Re: Seeing everything new

[Richard Clompus <rclompus@voicenet.com>]

Ben Holmes wrote:

<snip>
Yesterday a man with a diploma told me I needed eyeglasses. I swallowed
hard and agreed. Today I picked up a new pair which were ground to my
needs, and I must say I am amazed!
<snip>

I'm glad your seeing well.  As an optometrist (one of those with a
diploma), I'm usually the person most people visit to improve their vision.
 When I opened my practice 16 years ago, I had a twenty year old return a
week after picking up his new glasses.  Just opening my practice, I
sometimes expected the worse when a patient returned - with a possible
complaint the glasses "weren't right" or a lens fell out or something.
Well, he described to me that he was able to see leaves on trees, blades of
grass and more vibrant colors.  Boy did I feel great after that visit.

The visual system does the best it can with the images that are presented
to it.  Each eye has over 1 million nerve fibers feeding information to the
back of your brain - where a significant portion is dedicated to visual
processing.  The iris is able to change the pupil size very quickly to
adapt to changing light levels and even more significant is that the retina
itself can change its sensivitity levels over many minutes to optimize
vision.  A great example is viewing at night.  When there is not enough
illumination, most images are simply grey.  After 20 minutes of darl
adaptation, detail is enhanced and vision is more acute for low light use. 

Spectacles are very useful and I strongly recommend a clear UV blocker and
super anti-reflective coating for the lenses.  UV can cause problems over
many years for the eyes.  See what it does to your skin after 40 years.  If
you don't think your exposed skin has changed from exposure to sunlight,
stand in front of a mirror, turn your head and look at the skin of your
rear end (no kidding).  It most closely resembles the skin you were born
with.  Now look at your arms, back of your hands or facial skin.  Not the
same.  Multiple layer anti-reflective coatings have come along way to
reduce reflections on spectacle lenses.  Europe and Japan are ahead of the
the U.S. with people using AR coatings almost routinely.  We have the
technology here in the U.S. but most people aren' aware of this option.
Clean your lenses well - like a good Leica lens and they'll last you two
years or more.  You should be re-examined by then anyway.

Finally, progressive addition lenses (invisible bifocals) are very useful
for the over forty crowd.  And believe it or not, Zeiss makes one of the
best in the business.  It is called the Zeiss Gradal progressive lens.  The
French (Esslior Corporation) make a very good lens called the Varliux
Comfort and actually invented this concept over twenty years ago.  

Too bad Leica doesn't make lenses for glasses or contact lenses for that
matter - but they sure make good cameras and lenses.  I think as Leica
begins to grow over the next few years, we are going to see a proliferation
of new bodies and lenses.  Apo for all telephoto lenses and Aspheric
designs for most other short focal length lenses.  This may very be the
begining of a golden age of optics from Leica.

Happy shooting,

Richard
- -----------------------------------------
Richard Clompus, OD
West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA