Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

I had mine done here http://www.elliseye.com/ in 2001 or 2002. At first my vision was 20/15 in one eye and 20/10 in the other and I felt like the bionic man. This over correction lasted about a year before it started to degrade and I am now worse than 20/20 I imagine. I can still pass a driver's test, spend hours everyday in front of a monitor, see well at night etc. My only complaint is the slight starburst effect around bright glowing objects at night but I consider that a small price to pay. To this day I consider it the best money I have ever spent.

In a variation on the original topic, I am also thinking about getting the procedure done (I currently wear glasses, and love how they look) but in addition to programming I am a passionate amateur photographer.

Specifically, I specialize in rangefinder and TLR medium format cameras. I find that focusing is incredibly difficult on a parallax viewfinder (bright line) system. If it's even slightly dim, forget about it; I can't make out what's in focus. Plus my glasses get in the way, get smudged and sometimes get scratched.

My concern is that presumably Lasik is optimized for near-sighted (distance impaired) vision. Nobody can give me a straight answer on whether (assuming the procedure goes well) focusing will be any easier, or possibly even harder. I know that the surgery won't give me super-vision, but there's a very practical physical limitation to how close I can get my eye to the viewfinder before my glasses are pressed between my moist eye and the eyecup on my camera.

What I'm trying to figure out is whether when I'm focusing, my eye is focusing on something an inch from my eye (or less) or if it's focusing on infinity (in the optical sense). I suspect that it's infinity, which means that distance vision support would be kick-ass.

Any optics experts want to chime in?

Has anyone done Orthokeratology? It seems cheaper than lasik and still fairly effective in what it does. Any thoughts on this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthokeratology

Sorry, but I have no expertise to comment on that.

I had LASIK done this January, right after allocating the LASIK bill to my company's flexible spending account the previous December. I highly recommended using the FSA since the surgery is paid with pre-tax dollars, effectively shaving 35% off the price of surgery. Right after the surgery, I noticed my vision was way better than pre-surgery, when wearing contacts, everything was crystal sharp. I went for a post surgery eye exam and the optometrist said I had 20/15 vision. Certifiable laser eyes!

Shortly after, I left my programming desk job to do some world travelling. Normally, I sit in front of the computer for 12+ hours a day, but during these 3 months of backpacking, I was walking around all day and had minimal computer interaction. It was incredible seeing New York and Europe with this new set of eyes.

After returning home and resuming the 12 hours routine of sitting in front of the computer I've noticed my eyesight has deteriorated/settled in a little and probably dropped back to 20/20 vision. I get some halos at night but this seems more of an effect of dry eyes and remedied with eye drops. Do some research on your LASIK surgeon, but I would highly recommend LASIK.