Varifocal lens brands?

[The Gauge]

Any advice on which brands of lenses are good for varifocal glasses please?

I’m next due a free eye test through my employer in Feb 2024 and I’m considering getting varifocal glasses. I’m aware there are a some brands of lenses that might be better than others, Seiko etc.

It will be an experiment as to whether they are suitable for me, but I’d like to try them. I currently need to wear reading glasses for laptop and reading and whilst I’ve manage without for general vision, driving and TV watching my eyes have degraded and I’d now benefit from improved vision for these.

[Steve_H80]

I've been using varifocals for a good few years now and have never had a problem with makes of lens, I would only worry about it if you have an extreme prescription and need specialist lenses.
Generally you pay more for the extent of the varifocal area.
What I found is I'm actually better off with the cheaper type for driving/riding, this gives me a smaller area for close vision and a larger area for distance. I usually take my glasses off to read so having a wide area close vision is pointless to me.
Like all glasses they will feel really weird to start with so be prepared to give them a week or so for your brain to adapt.

[Mr Pointy]

The lens is less important than the measurement & fitting; with varifocals it's important they are fitted correctly.

[FiF]

Mr Pointy said:

The lens is less important than the measurement & fitting; with varifocals it's important they are fitted correctly.

This ^^. Also a decent outfit will discuss with you what your typical use is, distance, close, screen time etc, and then advise which design in terms of the shape, location of the various focal lengths will best suit. Clearly any outfit will have their preferred supplier, but as above the actual technical quality of the personal service level is more important than going to X over Y just because they sell lenses from a desired manufacturer. Which is also saying do not go to online sellers.

Having said all that I'm with Essilor. They also do a lower priced version. In the same way, sort of, that Continental Tyres also own Uniroyal, and Goodyear owns Falken and so on.

[The Gauge]

I’ve just been into Specsaver to chat about varifocals. They have different types of lenses offering different stages of vision, with some giving larger or smaller reading/intermediate/distance vision..

Standard £39
Premium £79
Elite £129
Tailor-made £159
Super Digital/Driving £194

Hoping one of those will allow me to sit in my sofa and read my laptop, look up and see the TV screen clearly and also to drive in them and read the dashboard etc. Whilst I maybe won’t wear them all the time for walking around I may find I prefer to.

Seems to be all about the size of the distorted areas at the sides, and the size of the reading/intermediate/distance areas.

Edited by The Gauge on Monday 11th December 21:03