Eye Care

Hello to All,
I recently had my eyes examined and am in the market for new lenses. My frame is a rimless Art Craft Rimway with a Perimetric #1 shaped lens. My current lenses are drill mount GLASS for these frames, which unfortunately cannot be obtained in the U.S. A long story for another time on how I got them. I can tell you that glass is more optically clear than any plastic and does resist scratching more than plastic without having to resort to special costly coatings.

Since I might have to go back to plastic lens, my experience from years ago is probably now obsolete. For one, I remember the plastic lenses having an AR coating that after about 9 months, seemed to reflect a rainbow of colors every time I cleaned the lenses. So I am asking you folks who might be in the lens manufacturing business about the current offerings of today.

Trivex, I believe is the recommended lens material for drill mount lenses. My OD sphere is -2.50, and OS is -2.25. I'm going to have two pairs of eyeglasses, one dedicated to my music playing, and the other for general everyday wearing. Based on my past experience with the rainbow AR coatings, I'd like to get away from the AR coating all together and maybe just go with a anti scratch coating of some type.

From what I've been reading on this site in regards to AR coatings, there seems to be a wide consensus on what brand of coating is the best for the least amount of cost and trouble the coating may bring in the way of how it holds up.

I would appreciate if someone could bring me up to date on drill mount lenses with or without an AR coating. It does seem that the price of a "good" AR coating might be equal to or more than the lenses themselves.

Thank you in advance for your time and answers to my questions.

Rick54,

I'll see if I can find some more information for you, but my initial impression is that you are correct that Trivex is going to be the best choice for drill mounted lenses. Yes - glass does have the best optics, but there are obvious safety issues that make it unlikely you can easily find glass lenses.

As for anti-reflective coatings - I did get a pair of glasses without an ant-reflective coating and I was surprised by how much worse they were for me compared to having the anti-reflective coating. When I went from plain lenses to ones with anti-reflective coating, I didn't really notice a big difference. Going the other way, however, was very noticeable. Some people notice the difference and some people don't. As for the quality of the anti-reflective coatings, I've been surprised that I can't tell any real difference between the super cheap coatings that places like Zenni offers compared to Crizal Avance which is supposed to be one of the top coatings.

I'm personally a fan of getting my glasses at Costco as they are a very good balance between cost and quality. I think a lot of the higher priced anti-reflective coatings are mostly marketing hype. Yes, they can show that there is some superiority in lab tests (more durability mostly), but the reality is that in real world applications those differences are not apparent.

If you are particularly sensitive to the lens material and the anti-reflective coatings, and you don't mind paying a premium, you probably are best to go with a good private optometrist in your area. That way you can also get good customer service if the result is not to your liking. I find Costco is a good balance if you don't want to pay that huge premium.

If you are happy with glass, and don't mind the risks involved, is it no longer an option for you to get them replaced where you acquired them last time?

Hello George,
Thank you for all the information you supplied me. I am working on trying to replace my lenses once again with glass. The source was an optical lab located in Ottawa Canada. Unfortunately, my past contact hasn't replied to my email. Yes, there is a big concern about safety factors and glass drill mount, but I believe it is mostly unfounded. I never had any problems, then again at 61, I'm not into baseball and the rough outdoor sports either. I personally believe that plastic lens blanks are far cheaper than glass to obtain a final set of lenses. The machines to produce glass lenses along with the drilling operations are more expensive to obtain, and with a lower demand for said lenses. Also, to do glass drill mount lenses more than likely takes a skilled operator and more time to produce a set of lenses. I'm sure that doing plastic lenses doesn't require the more skilled technician to produce a set of plastic lenses vs. a set of glass lenses. Thus turn around and labor costs are a savings.

George, it has been over 12 years since I last dealt with plastic, thus the lack of information as to what combinations of lens plus coatings are available. Like I mentioned in my original post, that after about 9 months or so, cleaning my plastic lenses with some Windex or other glass cleaner resulted in a myriad of colored film patches over the lenses. I believe this was the coating.

In regards to Costco, I don't have a membership to purchase in that store, although I do have one for Sam's Club.

I'm hoping others will chime in here so that I can arrive at what is a good combination at a reasonable price for my new drill mount lenses.

George, to bring you up to date, I did order some new lenses for my drill mount frames, which will be used for my music work.

I had one quote for Trivex without any coating at $125.00, and another for Trivex without coating for $188.00. The $188 quote also said that the Trivex does come with an anti-scratch coating built in.

When I ordered the $125 set of lenses, I did ask about the AR coating should I want to get that on my everyday glasses. The lady told me that on the Trivex they would be using a Crizal coating, and that would be an additional charge of $99.

I did explain to her my past experience with AR coatings and how they produced a rainbow of colors after time and cleaning. She said that the Crizal coating shouldn't do that and that they came with a 2 yr. guarantee.

Your thoughts?

rick54,

I'm not sure what may have caused the rainbow colors on your anti-reflective lenses you had years ago. I've never had that problem, but I also don't clean my lenses with windex or another cleaner on a regular basis. I just use cool water to rinse off the lenses, then dry them with a microfiber cloth. When I've had issues with smudging, it turned out to be due to the particular cloth I was using. Once I tried a different cloth, the smudges went away.

As for getting an AR coating - I have to say that if you are used to NOT having one, and it doesn't bother you, then you will most likely be fine getting new glasses without the coating. However, if you currently wear glasses that have an anti-reflective coating, I would suggest you stick with an anti-reflective coating.

Crizal does the most advertising for anti-reflective coatings and I believe a lot of the claims are just marketing. I was shocked when I got my lenses with Crizal Avance coating and couldn't really tell any difference from my Costco eyeglasses and I was hard pressed to find a difference from the super cheap Zenni optical anti-reflective coating.

As for the marketing claims, the Crizal Avance is better than Crizal Alize. Crizal Sapphire is slightly better than Avance (based on numbers). I would avoid the Prevencia.