Safe Speed Forums

Yesterday, being increasingly conscious of the need to take off my distance glasses to read any small print, I finally bit the bullet and invested in an (expensive) pair of varifocals

I've driven about 100 miles in them so far without incident, but I'm aware that to get the full benefit of the distance vision, I have to consciously look into the top half of the lens. Is this something I'll eventually get used to doing automatically?

I'd be interested in the experience of any other varifocal users.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I have worn varifocals for nearly ten years and I am rarely aware that I am wearing that type of lens. The effort of looking through the correct part of the lens soon becomes automatic. The only problem I have had is with night driving. I think that what is happening is that reflections from road signs arrive back through a different part of the lens causing some mild double vision. I keep a pair of plain (my varifocals are photo-chromic) distance vision glasses in the car for night driving. Since one should keep spare glasses in the car in case of breakage that isn't really an additional expense.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

The counter-intuitive thing is that you have to angle your head downwards to look at distant things, and upwards to look at close things

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I think a lot depends on how great the difference is between the varifocal portion of the lens and the normal part. I'm on my first pair now, and the difference is pretty small. If anything, I found I had to turn my head a bit more than I used to rather than looking through the corners. I gather styles with big lenses are better because the change can take place more gradually.

That is because you have not yet learned to move your eyes rather than your head to get the focus.. The advice that you should point your noise at what you want to see seems to work quite well. For some reason your eyes tend to follow your nose.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

IMO the worst thing about Varifocals is that you have to crick your neck back to see the computer monitor. I've gone back to single vision readers for deskwork.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

No you don't. You have to learn to move your eyes rather than your neck

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I have no problem with that - I just look at the monitor through the intermediate area in the middle of the lens.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

When I first got the vari-focals I also bought a pair of reading glasses for desk work as did Malcolm. But I never actually felt the need to use them and eventually had then re-glazed as a spare distant vision set. Best thing since nan bread are vfs

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I'm with Malcolm on this - it's no use lowering your eyes, unless eyes' lens and monitor line up at the same time - and with some lenses they dont.

Your optician should be able to show you where the transition takes place - mine drew it on the lens in a waterbased felt tip pen to demonstrate where and how I had to hold my head for different views. As Mole identified - those "fashionable" styles which are suited to peering through letterboxes have less space in which to fit the transition!

I hate them - I can see the frame in my vision wherever I look. I preferred the pilot style where the lens covers the whole of the eye, but had difficulty in getting a large enough lens last time I went!



I had noticed this - and had mentioned it in another forum. I find those using fog lights in the wet when there is no need particularly distracting.
In fact any light source which illuminates the water on your screen is a drawback with Varifocals!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

The larger style is a problem with very strong lenses as the edge needs to be very thick which increases the weight a lot. Plstic or high refractive index glass reduces that problem but at a price.



I am lad someone else suffers this as mu optician was very dubious when I mentioned it to her. Not dubious enough to talk me out of buying another pair of specs though

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Oops, should have gone to Specsavers! OAP crashes through front of opticians
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:58 AM on 27th June 2009
It could have been a scene from an advert for a new pair of designer glasses.
But for one 89-year-old driver, the test of navigating a busy street proved too much after he ploughed through the front of an opticians, causing up to £20,000 worth of damage.
The pensioner, who was wearing glasses, mounted the pavement in Seaford, East Sussex, careered through the shop and smashed two display units of designer sunglasses before coming to a halt just in front of three shocked members of staff.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0gwPiK3DH

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nigel_bytes

Have you got the right prescription on at the moment dcb? Just kidding..

This is a subject close to my heart so thanks for bringing it up Peter

I'm in the throws of getting the same. Like the rest of you old fogies I'm struggling to read and find my arms aren't long enough. Either that or I have to take my specs off and bring it in close to my eyes. (The joys of getting old eh?).

So I'm very interested in all comments here because I have heard and read conflicting viewpoints.

I broke my specs just the other day when they fell on the floor while taking my helmet off. Long story short.. I had to get some without delay and the only place which could do this by me was Vision Express. Two hours later and £155 spent which I can't afford on the cheapest on 'BeYu' frames, I got some more.

I can't afford VF complete with none-dorky frame and they take a month to make so I got these Continental ones with the big side arms as a temporary and spare thing. As Claire quite rightly pointed out to me however, they blinker you so not a good thing to use for driving. On the up side I have found them great for sheltering my eyes from the low sun we are getting when being attacked from the sides. I’d still rather have the peripheral vision though on balance.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Reasonable Varifocals (I find Zeiss better than Nikon) about £450

Acceptable single focus reading glasses about £3.50.

Hmmm...

PS. My distance vision is spot on now I have got older.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Lucky you. I'm myopic, although having just looked up the dictionary definition I'm not sure that's a good admission.

1.Ophthalmology. pertaining to or having myopia; nearsighted.
2.unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
3.lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.

I'm number 1 btw. It's not so bad being number 1

What other old man/woman things have we got going on here? (I'm guessing no-one under 40 is going to read this thread anyway).

Well, I've been trying to combat my toenail fungus with 'Clear Zal' for the last year or more. In fact there's only one part of my body I feel still works like it did when I was young, but let's not go there...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I've gotten reading ones down as low as two pairs for £2 ( places like Aldi/ Netto/Lydll) , not the best quality of frames but for a hostile working environment( and careless user) acceptable .Can't comment on the distance side yet -I'm still blessed with good distance vision - I get free checks due to my diabetes and dad had Glaecoma ,with yearly retinal checks .I used to get a yearly test at work with BUPA ( they panicked about me being out on track with diabetes) and passed every one of theirs .In fact , the older guys could spot a train before the kids .( Says something ,perhaps ) .
On the toenail fungi ,BT- read somewhere that the medics are hesitant to treat ,despite all the so called cures , the response rate is low .Think I've got it ,as a side effect from my cured athletes foot ( me an athlete -well in those days cars were all RWD) -still waiting for my GP to pick it up on my yearly foot inspections -they panick in case of poor healing cuts etc .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Throwing your specs around is silly and will inevitable lead to breakages. (Sorry Tone - I don't normally criticise spelling errors but you did ask for it )

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Pah! So you can still REACH your toenails eh Tone???!!! You're still now't but a boy, young lad!

For what it's worth, I'm short-sighted too. For me it will always be varifocals or carrying two pairs of glasses from now on. As luck would have it, I'm not cool and trendy (and doesn't my daughter keep reminding me?!) so I don't mind having large, unfashionable, but actually very functional frames. Because it was such a gentle change and because the lenses were large, my varifocals weren't that expensive, but I couldn't afford the anti-reflective coating that I had on my last single focus pair as well as the varifocals and that's been more of a pain that I'd thought. I might still go back to having 2 pairs...

Ah, you got me there you devil but I have to confess I still don’t know how I should have said it. I just asked a Speech and Language Therapist too and she said that’s how she would have written it unless there’s an apostrophe or something?

The worst faux pas I made was when I was talking about America the once and mentioned ‘the right to bare arms’. A guy who used to frequent here, called Handy, got some mileage out of it I can tell you. It’s good to be able to laugh at yourself though.

I don’t get why diabetes is so common botach. I know four people, (friends and friends sons), who got it while only in their mid/late teens. It’s a very common and increasing condition, as you know, but I’m glad you have good care.

My nail fungus thing has gone. It’s common in men of a certain age, so I’m told. It only took so long to eradicate because I stopped using the ClearZal when it looked like it had gone but I should have kept using it for a while after. (A bit like taking antibiotics). It happens when you have your feet in hot shoes all day. I’ve got bigger shoes now. I’m a size 7 so now I use size 8. I have very small feet for my height but I can assure you everything else is perfectly normal. (Too much information )

Actually Mole, it’s quite difficult to reach my toes and I’m not sure if it’s because of my belly or my inflexible back. When I do manage to get my foot close enough to start hacking I can’t see properly because it’s in a range which is not close enough to see without my specs but too close to see using my specs. It’s ridiculous! This is why I need proper reading glasses or maybe medium range ones.

I guess nature didn’t intend us to live this long.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

It is throes Tone. No wonder the overall standard of child literacy is falling if even a speech therapist can't spell.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown