I noticed this from Boxbrownie

I tried a couple of pairs of varifocals when I first needed glasses, very slight for driving more for reading but I found even the most expensive varifocals with the greatest eyeline area gave me a very distorted view when looking through the extreme edges of them, for example looking over the shoulder when driving at angled junctions or checking blind spots when overtaking, two different opticians said “it was a characteristic of varifocals” so I tried normal bifocals and immediately they gave no distortion at all when driving so have stuck with them, be careful and if you do go for varifocals make sure you can reject them if you have the same issue after a few days as I had.


I thought that I would share my experience.
As I have got older I have had to wear separate glasses to allow me to focus both near and distant.
For outdoor and driving I started to wear Bi-focals, and I thought that my vision was good.
However, I developed a macular loss of vision in the lower half of my right eye and was diagnosed with glaucoma which, although now stable, means I have to take 'field of vision' tests for my Driving Licence.

The best I could do wearing my Bi-focals would only allow me to get a 1 year licence.
However, after looking myself at my first couple of year's 'field of vision' results, I wondered why my good left eye was not covering a lot of the lower right eye's loss.
I then had a clue when the optician carried out a field of vision test without my glasses, which was better, although invalid for the official DoT test

In preparation for my next test I bought a pair of distance only glasses with largish lenses, and not only passed the test more easily, but obtained a licence for 3 years before I need an eye test again.

So my conclusion is, if you are old and struggling with the DoT eye test, ditch any multi-focal lenses, and get a pair of distance glasses for driving.

As dorsetfreelander points out however, it doesn't solve the problem of reading all the menus on the increasing number of screens in the car. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Other half has varifocals, the first set had a very narrow area that suited her. The second set were broader. The varifocals are ok if you are doing a bit of everything. But I have noticed her using the single focal glasses if doing one task for a longer period. She has a couple of different focal length glasses as do I.

If you are are not really sure about varifocals my suggestion is save your money & they are very expensive & stick with what you have.

Your observation for driving I agree with. One focal length! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

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tried bi-focals for a month and after a couple of near misses pulling out of junctions have stuck with single focus long distance ever since. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Tried varifocals and had to take them back and change them for normal glasses, couldn't get on with them at all.

A note with my bi-focals, I tried the first pair for a week before taking them back with just “something” odd with them, so had a long chat with the optician and decided to try a pair of bi-focal with a smaller/lower reading area, result.....perfect.

Most of the glass area (including the outer edges of each lens) is long distance, the reading portion is probably only a third of the lower area which is perfect for reading as your eyes are focused in one small area when reading (logical really) and everything else works fine.

The optician did mention that he seldom gets people come back with issues like mine, he said he wished people would and not believe what they got prescribed was the best they could get and they just live with the problems thinking they are stuck with them, he said there is actually quite a lot of “jiggling” they can do between them and the manufacturer of the lenses.

I guess you need to find an optician who can be arsed  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

I simply can not use more than one pair of glasses and swap between them; I WILL lose whatever pair I’m not wearing at the time!

So, it has to be one pair for everything. So that’s, large lensed, varifocals with a reactive tint. The optician told me to wait until I got home to start getting used to them so, naturally, I walked around the corner, put them on and they’ve been there ever since! The only downside is that I need to move my head a bit further left and right, but it’s well worth it for the “fit and forget” aspect that suits me. Even driving the amount that I do, they work very well. The only downside is that the reactive tint doesn’t respond to excessive sunlight that’s filtered through the windscreen.

There were three grades of varifocals that I had to choose from. I’m sure people are familiar with the choice where the more you pay, the wider the field of vision. I’m glad I paid the extra. I’ve got a new pair to collect on Friday/Saturday, so that should be interesting

Not all reactive glasses work in all cars, there is a reactive coating that works with the FL2, as it has a coating to the windows that filters the UV frequency required to make most reactive glasses react along with many other cars. The coating required for the Freely is in the expensive spectrum  my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Ive found getting the inter-pupillary distance correct is more important for vari-focals than for other glasses.

I had some new VF glasses this year and by the end of the day I felt something wasnt right - headache and feeling dizzy. I did a bit of testing by closing each eye in turn - it proved to me that the inter-pupillary distance was wrong.

I rang the shop the next day and was initially given the "oh, varifocals take a bit of time to get used to" routine. But I explained I'd had varifocals for years and my prescription hadnt changed so there was a fault as far I was concerned.

Arranged to see the optician the next day who was initially sceptical but, after testing them, agreed that the glasses had been made incorrectly.

So if youre having problems with varifocals it maybe worth getting the glasses checked before giving up.

I also bought some wrap-around sports glasses on-line from Opti-labs this year - used my current prescription and measured my own inter-pupillary distance - I have to say that they are better than than my current glasses. But SWMBO wont let me wear them except when Im cycling.  Jules

I must point out that I do not have a normal field of vision in my right eye anymore, so my results are not purely due to the glasses, but rather the size of the unobstructed area of lens.

One thing I think worth mentioning is that to me, my brain seems to correct what I am seeing, I the first symptoms of my condition was the apparent sudden appearance in my vision of objects coming from the side, or behind on my right hand side.

If you think that you are beginning to miss vehicles, until they are nearly in front, crossing from either side, get an optician to check your field of view.

I think that I had the condition for quite some time until a medical picked it up, and I am sure that the 'High Street' optician supplying my glasses missed both that, and my glaucoma, on a regular check. (they blamed their equipment for what they thought was an error in the results) FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Im at the point where my optician says I should consider glasses for driving. I use them for reading / computer use at the minute. I really do not want to have two different pairs of glasses to chop and change between. I already have a home pair and a work pair (that stay in work) but Im terrible for misplacing them, this would just double the problem!
Read a lot about problems with varifocals / bi focals, Im not sure what the answer is at the minute.

Have considered a prescription windscreen or could get one of these to have bi focals!

 Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

I tried all options when I first needed glasses and eventually settled on vari-focals as being the best compromise. They did take quite a bit of getting used to but now the only down side is that I have to move my head a bit to see to the left and right whereas before I could just swivel my eyes. In all scenarios glasses are better than no glasses and fortunately with them I have very good vision. The worst bit when driving is while looking over your shoulder when joining a main road at a junction with and acute angle when you are looking through the part of the lens that is not in focus, but all that means is that anything you see is a bit blurred but not so much to cause any problem.

Still all this is due to come to an end as next year is 2020 so I am expecting to have perfect uncorrected vision again!!!

J

20/20 - perfect vision, get it?

Sorry; coat, door, gone.

I wore bifocals for many years until I changed to vari-focals about tens years ago.
The change for me was like getting my sight back!
But let me say, where vari-focals are concerned, quality does count!
I had a few pairs from Specsavers, each was top of their range.
But as I wasn't happy with the service I decided to go somewhere different.
Vision Express provided me with a pair, they weren't cheap but understanding that the better the lens,
the better the peripheral vision (which is more important to me as a biker as head movement can be restricted by helmet to shoulder contact) and again the difference was like getting your eyesight back