Cant See!!

[spectrum]

+1 for getting an optician to bond corrective lenses in your mask. Just make sure you have a mask you are really pleased with the fit of.

Color form lenses are best reserved for Willy the Weatherman.

Pete

 

[lowviz]

...//...Can anyone suggest the best way to fit my mask with lenses, I bought some stick on type but they just are not cutting it. ...//...

Use a standard low-volume mask and contacts or buy a cheap but surprisingly effective mask that uses off the shelf corrective lenses. Works really well.

SAME PRICE for either, I use both...

-got the corrective mask from Wakulla Diving Center Florida CCR Training/Repair/Support. Even though I haven't seen them up north, I assume that they are a fairly common cheap mask, see pic, no identifying marks whatsoever...

View attachment 140816

 

[NorCalDM]

My wife has tried the stick on lenses but found they were never in the right spot to read her gauges no matter what mask she was using so I took apart an old cheap camera housing that had a plastic flip down magnifying glass and clipped it to a retractor on her BC. Now it's always in the right spot and it was cheap.

 

[TSandM]

Another, although more expensive solution to the problem is to get gauges you can read without bifocals -- the Liquivision gauges where you can vary the size of the font, and that glow with good contrast, make the lenses optional for me, and I'm a +2 for reading.

 

[spectrum]

Another consideration is overall vision impairment.

For instance my near and far corrections are all positive and I do have astigmatism co i have cylinder/axis in my prescription. Off the shelf pop in lenses do not deal with astigmatism so they will never be a good choice for me. That leaves contacts and bonded prescription lenses.

I happen to have tight eyelids so contacts go rolling every time I blink. That means that the astigmatism correction is all over the place and life is tough. Forget about contacts for me.

My original mask as bifocal and it worked well. The one thing I noticed was that with our relatively limited visibility the nearby bottom was the most interesting thing and I would dive like an anteater keeping in the near vision of my mask.

That bifocal mask got lost in an mishap so I went a season uncorrected and it so happens my instruments are bold enough for that to work OK. I did notice that after a dive, let alone 2 my eyes were weary and I was in a hurry to get back to my eyeglasses. Also lacking correction makes it harder for more mature eyes to focus in limited light. It was also clear that when surfacing my sistance vision was lacking. Sure I could see the beach but recognizing people or details was another story.

So... that winter I decided to cue up a new mask. By now I had a better understanding of my all positive situation and played with some reading glasses at Walmart. (Some people have a mix of positive and negative distance & near corrections and they work in opposing modes.) Going between powers I found that if I corrected for distance I was plenty clear to read quite fine print, certainly good enough for my instruments and this was not factoring in the bump the submerged mask provides.

I got a new mask of my trusty model and sent it off to be fitted with overlays of my distance/astigmatism correction only (cross out the ADD entry). I immediately was diving farther off the bottom with a nice broader view. I have done this twice now and it has been a really good solution for me. At this point I carry in my gear bag my primary mask, the one before it which is slightly different but a perfect back-up and the no script version that is a loaner back-up. The only downside is that I need to go without correction if I want to dabble with any odd vintage masks but the occasional dive like that is no big deal either.

My point in this tale is that a number of things enter into what is the best solution. The right solution can in fact make you a safer diver. Compared to what you have invested in diving the cost difference across the spectrum is trivial. Do what's right for you.

Pete

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I have dove with prescription masks since I started diving 15 years ago. I have expensive custom made masks, and I have some pop-in lenses that work well too. I wear trifocals on land. I have yet to be satisfied with stick in gauge reading lens. If you want something that will work without worry, have a custom mask made. The cost is outweighed by the benefit, even if it costs a few hundred dollars. When using single vision prescription masks, I have found that I can red gauges like lots of us 60 year olds- by holding it a little farthr away, and by having plenty of light on the numbers.
DivemasterDennis

 

[bargeman]

Thank you so much for your response, im going to look into having this done. This is an amazing forum, i got so many responses, thanks is there a way to reply to everyone that responded to me at the same time? thanks

---------- Post added November 18th, 2012 at 09:32 AM ----------

Thats a really good idea Im going to do that while i look into all the other possibilities thank you

---------- Post added November 18th, 2012 at 09:35 AM ----------

Thats really funny! Thanks

---------- Post added November 18th, 2012 at 09:48 AM ----------

Thank you so much for your response, im going to look into having this done. This is an amazing forum, i got so many responses, thanks is there a way to reply to everyone that responded to me at the same time? thanks

---------- Post added November 18th, 2012 at 09:32 AM ----------

Thats a really good idea Im going to do that while i look into all the other possibilities thank you

---------- Post added November 18th, 2012 at 09:35 AM ----------

Thats really funny! Thanks

Thanks to everyone with your ideas, this really helped. hope this reply gets to everyone cause im not sure how this really works!

 

[CT-Rich]

I have trouble reading gauges and added a single 2x magnifier to my old school porthole mask. It worked great for reading gauges, and seeing little critters. The trick I found was to close one eye when reading through my regular glasses and visualizing where this was in the mask. I positioned it lower down and slightly to the center on the mask. This was area on the mask that my eye tended to naturally focus when reading. The lens was asbout 20 USD and did the trick. i would close the other eye to read gauges and it was permantently bonded into the mask. I was bummed when I lost the mask helping some canoeists that ended up in the water. The good news is that I hadn't paid 300+ for the mask and lens. I am going to try some bifocal inserts with my new mask this winter. From what I know now, properly installing them and thinking the lens alignment through carefully are the most important parts of the operation.

 

[o2dependant]

Laser eye surgery!!:nurse:
Laser eye surgery
Laser eye surgery
Laser eye surgery
laser eye surgery

 

[DivemasterDennis]

my wife's answer to the issue was lazik, and she swears by it . Thanks for listing the "other option, 02dependant!
DivemasterDennis