Just be careful when buying new eye glasses/spectacles

[Donald]

I've put this post in to the Image Post-Processing section of the forum as that is to what the subject applies.

I've recently had an eye test and got a new prescription. When then purchasing the glasses I was won over by the sales pitch about getting a special coating on the lens that cut down glare from computer monitors and would be much better for my eyes. What a mug!

Wear the glasses and look at the monitor and it puts a colour cast onto the screen. Now that's fine for everyday usage. But for post-processing ....! No way. It would alter things significantly.

So, I have to do all my post-processing without my glasses ('cause I ain't laying out that sort of money for another pair for at least a couple of years). Luckily my eyesight is such that my vision is very good at the distance between my eyes and the screen. So, I don't need to wear the glasses for that purpose.

But just as a warning to others that might get caught on this one. I don't know how much it added to the cost to get the super, fantastic, wonderful technology coated onto them, but it wasn't pennies.

[Codebreaker]

Interesting finding and one I'll keep in mind.

I have to wear glasses for reading and screen usage. I have to get the optician to set the focus further back than they normally do for reading books because my screens are further away. It's easier to hold a book slightly further away than it is to get nearer to the screens.

BTW: they are not coated with anti-glare but I did a quick check and can't tell any difference between on or off.

[Manfred M]

Interesting Donald - I have anti-reflection coating on my glasses and it is 100% clear. Mine has nothing to do with seeing the screen more clearly, but is rather like the coatings on photographic lenses which gives me a much clearer view.

My wife (whose vision has always been a lot worse than mine) got herself some vari-focal glasses for use on the computer. These have a larger area in the middle that are set to typical screen viewing distance and every time she spends a lot of time on her computer, she wears those, rather than her "normal" vari-focal glasses.

[John 2]

I find that using my last but one generation of reading glasses is about right for the screen viewing distance. I like to think of it as re cycling. Being the tight wad that I am, you might have another name for it. Useful info Donald thank you. I have never been offered that sort of coating which seems a little different to the standard anti glare. Had I been, I might well have agreed to it without much thought. Forewarned etc. .....

[Shadowman]

I have that anti-glare coating on my sunglasses and it does give a scene a refreshing contrast/color temperature that is not reflected in my images. I read that using these type of glasses are good for determining when a cpl filter could be used effectively.

[DanK]

Donald. thanks for the warning.

Manfred--my solution to that problem is computer glasses--cheap line bifocals with reading lenses at the bottom and the rest of the lens set for my typical distance to the monitor, rather than to a distance prescription. I find them more comfortable than variable focus lenses for computer work because the entire monitor is in the right region of the lens.

[george013]

Two weeks ago I had a cataract surgery, a new lens in my left eye. Now I see 2 different whites: with my left eye white white and with my right eye yellowish white. And I don't smoke.

George

[rpcrowe]

I also wear an older pair of reading glasses which are perfect for the distance I view my monitor....

[Mike Buckley]

I have that anti-glare coating on my sunglasses and it does give a scene a refreshing contrast/color temperature that is not reflected in my images. I read that using these type of glasses are good for determining when a cpl filter could be used effectively.

My guess is that it has nothing to do with the anti-glare coating and is instead because your sunglasses are polarized. Some are and some aren't. Polarizing certainly helps minimize glare, so any anti-glare coating would perhaps reduce glare not reduced by the polarizing characteristic.

[Mike Buckley]

I maintain two prescriptions -- one for use only at the distance when viewing a monitor and one for all other situations.

[Dave Humphries]

I maintain two prescriptions -- one for use only at the distance when viewing a monitor and one for all other situations.

Ditto - in my case 'all other situations' means vari-focal lenses!

I am quite astigmatic, so need that correction regardless of distance - if you discount 4 inches/100mm!

[Donald]

The pair I refer to are varifocals and are very good for all purposes ... except post-processing. I also have a prescription for single vision sunglasses that I use mainly for driving, but also for strolling along the beach in my speedos, displaying my bronzed and muscular torso.

Well, maybe that last reason was a bit of fantasy on my part!

[Mike Buckley]

for strolling along the beach in my speedos, displaying my bronzed and muscular torso.

I need that prescription!

[dje]

but also for strolling along the beach in my speedos, displaying my bronzed and muscular torso.

And then Pamela Anderson bounces over in a skimpy red cossy and ....

[IzzieK]

I must remember this Donald. My ophalmologist is supposed to be the best one here in Missouri. He is a Jew and Bill has been using him for as long as he and I can remember. A strange meeting between the two of them but that's a different story for another day. Just that because we know he is good, we rely on him without question to do the best for us. I lost my computer glasses with customs inspecting my luggage so I am off this January to get another set, it was good one too and never had any problem with that. When the time comes, I will ask him if it is coated or not because it was a very expensive pair compared to what I am using at the meantime as a reading glasses...Two for $3+,el cheapo though it works, doesn't do the job well...thanks for the reminder...

[george013]

I must remember this Donald. My ophalmologist is supposed to be the best one here in Missouri. He is a Jew and Bill has been using him for as long as he and I can remember. A strange meeting between the two of them but that's a different story for another day. Just that because we know he is good, we rely on him without question to do the best for us. I lost my computer glasses with customs inspecting my luggage so I am off this January to get another set, it was good one too and never had any problem with that. When the time comes, I will ask him if it is coated or not because it was a very expensive pair compared to what I am using at the meantime as a reading glasses...Two for $3+,el cheapo though it works, doesn't do the job well...thanks for the reminder...

Do you know and do you mention always the backgounds of your butcher, baker, hairdresser or whatever?

When I started using glasses for reading I always used glasses from the market. Sold between 1 and 3 euro. And the eye doctor,ophalmologist(?), said I should do that as long as I felt comfortable with it. I know that's mostly equal plus corrections.

George

[FootLoose]

I haven't read everyone's reply, but I just want to say, I wear multifocals and had the 'transition' coating applied to the last pair. I hated them from the day I started wearing them because they gave everything a magenta-ish cast. Worse, because they reacted to UV, on dull days when the light level was low, the UV would still activate the coating and I had trouble seeing any damn thing. In fact, I often took them off in dull weather because I could see better without them.

I persevered for a couple of years because they were so expensive, but recently I had to get stronger a stronger prescription - and this time no transition coating. Suddenly, everything is back to normal. I would never recommend those kinds of 'sunglasses' coating for photographers. They make it very hard to assess the light levels.

[pnodrog]

I maintain two prescriptions -- one for use only at the distance when viewing a monitor and one for all other situations.

Same here Mike.

My main glasses have graduated transition lenses that allow me to view mountains, read maps, use my cell phone and dispense with sunglasses. They have all the coatings the optician could sell me.

At the same time I purchased what he referred to as occupational glasses which have no coatings, cannot see mountains and are the ones I wear when viewing my monitor.

My optician drives a far better car than I do. I don't wonder why...

[John 2]

......................... I also have a prescription for single vision sunglasses that I use mainly for driving, but also for strolling along the beach in my speedos, displaying my bronzed and muscular torso. ..........

Ah, the proverbial rose tinted glasses. There are some days I could definitely do with a pair of those.

[IzzieK]

I would never recommend those kinds of 'sunglasses' coating for photographers.

Sunglasses for photographers...Is that a special kind of sunglasses? We use Bausch and Lomb aviator's sunglasses but I never have thought of using mine when I am photographing. Mine is almost always forever at the top of my head unless I am in the car and would like to see the cloud formation which is more pronounced I should say, kinda using it like a filter. Photography? I just use my contacts and that is normal viewing. My camera lens got sunglasses -- it's called either a CPL or an ND.