Lens inserts for masks

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DolphinWannabe

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Does anyone have experience/advice on lens inserts for dive masks for reading gauges & dive computers?

My vision is in a state of flux, having had cataract surgery on one eye and expecting surgery on the other in a few months. When all is done I am expecting/hoping that my vision will be good enough to dive without corrective lenses, but need closeup correction to see gauges and dive computer clearly. I'm currently using some over the counter "cheaters" for reading, and the doc says he expects that same strength to be good for me as recovery continues on eye #1 and after surgery for eye #2.

I've read conflicting comments on do-it-yourself inserts for masks - how clear they are, ease of positioning them, how well they stay in place... anyone have experience with these? Advice on best choices?
 
Two choices - prescription custom ground dive lenses (prescriptiondivemasks.com) OR purchase a mask like the Atomics Subframe or Cressi that supports their own prescription lens inserts. Latter is much cheaper.
 
I have a Sea Vision prescription mask my wife got me for Father's Day a few years back. I was only snorkeling at the time and have recently been certified, but I have used it for diving as well and it's been great.

My vision isn't terrible and I don't wear glasses all day, but I do have prescription sun glasses and normal glasses that I wear when driving or at night when sitting around the house. I do know they have lenses for both near and far sighted people, as well as bifocal lenses.

But having a prescription mask was incredible. It was like snorkeling in HD lol. It's definitely worth the cost of entry IMO.
 
Depending on the best correctable vision in the eye that still has a cataract- consider being fit with a near vision contact lens in that eye.
 
I use the XS Scuba Gauge Reader Mask which has the lenses for reading built into the bottom. Its worked well for me.
 
I'm currently using some over the counter "cheaters" for reading

What's the prescription

have you popped in a different lens for each eye
 
3 options.

- full prescription lens bonded to you mask lens from an eye doctor service that matches your prescription
- drop-in plain rx lens from your LDS that may come close to your perscription as interpreted by your LDS monkey
- glue on rx inserts as interpreted by you or your LDS monkey
 
All new is well forgotten old...
I`d published here link to the old soviet magazine Спортсмен-Подводник.
So, my father knew personally of main editor of this magazine. Yuri Nikolaevich, very good friend of my father, asked him to bring article to this magazine. And when my father was in Moscow, he brings this article, and it was published in 1967, issue #19 (page 91). :)
Both, my father and his friend had glasses around -4 till -6 ... And both was a speargun fishhunters. And those years was not any masks with correction lenses...

So - this article is dedicated to the manual of very simple technics for lenses installation in to the mask :)
In the beginning it used for single glass masks (oldstyle, oval), later they used it for double glasses masks.
ac43e66d51924d1202388756ea436ba3.jpg

My father`s favorite mask was Technisub Falco. And he use it with installed lenses.

So, with google translator helps and some manual correction, here is translation of this article

Yury Gubin
Installing glasses lenses in to the mask
Among fans of underwater sports there are a lot of people who wear glasses. The installation of glasses in the mask is associated with great inconvenience, it is much easier to attach the glass on the glass.
This is done simply. Untreated glasses of the required diopters are purchased, the edges of the glasses are ground manually on a flat metal plate with an abrasive powder moistened with water. It is necessary to grind until an opaque girdle with a width of 3-4 mm is formed. Then a thin layer of white picein (*) is applied to the glass bands with a warm soldering iron (this is a mixture of wax and rosin or parafin and rosin).
The sight glass is removed from the mask and wiped well.
On the outside, along the major axis of the glass oval, two points are applied with ink, which correspond to the distance between the pupils of the eyes minus one centimeter. Diopter glasses are glued at these points. The glass of the mask warms up over the stove to the melting point of picein. The diopter glass is mounted so that the optical center and the point were on the same line.
With a light pressure on the diopter glass, excess picein is removed from the girdle. The contact point is transparent.
The second diopter glass is similarly glued. Then the edges of the glasses with a slightly heated soldering iron are poured with picein. The sight glass is mounted in the mask so that the diopter glasses are inside it.
The advantages of this method are great. Firstly, all objects in the water are visible on a 1: 1 scale, and secondly, fogging is eliminated between the mask glass and the diopter glass.

(*) originally - picein - it was mix of rare components, or one of this components Picein - Wikipedia, but late name Picein was used for Mendeleev`s putty (originally wax and rosin) or bitumen and rosin, later modified to mix of parafin and rosin.

Parafin you can take from the white canddle, rosin you can find in the Radioshack or music instrument store (it used for fiddle bow).
Parafine and rosin balance should be around 1:4 till 1:6.

When you like to use lense only for gauges reading - you can install just one, like here
upload_2019-8-1_15-30-25.png
or here:
file.php?id=63984&t=1.jpg


or using useless GoPro mount, you can add glasses to the mask :)
file.php?id=62453&t=1.jpg
file.php?id=62454&t=1.jpg

file.php?id=62455&t=1.jpg
file.php?id=62456&t=1.jpg


some ideas and photos taken here
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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