Anybody wear them and recommend them?

I wear glasses for short sightedness nearly all the time, and find myself taking them off more and more for reading.

When I need sunglasses and swim, cycle, etc I wear daily disposable contacts but I’m going skiing in six weeks and don’t think I’ll be able to read the piste map with contacts in, when I’ve got either my goggles or sunnies on. Hence the idea of varifocal lenses…

Yeah, I have them. Bought them to wear both at work and out on the bike, but lately I have stopped wearing them at work, probably as I am getting more used to glasses. Wouldnt be without them on the bike though, no way could I see ahead clearly, then look down at my Garmin and read anything without the varifoculs.

Didnt take any getting used to at all, quite happy with them, just a tad expensive

I wear one vf and one standard lens.

Distance clarity wasn’t great with both vfs, but with a vf in my stronger eye and standard in my weaker eye, they balance out nicely.

Mostly only wear them for cycling so that I can see stuff and read garmin etc

Tried them, they just didn’t do what I thought they’d do. I’m better off with either my single vision or none at all.

tried them and never worked for me.

Now have two different prescriptions for ea eye. +2.25 in left eye (reading) +0.50 in right eye (distance)

works well for me

Yeah they do work, but not for everyone, you need to remember it will be a compromise both for distance and reading.
I get on fine, but prefer wearing vari focal specs.

Right, might see if I can get a free trial somewhere. Cheers all.

Disliked them as everything is somewhat blurred all the time. Reverted to wearing astigmatic lenses set up for distance and carry a pair of cheap reading glasses for the piste map/ phone/ menu moments.

yes I wear them. Not perfect but I can read maps, newspapers easily with them and much better for me than the stronger/weaker eye combo I tried previously when the light is poor.
The only ones my optician rates are the Acuvue Moist multi-focal. I trialled lots of strength combinations (i.e. the +ve and -ve) before deciding what suited me best. 6 weeks should give you enough time to try that.

Yes I have them, work a treat for me, but I also have varifocal glasses that took me two attempts to get used to. There is a bit of a compromise for me for distance but not enough to be a problem, outweighed by the fact that I can also read and do my day job

I wear them.

Different prescriptions in each eye. Left for near, right for far. Optician said not to think about it.

First set were too strong and gave me headaches so the prescription was backed off a touch.

Go to my local optician and have a monthly order covering lenses, solution, a yearly check and replacement lenses if I need them.

Tried them, juries still out a bit. I just seem to get on better with the one strong, one weak option, but might also try a VF in the stronger position and a standard in the other eye next.

Work well for me – especially with mid-distance monitors in my face all day at work, then cycling home. As Jkomo says, compromise with near/distance –
my eyes take a while to adjust to read (I read a mag at lunchtime to give my eyes a break from monitor use)
and far distance isn’t perfect (birds in the sky are sometimes double!).

But yeah, everyone’s different so they’re worth trialling. Also worth asking to trial different brands as this also makes a difference – there are varying prescriptions according to which brand you go for.

Couldn’t get on with two different makes of them. i have an astygnatism and the lens settling after blinking was part of the issue but just didn’t get the clarity i have with specs, especially using monitor at work.

**** me.

So I’ve been wearing Varifocal glasses for 2 weeks now, all good. Just popped in for a 5 days trial of Varifocal lenses. I’ve had these in for 2 hours, and almost everything is out of focus with occasional moments of clarity.

They said it’d get better as my brain adjusts, and its possible I may need a different prescription to my glasses. 5 days of trial left… 😐

I have them, and while I used them for everything for a while, I ended up with too many eye ulcers to continue.

Consequently, I wear them for sport only – cycling and ice hockey.

I find them brilliant for the most part, but they don’t give you 100% vision at any distance. I would say I see about 85% well from near to far.

I would say I see about 85% well from near to far.

After a couple of hours this is what they are starting to feel like, as though my prescription is not quite 100%.

I feel that whereas I used to be an occasional glasses wearer, I’m about to become an occasional contact lens wearer.

Aaargh.

Right so i finished my trial and got a new eye test today as i wasnt happy wih the varifocals and was certain my prescription was wrong.  Yet, no change. The optician tested with them in and confirmed i was well inside legal driving limits yet could not expect them to be 20/20- its always a comprimise and glasses are better, as they are for me.   Was this true for anyone else?

Secondly and especially as i have a weak prescription i now have three options:

a) use my current lenses for “sport” aka bike riding and racing, knowing they are fine for distance yet i wont be able to read a book with them

b) i can be “monovision” that is, i can wear my normal/distance lense in my right eye only, effectively the same as a varifocal lens and my brain will adjust to the near/far signals from each eye, but my overall vision is a compromise

C) pay extra for the varifocals and put up with, the least satisfying result imo

Interested in what others have done?

Free trial is good.

I tried them and loved them. I went on to use them daily for a while, but found it difficult to use them for too long at a time.

Now I just use them for sport – both cycling and ice hockey – and they are brilliant.

I use glasses for everything else.

Why can I Nearsight better with glasses on that with contact lenses on?) I am longsighted)

Saxon rider was your vision good or less than perfect as was mine?

Specsavers were telling me there’s new stuff coming soon which is better and allows them to offer decent “multifocal” (oddly not called varifocal when contacts) for toric lenses which I have in one eye.

They don’t do what I’d need at the moment. However I’ve recently got varifocal glasses that I’ve been trying out and despite getting the best I can with thin lenses and widest medium/short distance area, I’m not really getting on with them at the moment. Some things they’re useful for and does work well glancing down for closer, but other things it’s irritating. Also they’re useless for the computer as I have to move my head side to side.

Not sure whether to persist with them. I wear contacts mostly outdoors anyway. Glasses around the house, and they do work well for that but I still have to swap glasses for the computer.

With contacts I just have some reading glasses for close stuff but is a pain to carry them. Only really a problem in shops and restaurants (especially dark ones). So there I can see vari contacts might be useful, but I don’t want them to be a compromise and especially if it makes riding with contacts distracting.

Tried varifocal contacts, they weren’t any good at either close or distance viewing, I stopped wearing them after a couple of days, they certainly weren’t worth the money.

I have been through this myself recently

I am long sighted so needed glasses for reading however my distance vision has also deteriorated so need glasses for that too. Basically glasses for everything.  I have a totally dominant left eye which means I no longer see out of my right.

I tried varifocal glasses for my left eye and although I could get them to work for me I hated it as it felt so claustrophobic and there is a lot of areas out of focus. I found myself just staring into a world of blur.. So I went back to single vision for distance and single vision for reading.

However I now have a  distance contact lens in my left eye which has been superb (nothing in right). I find it way better than the glasses as it seems to have larger focal length. If I need to fiddle with something really fiddly I can pop on a pair of weak cheapo reading glasses and all is good. I get the top of the range lenses as I only need one, so it is effectively 2 for 1 for me!

If I am active I wear a contact. If I am lounging driving all day I wear the glasses.

I’m short-sighted and I’ve used varifocal contacts for about 10 years now. The lenses are made up of alternate concentric circles which correct your long and short sight and the eye can usually switch from one set of circles to the other as required but this seems to get harder to do as you get older. They’re working less well now for reading just because my eyes are older. Still way better for sports than wearing spectacles.

My new prescription multifocal lenses arrived today while I was out, right eye unchanged but left eye stronger distance prescription. Will try them out tomorrow.

interestingly, mrs_d has opted for the ‘wear one lens and let the brain use the other eye for reading’ approach and that works fine for her

I’ll be trying the one lens approach tomorrow .  Let’s see what the outcome is.

What reading glasses strength did the optician suggest with the contacts in? If you don’t need much above +3.50 then a pair of these in your pocket/pack will do the job and will impress some people.