Special lenses for mask?

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You instinctively want to fight your aging eyes but it is pointless.

Buy the magnifiers and move ahead with life. You will learn after sticking enough stuff on your lenses and having it fall off. You may be able to get away with buying a different computer with larger numbers, but at some point you will need reading glasses/magnifiers. I use one and stick it at the bottom of my right lens.

There are only two options and one of them is death...... :D
 
I go by a couple acronyms: OF [Old Fogie or Fart, take your pick] and GOG [Grumpy Old Geezer].

My vision problem is both near and far and for that reason I've been wearing bifocals for longer than..., nevermind. After fiddling around with various gizmos and gadgets, I sent my mask to the folks at Prescription Dive Masks along with a copy of my perscription, left and right. A couple weeks later my mask returned with perscription lenses custom fitted to MY mask.

The mask is superb! It wasn't cheap, but I'd pay it again without hesitation.

Dive Safe,

Casey OF,GOG
 
As my eyes get older (not me :wink: ) I considered prescription mask inserts. However I used the Cressi lenses on our last dive in Cayman and they worked perfectly! You can get them in varying strengths just like reading glasses. They just stick to the inside of your mask with a bit of mask lens cleaning fluid and work as bifocals allowing you to look down and read your computer, etc. and then up for "normal" vision.

The bonus was being able to see very small creatures and other things very clearly up close as well!

Be aware that they can pop off when your mask dries out, so be careful not to lose them.

Our local dive shop had them in stock. Highly recommended.
 
My two cents worth:

I've been using the DiveOptx for at least 10 years. I was in the same boat you are (pun intended). I had 20/20 vision until I turned 40 and then several years later gradually started having difficulty with the gauges and computer.

The issue with prescription lenses was that my prescription was changing noticeably every two years, sometimes every year. I couldn't see going to the expense of redoing the mask that often so I stuck(yet another pun) to the inserts and still have them today(today's are much stronger than the ones from ten years ago). I've never had any trouble getting them to stick even in the high-use environment of a live-aboard.

My prescription finally seems to have settled down so I will begin looking for prescription lenses in the near future.
 
it's the pygmy seahorse in the coral that I lose when I am trying to focus my camera on it.... guess it's time for underwater lens on my mask... oh, the joy of aging! :cool2::cool2:
 
Or you could just be a cheap rascal like me and bleed a little water into your water and look through it as you would bifocals! :D
 
I agree with Ronsch and many others, Dive Optx are the way to go.
First, don't replace a mask that fits well, just for the sake of reading lenses. That's trading one problem for another.
Second, your eyes will change over time, and you'll need stronger reading correction. Do you really want to pay a big expense repeatedly?
Third, Dive Optx work perfectly and they're not junk. The very first poster was right. Prepare your mask and install them exactly as the directions, and they'll never give you a problem. Mine have been in my Atomic mask for 6 years. Never a single problem, and a perfect view of my gauges.
 
I bought prescription mask, bifocal lenses, from www.SeaVisionUSA.com thru my local dive shop. working with your prescription, they adjust for the mask distance and underwater magnification. I can see at a distance, as well as read my gauges and instructor dive slates. When you consider the price of a new pair of glasses, these were actually relatively inexpensive ~$200+
 
My first prescription mask had the corrective lenses glued in. This worked very well, until I flew with the mask in checked baggage. On landing, I found the original flat lense shattered. The corrective lenses were fine. The mask was in a hard plastic case that was undamaged. What I believe happened was that as the mask cooled or warmed in the cold airplane hold, the two glass parts shrank and expanded differentially, putting stress on them. Between the flat lense, the glue, and the corrective lenses, the flat lens lost. I could be wrong.

I found myself in Hawaii without a mask. Luckily at the time, the lady at the Navy dive shop sold me a much better mask, with corrective lenses, for $90! This mask has the corrective lenses "built-in", individually. I recently had a plastic buckle on it replaced by a local shop for free. Still going strong a decade later.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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