Scuba Eye Exam?

[spthomas]

I tried the mono vision contacts. My brain never reconciled the two distances very well, sort of unclear all the time. But I can wear them underwater and it's a lot better than nothing. My biggest problem is up close. I need to see gauges, or marine life within 10 feet or so. My distance vision is a little blurry, but I can see well enough.

 

[tc]

I used masks with the diopter lenses for many years, never understood what I was missing till I got a mask with custom bifocal lenses. That made things a whole lot better.

i used prescription dive masks in San Diego, they do really good work.

 

[scuba5150]

Seavision is the best I've found. With them, the mask lens itself is custom ground versus companies that grind an insert that is glued onto the mask lens - this is heavier and (in my experience) tended to fog more frequently.
I use the Seavision with a distance and bifocal prescription and I couldn't be happier.

 

[KeithG]

There is nothing new that is scuba specific.

Many dive shops carry drop in diopter lense for weak prescriptions. I did this 25 years ago for my first mask. Kind of hit and miss as the dive shops are not opticians.

As noted there are several places that will make any type of custom prescription lense you need and glue them to a mask. My divebuddy just replaced her 25 year old custom prescription mask with a new one. These guys are opticians and can handle some extreme prescriptions.

Stick ons have been around for ages. Will try my first set at Xmas time.

 

[Knight_of_Avalon]

Talking to your optometrist can't hurt - they may have some ideas on the matter. Personally, I'm nearsighted enough that I need contacts/glasses 24/7. And I use dailies (disposable contacts) for things like diving (or other adventures). Wear 'em once, then toss 'em. So it doesn't matter if something gets on them, or one gets lost. . . I just have my optometrist add 2 boxes (one for each eye) to my regular order, and break into them as needed

 

[spectrum]

My topside glasses are progressives and both corrections are positive (near and far). I have enough astigmatism that drop in generic lenses aren't a good solution. I have been using prescription bonded inserts with good results. No big news there but I have more.......

My first script mask was bifocal and had great clarity of vision. However most of the time our visibility is in the 10-20 foot range or less. This means that we're usually swimming near the bottom and the best clarity is right there down in front of us. this draws your sight into the bottom (near vision) part of the lens. Once you are in that part of the lens the quest for clarity draws you down to a near vision distance from the bottom. You can soon find your self diving like an ant eater examining the bottom. It's a nice dive and you get good at buoyancy control fast!

That mask got lost in a mishap. While I was deciding what to do next I went to Walmart and messed around with those generic reading glasses. I found that if I had my distance correction diopter then my near vision was more than adequate for instruments and critters and where my gaze went didn't matter. Remember all of my corrections are positive. For my next set of bonded inserts I slashed the near correction (ADD) and go single focus inserts. I am on my second script in that format and it's been an excellent solution for me. Good vision is no longer distance and viewing angle dependent.

More here.

Pete

 

[spthomas]

My vision seems to be worse up close. In fact, when I was younger, I only used glasses to read. Now as I sit here, if I take my glasses off I can see everything in the distance, but just a little blurry, like it all has a haze on it. For example, there's a squirrel playing in the yard two doors down and I can see him fine, just a touch blurry. So I can probably do the distance ok. But, again sitting here, if I take off my glasses I cannot read what I just typed, at normal 12 pitch font at all. The "reply to thread" tag is almost readable if I get within about 8 inches of it. But reading anything at any distance around the room here, like book spine titles, is really not good unless I get REALLY close and REALLY concentrate. And underwater, with less than perfect vis and things that move around a lot, it's quite difficult. And gauges? forget it! So where I need the most help is within the nearest 5 feet or so.

 

[Bob DBF]

I had not a lot of luck with the stickons, having tried a few.

The trick with the stickons is to make sure the glass is clean, put the lenses on, then wait a few days for the water to completely dry out from under the stickons. If there is moisture or anything else between the glass and the lens it will not stick properly. I've had them stay on for years, until I buy another mask and remove them. Presently mine are on their second mask for the past 5 or 6 years.


Bob
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There are more ways than one to skin a cat, however the cat never likes it.

 

[diver 85]

Be sure & ask for monovision CTL correction-----might be your easiest way??.....I have personally overcorrected both my eyes for distance, leaving my non-dominant eye(OS) for near & kicking in a +1.00 diopter over my right eye(OD) for better near vision(OU) for my camera settings/preview/& near acuity .....works perfectly for me UW.........

 

[freewillie]

I've gotten to that age that I really can't see well without some vision correction. On surface interval (you know, as in "Scuba is life, the rest is just surface interval?" I wear bifocals. And when I dove before I wore contacts diving, though I don't see well with contacts and they're uncomfortable. So, now that I'm back in diving, I've been thinking about all this vision stuff. Do I need to find an optometerist that is familiar with scuba? Or just go to a normal optometerist and get a normal prescription and then have contacts or get a vision corrected mask? I'm due for a vision exam either way.

And are there any new cool things in scuba vision correction? When I last looked at this several years ago mostly it was grind the mask lens, or have lenses cemented into the mask.

Steve

For starters you need to see an eye doctor and get a current prescription for either contact lenses or glasses or both. You don't need to see a "scuba" eye doctor either since the issues related to refraction are to be able to see with the appropriate prescription.

You have two choices. You either dive with contact lenses and a standard mask or you take your prescription for glasses and get a mask fitted with prescription lenses. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of contact lenses is that you can use any mask. You can also keep a back up and spare contact lenses in your dive kit so if you lose a pair you can change to a new pair. Advances in soft contact lens technology has made them more comfortable and they breath better for your eyes. However, if you need to have a high degree of correction or have a significant amount of astigmatism they won't work very well and you will need to get prescription lenses in your mask.

If you go with prescription lenses then you have the issue of only being able to see when your mask is on your face. If you are on a dive boat and you take your mask of you then need to switch back to your regular glasses. For any interval in between the mask and the glasses you will have blurred vision. And, if on a dive boat for example a stray weight falls on the glasses you better have a back up pair as well. But prescription lenses do have the advantage of putting in a bifocal so you can see up close as well. There are stick on diopters that you can add to your mask as well if you didn't want to have custom lenses with bifocals.

Personally if you hold your gauges at a certain distance and if the numbers are large enough you should be able to see them well enough or at least get the salient information that you need from them. At least in terms of depth and PSI. Computers and gauges with really large numbers come in very handy.