View Full Version : Sight correction when diving.
Having dived 12-15 years ago using contact lenses I've just started diving again; unfortunately my prescription has since gone from requiring single vision lenses to vari-focals. I've just carried out 5 dives over 2 days using vari-focal contacts but I can't say I'm too happy with the correction quality. My optician said that if I'm not happy with this current set up he would advise using one lens for far sight and one for near, apparently is does work...so, has anyone tried this set up? The alternative after exhaustive research on t'internet is to go for bifocal lenses in my mask.
Ed Howarth
21-03-2010, 20:28
Hi Stevex
When I'm diving, I use my normal contact lens in my left eye and remove the one from my right. This allows me to read my computer which is on my right arm. I seem to be able to read my contents gauge on my left side just fine.
On a hardboat for a few days, or somewhere where I'm not driving, I keep this arrangement for all my above water time as well, and the brain gets perfectly used to it. It's quite weird when the other lens gets put in after a week.
In fact, when my optician heard this, he said that my right lens is a bit weaker anyway and has left it like this so I can read without reading glasses. The brain adapts and uses one eye for close, the other for distance. Underwater, because of the lower light levels, I prefer to remove the lens to get "perfect" close up vision.
Ed
maxbill89
25-03-2010, 12:54
Hi...All....
i have read this information all are very useful for all....
I keep this arrangement for all my above water time as well, and the brain gets perfectly used to it. It's quite weird when the other lens gets put in after a week.
:confused:
Wayne Murray
25-03-2010, 14:31
Not with contacts, but a while back I began to realise that age had caught up with me and, embarrassingly, the only way I could find out whether I was at a 6m or 8m stop was to go up a bit and see if it changed to a 5 or a 7! So I added those half-moon stick in lenses.
I HATED them. They gave me a very disorienting 'visual cliff'. So I removed one and kept only the one on the same side as my gauges. Works perfectly! No visual nasties and no problem with the reading the numbers.
It has one further advantage: you can do two masks with one set of lenses. [I've clearly lived in Scotland too long ;) ]
ChristianG
25-03-2010, 15:19
I have a very dear Scottish friend, an ex-diver, who uses a distance contact lens in her right eye and a near contact lens in her left, both above and below water with absolutely no problems at all, including with driving. Today she drives everywhere because her husband prefers not to drive any more for health reasons.
This concept of the brain getting it right seems to work, maybe not immediately but certainly you seem to get used to it pretty quickly although I've heard anecdotal evidence that it doesn't work for some (few) people. I suspect my ex would be one of those, she is so strongly right handed that you may as well cut off the left one as well if the right one needs to be amputated. :eek:
Having dived 12-15 years ago using contact lenses I've just started diving again; unfortunately my prescription has since gone from requiring single vision lenses to vari-focals. I've just carried out 5 dives over 2 days using vari-focal contacts but I can't say I'm too happy with the correction quality. My optician said that if I'm not happy with this current set up he would advise using one lens for far sight and one for near, apparently is does work...so, has anyone tried this set up? The alternative after exhaustive research on t'internet is to go for bifocal lenses in my mask.
Try these guys,
http://www.axisoptical.co.uk/products1.htm
Thanks all for your input, yes John i've seen axisoptical and have even emailed them; my dilema is whether to stick with contacts (just for diving, I usually wear glasses) or go down the mask lens route. Contacts are relatively cheap at £35 for 30 odd pairs of daily use, axis also look good value for money at £115 for a set of bi focal in-mask lenses. I want what will give me best sight in water, just can't make my damn mind up :)
ChristianG
26-03-2010, 17:26
I want what will give me best sight in water, just can't make my damn mind up :)
Today I need both reading glasses (circa age 45 but then only because I was a printer) and distance glasses (a relatively recent addition to my "repertoire").
I have a dioptre in my left lens (left? Because it otherwise interferes with my camera which has its own inbuilt and adjustable dioptre) which I use with my right eye. To date, touch wood, I have not had to even contemplate distance vision u/w (the coriole effect - or sump'n) and, yes, I prefer that dioptre to anything else.
Hint: make sure that it's more powerful than you need, for the relatively few times that you need it it's simply a bit of a magnifying glass and quite harmless yet it means that you need not go back to the optometrist all that often.
Mine is simply glued to the inside of the left lens, and unglued and replaced as I, sob, get yet older.
Private (sort of) apologies Roz, as well as perhaps others. :o
Tony Dwyer
27-03-2010, 17:00
Having dived 12-15 years ago using contact lenses I've just started diving again; unfortunately my prescription has since gone from requiring single vision lenses to vari-focals. I've just carried out 5 dives over 2 days using vari-focal contacts but I can't say I'm too happy with the correction quality. My optician said that if I'm not happy with this current set up he would advise using one lens for far sight and one for near, apparently is does work...so, has anyone tried this set up? The alternative after exhaustive research on t'internet is to go for bifocal lenses in my mask.
Yes, me and the current SWMBO. )
It seemed rather weird at first, but I got used to it quickly. I use a close up lens in my left eye and a distance one in my right. I'm right eye dominant.
The setup is also great when driving my inflatable in bouncy water. When using glasses, I get blinded by spray very quickly. Not so with the contacts.
Hi Steve,
I have the same problem and my optician sorted it out for me. I had an eye test for contacts specifically for diving. I have to add that my optician is also a diver and understands the requirements. But as I have both Long and near sight problems like others I have two differing lenses to compensate.
On the surface it's not so good but underwater it's excellent. I do a great deal of camera work, both still and video and the contacts I use are terrific for both close and distance.
My suggestion is call your optician and see what they say.
I use daily's which cost me around £25.00 for 30.
regards
Hamish
Hamish, you say you have differing lenses...so is this one long sighted and one short sighted? I've got an appointment with my optician when I get back to UK, but I doubt he's a diver :)
Tony, glad to hear you get on OK with this setup; did you make a concious decision to go longsighted with your dominant eye or was it recommended to you. I've checked mine and I'm left eye dominant (as well as being left handed). I was going to use my left eye for the near sighted lens as I wear my comp on my left arm, but will be interested in your reply.
Tony Dwyer
28-03-2010, 17:18
Hamish, you say you have differing lenses...so is this one long sighted and one short sighted? I've got an appointment with my optician when I get back to UK, but I doubt he's a diver :)
Tony, glad to hear you get on OK with this setup; did you make a concious decision to go longsighted with your dominant eye or was it recommended to you. I've checked mine and I'm left eye dominant (as well as being left handed). I was going to use my left eye for the near sighted lens as I wear my comp on my left arm, but will be interested in your reply.
The optician dispensing the contact lenses advised that I use the distance lens with my dominant eye. It seems to work fine for me. I've even used them when shooting in Archery tournaments. I use my right eye to aim and shoot and the left to write down my scores. :)
Hamish, you say you have differing lenses...so is this one long sighted and one short sighted? I've got an appointment with my optician when I get back to UK, but I doubt he's a diver :)
Hi Steve,
I have Variofoculs as my normal lenses in my glasses as I suffer both near and far sighted problems, but for diving my optician recommended that I use a +1.75 for the left and a +0.5 for the right. She concluded that with the refraction underwater this would allow for distance and allow me to read my gauges use my camera without problems. So this was the recommended setup I was given and it works for me.
Hamish
Don Tovey
03-04-2010, 12:50
Ive got a mask with single vision optical lenses which came with the mask when I got it from Aquion years ago.
I can read close up without glasses but the distance lenses make it hard for me to read my computer properly underwater. The Bi Focal link was really useful to see so thanks for that, I may get some bi Focal lenses instead.
Ive got Varifocal lenses in a pair of new glasses but I cant get on with them.
I'm a printer like christian so I take my glasses off for close up work.
Cheers lads
Quick update...saw my optician while home in UK for a couple of weeks and decided to give the different single vision contact lenses in each eye a go. Went for long vision in my left (dominent) eye and close up in my right. Although so far i've only checked them out on land they're a lot better than the varifocals and I'm quite amazed just how well the brain sorts out the difference in vision while wearing these lenses. Far vision is tons better and near vision isn't bad although I'm going to experiment with no lens in my right eye.
ChristianG
24-04-2010, 19:44
I'm a printer like christian so I take my glasses off for close up work.
Chuckle. :)
The first thing that went in my eyes was my reading vision, the distance vision went, marginally, about two years ago when I was already retired. Previously I used bi focals with the top part plain glass but not so nowadays.
Still and all the important thing is that we see things about 1/3 closer unnawata anyway and I have yet to need a dioptre (of whatever type) for my distance vision when unnawata. When I stick my camera to my face I use the (major) distance part of the mask (plain glass) and allow the dioptre built into the viewfinder of the lens to fix my reading problems, which it does superbly well but then it's a reasonably decent dSLR rather than a P&S camera.
Incidentally, and to be a pedant as usual, "diopter" is the US spelling and I point-blank refuse to use US spellings, never mind what the spell checker may try to tell me. :eek:
Thereby endeth the spelling lesson, such as it was. :o
Mike Halligan
25-04-2010, 15:47
Incidentally, and to be a pedant as usual, "diopter" is the US spelling and I point-blank refuse to use US spellings, never mind what the spell checker may try to tell me. :eek:
Thereby endeth the spelling lesson, such as it was. :o
Accuracy is NOT pedantry. :cool:
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