There are many other reasons for poorer optical quality beyond abbe value. Are you getting chromatic aberrations (rainbows at the edge of the lens)? If so, then your lenses may have a low abbe value. However, if you just have poorer vision overall, it could be lower quality material or poor quality coating (this is common, especially for A/R - there's a wide range in quality for A/R coatings, and $5 A/R is rarely any good). If you don't have A/R, it could also just be the quality of the lens material itself - Trivex is a patented material with limited distribution, and so has greater quality control. Unfortunately, with online, there's a "race to the bottom" for price, and sometimes that translates into cheaper materials. I'd suggest checking out retailers that sell around $40 average like EyeBuyDirect or Glasses Shop if you're noticing a quality difference.
To answer your abbe value question specifically, 42 is an average abbe value for 1.6+ lenses, so I think they're telling the truth with regards to that. You might want to consider mid-index (1.56) if you're having abbe issues - it has an average abbe value of 47. The Trivex lenses you had from B&M would have an abbe between 43-45. The highest abbe is available with CR-39 (58), but with your prescription those might be too thick (although if you have a plastic frame, thickness is less important because the frame can hide a lot of it). Poly has the lowest abbe at around 31, and probably wouldn't be a good choice for your prescription. Marc On Dec 17, 11:45 am, satori <[email protected]> wrote: > I am trying to figure out which online provider sells lenses with the > highest optical quality for both single vision and progressives. I > was useing Trivex in B&M, but have been disappointed in what I got > from Optical4less (1.67-glasses are fine just the difference in > optical quality is disappointing). I seem to get conflicting > responses from the companies when I inquire about abbe values. Here > is the response I got from goggles4u: > > "Our 1.56 lenses are made of CR-39 material and the poly carbonate > lenses are 1.59 lenses and the abbe value for the lenses 1.61 and 1.67 > is 42." > > I didn't think it was possible to make the 1.61 and 1.67 lenses with > an abbe value that high. > > Any insight would be appreciated. Below is my prescription. > > Sphere Cylinder Axis Add Prism > OD (Right) -5.25 -2.75 100 - - > OS (Left) -5.75 -1.50 50 - - -- Check us out at the oft-updated http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlassyEyes" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/glassyeyes?hl=en
