Speaking of Vision -- How 'bout Progressive Bifocals?

Great stuff, Randy -- thanks.

I guess I don't understand this part:
************************************************** *******************************
Progressive lens design
In order to create a no-line progressive lens, there are two large areas of
the lens that you cannot see through. Imagine what an hourglass looks like.
This is the shape of the area of the progressive lens that you can see
through. Objects seen through the areas of the lens to the left and right of
the narrow middle section are highly distorted and you cannot see through
them.

************************************************** *******************************

Why would the areas to the left and right of the middle section be "highly
distorted"? Why aren't those areas simply made to your "distance"
prescription?

Any eye doctors here?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
Great stuff, Randy -- thanks.

I guess I don't understand this part:
************************************************* ********************************
Progressive lens design
In order to create a no-line progressive lens, there are two large areas of
the lens that you cannot see through. Imagine what an hourglass looks like.
This is the shape of the area of the progressive lens that you can see
through. Objects seen through the areas of the lens to the left and right of
the narrow middle section are highly distorted and you cannot see through
them.

************************************************* ********************************

Why would the areas to the left and right of the middle section be "highly
distorted"? Why aren't those areas simply made to your "distance"
prescription?

I don't fully understand the optics, but that's exactly what my
optician (who's a fellow pilot) explained to me, and when I got my
progressives, that's exactly what I experienced. I couldn't stand it,
and had him re-make the lenses as lined bifocals (which I'm still
struggling to get used to).

Roy Smith wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

Great stuff, Randy -- thanks.

I guess I don't understand this part:
************************************************ *********************************
Progressive lens design
In order to create a no-line progressive lens, there are two large areas of
the lens that you cannot see through. Imagine what an hourglass looks like.
This is the shape of the area of the progressive lens that you can see
through. Objects seen through the areas of the lens to the left and right of
the narrow middle section are highly distorted and you cannot see through
them.

************************************************ *********************************

Why would the areas to the left and right of the middle section be "highly
distorted"? Why aren't those areas simply made to your "distance"
prescription?


I don't fully understand the optics, but that's exactly what my
optician (who's a fellow pilot) explained to me, and when I got my
progressives, that's exactly what I experienced. I couldn't stand it,
and had him re-make the lenses as lined bifocals (which I'm still
struggling to get used to).

The above certainly does NOT describe my progressives.

Matt

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
Roy Smith wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

Great stuff, Randy -- thanks.

I guess I don't understand this part:
*********************************************** **********************************
Progressive lens design
In order to create a no-line progressive lens, there are two large areas
of the lens that you cannot see through. Imagine what an hourglass looks
like. This is the shape of the area of the progressive lens that you can
see through. Objects seen through the areas of the lens to the left and
right of the narrow middle section are highly distorted and you cannot
see through them.

*********************************************** **********************************

Why would the areas to the left and right of the middle section be
"highly distorted"? Why aren't those areas simply made to your
"distance" prescription?


I don't fully understand the optics, but that's exactly what my
optician (who's a fellow pilot) explained to me, and when I got my
progressives, that's exactly what I experienced. I couldn't stand it,
and had him re-make the lenses as lined bifocals (which I'm still
struggling to get used to).

The above certainly does NOT describe my progressives.

Matt

It does not apply to the dozens of progressives I have had over the decades
either. Sounds like another OWT. Maybe they need to reconsider where they
purchase their eye wear.

Jay Honeck wrote:
Great stuff, Randy -- thanks.

I guess I don't understand this part:
************************************************** *******************************
Progressive lens design
In order to create a no-line progressive lens, there are two large areas of
the lens that you cannot see through. Imagine what an hourglass looks like.
This is the shape of the area of the progressive lens that you can see
through. Objects seen through the areas of the lens to the left and right of
the narrow middle section are highly distorted and you cannot see through
them.

************************************************** *******************************

Why would the areas to the left and right of the middle section be "highly
distorted"? Why aren't those areas simply made to your "distance"
prescription?

Any eye doctors here?
Jay, I have stayed out of this subject but thought that I would now add
some of my experience if you are still considering progressives. I
started with bifocals but after a few years tried progressives. I found
them to be better (for me) than the bifocals. About 8 months ago I got a
new prescription and had the lenses made at LensCrafters. They never
worked very well (the hour glass was too narrow and so peripheral vision
was very restricted). I had a new pair made, but this time I told them
to use Varilux lenses and not their in house brand (my initial
progressives were Varilux). I am now happy again with my new
progressives. There was a recent article (Aviation Consumer Volume 36,
Number 2, 2006) that discussed the differences between the lens
manufacturers of progressive lenses, and offered their opinion about
which lenses to get.

Cary

them to be better (for me) than the bifocals. About 8 months ago I got a
new prescription and had the lenses made at LensCrafters. They never
worked very well (the hour glass was too narrow and so peripheral vision
was very restricted). I had a new pair made, but this time I told them to
use Varilux lenses and not their in house brand (my initial progressives
were Varilux). I am now happy again with my new progressives.

Thanks, Cary. My family has used Lenscrafters for many years, but they DO
have a problem with quality control.

A couple of prescriptions back, they made a lens that had a "wave" in it
that drove me nuts. I eventually had them re-make it. My current glasses
came in earlier this week, but one of the lenses was scratched, so they are
re-making it. (They discovered this before I did, thankfully.)

Of course, given all the glasses they have made for us over the years (we
now ALL wear prescription glasses, with Mary "joining the fun" with her
reading glasses), that's a small -- but measurable -- number.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Just thought I'd chime in with what I do... I am nearsighted,
astigmatic, and now presbyopic (the old man's eye problem

I have a single vision (distance) lens in my left eye (I fly from the
left seat) and a bifocal in the right eye, with the line 2 mm lower than
usual, to read my charts with. This has worked well for a few years,
but now I may need to move the line up so I can read my instrument
panel. The bifocal is just a +1 or so - whatever the least amount they
can put in is. I tried higher amounts but they don't work for me since
I don't like the different sized views I get from each lens (the bifocal
part gives a bigger image).

One optometrist would absolutely not fill my prescription - he didn't
think it was "a good idea". My wife also had a problem with some
glasses she bought (wavy distortions) and he absolutely would not
believe her, nor would he look through the lens himself. Alas, he died a
week later and we got everything straightened out.

Jose
--
The price of freedom is... well... freedom.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

One optometrist would absolutely not fill my prescription - he didn't
think it was "a good idea". My wife also had a problem with some glasses
she bought (wavy distortions) and he absolutely would not believe her, nor
would he look through the lens himself. Alas, he died a week later and we
got everything straightened out.

A harsh, but effective, way to clear up a customer service problem... :-)

Well, I'm typing this whilst looking through my new "progressive" lenses.
So far, I am VERY impressed. I have both sharpened my distance vision (the
doc "tweaked" that prescription a notch for me) *and* I can now see up
close.

No nausea or vertigo noted. Going up and down steps is fine. The only
unusual thing I've noted is this:

When sitting at my desk (or a table -- something with a straight edge for
reference), if I look down through the "close" vision part of the lenses
whilst turning my head from side to side, I can make the table "rock" up and
down, back and forth. It's rather disconcerting (and sorta fun, in small
doses), but the effect goes away when I focus through the "distance" part of
the lens -- so I don't anticipate that this will cause me any undo problems.

Thus -- other than my lenses being FAR too thick (like, half again thicker
than my former lenses, supposedly due to the "frameless" style Mary selected
for me) I like 'em a lot!

Thanks to everyone for the input -- it's been very educational.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Jose" wrote in message
. net...
Just thought I'd chime in with what I do... I am nearsighted, astigmatic,
and now presbyopic (the old man's eye problem

I have a single vision (distance) lens in my left eye (I fly from the left
seat) and a bifocal in the right eye, with the line 2 mm lower than usual,
to read my charts with. This has worked well for a few years, but now I
may need to move the line up so I can read my instrument panel. The
bifocal is just a +1 or so - whatever the least amount they can put in is.
I tried higher amounts but they don't work for me since I don't like the
different sized views I get from each lens (the bifocal part gives a
bigger image).


Jose
--
The price of freedom is... well... freedom.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

In article yY4ig.1012801$xm3.53417@attbi_s21,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Thus -- other than my lenses being FAR too thick (like, half again thicker
than my former lenses, supposedly due to the "frameless" style Mary selected
for me) I like 'em a lot!

My wife's vision is so bad, I have to go with her to pick out the frames
because she cannot see what she looks like without lenses in the bare
frames.
So that I don't have to hear:
"What were you thinking when you picked these frames for me?"
We now have a digital camera solve that problem.