Glasses

[Mark Schecter]

Lou Novak wrote:
> Wondering what type of eye glasses are you wearing?
> Progressive...bi-focal...other,  what works best for you?

Depends on what kind of work I'm doing. I'm nearsighted, about 20/200, 
but unequally in the two eyes, and with some astigmatism. I can see very 
closeup without glasses if I find the right distance from my eyes for 
the object I want to see, but 95% of the time, I wear one of two pairs 
of glasses (both of which I keep with me all the time): For tuning, I 
just wear my regular street bifocals, which serve for reading, computer, 
eating, driving and most other general purposes.

For regulating, voicing, shop work, long hours of computer, or playing 
piano, I have a special pair of single-vision work glasses whose focal 
length runs from about 1 foot to 4 feet from my eyes. This includes all 
the distances needed for this set of activities, except extreme 
close-up, which could be called for occasionally in regulating or the 
shop. The next time I replace the work glasses, I'm considering getting 
bifocals where the bottom is for extreme closeup (6"-2'), and the top 
"distance" focus is the 1-4 foot range as now. If I do that, I'll keep 
the location of the close-up lens a little on the low side, out of the 
way, because I'll only use it rarely, thus maximizing the area of the 
lens that I use most of the time.

The work glasses I have now are the first pair of glasses I've ever had 
that allow me to read music effortlessly, with absolute comfort. I can't 
express what a waste of effort and years that implies (I'm 57). I would 
encourage you to expend whatever time and money are required to acquire 
perfect task-specific eyewear. The difference in functionality is worth 
many times any extra cost (I suppose I should say, for me).

I tried progressives, but was not able to get comfortable with them, 
because I never seemed to be looking through the right part of the lens 
  at any given moment - I was constantly having to adjust my head 
up/down position to focus the blasted things. Also, though this may have 
changed, at that time (about 10 years ago) the width of the focused 
field of view was very narrow, ridiculously so to my mind, to the extent 
that I had to turn my head side-to-side just to read across a column the 
width of a paperback book! Maybe they're better now, but if you try 
them, I hope you do it with a satisfaction guarantee to protect you.

The crucial element in getting my current setup was a very cooperative 
optometrist, who took the time to understand my needs, and made all the 
effort necessary to fulfill them. Be specific about what you need, and 
you'll probably get it. If you're vague about it, you'll get the generic 
solution and probably won't be too happy with it. Don't fall for the 
trap of trying to kill too many birds with one stone - you wind up 
missing them all.

-Mark Schecter