About a month in here. Still find them very much a compromise, esp at work when at a screen most of the day. Also find reading weird, moving focal length and head position to get the sweet spot. I have had the centres checked etc and they came from very good family optician, so its not the specs..

My problem at the moment is that my prescription has changed in my left eye, the ‘sweet spot’ is now in a different place on each lens so my glegs feel ‘cock eyed’ if you get my drift.

**** nuisance.

Do you actually need to wear your glasses for reading and screen use? I wear multi-point varifocals, but I don’t wear them for reading, or for the occasions I’m sat at my computer at work. Different at home, my ‘monitor’ is my telly, so I actually need them to read the computer screen!
Close-up stuff is tricky with varifocals, because the ‘sweet-spot’ is pretty small for reading, etc, but I get on perfectly well in the car, for reading dash info and distance viewing, which would otherwise not be possible.

Your brain does get used to them – the first week was strange but they are fine now.

I have a pair designed for computer use that I find good for everything except driving, and a ‘standard’ pair for that. The computer ones have a wide sweet spot for closer, and are pretty good for distance, with smaller sweet spot that’s absolutely sharp at distance, which is good to read a projection screen etc.

The only problem I have is walking down stairs in them, as the close up section makes the stairs look closer than where my feet think they are..

mrs rocket has wasted several £100 with them small lenses make the variation too sudden

interesting feedback, thanks. I do need them for computer/reading – I am so short sighted that without specs I have a foacl distance of about 6 inches !. Reading is weird as I think I am used to having the page further away that I need now, plus 40 od dyears of reading through a distance prescription…. Eyes get tired on conputer as I find I try and look through the blurry section rather than drop my head all the time.

Driving at night is not as good as before, infact I tend to pop my distance specs on as I can read dash etc ok weith them and peripheral stuff is better. Similarly I have stuck with distance specs on bike as I can get by reading with them, as long as I dont need to get into a tiny allen bolt or something

The joys of ageing I guess !

I am two months in, and am now fully used to it. I use regular distance specs for riding, not need for reading bit really. i did use vari glasses by mistake and the handlebar area was blurry, most odd. its just that you need to get your face 6 inches from allen bolt and make sure you are facing the light.

camerone – interesting that you don’t wear them for riding either. do you have a strong presription ?

I think I need to persevere a bit. My reading isn’t too bad with distance specs, but I was getting eye ache and finding transitioning from screen to distance took ages to get back in focus, so optician reckoned at age 47 my time had come !

I finally got Varis last year, June to be exact.
After a period of squinting through my glasses I use for VDU work (fine for driving etc.) I went for an eye test and the normal slight deteriation was the prognosis. So, whilst sitting there I decided to get a new distance pair and a completely new pair set as a Vari. I paid top whack a doodle doo for them but I have to say they are the best thing since 29er wheels, they really make “the world come alive”
No, seriously they have transformed my working world. I have no issues looking down whilst keeping my head straight, none at all. Only small worry is if I wear them whilst walking through a Shopping Mall for instance is the magnification when looking down at my feet through the bottom of the lens, I have slipped up going down stairs for instance. But I have gotten used to that now, I no issues apart from that, and I too suffer from a dodgy left eye..
You can’t tell the lenses are Varis, there are no visable distiction lines nor bluring, none at all.

I’d say go back to your Optom and explain the situation.

Van ask how your screen is set up at work, V/F’s will work best if the top of your screen is set at approx eye level (this is also the best erganomic position for you too).

With regard to the ‘sweetspot’ issue did you chose an entry level lens or a higher cost one? as on a better lens the ‘usable’ area can be greatly increased,
If it is still within the month and you really cant get on with them most of the major lens manufacturers (again there are exceptions at the budget end of the market) offer to swap you back to a single vision lens for no charge.

PM me or post here if you need anymore details/help

It took me about an hour to get used to varis and now I wouldn’t be without them, they are fantastic. My optician took a huge amount of trouble to get the measurements right and we spent quite a long time studying the various lens/price options before he gave me a decent discount. I do think a lot of their success depends on the optician getting them measured right.

iainc
sounds very similar to me. I am 40, always had distance glasses around -2.75 to -3.25 type prescription. basically for a couple of years been struggling to focus for a number of seconds when, say, looking up from ipad to TV.

My reading prescription is only -1.25 so the lowest possible, but it helps close up reading, and now if I have the ipad quite close and use bottom of lens, when I look up at TV its perfect immediately.

I do still sometimes find that if an object, be it a book or a screen or a keyboard is ‘in between’ its not right and I either have to move it away and use distance part or closer and use reading part.

It sounds like a terrible faff but now I am used to it its much better than before, far less tired eyes and blurry TV!

Oh, I agree with globalti too, because different parts of the lens do different things the set up it very important

I bought some varifocals from Specsavers and really couldn’t get on with them. In the end they gave me my money back. At that time (3 years ago) the ranges of lenses they did weren’t very good for everybody. I was one of the minority who couldn’t get on with the lenses they used but The Hustler made me a pair of glasses with a better varifocal lens and they have been great.

Don’t wear them when painting a ceiling or wiring a wall light though. You’ll bend your head too far back trying to see through the close section and you’ll get a stiff neck. Unless you wear them upside down. Which works.

Van ask how your screen is set up at work, V/F’s will work best if the top of your screen is set at approx eye level (this is also the best erganomic position for you too).
With regard to the ‘sweetspot’ issue did you chose an entry level lens or a higher cost one? as on a better lens the ‘usable’ area can be greatly increased,
If it is still within the month and you really cant get on with them most of the major lens manufacturers (again there are exceptions at the budget end of the market) offer to swap you back to a single vision lens for no charge.

Hustler, many thanks for info. The top of screen is pretty much at eye level, and about 2 feet away from me.

I went for a high spec lens, not the highest ‘index’ as I had a problem before with that one in my normal specs, but the 2nd highest.

Biggest problem I think is that my eyes get really tired now at work, probably me not dropping head enough when looking at screen and papers.

I’ll pop back to Opticians tomorrow for a chat and if still stuck will drop you a mail, much appreciated

camerone – yeah, very similar situation hear, particularly

I do still sometimes find that if an object, be it a book or a screen or a keyboard is ‘in between’ its not right and I either have to move it away and use distance part or closer and use reading part.

My wife recently spent over £300 on a pair that she simply can’t get on with. She hates them so much she won’t even wear them. Should she persist, and will she ever get used to them, or is it really a case of making the wrong choice?

I’ve just started wearing them. I bought some a few months back and was dreading starting wearing them so they stayed in a draw until this week. I put them on in the morning, and after an hour, they felt fine. I’m still getting used to looking through them properly, and I sometimes still have to take them off for really close work, but not nearly as bad as I’d feared.

I’ve had a harder time adjusting to a new pair of glasses with conventional lenses before these.

I spent a small fortune on mine, Nikon lenses, Ray Ban frames (yes, I am quite the last year’s hipster), and for the first couple of days wondered what the hell I’d done. After that it just seemed to click. So if you’re still struggling after a month it may well be worth getting a second opinion on the layout of the lenses. Tired eyes seems really odd as well, various family members have varifocals and no-one mentioned tired eyes to me when I got mine.

ok, thanks all, seeing opticioan tomorrow morning to get measurements etc double checked

So it’s worth persisting with them then? Of course, it’s ‘my fault’ because I encouraged my wife to listen to the optician’s recommendations of varifocals (she was getting fed up of having to take her specs off to look across the room), but there you go. 😐

My wife recently spent over £300 on a pair that she simply can’t get on with. She hates them so much she won’t even wear them. Should she persist, and will she ever get used to them, or is it really a case of making the wrong choice?

go back to see the optician/dispenser to get everything checked over and rerun how to use them, if no joy it might be getting them checked by a different opticians, we have one of the ‘large’ chains five doors up from us and am amazed at some of the things they try to fob customers off with, the stats are less than 1 in 20 people cant tolerate v/f’s so either persist or get them checked as if you can use them they are by far the most convenient type of lens

Definitely right. Take them back and get the optician to recheck the presecriptions and the measurements, which are critical for success. I’ve done this a couple of times with regular glasses and lo and behold, the optician grunts some excuse and takes them back for re-glazing. They do make mistakes, especially the big chains where they are very distracted. They will also often delegate the vital measuring to a junior member of staff.

Ok I’ll get her to try them again. If they really are unsuitable, then they’ll have to go back. Opticians quoted a 30 day cool off period, but I’d imagine statutory consumer rights laws trump this.

It is worth getting the set up looked at by a dispensing optician.
It’s common to struggle if you use a computer a lot.
It will get easier, but if you use the VDU for long periods of continual use, it is worth getting some simple single vision ones set at the correct distance.
Why struggle?
Use the vari’s for everything else.

just coming to the end of life of my second pair.. yes they do take some getting used to yes your head has to move to see things and yes when reading you do move your head side to side to maintain the sweet spot

for bike riding mtb and m/c i wear distance glasses esp found that when doing m/c trials i was getting nausea as my head was having to move so much so went back to single lenses and what an improvement.

took the second ( current pair ) back after a couple of months as i was feeling nauseous a lot.. turned out the lens on the right was at the wrong angle so my eyes and brain were constantly fighting each other.. specsavers..

wont go for non reflective in future as the coating does not like oil/ grease and is constantly needing a wipe.

get a big lens not a little post box thing these lenses are for looking through not being seen in..

Just thought of something to help you, hold the lens up to a good light and you should find 2 small etchings (normally a circle a square or a triangle of some sort) one will have a number written under it use a CD marker pen to mark the etchings, all 4 dots should be in a straight line, now at the mid point between the dots draw another horizontal dash and a vertical line, on the vertical make two more dashes one 2mm and one 4mm above the original line, now stand 2-3 feet from a mirror and look at yourself straight on with one eye open one eye closed, your pupil if the glasses are glazed correctly will sit over one of the marked points, open swap eyes and check again.

If you can wear them, then I can recommend varifocal contact lens’s :). I’m a field ecologist so need to look for things like veins in moss leaves with a x20 hand lens then look for fine grain changes in colour and texture on aerial photographs for mapping vegetation communities – then drive home, read magazines and work at a computer. There is a slight trade-off with long distance, so I might not see that flock of seagulls or hen harrier quartering the horizon, but generally I’m a fan.

Only real negative is cold winter riding when i have to blink more than normal to stop them stiffening up, and as in one instance freezing and pinging off when I did finally blink!

Your optician should have taken 20 to 30 minutes just measuring, re-measuring and setting up the lenses before even getting round to choosing the right kind of plastic or glass with you. If they didn’t, there’s a strong possibility that the centres and transitions are in the wrong place. With narrow lenses this is obviously even more critical.

lots of good info for my visit to optician in a few hrs, thanks. They did spend a lot of time on measurements etc, but will ask them to check right through the whole lot.

I also find that when I go back to my distance specs, which I wear on bike (which I am sure are same prescription) they are actually slightly less good than the distance part of the VF ones…..will ask about that too. The distance ones are a few yrs old and different frame shape, so that might have something to do with it. Assuming I can get VF’s settled, I am tempted to buy a new pair of distance ones with same frame, for riding, so that swapping over is easier.

Hustler et al – update, very worthwhile trip, and half an hour spent chatting through the concerns. Lenses were penned up and all checked out, bang on. My distance specs are exactly same presecription, but as I have a high presription I am quite sensitive to change, and the VF’s sit a bit further out from my eyes than the old ones, so some adjusts made to the old ones to replicate VF’s which seem better distance wise.

I expalined that I use the distance ones on bike and am keen to do so while I can. He rightly talked me out of new distance ones, as at 47, I am only going to need the VF’s more with time.

Pondering a purchase of a second pair of bike/sports VF’s in a few months assuming all settles down – any reccomendations for VF compatable frames that are decent at staying put on bike ? wondering about Oakley type ones with the temple fit legs ?

Tbh there are many different sports frames available, but be a little careful as you say you have a high prescription some ‘wrapped’ styles may not be glazable to your power

Having said this even some of the cheap decathlon sunglasses are glazable,

this is a cheap decathlon frame i glazed for my son for sports etc and he’s a +2.50sph -5.50cyl so quite complex

many thanks

I do wonder if hrs on this Nexus 7 add to the problem…..

Hijack of wife’s iPad methinks 😛

Hustler & iainc, I’m also after varifocal prescription glazed sports glasses for MTBing.

I have clip-on insert lenses for my Rudy Project Rydon glasses, but they have such a narrow field of view and the optical quality of the material is so poor that I don’t get on with them. My optician tells me the problem with regular sports sunglasses is the ‘wrap-around’ shape prevents effective varifocal glazing. Is this tosh?

Hustler, I’m interested in which Decathlon frame you bought for your son and how you ‘glazed’ them for his prescription. Who did you get to do this for you?

My ideal is to find a pair of sports-specfic glasses that can take a varifocal and transition lens.

I got varifocals a couple of months ago as I got fed up having to take my specs off all the time to read stuff when out and about. To the OP did you spend a decent amount on them? The cheaper ones have very restricted sweet spots.

I found it took about a month to get used to them and I still forget things like turning my head more instead of using my peripheral vision.

Overall I’m happy with them although if I’m sitting reading for a period I’ll take them off.

I also use varifocal contact lenses and they work much better than the specs.

To the OP did you spend a decent amount on them? The cheaper ones have very restricted sweet spots.

yes, I spent quite a while with optician going through the 4 or so different types/quality and went for the best ones. I am getting used to them now, it doesn’t help that I am pretty short sighted at -6.5 ish in both eyes and I prefer to use my distance specs when riding, so I am swopping between pairs a bit.

On the sports specific ones, Oakleys are great and Optician can do them, but only up to around -4.5, so no use for me…

Hustler, I’m interested in which Decathlon frame you bought for your son and how you ‘glazed’ them for his prescription. Who did you get to do this for you?

He owns an Opticians, A very good one. He did my varifocals