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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
by 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 ago7-8mm 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 agoI 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.
- sgt 4y agoThe chromatic aberrations are there but I think you just need to get used to them. Alternative is heavy glasses.
- sgt 4y agoAlso - the only aberration I notice is with blue light e.g a bright LED. It goes away if you look directly at it. How is your experience?
- frosted-flakes 4y agoThat's not true. My glasses are super light and the thickness is not a concern whatsoever. I can shake my head back and forth with my head down and they don't move at all. And for the past decade since my Rx got particularly bad I have always found the aberrations annoying, so no, I won't "just get used to them". I can't stand chromatic aberrations because they make everything outside of the centre of the lens blurry. This worsens my tendency for one eye or the other to wander if I'm trying to focus on something just at the edge of reading distance (road signs or restaurant menus, for example) and makes driving at night in the rain difficult. My current glasses have an acceptable amount of abberations, but my previous set was horrible. I really should be wearing contacts and I've tried them several times, but I generally find them very uncomfortable and I've always hated how they take away my perfect close-up vision.
- Groxx 4y agoYeah, I've stepped down from the highest index I've used due to the aberrations. Material and grinding techniques have improved since then in general, but it was quite distracting - shift my head a degree or two and bam, rainbow, and further to the edges of the lens it'd be 3+ distinct colored images of every light source. It was kinda neat to be a walking spectroscope, and see what different light sources produced. But the novelty wears off fast when it starts blurring and coloring text on the outer edges of computer monitors. I'm plenty happy paying another $100-200 every few years for lenses that don't do that.
- sgt 4y ago
- mkmk 4y agoAt your strong prescription, are there any styles of frames or lenses that you've found reduce facial displacement?
- sgt 4y agoSmaller is better, although I've found a medium sized Ray-Ban carbon frame that looks modern and is also extremely light. Higher index making the lens thinner also reduces displacement. Most people don't notice I have a strong prescription.
- gwbas1c 4y ago> Except they polished the edges of the lens instead of leaving them frosted, which creates distracting reflections under certain light Could you apply some kind of light paint to the edges? Maybe nail polish?
- frosted-flakes 4y agoI could remove the lenses and carefully sand the edges slightly with fine sandpaper to create a frosted effect, but I haven't tried it yet.