6 ms·

A good chunk of people require glasses that need to be custom-made. Once you also add amenities like photochromic lenses, it quickly adds up.

hammyhavoc 4y ago
Yeah, I spend £300+ per pair on not having coke bottle thick glasses that are thin and light, and made out of polycarb.
- jefftk 4y ago
  At least in the US that would be much cheaper: I can get high index (1.74) lenses for +$75: https://www.zennioptical.com/glasses-lenses https://www.zennioptical.com/glasses-lenses (so the overall glasses are ~$100)
  - tecleandor 4y ago
    I have a Zenni pair, I think they are 1.74 and around -6 correction in each eye. They are really cheap compared to other places, but they have very high chromatic aberration on the sides and I don't thing they are perfectly centered. I think it's something that's more noticeable when you need relatively high power lenses.
    - hammyhavoc 4y ago
      This is what I suspected would be the case. You absolutely do get what you pay for when it comes to optics, but equally, you can over-pay for utter rubbish. If you've got the vocabulary (which you do) to describe and understand what to look for, you can't go wrong.
    - adzm 4y ago
      It's good to have a high quality pair from a local shop so you have something to compare Zenni or other online shops to. YMMV of course, but I've had good experiences with Zenni, and only had one pair out of dozens for my family that had issues (seemed to be uncentered or had the PD incorrect), and that was over 5 years ago. It's nice being able to grab a cheap pair of glasses for activities where there is a high probability of them getting damaged or lost, and having a backup pair handy. The reduced mental load of not having to worry is worth it!
      - sbierwagen 4y ago
        >so you have something to compare Zenni or other online shops to That's for sure. I bought a pair from 38dollarglasses.com and skipped the antireflective coating option. As it turns out, if you've worn glasses with AR coatings all your life, plain lenses are really, really surprisingly annoying.
    - superkuh 4y ago
      Yep. Once your lenses get above -6 diopter or so it starts to become a serious concern. By -10 diopter it's the driving choice in lens material and design. At -10.5, -11 I always get relatively low refractive index (~1.5) CR-39 based lenses because it's Abbe number is 60. This means I can still read, say, street signs or flanking computer monitors out of the corner of my eye despite the light going through literally >1 cm of material.
- justusthane 4y ago
  Paying more can get you thinner lenses? This is of interest to me as I do have coke bottle-thick glasses.
  - hammyhavoc 4y ago
    Yes, absolutely. All depends on your prescription and sizes though. Most decent optical labs operate on a sliding scale, going thinner and thinner, but costing more and more. Can get quite expensive (relatively), but if you're going to absolutely baby your glasses, and use something like Zeiss single-use lens wipes, yes I think it's absolutely justifiable for something you're going to use all day, every day for several years. About 12 years ago, I switched to rimless with carbon fibre arms to try and get the weight down as the option to go as thin as I'd like just wasn't there yet, and I was still stuck with traditional glass, so the weight was a concern for me, and my glasses were forever slipping down my nose (ugh). Maybe 4 years ago I switched over to hingeless titanium frames (almost wire-thin) with rimless lenses that are incredibly thin and light, and made out of polycarb. Not got my prescription info to hand, but it's a world of difference what's available now versus a decade ago. They're so thin and light now that I frequently forget that I'm wearing them, and can even fall asleep in them! Oops! They stay stuck on my nose too, I never need to push my glasses up my nose. I thought pursuing thinner and lighter would be an exercise in vanity, but I can honestly say it's significantly improved my quality of life.
  - Groxx 4y ago
    Mine vary from "too thick for almost any frames" to "looks like a normal pair of glasses until you look through them" depending on cost. Mine are somewhere around 1/3rd as thick on the edge as cheaper glass. Look for "high (refractive) index" lenses. It bends light further, so you need less material / less angular difference to get the same effect.
    - justusthane 4y ago
      Interesting, thanks! I figured the thickness was just a function of physics and couldn't be changed, but I wasn't aware of the difference in refractive index.
- INTPenis 4y ago
  Mine are around 800 GBP just to keep them a bit thinner towards the middle with some special cut. Including frames, that's just the total price I remember spending the last couple of times. Haven't changed them for 8 years now and they're 100% scratches, they lost some protective layer a long time ago from going into the sea with them. One half is glued together. I'm just too lazy to replace them.
bravetraveler 4y ago
I'm one of those people but I also keep a similarly crude technique - simple microfiber that I replace regularly The article mentions washing them, I have never tried this or nothing to back it up, but I suspect that may be where the problem lies. Just replace the cloth. They cost pennies. They even go as far as to put them back in bags and such. I don't bother and have never noticed an excess of grease, dust, or anything they do. Mine is just replaced every now and then sitting openly on my desk It's at the point where I wonder if doing less is more. It certainly seems obsessive People may say microscratches, yada yada. It's so inconsequential that my eyes go bad before the lenses do due to my treatment.
jefftk 4y ago
> A good chunk of people require glasses that need to be custom-made. Zenni makes their glasses to order; what do you mean?
- frosted-flakes 4y ago
  Even with Zenni my eyeglasses cost over $100. At Costco they cost $300, and at most other places they cost $600. I used to always go with Costco, but last year I tried Zenni. The frames are definitely flimsier than any others I've had, which I've heard is generally the case for their wire-frame options—I'm sure their heavy plastic frames are more sturdy, but that's not my style. But the lenses seem as good as usual. Except they polished the edges of the lens instead of leaving them frosted, which creates distracting reflections under certain light (with an Rx of around -9/-10 my lenses are 7-8 mm thick). Despite all that I'll probably stick with Zenni in future. I wash my glasses with a drop of palmolive dish soap and warm water, then blow any water drops off the lenses. An oelophilic coating (available with Zenni) makes this easy, because the water beads up and almost rolls off.
  - sgt 4y ago
    7-8mm thick?! That's insane. I am pretty sure you can get thinner lenses by using a different index. It will be more expensive but definitely worth it. My Rx is -8.5 and my lenses are reasonably thin.
    - frosted-flakes 4y ago
      I can definitely get thinner lenses using a higher-index material, but I selected this lens material specifically because it has a higher Abbe number and thus has less chromatic aberrations. The thickness doesn't bother me, but chromatic aberrations do, a lot. I cannot tolerate the excessive colour fringing high-index lenses have, and while contact lenses don't have this problem I dislike those even more. I have lenses with an optical index of 1.61, which have an Abbe number of 41. In comparison, basic polycarbonate has Abbe 30 (horrible), high-index 1.67 has Abbe 32, and high-index 1.74 has Abbe 33. The best is CR-39 (index 1.5) with Abbe 59, but that will result in an absurdly thick lens, and I'm not sure it's even available in such a strong prescription.

hammyhavoc 4y ago

Yeah, I spend £300+ per pair on not having coke bottle thick glasses that are thin and light, and made out of polycarb.

jefftk 4y ago
At least in the US that would be much cheaper: I can get high index (1.74) lenses for +$75: https://www.zennioptical.com/glasses-lenses https://www.zennioptical.com/glasses-lenses (so the overall glasses are ~$100)
- tecleandor 4y ago
  I have a Zenni pair, I think they are 1.74 and around -6 correction in each eye. They are really cheap compared to other places, but they have very high chromatic aberration on the sides and I don't thing they are perfectly centered. I think it's something that's more noticeable when you need relatively high power lenses.
  - hammyhavoc 4y ago
    This is what I suspected would be the case. You absolutely do get what you pay for when it comes to optics, but equally, you can over-pay for utter rubbish. If you've got the vocabulary (which you do) to describe and understand what to look for, you can't go wrong.
  - adzm 4y ago
    It's good to have a high quality pair from a local shop so you have something to compare Zenni or other online shops to. YMMV of course, but I've had good experiences with Zenni, and only had one pair out of dozens for my family that had issues (seemed to be uncentered or had the PD incorrect), and that was over 5 years ago. It's nice being able to grab a cheap pair of glasses for activities where there is a high probability of them getting damaged or lost, and having a backup pair handy. The reduced mental load of not having to worry is worth it!
    - sbierwagen 4y ago
      >so you have something to compare Zenni or other online shops to That's for sure. I bought a pair from 38dollarglasses.com and skipped the antireflective coating option. As it turns out, if you've worn glasses with AR coatings all your life, plain lenses are really, really surprisingly annoying.
  - superkuh 4y ago
    Yep. Once your lenses get above -6 diopter or so it starts to become a serious concern. By -10 diopter it's the driving choice in lens material and design. At -10.5, -11 I always get relatively low refractive index (~1.5) CR-39 based lenses because it's Abbe number is 60. This means I can still read, say, street signs or flanking computer monitors out of the corner of my eye despite the light going through literally >1 cm of material.
justusthane 4y ago
Paying more can get you thinner lenses? This is of interest to me as I do have coke bottle-thick glasses.
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  Yes, absolutely. All depends on your prescription and sizes though. Most decent optical labs operate on a sliding scale, going thinner and thinner, but costing more and more. Can get quite expensive (relatively), but if you're going to absolutely baby your glasses, and use something like Zeiss single-use lens wipes, yes I think it's absolutely justifiable for something you're going to use all day, every day for several years. About 12 years ago, I switched to rimless with carbon fibre arms to try and get the weight down as the option to go as thin as I'd like just wasn't there yet, and I was still stuck with traditional glass, so the weight was a concern for me, and my glasses were forever slipping down my nose (ugh). Maybe 4 years ago I switched over to hingeless titanium frames (almost wire-thin) with rimless lenses that are incredibly thin and light, and made out of polycarb. Not got my prescription info to hand, but it's a world of difference what's available now versus a decade ago. They're so thin and light now that I frequently forget that I'm wearing them, and can even fall asleep in them! Oops! They stay stuck on my nose too, I never need to push my glasses up my nose. I thought pursuing thinner and lighter would be an exercise in vanity, but I can honestly say it's significantly improved my quality of life.
- Groxx 4y ago
  Mine vary from "too thick for almost any frames" to "looks like a normal pair of glasses until you look through them" depending on cost. Mine are somewhere around 1/3rd as thick on the edge as cheaper glass. Look for "high (refractive) index" lenses. It bends light further, so you need less material / less angular difference to get the same effect.
  - justusthane 4y ago
    Interesting, thanks! I figured the thickness was just a function of physics and couldn't be changed, but I wasn't aware of the difference in refractive index.
INTPenis 4y ago
Mine are around 800 GBP just to keep them a bit thinner towards the middle with some special cut. Including frames, that's just the total price I remember spending the last couple of times. Haven't changed them for 8 years now and they're 100% scratches, they lost some protective layer a long time ago from going into the sea with them. One half is glued together. I'm just too lazy to replace them.

bravetraveler 4y ago

I'm one of those people but I also keep a similarly crude technique - simple microfiber that I replace regularly The article mentions washing them, I have never tried this or nothing to back it up, but I suspect that may be where the problem lies. Just replace the cloth. They cost pennies. They even go as far as to put them back in bags and such. I don't bother and have never noticed an excess of grease, dust, or anything they do. Mine is just replaced every now and then sitting openly on my desk It's at the point where I wonder if doing less is more. It certainly seems obsessive People may say microscratches, yada yada. It's so inconsequential that my eyes go bad before the lenses do due to my treatment.

jefftk 4y ago

> A good chunk of people require glasses that need to be custom-made. Zenni makes their glasses to order; what do you mean?

frosted-flakes 4y ago
Even with Zenni my eyeglasses cost over $100. At Costco they cost $300, and at most other places they cost $600. I used to always go with Costco, but last year I tried Zenni. The frames are definitely flimsier than any others I've had, which I've heard is generally the case for their wire-frame options—I'm sure their heavy plastic frames are more sturdy, but that's not my style. But the lenses seem as good as usual. Except they polished the edges of the lens instead of leaving them frosted, which creates distracting reflections under certain light (with an Rx of around -9/-10 my lenses are 7-8 mm thick). Despite all that I'll probably stick with Zenni in future. I wash my glasses with a drop of palmolive dish soap and warm water, then blow any water drops off the lenses. An oelophilic coating (available with Zenni) makes this easy, because the water beads up and almost rolls off.
- sgt 4y ago
  7-8mm thick?! That's insane. I am pretty sure you can get thinner lenses by using a different index. It will be more expensive but definitely worth it. My Rx is -8.5 and my lenses are reasonably thin.
  - frosted-flakes 4y ago
    I can definitely get thinner lenses using a higher-index material, but I selected this lens material specifically because it has a higher Abbe number and thus has less chromatic aberrations. The thickness doesn't bother me, but chromatic aberrations do, a lot. I cannot tolerate the excessive colour fringing high-index lenses have, and while contact lenses don't have this problem I dislike those even more. I have lenses with an optical index of 1.61, which have an Abbe number of 41. In comparison, basic polycarbonate has Abbe 30 (horrible), high-index 1.67 has Abbe 32, and high-index 1.74 has Abbe 33. The best is CR-39 (index 1.5) with Abbe 59, but that will result in an absurdly thick lens, and I'm not sure it's even available in such a strong prescription.