A Look at Eyeglass Lens Materials (2012)

A blog post of mine explains why I switched to CR-39 for computer work: http://scottlburson2.blogspot.com/2016/01/lcd-backlights-and...

I've learned since then that RGB LED backlights, specifically, are not actually all that common, as other wide-gamut technologies become more common -- GB-r and RB-g, which use two colors of LEDs and a phosphor for the third color; and quantum dots. This doesn't change the outcome, though, as these technologies also produce spectra with a wider spacing between red and green peaks than the old CCFLs or WLED.

I wear my CR-39 glasses all the time (except for driving or biking) and am quite fond of them.

I made glasses at LensCrafters throughout college (super enjoyable job btw!). My main takeaway was to avoid polycarbonate lenses. People returned them often due to headaches, and I experienced headaches myself as my safety glasses were required to be polycarbonate. Polycarbonate can be a decent compromise in some situations as the lenses will be thinner than equivalent plastic lenses.

That was one of the five sites I found for eyeglass materials. These are the others:

- http://www.allaboutvision.com/lenses/how-to-choose.htm

- https://web.archive.org/web/20090815102701/http://www.hbutz.... (table at end)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrective_lens#Ophthalmic_mat...

- https://web.archive.org/web/20160322110111/http://www.optica...

Trivex is impact resistant and lighter but it's also a little thicker than some of the high index materials so the weight ends up being the same. MR-8 was the one I hadn't heard of and was most curious about.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4v3ts4/what_was_... has some notes about scratch resistance

With high index lenses, the chromatic aberration (low "abbe number") was annoying me (see ScottBurson's post), especially on a wide screen monitor. I ended up getting lenses made of glass. But these aren't so great outdoors because you don't want shattered glass in your eye.

I ended up getting glass for use at home at the computer and MR-8 for the rest of the time (hiking, driving). For the computer lenses, I got a slightly lower prescription (-4 instead of -5) and they're a lot more comfortable for reading (people may find these useful after the age of 40). I think next time I'll go for CR-39 instead of glass, as the glass lenses are rather heavy.

Does anybody know where to order high-index lenses (1.74) in the US?

I can get them from China for about $150.