[Closed] Cheap spectacles for someone as blind as a bat

wish i knew the last set were £350!

depends on your prescription and whether you can be made from "normal" blanks or not i believe. I had a look at some online places and they won't go for "blind as bat".

Look on the internet. Someone I know was sick of paying high street prices so emailed his pescription to an opticians in Hong Kong and got his specs for a fraction of the UK price.

what would you consider blind as a bat range?

I'm just off being defined by the NHS as "complex". Minus 8/9 in both eyes.
So I need the more advanced lenses so they are thin enough to fit into the frame of the specs.
I've also looked at the online options and it seems they cater only for more normal prescriptions...thanks for the responses guys:-

OK, sorry. It's just we've had instances before of people claiming they had bad eyesight with a -1.5 prescription.

Try All eyes. Someone once recommended them to me (being another Mr Magoo)

Try All eyes.

Cheers samuri, that's a great suggestion - looking at their prices now:-

badnewz, the reason 'online' shops wont do complex prescriptions is that placement of lens in frame becomes more and more critical as prescription goes up (low prescriptions on datum (mid point between top and bottom of frame) with correct pd's (distance between pupils)is normally fine, on higher prescriptions the vertical and horizontal setting of the lens needs to be accurate so needs to be measured properly with the frame in place on your face.

Its another example of the bucket shops hoovering up the 'cheap and easy' stuff but not wanting to know when there is any real work involved.

Having said the above frame choice can be an important part of getting the best finish for yourself, try to chose a frame that is not too deep in the vertical plane, and also one which is not too wide (pupil as near the center of the lens as possible is best as the more offset the thicker the edge of the lens will become. Plastic frames can be good for a large prescription like yours as again they can 'disguise' the thickness of the lens.

Not an expert by any means, but from what I understand from conversations with opticians, when a prescription gets into the extreme end, in order to keep the lenses thin and light the materials involved and the complexity of the lens grinding means that cheap isn't an option. Going to an optician in the far East may be the answer, as their overheads will be cheaper, but you have to balance that against any issue that might arise with the prescription or coating.
My prescription is very simple, -0.25/-1.25, but my lenses cost me £260, put into a pair of RayBan Lennon frames from fleabay, 'cos they're Shamir blanks, with polarising, multipoint vari-focal, DriveWear photoreactive, and multilayer AR coating, so any one of those elements could have gone wrong, and need to be sorted; difficult when the bloke's in Hong Kong or Taiwan, easy when he's sat in front of you and you can bitch about it to his face!
Mine were done by SimplySpecs, in Chippenham. They have an online ordering system, It's how they started, but they have a shop on the estate where I work, which is very handy.

I have quite strong lenses -6.5 / -7.0.

I got my last set of a guy who came round our office. He just had boxes and boxes of frames, find what you wanted and he'd get lesnes made to your prescription. He was a qualified optician so was able to take all the other measurements. It worked out about £140 for a set that would have £300+ in a highstreet chain. That included the thinnest lenses you could get off pentax.

He also did home visits and stuff like that so it may be worth checking your local area if there are any mobile outfits like this. The service was way way better than I would have got on the high street. There was an error on my prescription, so the first set were wrong. He sorted me out with a second set no questions asked once the presciption was fixed.

http://www.selectspecs.com/

looks good, anyone used them?

I went to my local independent, after Visionexpress once again assured me, reglazing my old spec wasn't worth it (basically they priced the lenses to a stupid level). Local indy (Blink in Kiddy) did my current pair cheap as chips, so I got my spare pair and my driving sun glasses updated too, they were so cheap I even got some reactor-light lensed sunglasses.
I enjoyed the service Vision express provided, but the cost was not worth it.. as for Specsaver, they didn't stock a single pair of frames I likes, let alone 2 (and again didn't want to re-glaze).

Admittedly my prescription isn't too bad.

Just ordered a new pair from Asda. Current pair got from them and been fine for the past two years. Cheaper now than two years ago as well. Eye test for £15 and one pair of designer glasses £70, two pairs for £99. Come with anti reflective coatings as standard.

Glasses direct have an offer on just now. Never had any probs with them.

[url= http://mail_m.glassesdirect.co.uk/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=86f94bc48e64c9c2ba ]40% off code[/url]

Glasses direct wont go above a -6.5 I think... Well I cant use them any more and i am -7.75

highish prescription here, -7.5 ish and some astigmatism. At Optician this am and looking like it's varifocal time, plus slightly high pressures mean a referral to eye clinic 🙁

getting old is great !

My eyes are getting better as I get older. I've come down from -7.5 to -6.5 in one eye in two years. At this rate by the time I'm 60 I'll have perfect vision and can start calling you lot speccy four eyed tossers.

Wow.. I did wonder how bad my eyes actually were, I've got the card here and it says L -4.25 and R -2.75 with -2.25 cyl so I guess I'm not that bad!

I did baulk from replacing my glasses I don't use much at the last test because with the thinning they were expensive, and without they still look pretty thick. Do you choose a particular style to handle thicker lenses without looking daft?

tbh molgrips with yours it would depend on the angle of the cyl, but what i wrote above would still apply

It says axis 20.

I hate my glasses, I'd wear them more but the distortion is really frustrating, I feel like I've got tunnel vision especially after wearing contacts for so long.

I asked the kids in Specsavers for advice on what style of glasses to choose to help but they had none to give. Maybe a trip to a better opticians is in order next time.

soma_rich - Member
> http://www.selectspecs.com/

looks good, anyone used them?

My Wife has just used these for a cheap second pair.
They were only £10 with free thin lenses and anti glare coating.

£5 delivery I believe, and took a couple of days from order.

@molgrips,

my prescription is -7/-1 astigmatism in both eyes. current specs are a set of Oakley transistors in half frame, with 1.67lenses. the angle of the astigmatism is hidden by the frame so not that noticeable.

Last pair were a set of Lindberg Airs in 1.6 i think, these are wire frames and again the frame and angle seems to work. I tend to work on the idea of get small lenses because the edge thickness is kept thin.

Then again, thin costs money, but on the last set the price of 1.6 v 1.67 wasn't acutally that different. Took a few days to get used to the higher index though.

You know you've got bad eyesight when you get lost in the swimming baths. I've had to ask people in the past where the gents changing rooms was once I'd got in the pool.

Mrmo got any pics?

@molgrips, i'll post some when i get home if you want.

Yeah if that's not too much bother.. ta.

Some great replies...thanks everybody:-

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Not brilliant but might give some idea.

I've you've seen frames tha you like and know your prescription, try these guys:

http://www.ciliaryblue.com/

They can tell you wha they can and can't do in the way of prescriptions and they're pretty cheap for lenses as well.

I have used select specs loads, latest pair was a set of oakley sunnies (holbrooks) with prescription lenses for around £100. A friend was nervous of ordering a pair, she has -7 ish prescriptions and eventually ordered and had no issues.

Just make sure you get a no quibble no fuss return.
If you are close to -10, then the tolerances are tiny, 1mm out could be a problem.
As 'the hustler' says, the optician would also be concerned about how they sit on your face.
Even the distance from the frame to pupil makes a difference, as does frame curvature, frontal angle and so on.
If you went to Speccies, and chose a £69 frame, some are nice (I wear one).
The thinnest plastic 1.74 is £90, next one down is1.67 £60.
So you could pay £159 in total for the thinnest (with free sunnies)
If you don't want a second pair (with std lenses, or sunnies) you can get another £40 off.
So total is now £119, or £89 for 1.67 index.
For that you can try them on, get them fitted, return for adjustments, blah blah blah.