tsl

My optician dragged me kicking and screaming from lined bi- and tri-focals to progressives about two years ago. There's a thread around here somewhere where I asked about using them on the bike.

I'm also an avid reader (occupational hazard, I guess) and at work I use my middle vision a lot. I'm very myopic (-6.something diopters) and have quite a bit of astigmatism too (I don't recall the numbers).

What I learned is that every progressive lens has a different "lens map", that is, where and how the prescription changes across the face of the lens. No two makes and models are alike. They all make the compromise differently.

With that in mind, my optician directed me to Seiko Surmount lenses for my everyday glasses. They have a wider and taller "corridor"--the reading and middle-vision area. They don't do quite so well at distance, but for work and reading, it doesn't matter greatly. When cycling with them, I can't make out street signs very well.

My cycling glasses (new lenses in the frames in my avatar) are Carl Zeiss GT2, in polarized. These lenses give me the best distance vision I've ever had in any lens in my life. The astigmatism error induced by the progressive nature of the lens is minimal at distance. In other words, for distance vision I don't have to point my nose. The reading area is fine for the cyclometer and most paperback novels, but at my computer with a pair of 24" wide-screen monitors, I have to point my nose a lot more than with the Surmounts.

I don't think I'd be happy with either lens if their roles were reversed. (For the record, they were made to the same prescription, the same eye measurements, and at the same lab.) And who knows what I'd think of the myriad other progressives available.

I also don't think I'd be happy with one or the other of them, and then using clip-ons or fit-overs. For me, the extra expense of two different top-quality lenses--each optimized for their primary role--is worth it in the "joy of seeing" value alone.

I tell the story to make the point that all progressive lenses are not created equal. It pays to have as thorough a discussion with your optician as it does with your eye doc.