Four eyes?

[Ronin]

Does anyone here suffer the bane of having to wear glasses 24/7?

If you do, does it intefere with any bushcrafting? I'm stuck with dodgy eyes for life and specs are secind nature but I am tired of carrying spare pairs on trips ust in case. So I am gonna take the plunge and go for contacts.

Anyone else gone the same route?

 

[Motorbike Man]

Does anyone here suffer the bane of having to wear glasses 24/7?

If you do, does it intefere with any bushcrafting? I'm stuck with dodgy eyes for life and specs are secind nature but I am tired of carrying spare pairs on trips ust in case. So I am gonna take the plunge and go for contacts.

Anyone else gone the same route?

Contacts rock!!

Most of the time...

To be honest, I thought I would wear my contact 100% of the time, and 90% of the time they are great. No more rain drops on my glasses, my peripheral vision back etc. My biggest drawback with extended bushcrafty type trips is maintaining the high level of cleanliness required, especially around fires and that sort of thing. The other problem I have in the field is actually getting them in and out. I've been wearing specs constantly for about 25 years now and find that I take precautions with out thinking now. The best tip I could ever give for specs wearer is if your worried about losing them, get some kind of sport band. I fly stupidly big kites for fun and have been dragged up and down most of the fields in the area and I've never damaged a pair of specs yet. Every single pair I have ever damaged were wrecked indoors

 

[TAHAWK]

Nah, I take mine off to sleep.

Tried contacts. Could not stand them. Plus the specs provide protection that contacts cannot.

 

[Motorbike Man]

Nah, I take mine off to sleep.

Tried contacts. Could not stand them. Plus the specs provide protection that contacts cannot.

That's another good point, I have had things from sticks to shards of flint bounce off of my specs, things that would have ended up in my eye

 

[OhCanada]

To paraphrase a line from George Orwell's Animal Farm..."Four eyes good, two eyes bad!"

I used to wear (and sometime fall asleep with) contact all the time. Thing is, it is not healthly to wear them that long. Since I got glasses again I hardly bother with contacts unless for special occasions. Wearing a hat helps in rain but snow can be hard in the winter. If you hate fogging up in winter when you come inside do as I do, I take them off several steps before I reach that door. 90% of the time it is enough to keep them from fogging up.

The major problem with glasses is crush injuries. I have seen sports glasses but I wish they made "cool-styled" goggle glasses with just a strap and no arm. Might look a bit silly the arm is wear most breaks happen.

 

[Moonraker]

I found that it cost a lot of money for contacts and they like to tie you into annual check ups and lens deals etc. It probably is important to get them checked just it all adds up.

Tried them for about 1 year and gave up in the end. Basically I found that working on a computer a lot the blink rate goes down and the eyes dry out quickly and I ended up with conjunctivitis . Outdoors they are wonderful... until you need to change them and like has been said, dirt is an issue and also I found that smoke from a fire really aggravated my eyes and they got 'scratchy' rapidly and forcing me to wear the glasses anyhow.

Very true about the glasses protecting the eyes too although the potential for serious injury is greater with glass close to the eye unless you wear plastic lenses which tend to scratch up easily.

If I had the cash I would seriously consider laser treatment or similar because there is nothing quite like the feeling of waking up and actually seeing the whole world in sharp focus!....... until, after a few seconds, you remember that you did not take the dam things out the night before after a few beers. gutted

 

[Gary]

Does anyone here suffer the bane of having to wear glasses 24/7?

If you do, does it intefere with any bushcrafting? I'm stuck with dodgy eyes for life and specs are secind nature but I am tired of carrying spare pairs on trips ust in case. So I am gonna take the plunge and go for contacts.

Anyone else gone the same route?

Ronin you could do what old Mearsy does and get yourself contacts mate!

 

[innocent bystander]

Been wearing glasses for so long i would feel naked without them...

 

[GrahamD]

I've tried both - I originally got contacts because when doing photography I couldn't see the full frame image, and also for hill walking I got fed up with steaming up.

I had a lapse for a few years but now use them occasionally for Archery, Motorcycling when the weather is bad (two less surfaces to keep clean) and Canoeing, as well as the other stuff above.

The main problem I have now is that as I wear Bifocal or Varifocal lenses in my glasses, the Contacts are great for distance, but I have to take a pair of off the shelf reading half glasses to read maps, do close work, write in Archery score books etc - so now I still have to carry two pairs of glasses with me, in case my eyes get tired or I need to see near stuff. However they are great for specific occasional use, although I probably wouldn't wear them full time. I also find I have to carry comfort solution as I have fairly dry eyes...

Hope it helps,

Graham.

 

[alick]

I've done both. Contacts are good and no doubt better than when I wore them 16 hrs a day in the 80's. Still glasses are better for your eyes in the long term and that's what i wear now.

I tried soft daily disposables with the idea that I could wear them for 4 or 5 hours on an occasional basis without building up acclimatisation. Had outdoor sports in mind or bright days when I wanted to wear ordinary sunglasses.

In the end I realised that there just weren't that many occasions when I could be bothered to take 2 mins to put them in. I bought 80 pairs, used half of them over about 4 years and chucked the other forty pairs when they went past their expiry date.

I figure it's cheaper to get a set of those indestructible specs with spring steel frames or something like oakley prescription frames which are strong and use a different type of leg that grips your head and doesn't slide if you sweat !

No matter how good, contacts take more faffing about so you'll get fed up with them unless they give you a significant benefit. They're not very good for indoors or if you have dry eyes. They're a bitch if you get grit under them while you'e riding a bike or driving. They're unhygenic if you have to take 'em out with dirty hands...

Why not find an optician who'll do you a deal on a weeks trial of disposables and decide yourself !

Cheers,

 

[TheViking]

I do. I would rather not wear them, but I have to or my sight is bad. But i plan to get laser surgery in the upcoming years. 60 seconds and your sight is perfect again. They don't interfer with bushcrafting though.

 

[Justin Time]

I've looked at the laser surgery but decided against it because some of the potential side effects apparently include some loss of night vision and haloes around bright light... I wouldn't want to lose the pleasure of going out Badger watching, etc

and of course the onset of long-sightedness now I'm in my forties means I'd still have to wear glasses for that...

 

[spamel]

I used to be a bit self concious about wearing glasses, as I was a teenager when I was told I needed them. Great, as if puberty and acne weren't bad enough!!!

They don't bother me in the slightest now, the only problem I have is getting them off and my respirator on in 9 seconds!!

Spamel

 

[Ronin]

Thanks for the insights (no pun intended) chaps.

Gary, I wish I could do a lot of what Mearsy does but I will settle for contacts and see how I go (nuts! another pun! )

I have got some daily disposables but laser surgery is tempting. Knowing my luck I would get an alcoholic eye surgeon, the morning after. I have heard there are side-effects??

Only ever had a mishap when out in the wild...tripped over tarp line..landed safely face down in the mud...glasses landed safely in the fire. Couldnt see to find them so I spent 2 hours on my hands and knees trying to find them by sense of smell.

Spamel, this may be a stupid question but ... respirator?


Sean.

 

[spamel]

Respirator, more commonly known as a gas mask. I'm in the army, you see! The rule is to mask in 9 seconds, hopefully you won't have breathed in too much nasty stuff by then.

Spamel

 

[RobertsonPau]

Hi All

I've been wearing contacts for about 4 years now for all kinds of outdoor stuff and would thoroughly recommend them. I have had some irritation from wood smoke etc, but with practice I can take them out clean them and put them back in without a mirror. It is really just another personal hygiene thing like brushing your teeth. I have the lenses that I wear each day for a month, and I've been toying with the idea of the ones that you put in on the first day of the month and take out on the last day of the month.

Paul

 

[Emma]

I used to wear contacts for sport, but I found that wind constantly blowing in my face dried my eyes out far quicker than with glasses, and also in the winter made the contacts feel very cold. I also found smoke irritating, and in hot dry weather there can be a lot of dust in the air, even well away from towns. I thoroughly agree with Alick about the faffing, takes ages and if there's an alternative then contacts just aren't worth the bother. I used the soft daily ones and my vision was definitely a little blurrier than normal after a day wearing them. I also discovered driving on a motorway that they can fall out fairly easily - I rubbed my eye (no more roughly than normal) and the contact dropped out. I never found it again either, and given that a car is a confined space you'd think you would, but it shows how easily you can lose them. And you won't find them as easily as glasses. And if you do, you'll have to go through an extra-thorough cleaning...
Oh, and I did get home safely after losing the contact on the motorway.