Need help with gettung glasses type, style, frame, coatings, etc

I am putting buying my glasses on hold after getting the scripts to make sure I get the best setup. We are talking a few hundred for the prescription from my last time around, so a hundred for frames, and the teens they charge for coatings is a fraction of the whole price. I believe I paid 600-800 last time around for two pairs. THey damaged one pair and gave a discount.

Last pair of glases I got had titanium frames and more of an oval than round shape. I love the frames, feel and no green spots on face. Those type of frames are at least a hundred bucks. I am thinking of getting a lower profile style where the eye browl is uncovered, kind of like the reading glasses you see some elderly folks wear where you can look over the top if you want. Some women wear this type of frames, so a bit worried about folks thinking I am confused about my sexual orientation. The frames were in the mens section and they did show a photo of a male model wearing them.

The lenses I got were plastic and poly carbinate. I liked the poly as it was smaller and lighter. Keep in mind the edge of my plastic lens is 1/2 inch, poly about 3/8. I was shocked to discover I could get a mirror coat, so got it with a #1 grey tint. Got em and found it was a bit painful to do computer work or walk into a brightly lit store or office. I went back to my other plastic #3 tinted grey lenses on my old glasses.

I ordered the second pair with a #3 tint and mirror coat with poly lenses. They were great. In overcast conditions I cant tell I am wearing sun glasses. Indoors in bright commercial stores is great, at times a bit too good in dark areas of a store. Like wise with trying to do anything in librarys vs classrooms in college. At night as a backseat driver I cant see if the car head lights are on, but see the dash board just fine and on coming drivers, signs. I think they were too dark. Basically I ended up getting "clear" and sun glasses.

So, thinking about getting a pair with #2 grey tint and maybe mirror coating for indoors in industrial lighting. Last time I got a mirror coat that matched the frames, copper colored. THe frames i looked at are silver, thinking of silver mirror. Get a medium length prescription with bifocals. Right now I just remove my glasses and hold objects to my face to read.

They advertised a no glare coat, but mom says hers makes her see rainbows on plastic surfaces.

I wouldnt get the edges rounded or polished as last time found that conducted light and make things in the edges distracting out of field of view.

Thinking of getting a nearly clear pair for distance, driving. Use the tinted and amber glasses for sunny/night use. I would use those safety glasses that fit over your existing glasses you can buy in different colors like amber for the gun range and tinted for welding or bright areas. No, I wouldnt wear welding glasses to drive(see next paragraph).

One pair of frames i tried for 118 bucks comes with a magnetic click on tinted lens set. Its just tinted, no mirror coat. Not sure how well putting a pair of tinted lenses on a mirror coated lens will help with glare reduction? THis is for the driving glasses.

What would you guys do? I dont plan on buying any more in a good ten years or so and want the most universal setup for driving, bright/dark areas. Also something that is tinted would look natural indoors. I would hate to wear slip on wrap around welding/sun glasses when I shop at walmart or having to squint, hold hand over top of glasses.

Thanks

My family gets their glasses & frames from Costco. If you have a warehouse club nearby...I've always been satisified with the quality for the lower prices which are a result of volume sales.

Our Costco has all the different tints & magnetic clipons as well...

I used to get the anti-reflective coating but found that it was far too fragile for everyday wear. The coating would get so scratched and mottled that it would actually interfere with my vision. I finally gave up on the AR coating, in spite of promises from optometrists that "we've got better/stronger coatings now!" In reality they said that every time, and every time the coating would fail.
:thumbsdow

1200 bucks. Thats what the eye glass place at the dr office said. 138 for the frames. Need to shop around and see what i can do. frames are 20 more than they were at walmarts eye center. Just plain old polycarbinate lenses and frames. No special opticals for driving. If I follow the advice from the advice thread i posted, I should be able ot buy these in full by this time next year. By then my prescription may of changed.

Forgot to add what I decided on. The frames they had were bolt on as they called them. Basically the ear pieces and the nose pieces bolts through the lens. Man, the demo one frames they had was light and they were flecible. The other ones I was looking at were the same weight roughly as my current pair. Best of all they too came with the magnetic clip on tinted lens and they were polarized. Supposely I can get the polization filter on the prescription lenses too.

I wanted to get a bright yellow lens to magnetic clip on for night driving, but they did not offer it. Going to get a pair of target shooting amber slip overs for night and fog.

Well.... so far I have had no luck in finding anyone to fill my prescription despite the estimated price of 1200 bucks. I believe my dads insurance may make it a bit less as they would cover frames and 25 bucks on the lens, but seems no lab that accepts it in VA can make the needed lens for one eye.

So.... going to a local college that teaches optical classes to optical center employees. They say they will give it a shot and do it at cost. The price maybe half what I was told if they can do it and I maybe able to get insurance to cover the frames I want and they can put the lenses in.

Do you guys think aiming for titanium frames with clip on grey tinted lenses for sun and amber tinted for night is a bit much? I read something about that from someone in another thread and got me to thinking. I am not sure the clip ons are offered with other metal frames or are as light.

If you are going to spend nearly a grand for lenses, isnt 118 bucks for frames a drop in the bucket? I believe they also sell the frames at cost too, but their selection is limited. Most importantly I will see what they recommend as they know more than I do. From what I ve heard from a few places Ive called, the smaller the frame the better, a thinner lens can be used.

cobb,

Are you near sighted or far sighted?
If you are near sighted then for the prices you are taliking about you could just about get laser eye sugery. May be something to think about for the future.
My wife was legally blind with one eye being 525 and the other 575 and had to wear super thick glasses. I saved up every penny I could for a couple of years and was finally able to get her the surgery. This was on 11-28-01 and it was $1800 for both eyes. I actually thought it was going to be much higher. Her vision has been 20-20 ever since. It was the best gift I have ever given her. I would assume that it would be cheaper to do now but I dont really know.

Twelve hundred bucks! Well we know you're probably broke from hanging around CPF so we'll have to help you shop more wisely... so you'll have more cash to spend on flashlights, of course.

Frames AND lenses for $19: http://zennioptical.com/cart/home.php

For ~$25: http://www.valueglasses.com/index.htm and http://goggles4u.com/

For $29: http://optical4less.com/

Honestly for those prices, you could keep glasses everywhere and in every car, and the traditional CPF "cant decide? buy 'em all" would apply as well.

Me, I like glass for the same reason I like them in flashlight lenses, so I prefer to order from offshore so I can get lightweight lenses that are ground thinner than is legally allowed in the United States.

I can't say if the titanium frames are over the top. I've had titanium frames for the last several years. I like the look, the weight and durability.

I have my glasses made with photochromatic lenses. They work well in all lighting conditions. It's much nicer than having clip-ons or even magnetics.

Just for grins, have you tried talking to the "on site lensgrinding" places like Perl and One Hour Glasses? I imagine a bored tech might be willing to give it a try.

Just thoughts.

Daniel

The only "grinding" a lens tech in a local store does is to fit it to the frame; they don't make the lenses, so if their supplier doesn't carry a particularly odd Rx blank, they cannot custom make it.

But a factory's online store can often custom grind lenses, and they are lots cheaper too. Sure there's an extra charge for this, but it's not $1200 so worth a try.

I do like titanium for lightness, but the memory metal frames are even more durable.

Transitions/AR for me, the only shame is on one of my lenses, the AR well uh... Kinda "fell off".

Transitions are so wonderful.
I can't get glass due to the age restrictions tho. They say that the AR coating sticks on glass a lot better.
Don't ever get glasses without AR if you work in areas where the roof is covered with flourensencet (Spelling) lighting, did that once with glasses in elementry, I was blinded and couldn't read anything, went outside and the sun blinded me, went inside and used the computer and the monitor + light next to it blinded my vision. Glare is a living hell without AR.

NRA, asked about surgery or surgery for use with smaller lens, they said no way since most vision is in one eye. Severly near sided.

bfg, no lab in va will do it that I have called in the yellow pages, including the for eyes, wal mart optical depts and a few others. Seems the community college has a thing with a manufactor/supplier to get a large enough blanks for the prescription for the smallest frames that have some manly appeal to them. They do have a dept to grind lens, but they are going to get the manufacture to do it after all for quality reasons.

Yeah, no flashlights here for a while with that coming out, not to mention hours lost from work going to a few places to see if they can get the job done, try frames.

Never thought of going online. Is that a good idea for a thick prescription? The titanium or stainless frame was recommended by the professor and the ones I picked out were small enough. I think what little vision insurance I have will get the frames for a co pay. Got to have frames for the college to make the lenses.

Think those online stores would touch -9 dioptor? THe limit for the labs I have contacted is -7.

Sorry, no go on transitions, bifocals, but did get an ol for a polization filter.

Sorry guys, I thought I could use a lot of input and had lot sof options, seems my glasses are so **** thick I have basically one frame choice, one lens type poly and a few coatings. Still a concern is that if I drive with the distance glasses, can I read the dashboard.

Not sure how this is going to work out. I will give those online stores a try next time if they can handle the lenses. I think the college said they could do both pairs at cost or less than 300 bucks. I just hope this isnt a hollow victory like many in my life.

Wouldnt it be my luck to be able to see to drive and infact unable to see the dashboard or around the car or something silly like that?

Oh, yeah, prof said the magnetic clip ones were what she would recommend. One tinted lenses, get prescription in clear and get the other pair of clip or magnetic ones in that high yellow for night.

cobb, the first online store I listed shows a -9 diopter as $9 extra. With a 1.56 index the one lens will be pretty thick, but it may be worth a try since it's only $28 including frames. The largest manufacturers are all offshore so it's not surprising the local places don't carry large libraries of blanks.

The trouble with online is you can't test the fit and appearance on your head before ordering. At least carefully measure the dimensions of a favorite set of glasses before browsing the frames. Good luck!

I will keep that in mind next time. Of course I am at -9 already.

I got my glasses Monday. They were ready last wednesday, but I had no transportation to the community college. Turns out the hold up was the reading glasses, the distance one was ready over two weeks from that date a week ago.

Thanks to the 7 people who helped from this website, they came to $387. Amazing to have new glasses for a change. I can see 20/40 and almost 20/30. I see better up close too than before, I have no problem reading a dash board of a car wearing them. Love the amber tinted clip ons, the tinted ones dont work too well. Need to get some slip overs. Got an eye chart printed off and measured out 20ft, very difficult in a one bed room apartment.

Anyway, looks like the prescription for the distance one is a cylinder too much. It was suppose to be a criss cross lens, intead they did it else wise. In order to make them work, I need to lower them onto my nose like you may see an elderly person wear reading glasses. It also helps to tilt them forward too. Whats the lense tilt formula 2 degrees = 1mm? So, going back to eye doc to find out about it. THe reading glasses are rather useless since the distance ones fixed both problems. Feels funny holding stuff at an arms length vs in my face to see or read it. I hold my food to my face when I eat to look for bugs, not any more.

Feels funny in general now. I hold stuff away from my face than closer, I get away from stuff than closer. I write big too. I push my glasses down my nlose than up towards my eye balls to see clearer. I set my computer display from 640x480 to 1200x1024. At that, I sit back at arms length from my computer.

I rather enjoy looking down my nose at people, but since the lenses have a 3 month warranty, going to get it perfect.

Thanks guys.I came very close to getting my learners permit today. Spent the past 3 afternoons at DMV. I failed the test once, now I am short 17 bucks. Going again next week and get it. WOOHOO!!!