Ask HN: Do you wear progressive glasses? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you wear progressive glasses?

2 pointsFreeHugs5 comments

I have been considering to wear progressive glasses for a while, but I have been confused by the giant price range.

Eyes&More offer progressive glasses (The frame and two lenses) for €250. And then there are opticians who try to sell you lenses only for €800.

Eyes&More do not specify which glasses they use at all. Other opticians also seem very reluctant to tell you which glasses they would use.

Are there any standards to go buy? Demand some specific lens type from a specific manufacturer?

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At least here (Italy) you would want to ask for Zeiss lenses:

https://www.zeiss.com/vision-care/int/spectacle-lenses-from-...

cannot really say if they are actually "better", but my usual optician (whom I trust) swears by them, I recently had a new pair of lenses (on an old frame) for around 250 €, cannot say which exact version/option they are, the whole Zeiss catalog (in print) is a huge volume with tens of options.

I would advise against "remote" in this case, as unlike "normal" lenses (for myopia) where the "only" additional parameter is interpupillar distance, for progressive lenses it is also important the size and shape of the frame and your personal "posture".

As anecdata only, with an earlier pair of glasses I had issues because the frame was too big (or tall or however the lense center was too high) and I had to slightly bow to focus long distance, had to change the frame with a slightly smaller one so that I had the right long range focus when standing upright.

Get your prescription and buy online. The optometrists try to short change you by leaving out the interpupillary (IPD) space = the space between the pupils of your eyes as you look at infinity. Some have been accused of giving you the wrong number?? This is easy to measure with a mirror as per wikihow. https://www.wikihow.com/Measure-Your-Interpupillary-Distance....

Pick your frame and select the progressive lenses. As you look through lower and lower portions of the lens it assumes you are reading closer and closer work. Look through the high part for distance vision. Your eyes normally accommodate for distance, but after 25 they lose this gradually. Some eye exercise gurus claim their exercises preserve accommodation? It is bot a muscle aspect that you can exercise and a flexibility aspect = lens stiffens with age = no hope. Some people claim certain eyes drop extend flexibility to older ages??

If you can afford them, freeform progressives will provide the largest usable field of view. Google “freeform progressive” for more.

Note that “freeform” encapsulates multiple types, depending on how much of the lens surface is custom: https://www.2020mag.com/ce/the-optics-of-free-form. Ask your optician how much you’d benefit from each and the price difference.

An optician that does this a lot will have a machine to measure your frame-specific pantoscopic tilt and vertex distance, not just PD.

I bought some about a year ago and have been pleased with them.

I asked each optician:

- which brand will I get

- how will you do the measurements

as my understanding of the technology is that the measurements are critical.

I went with the Essilor Varilux X. I very much wanted the best fit I could get as I have double vision from amblyopia.

I use them. I'm in the US and bought them from Costco.

https://www.costco.com/optical.html

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