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Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

nytimes.com

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Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#71

Post by davemp »

superkuh wrote: post #44
DigitalJack wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, im really sorry to hear what you have to go through. Im sure you have thought of all kinds of scenarios to work around this, but I am curious about what conclusions you came to: Combining contacts and glasses? Surgery, even to just reduce the correction?

I've tried contacts a few times but they're such an incredible hassle compared to glasses. And with my astigmatism the contacts have to be rotated correctly. When they get nudged off-axis (by blinking) the vision noticibly changes. I did go in for an assessment for laser eye surgery. Unfortunately there's just not enough cornea for them to fully fix my eyes. Since I do optical astronomy I didn't want to risk night vi…

Check out hybrid contacts. I had similar issues with my astigmatism. The contacts have hard centers and soft outer rims. As a result they can provide decent astigmatism correction/stability while being __much__ more comfortable than hard lenses.

The things drastically improved my quality of life.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#72

Post by walterbell »

enrmarc wrote: post #49

Off-topic: do you know if there exist glasses that do not touch the nose?

There are "saddle bridge" frames which don't have nose pads:

http://www.rx-safety.com/frame-only/art-craft-palm-bay-300-e...

http://eyeglass.com/stepper-eclectic-9701.html

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Eyeglass-Frames/180957/i.html?_nkw=...

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#73

Post by crooked-v »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #43
superkuh wrote: post #39

At my -10 diopter in both eyes there's no winning with multi-monitor setups. It's a trade-off between chromatic abberation, internal reflection, and edge distortion. All the high refractive index lens materials I have tried have terrible abbe number and so their chromatic abberation is so bad I can't even LCD text out of the corner of my eye; or read a license plate on a car to the front left of me. I don't even both…

I was testing point and shoot cameras the other day and one of the things that impressed me is just how quickly and smoothly they can auto-focus. I found myself looking around at the world through the viewfinder screen and it occurred to me that with 400+ ppi LCD displays why have we not yet created a 'visor' which is simply a reproduction of the scene outside but in constant focus for our eyes (I wear progressive le…

The highest-density current VR headsets (at 4K per eye) still have a semi-noticeable 'screen door' effect from the individual pixels.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#74

Post by deafcalculus »

abalashov wrote: post #57

I have a fairly large power difference between my eyes; my right eye is nearly perfect (maybe -0.5 or so) but my left eye is -2.75. This has been the case since 7th grade or so. At the time, I was prescribed glasses and advised to wear them all the time. But, of course, since I didn't need them in order to function (because I had a good right eye), I didn't. Moreover, I grew up programming and spent much of my adoles…

I too have a moderate power difference (-1 on the right and -3 on the left) along with high degree of astigmatism. Two monitors are a lot harder than a single screen. With full correction, eye strain after even an hour of looking at a desktop monitor makes me uncomfortable. So I use lenses that undercorrect while working on the computer.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#75

Post by mixmastamyk »

jasode wrote: post #51
CalChris wrote: post #2

I got a little pushback (not a lot) from my optometrist when I first requested an FD set at laptop distance. However it has made a huge quality of life difference for me. I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. My current correction is insanely good for reading and for driving. In fact, my opto said it was quite a bit better than 20/20 with no eye strain. Well, there was some eye s…

>I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. Yes, both progressives and high-index lenses suffer from the same problems: smaller field-of-vision and higher distortion of peripheral vision If I sit with my eyes 36 inches away from a 30-inch screen... With a single-vision lens, without my head moving at all, my eyes can move within their sockets to see the bottom corner of screen showing…

Thanks, the same happened to me but had no idea what I was doing. Tried the bifocal progressives and the top half was fine but bottom was like looking though coke bottles. Had to move my head constantly to get text centered. Constant movement and fishbowl effect drove me nuts. Thought they were defective.

Returned them for one computer set and one driving (closeup fine) and they work well, but up until now thought they or I did something wrong.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#76

Post by naner »

CalChris wrote: post #2

I got a little pushback (not a lot) from my optometrist when I first requested an FD set at laptop distance. However it has made a huge quality of life difference for me. I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. My current correction is insanely good for reading and for driving. In fact, my opto said it was quite a bit better than 20/20 with no eye strain. Well, there was some eye s…

I think you may just need a new optometrist, they should be able to ask the right questions and provide options that make sense for you. I've also never met of an eye doctor that would push back when someone asked for computer glasses, that is extremely common...

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#77

Post by jasode »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #75
jasode wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. Yes, both progressives and high-index lenses suffer from the same problems: smaller field-of-vision and higher distortion of peripheral vision If I sit with my eyes 36 inches away from a 30-inch screen... With a single-vision lens, without my head moving at all, my eyes can move within their sockets to see the bottom corner of screen showing…

Thanks, the same happened to me but had no idea what I was doing. Tried the bifocal progressives and the top half was fine but bottom was like looking though coke bottles. Had to move my head constantly to get text centered. Constant movement and fishbowl effect drove me nuts. Thought they were defective. Returned them for one computer set and one driving (closeup fine) and they work well, but up until now thought th…

>but bottom was like looking though coke bottles.

Yes, exactly! Many others have the same issues and describe it in similar ways: "tunnel vision", or "looking through a pinhole"

It's very strange that optometrists & opticians don't explicitly explain this trade-off upfront: the "convenience" of progressive bifocals and the "fashion" of hi-index lenses will always be blurrier away from the center point than single vision lenses. If customers were properly educated ahead of time by the opticians, they wouldn't think progressives and hi-index were "defective". The lenses are not defective -- it's actually an unavoidable optical tradeoff! Your eyes just happen to be sensitive to it.

Some people adjust to progressives or high-index lenses just fine. Others don't. I tried them for 3 weeks as they recommended and never got used to them.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#78

Post by jasode »

lucaspiller wrote: post #61
jasode wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. Yes, both progressives and high-index lenses suffer from the same problems: smaller field-of-vision and higher distortion of peripheral vision If I sit with my eyes 36 inches away from a 30-inch screen... With a single-vision lens, without my head moving at all, my eyes can move within their sockets to see the bottom corner of screen showing…

There’s some good advice on this thread, and I’m definitely going to do some reading before I go to the optician next. I’ve been wearing glasses for 15 years and I don’t think I’ve ever had a pair that are really comfortable for computer work. The best I had was contact lenses, but now I have a weak astigmatism which they can’t correct properly. Anyway I wanted to ask about your test lens set. Do you just go to the o…

>and I don’t think I’ve ever had a pair that are really comfortable for computer work.

Yes, if your using desktop monitor is 2 or 3 feet away, that's an intermediate distance and neither reading glasses nor driving glasses will provide the optimal sharpness. If your "computer work" is a laptop monitor, a prescription for reading glasses (~12 inches) may also work for that shorter distance.

>Do you just go to the optician with the glasses?

No, I order them online: https://www.google.com/search?q=glasses+online

Those websites let you type in the numerical values for sphere, cylinder, etc. You don't need a prescription. (It's the online contact lens websites that require a faxed prescription or a confirmation phone call with the optometrist.)

If you need a tutorial for how to use a trial lens set, there are lots of youtube videos and text websites explaining SPHERE, CYLINDER, AXIS, ADD, PD, etc. It's really easy.

I used www.zennioptical.com but the others websites have good reviews as well.

If you absolutely must use a local optician such as LensCrafters, EyeMasters, Pearle Vision, Costco, Walmart, etc because you need to try out the frames on your face, a trial lens set isn't going to be as helpful to you.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#79

Post by jasode »

bigjimslade wrote: post #63
jasode wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I also gave up on progressives and now have two pairs: readers and drivers. Yes, both progressives and high-index lenses suffer from the same problems: smaller field-of-vision and higher distortion of peripheral vision If I sit with my eyes 36 inches away from a 30-inch screen... With a single-vision lens, without my head moving at all, my eyes can move within their sockets to see the bottom corner of screen showing…

But how do you see your dash while driving? Do you just see through the blurry?

The dash is a little blurry which is acceptable since there's no information that requires sharp vision. If I bought a Tesla where lots of important text is shown on the giant LCD monitor in small fonts, I might have to use progressives.

Re: Easing Eye Strain with the Right Lenses (2012)

#80

Post by dsr_ »

enrmarc wrote: post #49

Off-topic: do you know if there exist glasses that do not touch the nose?

Depends on exactly what you need. There are any number of places which will make prescription goggles for you, either waterproof for swimming or aerated (for playing sports). They don't need nose contact to stay in place.

www.nearsights.com specializes in monocles; technically you could wear one in each eye, but I suspect it would cause your face to ache.

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