Corrective lenses for diving

johnnied

OK so I got the mitts / dry gloves issue sorted. Now looking through the Vision manual the sight test has provoked me into dealing with the recent deterioration in my eye sight. Having had perfect eye sight all my life I found myself with + 1.00 reading glasses. 18 months later, it's a + 1.75 dioptor prescription. How does this translate into underwater vision? Should I go for bifocals, or a straight + 1.5 lens? Anyone tried the stick on + dioptor lenses? There doesn't seem to be a lot of guidance out there! Can anyone help?

Deepthought_reloaded

Where I worked in Malta we sold prescription masks - Usually we had stock in of lenses in 0.5 Diopter increments from -1.5 to +2.5 with other sizes on order (e.g. one of my fellow instructors was +6 !)

Cost over there was 15 per lens and around 17 to 22 for a mask (if needed)

50 maltese is about £70

If your mask is a normal one from a major brand just get the appropriate lenses - quite easy to change yourself or your DS can do it.

remember that there is a little magnification in water so you may get away with less than prescription.

We had a guy used one small stick-on lens - otherwise his arm was too short and he couldn't read his gauges

Okidiver

I've got one of those now...don't like it much, sticks OK, but fogs up

Might try the guage readers DR has on their site one day...anybody use them?

Rick

ScubaDadMiami

I have the gauge readers from SeaVision. I must say that the lens work is spectacular.
My backup mask has glued on lenses. They are okay. However, the SeaVision (I have the clear lens model) is very high quality. There is a definite difference.

__________________
Howard Packer
IANTD CCR Instructor
Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com

PhilSiswick

I'm much blinder than you are, in the other direction (-3.75, -4). I normally use contact lenses when diving. I've had no problems in 200+ dives, including instructing mask clearing for what seemed like many hours.

I've looked at the stick on lenses for a backup mask. I didn't like the idea that they could drop off and that keeping them unfogged was going to be harder. As a backup in case I can't wear lenses on a trip, I have a mask with corrected lenses. About 50 GBP for lenses so thick I could shelter behind them in the event of a small explosion ;-)

Reasons I use contact lenses rather than a corrected mask:

- I can't see without glasses. If I was on the surface having lost my mask, I'd be in a dire situation. With lenses, I can still see (with your eyesight this probably isn't an issue, but worth thinking about)
- Backup - buying two uncorrected masks is much cheaper than two corrected ones
- Better choice of masks

Last point - I can't see any better underwater than I can on the surface, so don't really rate the claim that you can see better.

Cheers,

__________________
Phil

No comment on open circuit... it's an evolutionary dead end not really worth discussing here. Dave Sutton, 2007

I have always felt that the dive I am on is not nearly important as the dives I plan to be on the rest of my life. Tom Rose, 2007

www.hugsac.org.uk

PPA

Hi

I had laser surgery to correct myopia. Now i have a lots of trouble reading gauges.
What kind of lens should i use?
Cheers
Pedro

johnnied

Thanks for the tip - these masks look great so I might even get them to ship a pair over for me. Apart from Tusa, there don't seem to be too many brands offering bifocal lenses. Anyone know of any others?

John

btw, what sort of glue do you need for the stick on glass lenses?

Skipbreather

You might want to check out the XS SCUBA Fusion 2 Gauge Reader mask. It comes stock from factory w/ high quality glass lenses already bonded in. Downside is that it is only available w/ +1.75 gauge reader lenses, but that will work for a good portion of the “old guy eyes” crowd that are trying to read their VR3s. An interesting feature you may or may not care for is that the reader portion is angled down at ~ 20 degrees or so to make looking at wrist/ kit easier. Street/ on line cost about $68 US.

Hope this helps.

Ken

Okidiver

The DiveOptix use no glue, just clean them, gettem wet, position and let dry for the reccomended time. Done about 10 dives over 3 months with mine with no issues.

Will eventually move to professionaly bonded, better quality optics.

__________________
Rapid Rick

dave t

I am as blind as a bat, need full prescription mask mine was done by

Axis optical in shefield 0114 2728993

top service

Dave