose all day?

Slight correction. Your eyes are +2.5D overpowered, requiring a -2.5 prescription for full distance correction, hence you'd need around a -1.5D correction for reading distance, not +1.5 as I said above. That would leave you 1D short-sighted, which is ideal for looking at things 1m away. So the solution wont be cheap 'readers' that you can pick up yourself, but an under-prescription that an optician would need to prescribe. The exact under prescription that would suit you best depending in part on your age, as something leaving you closer to -0.5D (slightly shortsighted) after correction would give more distance flexibility, as human eyes can provide more + power, but not -, and that accommodative ability decreases with age. The closer you aim to 0 though (a point you've already passed), the more often you'll need new 'readers' as you age though and the more opticians will love you.

[css_jay99]

I have expensive Boots Varifocals (the top of the range ones) - they are excellent for driving (I'm short sighted and it was getting hard to see the dashboard clearly with my glasses on).

so you saying you cant use them for PC?

[TestMangler]

I tried bifocals years ago and they caused me to piss my trousers.

After collecting them from the optician, I drove to the golf club and when I arrived on the first tee, looking down through my new bifocals, I could see a big ball and a little ball, a big club and a little club, a big fairway and a little fairway, a big green and a little green and a big hole and a little hole.

Using the big club, little ball, big fairway, big green and big hole, I managed to get round to the 16th with a personal best score, when i suddenly needed to pee.

When I looked down, i had a big zip and a little zip and a big cock and a little cock. I quickly put little cock away, cause it wasn't mine........

[NotAllThere]

Sheesh, I'm only just having trouble reading small writing in bad lighting conditions. I'm glad I'm not as decrepit as you lot.

Yet.

[shaunbhoy]

I have both astigmatism and presbyopia. The latter is getting worse by the minute. Should I use two different pairs?

I'd get yourself a Guide Dog Pete!!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I have expensive Boots Varifocals (the top of the range ones) - they are excellent for driving (I'm short sighted and it was getting hard to see the dashboard clearly with my glasses on).

I've tried them for the computer screen but find I don't need them (yet). The only upside to wearing them is I get a much clearer view of passing flange (of which there is plenty).

Terrifyingly, I am legal to drive with uncorrected sight.

[petergriffin]

I have both astigmatism and presbyopia. The latter is getting worse by the minute. Should I use two different pairs?

[shaunbhoy]

Varifocals solve the problem of looking down at stuff (e.g. butlers, sasguru etc.) but that isn't the problem you have.

FTFY

[NickFitz]

I have distance and reading glasses. No point in varifocals when you're sitting at a screen IMHO. They save you the trouble of carrying the other pair around and swapping them over as needed, but surely if you're trying to read a screen with varifocals you're going to have to tilt your head back and peer down your nose?

Varifocals solve the problem of looking down at stuff (e.g. a piece of paper on a desk) but that isn't the problem you have.

[shaunbhoy]

I would just go for basic glasses for computer use. The people I know with varifocals spend hours adjusting things to see screens correctly.

WES

I never use my varifocals for PC use, just get some decent reading glasses for that. They will be better and much cheaper.

[TheFaQQer]

My dad says that he has no problem with his pair.

First time, I'd get a decent pair from a high street optician. Once you get used to them, I'd get a cheap pair online.

[Ignis Fatuus]

WPS.

Zeity, from about -2.50 you can read without glasses but only really close up. Two issues there: firstly, if you are by chance the oldest guy on the project, this is going to emphasis that, which you may not want. Secondly, you can't look at someone else's screen with them, because that demands just the distance of vision that you don't have either with or without glasses.

I use contacts, and have one eye set for far distance, and the other for comfortable reading distance. This is a common soultion prescribed by ophthalmologists, usuall called "monovision". It works well for me but YMMV, others prefer toric lenses, my brain just doesn't buy what they tell it so I don't see well with them.