[ScarySkulls]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

....and come what may DONT BUY photochromatic....

Please do explain all the side effects/pitfalls of photocromatic.
Thanks.

[tsk1979]

I have tried very hard to find good quality photo chromatic glasses at reasonable price. Nowadays some brands have come, but they are too expensive, so no idea, but as per my experience, most photochromatic I have owned have not performed upto the mark(taking too much time to clear/darken, distortion at some angles etc.,)
With new brands things may have changed, so no idea

[ScarySkulls]

Hmmmm....

I asked since I have been a user of photochromatic since I was of 15yrs. and never faced a single problem. How much do you guys pay for your lenses?
Plastic photocromatic ones cost around 1800 for me. -2.25 & -1.75 spherical.
My current ones are in Glass and costed way way less 3-4 years ago...

[greatpower]

I recently got made for myself a pair of Zeiss Transition glasses. Lenses cost around Rs 5900 (-4.5) with some coating. They are mated with a Porsche Design frame which I bought in Dubai at a clearance sale.

The lens itself is bright and reeks of high quality. I am told they won't scratch or develop swirls which is common to other plastic lenses. i noticed the lens barely changed color when I was driving - however they darkened quickly when I was walking from the parking lot to office. They lightened up pretty damn fast once I entered indoors - i am told the lenses take 30 seconds to transition from clear to dark and back.

[vivekiny2k]

I recently bought an add on clip for my glasses (polarized, grey). It takes some time getting used to the additional weight, but now it's awsome. This is only for driving, so i don't care if I look weird. Photo-chromatics don't darken in car, so this is perfect, it always stays in my car. The polarizer dramatically increases contrast, and totally removes the dashboard reflection on windscreen.

[sudharma]

Originally Posted by greatpower

I recently got made for myself a pair of Zeiss Transition glasses. Lenses cost around Rs 5900 (-4.5) with some coating. They are mated with a Porsche Design frame which I bought in Dubai at a clearance sale.

The lens itself is bright and reeks of high quality. I am told they won't scratch or develop swirls which is common to other plastic lenses. i noticed the lens barely changed color when I was driving - however they darkened quickly when I was walking from the parking lot to office. They lightened up pretty damn fast once I entered indoors - i am told the lenses take 30 seconds to transition from clear to dark and back.

You could get the glasses coated for Anti-Reflection and Anti-Scratch. Anti-Reflective coatings does away with multiple reflections inside the lenses ( normally high power ones), very good for night driving. The Photochromic glass change colour due to ultraviolet rays which will not be there inside a vehicle. Polaroid glass are very good for day time driving as they cut the glare very well.

[Ketan]

Its been more than a year since I got my first eye-glasses done. I had a feeling that the guy who got my lenses done did not specify the correct axis and hence sometimes I see blurry characters when I look at the phone screen or DOS prompt (I really have to focus and strain my eyes to make out this difference, as if like I'm really testing the lenses).

I thought I will go ahead with another test and also go for a powered sun-glasses. I was searching for some good quality polarized lenses + something that can be worn indoors too. All-in-one, so that I dont have to manage two eye-glasses for indoor and outdoors.
I could not find something which can fit this requirement, if I want a good polarized lense, it wont work indoor for sure since its either tinted or going to be a pure sun-glass and not the indoor ones.

I finally decided on Essilor Xperio. Already sent recent prescription from the doctor so that they can get me the right lenses (This time I got SPH +0.25 as well along with CYL -0.5 - Spherical was not there in my last prescription, I dont have much knowlege on this but need to find out more).

I'm to find out a good frame which is not much curved and give it to the optician so that they can send it to Essilor to fix the lneses. I'm looking for some branded fames (decently priced, and durable) for this purpose - even if its non-branded but assured quality, I would not mind going for. I would like it to be little lighter if possible in case I have to wear them for longer duration. Can someone please suggest me the frames and where can I get them in Bangalore?

[Ketan]

This topend Xperio (airwear - polycarbonate) which I guess they are going to import/request from US is going to cost around 8.9K. Another lower end version (nonpolycarbonate) may be around 4.5K or so. I have delayed the decission because of the price :( - Any other decent lenses that comes with polarized film?

[Guite]

For want of a more appropriate thread, let me wake up this old thread to share my spectacle and lens buying experience.

I have been wearing spectacles for a long time. My previous lens and frame change was about 5 years back. My previous lens is a glass lens photo-chromatic, so some people may find my observations a bit outdated.

My quest for a new lens and frame started about 2 weeks back. I made a round of the showrooms at TGIP, Noida (Bonton, GKB, Optique, Focal point, etc), Sector 18 (Zeiss) and South Ex (Zeiss).

Most of all I am amazed by the shear ignorance of some of the people manning these showrooms. Most of them know very little of what they are selling. Much like the dumb car salesmen. The people at GKB Opticals were the most knowledgeable. They taught me a few things like asperical lens, abbe number, trivex, etc, which when enquired at other places draws a blank. one salesman told me Essilor Airwear is polycarbonate, so it is unbreakable, so it is the best lens available. That did not happen to be my criteria, so I told him I prefer plastic lens because it has better abbe value. Zeiss brochure does not mention whether a particular lens is asperical. So it was difficult finding out from their people in the showrooms.

I am even doubtful whether most of the people who do eye test in these showrooms are qualified opticians. I had my eye test done at two places.

The other thing that surprised me was how much Seiko lens is being promoted by the showrooms. After going through this thread previously, my impression was that Zeiss is best, Essilor is also good. Seiko was totally new to me. So I was already inclined towards Zeiss. At one point I almost finalised on Essilor Airwear, until I found polycarbonate lens has lower abbe number and more prone to scratches than plastic.

It appears that the Indian spectacle lens market is monopolised by one company group. Seiko lens is imported and marketed by GKB Opticals. Essilor seem to be likewise, I maybe wrong. The Zeiss lens I bought has bill and receipt in the name of GKB Optolabs. GKB Opticals and GKB Optolabs are part of a single entity.

For those who might be curious, I bought a Zeiss Claret 1.6, lotutec coating, transition VI grey, fitted it to a Jaguar titanium frame. I have worn it just one day now. The transition grey is not as dark as the brochure photograph shows it to be.

I am not quite satisfied with the eye ball location marking done on the dummy lens, which is ultimately used for placing the actual lens. Can anyone tell me how critical is this? Well, the lens fitting is already done, but I am curious.

[Lightening-Fast]

Hello all,

There have been threads before that have discussed the dashboard reflection on the windscreen. I drive a Chevy Spark and the reflection is prominent and at certain angles of sunshine. Matters become worse when driving on a road covered by trees. After good amount of research, i found out that polarized sunglasses were the best option to mitigate this problem. So i decided to try the same. I wear power glasses and hence wanted to test the effectiveness of polarized sunglasses before placing an order. So i did test with a couple of them, but without any power, and the results were great. Reflection seem to vanish and there was remarkable reduction in the glare. So i did place a an order with Vision Express, which is a Reliance Outlet for Polarized Sunglasses with my Power. I paid Rs.3700 for the lense alone and another 1.2K for the frame. It was grey shade and they really are good and easy on the eyes.
However, from my observation, it seems as if they are not as effective as the ones without power. The ones i had tested were far better than the ones i bought. I am sure what i am wearing is polarized as i tested them before i bought them. So my questions are:
1. Will polarization vary with eye power
2. Will it vary with the shade of the lenses
3. Does brand make a difference as in Carl Ziess Vs SLR Vs Vision Express
4. Whats wrong with my lenses??

Any pointers in this direction will be greatly appreciated

[debugged]

One thing to be noted here is that with any sunglasses, it is very important how much of your eyes are covered and the amount of light 'leaking' from the sides. So with pure sunglasses you can buy ones that completely cover your eyes but this wouldn't be feasible for normal prescription glasses.

[vivekiny2k]

it also depends on the angle of polarization. try tilting your head and see if reflection disappear. if yes, then they have used a different angle (from your test glasses) while creating the lense. I won't say which is wrong or right though.

there is a link on powered sunglasses in shifting gears, you can start posting it there.

[khoj]

The polarized sunglasses that you tried must have been equipped with non reflective and anti glare lenses. You can get these coatings done on powered lenses too.

[.anshuman]

Avoid Polaried Sunglasses if have sunfilm installed on the wind shield. I use Polarised sunglasses, they offer excellent preotection from all kinds of glare but they are useless if used with Sunfilm on the glass, with the sunfilm they emit a very annoying purple-ish glare.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Avoid Polaried Sunglasses if have sunfilm installed on the wind shield. I use Polarised sunglasses, they offer excellent preotection from all kinds of glare but they are useless if used with Sunfilm on the glass, with the sunfilm they emit a very annoying purple-ish glare.

Interesting point. With selective filtering, polarizers reveal a lot of hidden textures and colors, you can see spectrum like pattern in some inferior eye glasses to when seen thru polarizer. I am thinking better sunfilms (and installed well) should not have this problem.