Prescription mask

[Marek K]

Marek's claim that he has [paraphrasing] "perfect distance vision underwater despite quite a lot of astigmatism, due to underwater optics behaving differently in air” is not accurate...

Fair enough. I think I shouldn't have used the word "perfect."

Nevertheless, for whatever reason (like limited vision range underwater... even though I dive a lot in clear Red Sea waters), I find that I'm very satisfied with only the spherical correction I've got.

By the way, my corrected mask is far from perfect in the air... I definitely notice the lack of astigmatism correction. But it's good enough to navigate around on a dive boat until I get my glasses on.

My wife has a spare mask with -5.5 spherical correction lenses in it (she doesn't use it because it isn't very comfortable). In an emergency, I could use that mask and see decently underwater. That's something that would never happen with the same spherical lenses in air.

I do wonder how much the magnification factor in water affects how well I see.

I accept I could probably get better vision with astigmatism and presbyopia correction too... but I think the cost of such lenses would be too much for me. More than I'm willing to spend, in any case.

--Marek