New Old Glasses

[rowyn]

I last bought glasses in 2000. At the time, I got a new anti-reflective coating on them, which was really cool for around eight months, and then started to go downhill from there. The coating was very scratch-prone, and didn't protect the lenses well, either. At the beginning of 2003, I put money into my medical savings account to replace them, because they were pretty scratched up. And then never got around to doing so.

Last weekend, Lut was complaining about his glasses, too. At this point, I'd been half-tempted to limp along with my current pair until 2005, then put more money into my MSA for Lasik and get the whole business behind me permanently. (Or at least until my eyes start to degrade again as I get older). But I decided another five months was too long to suffer with these things

So last night we trundled off to the same glasses shop we hit in 2000. I got an eye exam (they haven't changed much, if at all) and the medical diagnostic tests for glaucoma and whatnot (whee, air puffs in the eyeballs. Nothing wrong there, either, assuming you don't count having a field of vision that only focuses within 3 inches of my face).

And then went to look at new frames. "What kind do you want?" one of the attendants asked.

I took mine off. "I want these. But I'm betting I can't have them."

"Can you live without them for seven days?" a man behind the counter said. He'd seen my prescription. This was a rhetorical question.

I wandered the racks of frames, looking at men's, women's, and kids' alike. My current pair of frames had been a children's pair, but the lens size on glasses has plummeted in the last few years. And long, narrow lenses are in. Very in. Very, very in. I hate shopping for new frames. It's like having to buy a whole new face when you've just gotten used to your current one.

I dug through the samples and came back to Lut. "What do you think of these?"

"Ooo, granny glasses."

"These?"

"Ah, the modern granny glasses."

"This one?"

"The librarian look."

I went back to the counter and put my old glasses on the counter. "How much would it be to put new lenses in these?"

I had my old pair of glasses at home. (They're what I'm wearing in this user icon; fairly similar to my current glasses, but with larger lenses and plastic earpieces.) The prescription isn't quite the same, and I may come to regret my vanity; it's hard to focus on text on the screen with them. But my old glasses (which had also been worn continuously for at least three years) are much less scratched up than the ones I just turned over to the shop. The slight distortion effects at the periphery of my vision I've gotten used to, but apart from the focusing-on-text issue (maybe I'll just change the resolution on my monitor) it's actually better. Everything else looks cleaner and crisper now.

They offered me the anti-reflective coating again.

I declined.

Comments

Weird

[rowyn]

I wonder if it's a different coating with the same name? Water droplets would streak on my glasses, if I didn't wipe them off. I mostly used the microfiber cloth & solution the glasses shop handed out to clean them. For all I know, THAT'S what caused them to scratch, though that seems counter-intuitive. ;)

Re: Weird

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. Makes me think of the glass coatings my dad just about swears by. He has one type of coating that he puts on the inside of a windshield, and another on the outside: one is to make water roll off the surface (on the outside), and the other is to keep glass from fogging (on the inside). Works pretty well ... except when the windshield fogs on the outside. I wonder if he uses any of that Rain-Shield or such on his glasses at all? Wouldn't be surprised. =)

Re: Weird

[jamesb]

You're talking about Rain-X ... Yellow bottle with a water beading compound for the outside and black bottle with an anti-fog compound for the inside. I wouldn't use them on glasses or any fine optical equipment.

I have a friend in the bay area that makes a specialty optical cleaner that's so good on anti-reflective coatings that one of the major US photographic optics suppliers sells it under their own brand name for use on very high end camera lenses and filters. It's the only stuff that NASA uses on astronaut helmets and is currently under test at Boeing for use on the view ports on the International Space Station.

Re: Weird

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

anytime you WIPE you run the risk of scratching.

When I wash my glasses I run them under a non-turbulent (non-aerated) steam, and that stream does not deposit droplets. If I go out in the rain, I'll still end up with water streaks unless I blow the water off my glasses before it can dry.

--Howard

Re: Weird

[rowyn]

Ah. It's possible I just didn't notice the effect, then.

In any case, I have owned many pairs of glasses, wiped all of them, and never had the problem with scratching that those lenses did. So while they may be great if you never touch them with anything but water, something about them or the cloth) made them more susceptible to scratching.

Would've been a good touch on the part of the salespeople to say something about that, too. As opposed to handing me a microfiber cloth to clean it. Not bright from a future-sales perspective :)

The risks of wiping

[krud42.livejournal.com]

That must be why bidets are so popular...