[Help] Varifocal bins

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 6, 2019

vegster said:
HT, It all depends on if you need to wear spectacles to read or maybe just sharpen stuff up on your computer. As we get older the muscles that sharpen the focus of your eyes gets a bit slack so we all need specs for reading at some time.

If you already wear specs for distance vision you end up needing two different focussing pairs of specs, Varifocals get around this as they are a blended bifocal which means you have different focal lengths within the same lens. You merely need to look up and down the lens and you have clear vision at whatever you are focusing on..... If they give you the right power ! Some people have adaption problems and never get used to them so either have bifocals or two pairs, distance and reading but most people, me included find them marvellous !

Sussex Nomad said:
Varifocals are for long and short sighted. I wear them. When you go to Specsavers or wherever they will tell you what you need, but if you're just short sighted you just need short sighted goggles. Vari means variable, like me, screwed in both departments!!

Thanks both. FYI I don’t need them for reading or computer/work. My close vision is perfect. It’s long distance which isn’t as sharp. As I understand it, the varifocal lenses which have been suggested to me will be my prescription in the upper part and just regular glass in the bottom bit ie when I’m reading, checking phone etc I’ll be looking through straight glass as nothing is required...but looking up at long distance it will be through glass which is correcting my vision. Hope this makes sense...I’m not sure of the correct terminology.

Bry Nylon · Jan 6, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
As an aside, if anyone has a glasses fetish, or would like to develop one, I can recommend fancy opticians on a Saturday afternoon.

I hope you're not going to make a complete spectacle of yourself.

Icy Gull · Jan 6, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
Thanks both. FYI I don’t need them for reading or computer/work. My close vision is perfect. It’s long distance which isn’t as sharp. As I understand it, the varifocal lenses which have been suggested to me will be my prescription in the upper part and just regular glass in the bottom bit ie when I’m reading, checking phone etc I’ll be looking through straight glass as nothing is required...but looking up at long distance it will be through glass which is correcting my vision. Hope this makes sense...I’m not sure of the correct terminology.

I imagine you’ll be fine with them if the lower half is just glass

Sussex Nomad · Jan 6, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
Thanks both. FYI I don’t need them for reading or computer/work. My close vision is perfect. It’s long distance which isn’t as sharp. As I understand it, the varifocal lenses which have been suggested to me will be my prescription in the upper part and just regular glass in the bottom bit ie when I’m reading, checking phone etc I’ll be looking through straight glass as nothing is required...but looking up at long distance it will be through glass which is correcting my vision. Hope this makes sense...I’m not sure of the correct terminology.

Your prescriptionist will know the right way to go. Vari's really take time to get used to, after 6 years they still do bad things to me. Just wearing glasses in the first place takes time and I never got used to them, they still piss me off. Best of luck fella!

Brian Parsons · Jan 6, 2019

Here's something to ponder. Some years ago I used to take day trips to France through the tunnel. Find a little village have lunch return to tunnel bit if duty free and back home. I had a set route away from the tunnel. On one occasion going past a road sign I noticed two place names, that's odd I thought. I closed my right eye and hey presto the two merged into one. What's this got to do with varifocals you ask. Well I needed a 1deg prism put into my right lens on my glasses to counter the problem something that cannot be done on varifocals. So it's not just the muscles that control focus that weaken it's also the muscles that control direction as well.

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Bodian · Jan 6, 2019

Have a think about buying a pair of slim glasses (this sort of thing, but not reading glasses https://www.ebay.com/itm/Slim-Mini-Metal-Frame-Reading-Glasses-Readers-Spectacles-1-0-1-5-4-0-With-Case-/261972702174). I'm a bit short sighted, and wear glasses for driving, watching telly and at events (can't see the stage, or the far goal otherwise) - but not for walking around, computer work, reading, etc. The thing about the slimmer glasses is that you look through them when your eyes are ahead, but look below them when looking down. So, perfect for things like talks/meetings - where you are both watching the powerpoint/speaker, whilst trying to take notes at the same time. Possibly the same as a plain glass bottom half - but somehow feels better. Don't know why!

Sussex Nomad · Jan 6, 2019

Brian Parsons said:
Here's something to ponder. Some years ago I used to take day trips to France through the tunnel. Find a little village have lunch return to tunnel bit if duty free and back home. I had a set route away from the tunnel. On one occasion going past a road sign I noticed two place names, that's odd I thought. I closed my right eye and hey presto the two merged into one. What's this got to do with varifocals you ask. Well I needed a 1deg prism put into my right lens on my glasses to counter the problem something that cannot be done on varifocals. So it's not just the muscles that control focus that weaken it's also the muscles that control direction as well.

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Well here is something else. If you can afford laser eye treatment I am told it is very effective. Lasts for some 10 years.

Brian Parsons · Jan 6, 2019

Sussex Nomad said:
Well here is something else. If you can afford laser eye treatment I am told it is very effective. Lasts for some 10 years.

I've looked at this, only problem I use bi- focals. They can correct either your long or short vision but sadly not both. I did consider just having glasses for reading then I saw how much it cost. Bi-focals it is then. [emoji16][emoji16]

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Fungus · Jan 6, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
Thanks both. FYI I don’t need them for reading or computer/work. My close vision is perfect. It’s long distance which isn’t as sharp. As I understand it, the varifocal lenses which have been suggested to me will be my prescription in the upper part and just regular glass in the bottom bit ie when I’m reading, checking phone etc I’ll be looking through straight glass as nothing is required...but looking up at long distance it will be through glass which is correcting my vision. Hope this makes sense...I’m not sure of the correct terminology.

Do you drive? That's probably the one time you can't take off your single-vision distance glasses, to see close-up stuff like the dashboard and sat-nav.

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 6, 2019

Oxy McFloppie-Tish said:
Do you drive? That's probably the one time you can't take off your single-vision distance glasses, to see close-up stuff like the dashboard and sat-nav.

No. I actively avoid driving.

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 6, 2019

Sussex Nomad said:
Well here is something else. If you can afford laser eye treatment I am told it is very effective. Lasts for some 10 years.

A friend had this done. He said the worse thing about it....it’s very unpleasant and once they’ve done one eye you then know what they’re going to do to the next eye.

Bodian · Jan 6, 2019

Sussex Nomad said:
Well here is something else. If you can afford laser eye treatment I am told it is very effective. Lasts for some 10 years.

Unless your eyes continue to change. Since my first pair in 2000 I have had two new stronger pairs after eye-tests. But I am now back to using my first pair again, as your eye shape changes more than we think.

Fungus · Jan 6, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
No. I actively avoid driving.

Then it's probably down to whether you'll lose your glasses when you keep taking them off for close-up stuff.

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 6, 2019

Oxy McFloppie-Tish said:
Then it's probably down to whether you'll lose your glasses when you keep taking them off for close-up stuff.

This is where my main question is. Can I get away with non-vari as I won’t be wearing them all the time? Or should I just bite-the-bullet and pay more for vari.

Sussex Nomad · Jan 6, 2019

To people like me that have to wear them whenever not in bed, although my girlfriend will tell me I can't find a certain spot, we won't go there, how do you feel about wearing these damned things? I have for some ten years and I still bloody hate it. I cannot get used to them, like ever.

Fungus · Jan 6, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
This is where my main question is. Can I get away with non-vari as I won’t be wearing them all the time? Or should I just bite-the-bullet and pay more for vari.

Fungus · Jan 6, 2019

Sussex Nomad said:
To people like me that have to wear them whenever not in bed, although my girlfriend will tell me I can't find a certain spot, we won't go there, how do you feel about wearing these damned things? I have for some ten years and I still bloody hate it. I cannot get used to them, like ever.

Hate them every day.

You can't find it with your fingers?

Sussex Nomad · Jan 6, 2019

They fall off your preferred position, steam up when having a shave, I just hate them.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Jan 6, 2019

I can echo a lot of what is said on here. I got distance glasses in my mid 30s (could never identify Albion players properly). I also have an astygmatism. It took me six months to get used to the buggers. Then in my early 40s my close up vision started to go. Gave up buying Private Eye (tiny print). Then my optician told me this is a standard old man's problem, and I got prescription reading glasses. However in my job I ended up swapping glasses when doing close up work when teaching students. I had to carry around 2 pairs. Inevitably I lost a pair, then broke a pair, then lost another pair.....

When I went varifocal (close up at the bottom, distance at the top) it transformed my life. Compared with my first experience of wearing glass, it took me only a couple of days to be completely at ease with them. They cost a lot, but they are worth it. :thumbsup:

Oh and ps, if you go skiing, get some contact lenses. If you put ski goggles over glasses (which I did a few times) things seem to steam up more quickly and it is a bugger getting dew off spectacles at 3000 meters in a minus ten gale :lolol:

Sussex Nomad · Jan 6, 2019

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
I can echo a lot of what is said on here. I got distance glasses in my mid 30s (could never identify Albion players properly). I also have an astygmatism. It took me six months to get used to the buggers. Then in my early 40s my close up vision started to go. Gave up buying Private Eye (tiny print). Then my optician told me this is a standard old man's problem, and I got prescription reading glasses. However in my job I ended up swapping glasses when doing close up work when teaching students. I had to carry around 2 pairs. Inevitably I lost a pair, then broke a pair, then lost another pair.....

When I went varifocal (close up at the bottom, distance at the top) it transformed my life. Compared with my first experience of wearing glass, it took me only a couple of days to be completely at ease with them. They cost a lot, but they are worth it.

Oh and ps, if you go skiing, get some contact lenses. If you put ski goggles over glasses (which I did a few times) things seem to steam up more quickly and it is a bugger getting dew off spectacles at 3000 meters in a minus ten gale

Why are you always readable? :laugh:

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