Do I Really Need a Prescription Mask?

[scottishscuba]

My lenses are the soft 30 day lenses from Specsavers (I'm in the UK) £15 per month. I always take my glasses with me and a spare pair of lenses but I've never had a problem yet. I've done all the drills - mask off, flooding, free-flowing reg etc with my lenses in.

 

[Agility]

I have been diving with a bifocal mask for 2 years now, before that I did not see what I missed
It has made my diving much mor enjoyable, now I cab see what is in front of my lens in the water and not only after putting on my glasses back on land.
I'd have laser surgery done if I wasn't such a coward. Astigmatism sucks.

 

[Scared Silly]

I used stock Rx lens for my first mask they fine even though I have astigmatism. However, on my second mask no dice. It is a lower volume mask, Atomic frameless. As such, I got an Rx lenses. As such, my suggestion is to find a mask you like try the stock Rx lenses and see if they work. Remember things are bigger underwater so that also helps to compensate.

 

[NAM001]

The water alone provide some correction i think it a value of 1 so when you get a prescription mask, as i understand it, and you need a 2.5 they put a 1.5 in the mask anad the other 1.0 is handled by the water. thats for far sighted folks. i use contacts also. to have a mask done would require two masks to be fitted. the folks that did my mask in Ill said most people get just one eye done for gage reading when you are far sighted. near sighted is a whole different thing. With contacts you can use any mask. I use soft lenses and throw away after the diving is over. I wear glasses but use contacts for diving only. I also have masks with the near correcton in the lower of the glass. it only has to be close so perfection is not a big deal. If you need a 2.0 and your mask is a 1.5 you are good to go for the dive. Its not like your using that script all day. My mask fromt is flat and about 1/3 up from the bottom it bevels toward my lip so it is the right angle to read gages. you look down through a flat glass the same as you look forward through a flat glass without having to tip your head.

 

[Sieg@VU]

Here is a little summary of underwater correction options that you might find useful: Vision Correction for Divers

 

[Kaatje]

The test is very simple; are you able to see well without prescription glasses or contacts? If so you don't need them. If you do you can skip the cylinder is it's less than one. I do not know about $ prices but $200,= seems too expensive.

 

[KeithG]

The test is very simple; are you able to see well without prescription glasses or contacts? If so you don't need them.

Agreed! Only you can determine if you "need" better vision.

My dive buddy has used off the shelf vision correction lenses for the last 25 years (same mask!) and finally broke down and bought prescription inserts this year. cost about $350 (strong prescription with bifocals) but she can now see stuff that she has not seen in 5 years.

It is not about "saving money". If you can not see properly, then the rest of the money you spend on scuba is all being wasted...

 

[Kaatje]

?...

It is not about "saving money". If you can not see properly, then the rest of the money you spend on scuba is all being wasted...

Not only that. If you can't see properly it's just not safe to dive.

 

[NAM001]

I absolutely agree. I use 2.0 correction for far sight. I can dive with out problems now that I have my shearwater predator with the large screen. No need to Get scripts for multi masks. If you do consider getting the mask done on one eye only. You dont need 2 to read a gage.

The test is very simple; are you able to see well without prescription glasses or contacts? If so you don't need them. If you do you can skip the cylinder is it's less than one. I do not know about $ prices but $200,= seems too expensive.

 

[Mike126]

The water alone provide some correction i think it a value of 1 so when you get a prescription mask, as i understand it, and you need a 2.5 they put a 1.5 in the mask anad the other 1.0 is handled by the water. thats for far sighted folks. i use contacts also. to have a mask done would require two masks to be fitted. the folks that did my mask in Ill said most people get just one eye done for gage reading when you are far sighted. near sighted is a whole different thing. With contacts you can use any mask. I use soft lenses and throw away after the diving is over. I wear glasses but use contacts for diving only. I also have masks with the near correcton in the lower of the glass. it only has to be close so perfection is not a big deal. If you need a 2.0 and your mask is a 1.5 you are good to go for the dive. Its not like your using that script all day. My mask fromt is flat and about 1/3 up from the bottom it bevels toward my lip so it is the right angle to read gages. you look down through a flat glass the same as you look forward through a flat glass without having to tip your head.

This was what I was looking for, the UW correction. It seems that it only applies to farsighted people. So in my case where my presription is mild and nearsighted (sphere = -1.0 and -1.75 and cylinder = -1.0) I would not benefit from the UW correction of -1.0. I actually may get worse since I my new value would be -2 and -2.75.

The other issue I have is if I have contacts in I need to wear reading glasses to read a watch or guages. Having a full mask prescription lens would result in needing to add a bifocal insert.

Agreed! Only you can determine if you "need" better vision.

My dive buddy has used off the shelf vision correction lenses for the last 25 years (same mask!) and finally broke down and bought prescription inserts this year. cost about $350 (strong prescription with bifocals) but she can now see stuff that she has not seen in 5 years.

It is not about "saving money". If you can not see properly, then the rest of the money you spend on scuba is all being wasted...

Totally agree about not saving money. I just did not want to spend the money if the vision correction was marginal. In other words, if the UW correction actually helped a nearsighted person then since my prescription is pretty mild I was assuming that a prescription lens would only marginally improve my vision.

All things considered, when you spend thousands on equipment and the cost of travel to a nice dive location an extra couple of hundred is a drop in the bucket. If you can't see what you came for why bother going???

Thanks for the feedback!