OT Eye Glasses

[Metspitzer]

I had my eyes checked twice. Both times, since I don't have any eye insurance, the doctor said to just use reading glasses. The second I insisted on bifocals. I got the prescription filled at Sears optical.

Well I still can't see my computer properly. The reading part works for reading, and the other part will make people at a distance look a little clearer, but I prefer not to use glasses. I still use reading glasses so the doctor's advice was right. I have 4 sets of reading glasses statically placed through the house.

I bought a 27 HD monitor but I can't see it at 1920x1080. I can enlarge the text and do so for web pages, but the menu text is still small and enlarging the menu text really screws up the formatting.

I guess I am going to have to get another set of glasses to see my monitor. The reading glasses I use are 2x and I can see reading paperbacks and magazines fine, but my monitor is about 3.5-4 feet away. I tried some 3x glasses but those don't seem to improve my vision at all when viewing my monitor.

[David Harper]

It sounds like you need special, single-vision glasses. I normally wear bifocals. These work fine for driving or reading a book. Like you, my

22-inch monitor is not in focus using either half of my bifocals. Take a tape measure to your optician and tell them to make you a pair of single-vision glasses that focuses at exactly the distance your eyes are from your monitor.

- David Harper

[RBM]

Welcome to my world. I have the same reading problem. When I'm at my pc I like to sit back in a high back chair with my feet up on my desk and the keyboard in my lap. That puts me about five feet from the monitor. I adjust everything I can find, to as large as it goes, but I still need to change the resolution to 1366 X 768 . In the process it screws up the page formatting, or whatever it's called, and often buttons are off the page, so I have to momentarily change the resolution to get to them. PIA

[chaniarts]

once you get the perscription, try using zenni optical on the interwebs. i've not had any problems with multiple pairs, they can make any perscription, and they're LOTS cheaper than any local store. you can also discuss special perscriptions with them on the phone.

the last pair of no line bifocals i got from costco were in the $300 range. i recently replaced them with the identical perscription and looks from zenni for about $60.

[Frank]

I, too, highly recommend Zenni Optical:

but get the eye doctor to write you a prescription for the computer and while he is at it measure your pupillary distance (PD) which Zenni needs. I got my first pair at Zenni a couple of months ago as a spare and they are not only better than the $350 pair from the optician but they only cost $50 including shipping. From now on, all my new glasses will come from Zenni Optical.

I had a single lens prescription made from optician midway between bifocal and long distance but they were not that great and I could not read something I needed to type.

Drugstore glasses work fine for some but if you have any astigmatism, you cannot buy them at the drugstore.

[Jim Yanik]

Metspitzer wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Your monitor is too far away. reading glasses have a focal length intended for less than full arm's length.

also,setting the monitor for high-res means the type is SMALLER.

[Jim Yanik]

RBM wrote in news:4e1f6fcf$0$21708$ [e-mail]:

I suppose you guys could get a LCD projector display and enlarge the "screen" to conference hall size.

[George]

Did you mention specifically that you had issues with seeing computer monitors? Lots of people get good results with lenses that are specifically chosen for that distance and they are often termed "computer glasses"

As far as where they were made it can be a real crap shoot especially if it is a big box place. A friend supports equipment used in lens manufacturing and process control is super critical on plastic lenses.

He mentioned that his sister had an exam and got glasses from a big box place. She got a call that the new glasses came in . She wore them and found she was now getting headaches and had weird vision. She brought them back and the "experts" took them and went behind the curtain to "check them" and came back and reported there was nothing wrong with the glasses and she simply needed "to get used to them". She mentioned this to my friend who brought the glasses in to a lab he supports and they checked them and noted that if they somehow made glasses that badly they would throw them into the trash.

And sometimes "docs" simply aren't that good. My brother has always had vision issues. The doc he used passed on. So he ends up at a new place that advertises they are "specialists". He gets new lenses and they insist he has dry eyes so they give him a scrip for really expensive drops. He has lots of trouble so they keep trying. Eventually he went to another place. Guy examines him and the lenses and shakes his head. He says the lens were incorrect and it was totally wrong to use the drops. He stops using the drops and improves immediately and he could see again when he got the new glasses.

[HeyBub]

I've got a solution that works for me. I hesitate to mention it because you're going to dismiss it as the ravings of someone whose been drinking too much Absinthe.

Get contact lenses in the +2.00 or so mode (equivalent to reading glasses). Note the "+" designation.

Wear only one.

The eye with the contact will focus correctly on stuff ~18" away while the non-contact eye will transmit blurry images to the brain. Your brain will sort it out.

Conversely, while driving, the eye without the contact will send proper images to the brain while the other eye, the one with the contact, will send somewhat out-of-focus pictures. Again, the brain will sort it out.

The downside is depth perception at close distances is somewhat difficult, that is, it's difficult to thread a needle and the like.

I like the Accu-View extended-wear lenses. They last me a couple of months' each.

[aemeijers]

No wonder you have a skewed view of the world.

[Metspitzer]

This sounds a lot like what my eyes were doing when I was in my 20s

[Charlie]

Let me expand on your advice just a little. At the last visit to the optometrist he commented that my bifocals were still just fine and I did not need to change anything.

I asked him about computer glasses to handle the midrange. He wrote out a scrip for the midrange and since I was already used to bifocals he said he would put the computer lense on top and on the bottom he put the reading prescription. This way if I wanted to write something it is an easy transition between monitor and paper.

I love them.

[notbob]

BTDT. When I had good insurance and was working at a computer workstation, glasses were essential. I got 6 level faceted glasses, everything from reading to driving, with 2-3 levels for computer distances (18"-24"). I think they called them "progressive". The bottom line is, you can get these and they are awesome. They will cost in the multi hundreds of dollors. Maybe even thousands.

I no longer have the company insurance. Get a monitor and set it so you can see. Seventeen inch ....800x600. Twenty inch ....1024 etc. Right now, I can see my 10" eee w/o glasses, provided I get far enough away. Close up, I use 1.75 reading glasse.

Bottom line, we can't advise you on how you can see better. Only you and your criminally expensive optometrist can do that. Life sucks.

nb

[krw]

I also wear bifocals but have the top half ground to the distance to the monitor and the bottom half to a comfortable (book) reading length, which happens to be about the same distance as my keyboard. ;-) If the lenses are big enough, it's pretty easy to get the balance right so the line is where it doesn't matter and have the entire screen in the upper half. I don't need glasses for distance, *yet*. When I do, I'll likely carry two pairs or maybe have enough "readers" so that there's one wherever I am. ;-)

[krw]

They're cheaper but don't have lenses anywhere near the size I like.

They are *not* the same frames.

[Roy]

=3D=3D Tri-focals are called for here or a dedicated lense for the distance from your eyes to the screen. I know from my own experience when I worked in the retail business...I had the same problem doing ordering and running a cash register. Bi-focals just didn't work right. Ask your eye practitioner for an opinion on this...they know far more than any forum member including myself. Best of luck. =3D=3D

[Robert Neville]

That's what I did. Reading glasses tend to have a focal length of 12-14 inches - the distance you hold a book from your eyes. If you have a big monitor, you can easily double that focal length. I had my computer glasses done to a 30 inch focal length. Eye doc's machine wouldn't go that far, but I insisted. They work fine.

[Ed Pawlowski]

What you really need is a good optician. One that understands your needs and can make the proper lenses. Since I'm not an optician, I'm not going to give you exactly what you need, but it does exist. I've been wearing lasses for 55 years or so and I'm very fussy about them.

Most likely, that bifocal lens should be made into a progressive lens. That gives you different strengths at different angles so a minor tilt of the heat gives you perfect vision for the distance at hand. You may want to measure the normal distance from eye to monitor.

Progressive lenses can take a day or three to get used to, but once you do, there is not going back. Consider a no glare coating also. Makes night driving easier and makes using the computer easier when there is other light around.

[dadiOH]

More "X"s (diopters) = ability to get closer to what you want to see. Since your monitor is further away than printed reading material for which you use

+2 diopters, you should have decreased the strength instead of increasing it.

[dadiOH]

Get trifocals and your head will be bobbing around like a little dolly hanging from the mirror in a Chevie. BTDT.

My first solution was bifocals with a different range for both distance and close in each lens and which overlapped. That gave decent vision from close up to infinity at the expense of slightly diminished stereo.

Solution #2 was progressive lenses. They basically do what solution #1 did but also give me sharp stereo regardless of distance.