prescription scuba mask

[smilelims]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will go with one without astigmatism and hopefully around $100 (online price). From the replies, it seems like this maybe kind of tough with my prescription. :huh:

I read about the Tusa ViewTrek the other day. It could take up to -8 and seem to do a good job with the viewable angles. Just want to know about the general opinon on it.

I wish I can wear contact lenses under water. I do have them but the only ones available for my prescription in the market are 2-weeks disposables toric lenses and does cost a lot of money too. I cannot really wear them for more than 4 hours at a time either.

 

[CrazyScuba]

Take a look at Hydooptix. They are made for nearsighted folks....don't know if that severe.

http://www.hydrooptix.com/

These work if you're a -4.5, anything above or below you have to wear contact lenses with it.

Britt :fish:
:fish:

 

[CrazyScuba]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will go with one without astigmatism and hopefully around $100 (online price). From the replies, it seems like this maybe kind of tough with my prescription. :huh:

Make sure they are the ground lenses, not the polymer or layered lenses. The kind we carry are a full ground lens from corner to corner and they're tempered glass and meet all safe scuba standards. Don't go with the cheap stick-in type, you'll be very unhappy with those.

Britt :fish:
:fish:

 

[skynscuba]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will go with one without astigmatism and hopefully around $100 (online price).

I initially got no-astigmatism production lenses for my mask. Took them home and decided they just would not cut it, and my astigmatic correction is only half as bad as yours. Returned the fixed lenses to my LDS and got custom, which work great. The only mistake I made was the Bifocal correction: I was just getting to reading glasses age, and should have thought ahead and got a much stronger + correction in the bifocal part. 4 years later, the up-close is not so great.

If you get custom, get your eye doctor to measure/provide your IPD (distance between pupils). For a strong presciption as you have, proper alignment is important.

 

[DarkCoffee]

When I had my mask assembled, the pres. lenses were ground glass and somehow glued into the mask. I was told that if the pres. changed, they could 'unglue' the exisitng pres. lenses, make the new ones and replace them into the same mask.

(oh yeah.. First post.. New member.. Been lurking for awhile...)

 

[tstormdiver]

I guess I'm just one of the few lucky ones, in that the natural magnification of the water nearly corrects my near sightedness itself.

 

[smilelims]

Urgh... I have called all the Tusa dealers listed in their website in Manhattan (about 8?) and visited a few. Some how only one of them remain to be a dealer but no longer carry any Tusa masks in store. Just wondering how do people around NYC ever try out Tusa masks?

 

[TheRedHead]

These work if you're a -4.5, anything above or below you have to wear contact lenses with it.

I have pretty severe astigmatism and tried that mask and it made me practically blind both above and under water. I think it is for severely nearsighted people.

 

[Timotheus]

Another vote for Sea Vision. No fussing with glue-in lenses.

 

[JonKranhouse]

Hi Smilelims,

Your vision Rx (one eye is -7.5 SPH and -3.5 CYL) requires careful consideration to avoid wasting time / money. For your strong Astigmatism, you really MUST have Toric correction (the CYL / Cylinder part of your Vision Rx). Otherwise your vision will be very blurry.

NOTE: As one's vision Rx -- written for eyeglasses -- gets stronger, optical power MUST be converted for the "contact-lens equivalent." In your case, your contact lens Rx would be: -6.75 SPH and -2.75 CYL

OPTIONS:
1. Contacts -- the daily-disposable Toric Contacts from Ciba (less than $1 per lens) are not yet available in a strong enough CYL for you. GOOD NEWS -- Ask your Eye Care Pro for Bausch & Lomb Soflens 66 TORICS -- they're about $5 per lens -- throw away after 1 to 2 weeks.

2. Conventional Flat Mask - Sea Vision cannot make their lenses strong enough for your Rx. However your Rx might have been written by an Ophthalmologist (MD), and they are trained to write CYL as a + number (you don't specify) - - - which puts it in the ballpark of Sea Vision's polymer lens. (MDs write CYL as a + value, but rotate the axis by 90-degrees vs. a Rx from a Doctor of Optometry... confused yet?).

HydroOptix (my company) makes high-index custom-ground glass lenses that will exactly match your Rx. The glass completely fills the opening of our very popular 2-window design. AND we make lenses to fit other popular 2-window masks. We compensate your Rx for the increased distance between the inside of the lens to your eye ("Vertex-distance"), so the net effect matches what you get with properly made eyeglasses (-7.75 SPH and -4.00 CYL).

3. HydroOptix Double-Dome Mask - our patented optics expand underwater field-of-view almost 5X vs. conventional flat masks. Search Scuba Board for "HydroOptix" -- over 90 threads from happy divers. Now almost 800 20/20 divers are using our mask in conjunction with disposable contacts -- they actually become temporarily nearsighted just to use our mask. The expanded view and acuity is that good.

BTW -- an earlier post from CrazyScuba is not accurate. He wrote:
These work if you're a -4.5, anything above or below you have to wear contact lenses with it.
Ahem... this chart clearly shows that for divers under age 30, between -2.5 to -6.0 (eyeglass Rx) works great. For divers over 40, the range narrows to -4.0 to -6.0. AND the "Magic Bifocal" phenomenon has been the biggest motivator for 20/20 divers to adopt contacts.