It took a little while to get used to them but what a difference.

If you get lower quality progressive lens, you will have to hunt for that middle spot.

This happened to me when the eyeglass person thought she'd do me a favor by going with a lower quality lens. I drove away and had to come back thinking there was something wrong with the prescription.

The quality lens I was used to was Varilux and it was expensive. In the last year, I went to Costco and they offered "digitized" lenses. I gave it a shot and it was on par with what I was used to.

Also, don't try to go with short glasses as that means less real estate for everything. You don't need to go overly big, just medium size lenses.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
If you get lower quality progressive lens, you will have to hunt for that middle spot.

This happened to me when the eyeglass person thought she'd do me a favor by going with a lower quality lens. I drove away and had to come back thinking there was something wrong with the prescription.

The quality lens I was used to was Varilux and it was expensive. In the last year, I went to Costco and they offered "digitized" lenses. I gave it a shot and it was on par with what I was used to.

Also, don't try to go with short glasses as that means less real estate for everything. You don't need to go overly big, just medium size lenses.

I did grab a larger lens pair this time because I was thinking that I’d need more space for the reading section. My current glasses would only allow for a tiny sliver.

My biggest concern is with daily driving though. As long as I don’t lose peripheral vision, I’ll most likely be happy.

Well, the first try was a failure but I think they made the glasses wrong. Looking about 30’ away there was no point of the lens that was in focus, but a tiny sliver of the very top was better than the rest.

Trying up close reading, again nothing was in focus but a tiny sliver of the bottom of the lens was better than the rest of the supposed reading zone.

Something is definitely not right. My 3 year old single vision glasses were much clearer.

Some years ago one of my uncles left the eye doctor after getting 1st time bi-focals and as he pulled into a parking spot he had trouble seeing right in front of his van and drive right over a concrete parking barrier(front seperation ).......... drill sgt.

My father had a co-worker at the post office that wore double tri-focals because he hand sorted mail standing up in front of a pigeon hole desk...Constantly looking up-down-up-down all day long. ............................ drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Anyone not happy with progressives? This will be my first pair of multi focal lenses.

I have both progressives and regular bifocals. I absolutely love progressives for every day wear. But when sitting in front of my computer screens which I do eight to ten hours a day I have a pair of traditional bifocals where the lense is midrange and the segment is reading distance.

I have the optician set the segment on my computer bifocals lower than normal, about the bottom third, So I have more midrange lense to see the screens.

Costco sells a type of occupational progressive where the majority of the lense is midrange and then a small part of the top is distance and a small part at the bottom is reading. I plan on getting a pair of these next time I get glasses.

Since these chains are employing people making $15/hr. and are not real opticians, you have to be careful where they place the segment height. In my experience these young people with good eyes always place the segment too high. I don’t trust them to get the segment height correct.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Well, the first try was a failure but I think they made the glasses wrong. Looking about 30’ away there was no point of the lens that was in focus, but a tiny sliver of the very top was better than the rest.

Trying up close reading, again nothing was in focus but a tiny sliver of the bottom of the lens was better than the rest of the supposed reading zone.

Something is definitely not right. My 3 year old single vision glasses were much clearer.

Yes. They screwed up. They gave you a multifunctional instead of a traditional progressive. You can see the difference on Costco’s website here:

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

I am of the firm belief that most people who hate progressives hate them because the idiot who made them got the lenses wrong.

I have a bad astigmatism, I’m farsighted, and I have presbyopia which makes the farsightednesses even worse. I have to watch them like a hawk to make sure they get the lenses correct.

Wife picked up her progressives when I was refusing mine. She said she could see with them and was pleased until she went to work this morning and couldn’t see her computer screen. Another failure.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Wife picked up her progressives when I was refusing mine. She said she could see with them and was pleased until she went to work this morning and couldn’t see her computer screen. Another failure.

See my posts above.

Don't trust a 25 year old making $15/hr. and doesn't even where eyeglasses to get your progressive lenses correct.

You wife needs a separate pair of eyeglasses for computer work. Either the multi-functional which is what they dispensed to you. or a traditional bifocal with the lense set to her intermediate or mid-range prescription and a segment set to her reading prescription.

I went back to wearing eyeglasses a year ago and got progressives. I hate them. My brain still hasn’t adjusted to them. At work I’m always moving my head to work on a computer. Doing household chores where you look at the ground is impossible. Plus I see a fishbowl effect with mine. I’m going to get new frames for distance only and use reading glasses for computer work.

I have worn progressives for the past 10 years and am fairly happy with them. I occasionally remove them when working on the computer because they force my head up to focus and my neck gets sore.
I recently started looking at RLE or IOL lens surgery as a replacement.

My business partner got the surgery done and is very happy with it. Gets to wear normal sun glasses, shooting glasses etc.

I am by no means an expert ... but I have used lined bi-focals and lined tri-focals and found that I much prefer progressive bi-focal style of glasses.

When I was working the street as a cop, I really liked wearing just "one" contact in my eye for near distance sighted to my hand gun distance and the other eye was just fine for distance.

As I aged, and approach retirement ... I found the progressives to best meet my needs. However, I did have a separate set of glasses just for reading and up-close work.

Everyone is different in needs and preferences ... hope all these ideas give you something to think about and try.

I’m still waiting for my second pair of glasses to arrive so that I can refuse them as well.


A secondary question, are progressives a compromise? I don’t want them if they’re not excellent for all the situations they cover. I also don’t want to have to constantly move my head up and down to find focus. I’ve already got enough neck pains.

I also didn't like them. I was always repositioning my head in uncomfortable ways and driving was difficult.

I don't have a problem close up, but presbyopia is getting my distance vision, as well as my astigmatism that lasik can't correct.

I just finally started wearing single Rx glasses and contacts, primarily for distance, but they do a great job of making things up close clear.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
A secondary question, are progressives a compromise? I don’t want them if they’re not excellent for all the situations they cover. I also don’t want to have to constantly move my head up and down to find focus. I’ve already got enough neck pains.

No they are not, you just have to learn not to "use them"

With properly ground progressives, you actually shouldn't be moving your head to "find the sweet spot"...that is an artifact of early progressives. Turn you head as you normally would and move your eyes where you want to see stuff and it should be in focus.

I made that mistake with my latest pair...trying to find the focus point. Went back to my optometrist thinking they hadn't ground them properly as I couldn't read a menu. He handed me a chart for, told me to hold it where I'd normally read it, then told me to only move my eyes and not to move my head. Surprise...everything was in focus

Optometrist here - some of these comments are humorous.

My only advice is buy a good pair - stay away from the cheapest pair you can find at Walmart or Costco. It took me about 30 seconds to get used to them - no big deal.

MDS

quote:

Originally posted by Harleysbluff:
Optometrist here - some of these comments are humorous. …

Then drop some knowledge. If your advice is to just spend more it doesn’t mean a lot considering no one mentored price.

We ended up spending just under $1200 for one pair for my wife and two for me (one prescription safety lens pair for work).

quote:

Originally posted by Harleysbluff:

stay away from <snip> Costco.

Please tell me about this. I was planning to go to Costco; I would like to know what to avoid.

I would support someone local - ask them what their best lens is. Most don’t know there are different options / types of progressives.

I hate Walmart with a passion - I’d never support them.

MDS