Hearsay. I’ve tried both. Black skirts do not fade and they provide a less distracting field of view.
Salespeople use that “more light” twaddle to help distinguish between masks. It gets repeated often and thus becomes fact.
Prescription Mask Advice
- Thread starter laughsandpaths
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Hearsay. I’ve tried both. Black skirts do not fade and they provide a less distracting field of view.
Salespeople use that “more light” twaddle to help distinguish between masks. It gets repeated often and thus becomes fact.
Rred
Contributor
Peter-
I have both silicone and black masks. Both obviously work, but with the silicone I get some peripheral awareness, and I enjoy that more than wearing the black "blinders" from a rubber mask. Given the choice I prefer the silicone. If the best fit was black rubber...I'd still go for the fit.
There will never be a lot of ophthalmologists or opticians working with masks simply because there is not a lot of work to go around, not enough to support a lot of practitioners. But given the costs of shipments in and out of the US, I strongly suspect you can chase down a more local source of expertise.
My first mask was never intended to have lenses installed in it. And being somewhat of a shallow profile, that made things easier because the lenses were closer to my eye, and also harder because a low volume mask has less room to install thick lenses. I would think you want glass lenses installed, for the same reason we have glass masks, to prevent scratching. But glass lenses (at least in the US) are getting harder to find too, they cost more than plastic. So you may find practitioners telling you "white lies" about what they can and cannot offer and do.
But somewhere out there, you should be able to chase down someone you can work with. If you have an eye doctor that you have a working relationship with, tell them what you are looking for. Ask them how this can complicate things, and what kind of questions (distance from mask to eye, distance between eye centers, etc.) a professional should be asking you for. I wouldn't expect critical vision as I would want from glasses, but something "good enough" for an our or two, the way that "reading glasses" from a pharmacy are "good enough" when you just need to read something, possibly for a couple of hours.
I have both silicone and black masks. Both obviously work, but with the silicone I get some peripheral awareness, and I enjoy that more than wearing the black "blinders" from a rubber mask. Given the choice I prefer the silicone. If the best fit was black rubber...I'd still go for the fit.
There will never be a lot of ophthalmologists or opticians working with masks simply because there is not a lot of work to go around, not enough to support a lot of practitioners. But given the costs of shipments in and out of the US, I strongly suspect you can chase down a more local source of expertise.
My first mask was never intended to have lenses installed in it. And being somewhat of a shallow profile, that made things easier because the lenses were closer to my eye, and also harder because a low volume mask has less room to install thick lenses. I would think you want glass lenses installed, for the same reason we have glass masks, to prevent scratching. But glass lenses (at least in the US) are getting harder to find too, they cost more than plastic. So you may find practitioners telling you "white lies" about what they can and cannot offer and do.
But somewhere out there, you should be able to chase down someone you can work with. If you have an eye doctor that you have a working relationship with, tell them what you are looking for. Ask them how this can complicate things, and what kind of questions (distance from mask to eye, distance between eye centers, etc.) a professional should be asking you for. I wouldn't expect critical vision as I would want from glasses, but something "good enough" for an our or two, the way that "reading glasses" from a pharmacy are "good enough" when you just need to read something, possibly for a couple of hours.
Cressi Focus looks like a common design sold by many brands. I would try Tusa freedom ceos instead for this style. I do not know if it is a tusa original, but the soft silicon tusa uses makes it easy fitting and comfortable.
SeavisionUSA also makes beautiful custom lenses for this. The price is competitive even after shipping duty and taxes.
divinh
Contributor
I was just going with the name you were calling it in your post. For me, there's just one "Focus" and the Focus 2 model is just the same, except Cressi might have changed the design slightly between Focus and Focus 2, i.e. where the logo is placed, the color options, etc. The lenses are the same, from what I can tell.
As taimen points out, the design looks the same between a few brands, so you might be able to get another brand and still use the Focus lenses. (I have not tried this myself, as I find the Cressi brand to be reasonably priced, at least in the U.S.)
I have two Focus masks, one to serve as a backup. I have both black and clear. From what I've read, black is better to reduce extra light when snorkeling and when using a camera. Clear is better for peripheral awareness, as Rred points out; this is probably good for night dives, when you might want to see a buddy's light flashing at you out of the corner of your vision. For selfies/pictures of you underwater, I think clear looks better.
Peter Perkins
Registered
Thank you all for valuable input!
Huh, I didn't know cressi did prescription lenses. We went with SeaVision for my wife's prescription mask as we thought they were the only ones. Even the shop in my town that is a big cressi dealer uses seavision for prescription masks.
She abandoned the mask later because when you get to the surface and take it off, you've got to round up your glasses to see. That means you've either got the mask on until you track down your glasses or you've got some period of time where you can't see very well. She decided to just use disposable contact lenses. This way she doesn't need special masks, and can see both in/out of the water. It hasn't been a problem for mask clearing and stuff like that, either.
She abandoned the mask later because when you get to the surface and take it off, you've got to round up your glasses to see. That means you've either got the mask on until you track down your glasses or you've got some period of time where you can't see very well. She decided to just use disposable contact lenses. This way she doesn't need special masks, and can see both in/out of the water. It hasn't been a problem for mask clearing and stuff like that, either.
Peter Perkins
Registered
I cant really do contact lenses due to eye morphology and how uncomfortable I feel touching my eyes. Up till now I would put my glasses inside the mask box when ready to dive. The first thing once out of the water was to locate my box and glasses
A dive master I recently dived with had a little yellow tube that was sealing that can hang from a clip on his bcd and inside which he put his glasses when we went for a dive. It seemed like a great idea and I instantly bought one when we went back to the dive shop.
It's not that you can't, it's that you won't take the necessary steps to get past an irrational fear. I bet you had trouble learning to swallow pills too, didn't you?
No different than someone who "can't" drive across a bridge or be in a confined space or high places.
If you give into it and let the fear control and dominate you, then you will be limited. But don't for a single moment think it's something out of your control that cannot be fixed.
And just take that whole "eye morphology" crap and throw it out the window. With today's advancements in soft contact lens technology the number of people who really cannot tolerate contact lenses for any length of time is close to ZERO unless you've got advanced keratoconus or something of that nature- and even then there are custom "piggy back" combination hard and soft lenses with extra wide skirts to drape over the sclera and provide good stability, comfort, and vision.
We recently had an ophthalmologist as a student. He lost 3 lenses in confined water training. He now wears a prescription mask. (He had two made up and carries the second in his BC pocket). I guess they’re not for everyone.
Peter Perkins
Registered
I wont go into the condescending tone of the response but the whole 'irrational' fear part like some of those you mention isnt irrational as much as a flu is irrational... or cancer. Its brain chemistry and psychology and psychiatry exist because of it.
That said, I actually do have advanced keratoconus in the right eye and 'mid' level on my left so there is that too.
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