birding-aus

Contact lenses vs glasses for birding

To:
Subject: Contact lenses vs glasses for birding
From: "John Graff" <>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:04:55 +1030
I also wear contact lenses for birding. I find them much more convenient when using binoculars/scopes. I never really mastered using binoculars with glasses and taking glasses off whenever you want to look through them just gets too irritating. I have experienced the slightly blurry vision between blinks but it doesn't happen often enough to be a problem. However, I've never really noticed any real problems with the image quality looking through my binoculars or scope.

The one thing I did notice when I first started wearing contacts was that the images through my binoculars and scope was relatively less clear because I bought them before I got glasses/contacts but my eyesight was below average already so when I'd look through the binoculars at the shop, the image was much clearer than I got with the naked eye

What type of contact lenses do you use? I use soft ones (silicon hydrogel, i think). I'm not sure whether that would make a difference or not.

Hope that's useful

Cheers
John Graff

From: "Peter Shute" <>
To: <>
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Contact lenses vs glasses for birding
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:00:06 +1000

Does anyone here use contact lenses for birding?  I'm interested in your
comments about them.

I wear glasses for short-sightedness.  My binoculars have enough relief
to work with them, but it's still a pain for various reasons, including
glare coming in the sides, eyepieces never being in exactly the same
place in relation to my eyes, etc.

I also find that my off axis vision (not peripheral) is blurred enough
to make identification of birds flying from the side difficult until I
can turn my head towards them - often too late.  This is because I'm
looking through the edges of my glasses, where such simple lenses have a
slightly different strength.

So I'm trialling contact lenses.  My initial observations:
- Without binoculars, they're far superior to glasses, but erratic. A
blink can mean slightly blurry vision till the next blink.  Off axis
vision is as good as on axis vision, and I'm much better at identifying
fast flying birds, and at spotting birds that aren't in front of me.
- With binoculars, the glare and inconsistent eyepiece placement is
eliminated, but I'm finding the image quality erratic.  I can't put my
finger on what's wrong.  I think at times I can see more clearly, but at
other times I'm searching for perfect focus and not finding it.  I keep
fiddling with diopter settings, then setting it back how it was again.
Shutting one eye to set the diopter setting is pointless, as that upsets
the lens in that eye for when I change eyes - I've taken to doing it by
putting one hand over the objective instead.  And do you think the birds
wait around while I do this?

Is this how it is for other contact lens wearers?  If so, I'm not sure
that I'll persist with them, despite the advantages.

Perhaps I'm seeking a level of visual acuity that's not obtainable.  My
optometrist says I have better than 20/20 vision with my glasses, and
much better than what's legally required for driving.

Peter Shute

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Experience 5 GB storage in your inbox. Upgrade to Windows Live Hotmail today! http://ninemsn.com.au/share/redir/adTrack.asp?mode=click&clientID=810&referral=HotmailtaglineOct07&URL=http://www.livehotmail.ninemsn.com.au/

===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU