Thread: Ageing vision, glasses lenses and options.

Folks as I age my vision is becoming less acute. My optician says this is just a natural process but it still agravates me that I cannot spot animals in the bush or in dull light as well ad I used to.
OK, so I have mild short sightedness and revist optician after three years yesterday for a retest. My eye prescription(-.75) has remained constant. However, my specs are in a bad way and lenses need replacing. Glass has best clarity but they almost demand I use polycarbonate lenses. However, my own research indicates polycarb are very costly and least good for acuity compared to glass or CR39 plastic , latter being much less expensive but less profitable for opticians. Polycarb is also much softer and while recommended for safety glasses it is not the clearest.seems to me CR 39 is shatterproof, almost as clear as glass but much cheaper for the customer.
Any comments from experts please? Urgent. Thanks.

No answers to your question.....my eyes are bad for distance, what really gets me is when glasses steam/fog up so I take them off.
Then can't see bugger all and have mistaken a stag for a bushy tree on edge of clearing once, then bugger me that bloody bushy tree turned and ran away....haha

Watching with interest.

While it's relatively expensive, I can, from personal experience, recommend laser surgery. The joy of hunting again
without glasses is worth every penny.

Both my wife and I have glasses. She has frameless full time. I wear my framed ones for close up reading only. Both of us chose polycarbonate as they were cheaper, lighter and less likely to slip down your nose. They will probably scratch more readily, but we’ve had no issues with any sets. I am of the opinion that glass is more fragile, especially in frameless.

Might have to shift the hunting style to more sit and glass with binos

if polarized lenses cut down the glare for you they may help

the real trick is take a boy along with you, he is the eyes (+pack mule) and you are the expertise

Not any help to you at all Graham, but something a bit different.
I have worn glasses most of my adult life to correct astigmatism, even had it on my drivers license to be worn.
Went for a license reapplication and Dr did eye test.... end result no longer needed for driving ( as I have aged my eye ball has hardened / changed shape to where I have better vision) My short focus is crap and i need lenses to see the foresight. And wear 1.5 for hobby work and some reading if the print is fine.

Hers the interesting bit for you though.

I have worn polycarb lenses a lot ( as part of the safety thing ). If you are going to have to wear them all the time, polycarb is great as it makes for a really light set on your nose. and consequently they dont slide down your nose during some activity.
Glass lenses are a bit more robust from scratching as you noted, but they will ALL scratch if you aren't carefull with them.
My experience with "light changing" lenses is that they are bullshit. In my humble opinion you are better off with a spare set that are polarised or whatever. The light changing thing sounds great but in reality they react too slow to be of any benefit.
All glasses are a compromise, and like you from being a shooter, we want crystal sharp but you will be lucky to get that. I remember my first pair as a young 20 year old were a huge disappointment.

Several years ago I relaised my eyes were loosing long vision. When my hunting mate could see rabbits and I couldn't I went off to the optician. I went for high quality poly lenses with all the coatings also progressive and transition tinting. No sooner went back to work with them when I walked into a scaffold pipie and scratched one. That was another $500 it didn't break though. They do take a long time to get used to and my right eye is still less clear than my left for no reason they can see, this sucks which means no matter how much money I spend on rifle optics it looks like i'm looking through a $500 scope. Half the time I take off my glasses when using binos or my rifle scope, I hate the optics pushing on the glasses.

Contact lenses an option that's what I use got over foggy glasses real quick.

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Even glass lenses have coatings that scratch, so polycarbonate is the reality, with a fastidious approach to only using the correct lens cloth to wipe them with

The ‘titmus’ brand anti fog wipes are the bees knees in my book, and don’t harm coatings on your rifle optics either.

I’m short sighted and have worn glasses since age 4. A back up pair is essential. You can also consider a dedicated hunting pair where the strength is at optimum, with a higher contract tint (yellow worked for me on Tussock).

Don’t touch the photochromic (darkening) lenses; they just aren’t up to it for good dark tint

Well woody, as I told you, during lock down I experienced light flashing in my left eye and small cob webbing. Went to the specialist and told no retina detachment, which is good. Had just spent $1050.00 on new Zeiss progressives into existing frame about 6 weeks previously, they gave me better than 20/20 vision. Now my left eye is down and its driving me nuts, always had great vision, driving at night is a real pain. All the specialist could tell me was welcome to old age, the gel that the eye ball sits in has liquefied a bit and the flashes are static discharges. Just as well im right handed!!
Just spend the bucks, even though your an old fart, don't compromise you eye sight for money

Had laser is January. I don’t miss the $5500 they sting you as the convenience is excellent. Most places do interest free finance as well. I broke 4/5 pair of specs in the 10 years I wore them. That alone justifies laser. Also I bought a pair of swaro Binos and owed it to myself to get the laser so as to get the most out of the optics.

can anyone confirm is Laser correction permanent ? I have heard that it isn't and your eyesight will deteriorate back to it's original state over the course of a few years

Interesting. I think at this stage I am going to run with CR39 plastic because it has better light tranmission than polycarbonate , almost as good as glass but not as prone to breakage as glass and at the same time, harder than polycarbonate. There is good reason why high end scopes use glass. There is another material called trivex but I get mixed messages about that. Thanks for the info so far and it will be of interest to see more info come in.

Lazer is also one of ACC largest medical missap claims

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