Per Chuck's request, here is a quick compare/contrast between my pair from Coastal Contacts and my pair from Zenni Optical. Before I begin, however, I should let readers know that I have ordered from EyeBuyDirect, Goggles4u, GlobalEyeGlasses, Coastal Contacts, and Zenni. I am only going to talk about my two most recent purchases here, however.
I'll start with Coastal Contacts. I love Coastal Contacts primarily because they make a quick quality pair of specs. I ordered a pair of New Balance 392 frames which are no longer listed on their site. It's a full rim metal frame with spring hinged metal temples. Zenni, on the other hand, didn't carry a name brand frame. I did purchase two semi-rimless frames, a pair of stainless steel with acetate arms, and a pair of plastic rims with plastic arms. All the frames from both companies are quite good but I really love the new stainless frame from Zenni. They have a very quality feel to them. Overall, the quality of all three frames is good, however, I do wish Coastal Contacts would list lens hight. It's amazing how much I pay attention to lens hight now when shopping for glasses and these Coastal frames seem to almost have too much lens for my taste. They are starting to grow on me, though. As for the lenses, the quality is good for both companies. Coastal's are CR-39 so they are a lower index than Zenni's which are 1.57. Coastal, as always, included anti-scratch, UV protection, and Anti- reflective and Zenni only included anti-scratch and UV (AR was an extra $4.95 which I gladly coughed up the dough for). I am not as big of a fan of Coastal Contacts AR as I am of Zenni's, however. Don't get me wrong, Coastal's is good but I did get a little more glare from my recessed lights while wearing my Coastal glass than I did from Zenni's. I did get used to my Coastal specs and they are quite comfortable. Zenni's, on the other hand, showed no glare, thus I have to give Zenni a slight advantage. As for optical clarity, I would say both companies are about the same. I do find Zenni to have less of a fishbowl effect around the edges which might be due to the lower index or even the slightly smaller size lens cut of the lens. However, since I don't look out of the edge's of my glasses to often, I really don't notice on either pair. As for my prescription and lens accuracy, both companies were dead on when it comes to the prescription. I did order a pair of readers from Zenni and there is one minor aesthetic issue in which is one lens is thicker than the other. Otherwise, both companies did a great job. I really was surprised about Zenni's quality, especially at that price point. I always believed in the "too good to be true" mantra but, thus far, Zenni really did live up to it's Glassyeyes reputation. Of course, I always expect good stuff from Coastal Contacts. This is my fourth pair from Coastal (first with the new script) and I really like their quality as well. However, I think Zenni's prices set it apart and I am impressed so I plan to buy at least three more pairs, one of them sunglasses, from them in the coming months. So I hope this answers Chuck's question. On Jan 9, 4:53 pm, Chuck Knight <[email protected]> wrote: > Yep...shocking, surprising, and even startling are words used to > describe Zenni's optical quality. My words are usually precise and > accurate. > > It's an amazing resource, even if the web site is a bit less > sophisticated than their competitors. > > Zenni, zenni, zenni, zenni,zenni! :-) > > Since you have recent pairs from both Coastal and Zenni I'd like to > make a request. Could you do a comparative review, especially > focussing on lens accuracy, optical quality/clarity, and frame > quality? > > -- Chuck Knight > > > > On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 12:28 PM, powrwrap <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The quality is very surprising. The frames feel sturdy for the prices > >> that I paid and, optically, the prescription is accurate. The lens > >> quality is also surprisingly good. Overall, I'm impressed and will > >> order from them again. The total price including shipping is $32.80. > > > Nicely done. We have another convert to inexpensive online glasses. > > > (I'm one of the posters here that speaks highly of Zenni.) > > > -- > > Check us out at the oft-updatedhttp://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 > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/glassyeyes?hl=en
-- 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
