- #1
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- TL;DR Summary
- Why should the 'posh' varifocal lenses cost so much more to produce than the budget lenses?
When you decide to use varifocal lenses you are offered a range of three or four different 'qualities'. There will be differences in hardness, finish and coatings but what is the difference in the way the surfaces are calculated and ground? I once had some entry level varifocals and the vertical sweet corridor was so narrow that I needed to move my neck all the time to get things in focus. A have also had pairs that are much much better but which cost vastly more. I am stuck with the expensive ones now, of course.
What beats me is that they are all produced individually - unlike the run of the mill, single prescription lenses which involve choosing from an existing range of pre-ground circular lenses, with combinations of spherical and cylindrical radii. But varifocals (I assume) need to be calculated and ground (moulded?) individually. What is it about the best ones that makes them expensive to produce? I feel that it's just a commercial ploy to get more money from the public (why am I surprised?).
I would love to know from anyone who has some knowledge of the market and the technology about how it all works. I bet there is some specialist knowledge out there.
The quality of dispensing and fitting is very variable; I have had a pair with the totally wrong inter pupil distance and also with the cylindrical component at the wrong angle. When I bounced the ones with the wrong IPD (which I identified at the fitting), the fitter asked "how can you tell"??
Terrible situation when you think that people are wearing these things all their waking hours. The public can be so accepting in some matters and specs are a major cost to some people. It makes me wonder why so many people just "don't get on with them". I suspect that they often just get given the wrong prescription.
What beats me is that they are all produced individually - unlike the run of the mill, single prescription lenses which involve choosing from an existing range of pre-ground circular lenses, with combinations of spherical and cylindrical radii. But varifocals (I assume) need to be calculated and ground (moulded?) individually. What is it about the best ones that makes them expensive to produce? I feel that it's just a commercial ploy to get more money from the public (why am I surprised?).
I would love to know from anyone who has some knowledge of the market and the technology about how it all works. I bet there is some specialist knowledge out there.
The quality of dispensing and fitting is very variable; I have had a pair with the totally wrong inter pupil distance and also with the cylindrical component at the wrong angle. When I bounced the ones with the wrong IPD (which I identified at the fitting), the fitter asked "how can you tell"??
Terrible situation when you think that people are wearing these things all their waking hours. The public can be so accepting in some matters and specs are a major cost to some people. It makes me wonder why so many people just "don't get on with them". I suspect that they often just get given the wrong prescription.