Anybody had a Home Eye Test ?

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, "Dave Plowman (News)" [e-mail]> writes

Huh! Now try and persuade them to reglaze your current pair!

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[Dave Plowman (News]

I normally wear contact lenses so they were really just for emergency use. But look OK with the standard frames. Of course if you want something special it's going to cost more.

[jon]

About four years ago, I had an eye test and got a pair of specs with photochromic, varifocal lenses. I subsequently had a cataract operation on one eye and had to buy another lens. Sometime later, I had another cataract operation on the other eye, this required another lens and the optician said I would need to replace both lenses because they could not guarantee matching the other lens. Anyway I elected to go with just one replacement and it was true, they didn't match. I was surprised at the random nature of preparing lenses, in science the processes should be repeatable to a very high degree.

[Martin Brown]

Photochromic varifocal lenses are virtually impossible to match since one of the pair will have been exposed to a few years of sunlight whilst the other is fresh stock material (which varies a bit batch to batch).

Same problem with matching car paints. The pigments age under UV so a perfect match from new will diverge as UV in sunlight fades the car.

[jon]

I understand Martin, but at £100 a lens I would expect a bit of time matching the tint. A cabinet maker would spend time and have remnants of wood to match a colour and texture.

[Andy Burns]

You were warned it wouldn't work, it didn't work, and you're surprised?

A cabinetmaker can apply finish in stages to reach the desired level, and might be able to remove some types of finish and try again, I doubt the same is true of lens coatings.

If the cost of the effort is greater to match a single lens than the cost of supplying both lenses, I can see why they wouldn't bother.

[charles]

The trouble is matching the ageing.

[Dave Plowman (News]

How much time do you expect a skilled technician to spend attempting this?

What do you expect the running costs per hour of the lab he works in to be, including his pay?

It's the same argument as putting your car in for repair. A main dealer might charge £150 an hour. So no point in a mechanic trying to fix a part costing £100 new if it takes him an hour to do so. They would simply replace it.

Would you pay for this if you could buy a new 'cabinet' more cheaply?