Heard about Anti-Fog Glasses in Preston? Read all about how ‘lens coating’ on your glasses can enhance the quality of your vision.
Anti-Fog glasses?
All glasses wearers have experienced this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvYvwc3Ec_w
But does it have to happen?
The short answer is no… and in fact most of the main irritations for glasses wearers can be prevented with the right lens coating. So I’m going to take you through the reasons why you should have a coating on your glasses, and how the different coatings on the market differ from one another. I’m even going to talk to you about a couple of the very latest, coolest lens coating technologies on the market…
Here’s the main reason to have a lens coating:
Let’s not forget that the job of your glasses is to correct your sight. But did you know that an ordinary spectacle lens will in some ways compromise your vision? The reason is that plastic or glass, which lenses are made from, reflects a certain amount of the light that hits it (roughly 10%). That has 2 effects:
You may as well be in a room that is slightly dimmed, because not all the light is reaching your eyes.
When bright light reflects from your eye, onto the back of the lens, and then back into your eye, you get distracting glare. This can be particularly unsafe when driving at night when you can be dazzled by oncoming traffic.
DID YOU KNOW?
The first anti-reflective coating was used to prevent glare from the periscopes on German submarines, which were allowing enemy ships to spot them.
You won’t find a modern day camera lens without an anti-reflective coating, because you get better image contrast with it on (incidentally, there’s a really cool video on Canon’s new anti-reflective coating technology here – I wonder if this will ever cross over into the spectacle lens market?). So why settle for reduced vision in your glasses? And if that wasn’t enough, it looks better too:
Anyway, back to the question… anti-fog glasses, yes or no?
Yes, because the most modern coatings include a hydrophobic layer, which means they repel water, which helps to prevent condensation on the surface of your glasses. Obviously, if you open the oven doors and stick your face in there, they will still fog up… but as soon as you move away, they clear. Magic… Or science, actually.
Image: Zeiss Duravision coating.
The best modern lens coatings are built up of a stack of different layers, each with different properties. For example, an anti-static layer means your lenses don’t attract dust. Then there’s a layer that makes them easy to clean. What you want for your lenses to be anti-fog is for one of those layers to be hydrophobic.
In terms of the quality of lens coatings, by the way, I have no doubt that Hoya produce the very best on the market (Hi-Vision Longlife). They never seem to fail and they are really, really hard to scratch, and have almost every layer built-in. Almost…
The Newest Technologies
Honeycomb
This is a technology, believe it or not, that I helped bring to market. There had been a similar lens design around for a little while, but it had some drawbacks. So together with the innovative people at Jai Kudo, a UK based wholesale lens distributer, we sourced an alternative, which ended up as ‘Honeycomb’.
Honeycomb is an extremely thin, almost invisible film that is applied to the surface of a plastic lens. It focuses rays of light more consistently by reducing light that comes from an angle, such as overhead lighting or oncoming headlights at night. The result is sharper vision, with less glare, and it can even help those who are sensitive to the flicker from fluorescent lighting! If you want the sharpest vision possible, honeycomb lenses can make a big difference, in many cases more so than a prescription change.
Blue Control
If you use any kind of device like an iPad, Smart Phone, or even just watch TV, you’ve probably thought to yourself, “this can’t be good for my eyes.” Well, we now understand why! Click the video above for a simple explanation. Blue Control lenses, developed by Japanese company Hoya, are a fantastic technology that keeps your eyes in better condition when using digital devices. I have worn them myself, and trust me, they do work.
I bet you didn’t know a coating on your lenses could do all that!
At The Spectacle Factory, our mission is to educate you on the lens technologies available, and help you find the one that gives you the best vision possible. I hope you found this blog interesting! Feel free to call me on 01772 312213 or tweet me @Specfactory if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you.
Robert Sands
