Archive for the ‘Eyeglasses’ category

Branded examples of eyeglasses collection

August 3rd, 2010

The word “collection” means a group of objects or people. To some people’s surprise, this term is also widely used in the eyewear world especially by eyewear manufacturers. In accordance with the above explanation, the general definition of an eyeglasses collection is: a set of eyeglass or sunglass models in possibly different sizes, shapes, colors and even frame structures. Some eyewear enthusiasts may collect a couple pairs of eyeglasses or sunglasses for usage in different circumstances. They will probably claim a collection of eyewear. Well, this is not the common application of eyewear collection. An eyewear collection is typically utilized by a manufacturer to describe all of the frame models that serve a same functionality. In detail, there are generally two types of eyewear collection, namely sunwear collection and ophthalmic collection.

Currently, most of the prestigious eyewear brands maintain both a sunwear collection and an ophthalmic collection, each of which covers a set of various models. It is widely known that a typical eyewear model has a specific frame shape, size, color and uses a certain material. Eyewear designers recruited by renowned houses will put all these regular factors under consideration. In order to diversify customers’ options, nearly all brands try their best to include various models in their eyeglasses collection. Thus an ophthalmic collection or sunwear collection usually contains eyewear models of as many styles as possible.

Taking the sunglass collection developed by Fendi as an example, it includes five styles in metal and plastic. One of the metal models has leather temples with contrasting stitching. Optional frame shapes provided by this male-oriented collection cover rectangles and wraps. In addition, this collection also allows customers to choose a favorable color from metallic beige, brick, gunmetal, brown, carbon and horn etc. This shows that a typical sunwear collection or ophthalmic collection can be quite colorful.

Some brands even more professionally develop an eyeglasses collection for a certain group of customers, rather than make a classification according to eyewear functionality. For instance, Marchon Eyewear has added the Nike Flexon Junior Ophthalmic collection to its Nike Eyewear line, as an action to promote its advanced material.

Kinds of protective eyewear

August 1st, 2010

Protective eyewear can avoid 90% of thousands of eye injuries that take place everyday. These eye injuries may occur on the job, at home, during recreational activities and sports. So it is necessary to invest in proper protective glasses. In the US, protection glasses are mandatory for all functionally one-eye individuals, for those athletes who have had eye surgery.

Laser protective eyewear includes glasses and goggles that are capable of filtering out harmful laser radiation. The laser beams and radiation may damage your eyes permanently if you do not wear laser protection glasses. Operators must wear laser protective eyewear at all times during the laser operation. The laser protection glasses reduce the amount of incident light in certain wavelengths. Laser protective glasses also come in laser safety goggles that fit tightly on the face.

A significant portion of eye injuries happens to athletes. This leads to the fast growing sports protective eyewear industry. Sports protective glasses are helpful for both professional athletes and non-professional athletes. Prevent Blindness America reports a number of 40,000 eye injuries each year that are sports-related in the United States. Therefore, protection glasses have been a necessity during sports for athletes whether they play in the major leagues or the little leagues. Some clubs even prohibit their members from participating games without wearing proper protective eyewear. Evidence shows that sports protective eyewear significantly reduces eye damage and improves player’s performance.

Lenses of protective glasses are usually made of polycarbonate due to its impact-resistance and lightness. And remember to buy protective eyewear that properly fit your face.

What are determined by a typical eyeglasses model?

August 1st, 2010

The word “model” is commonly used to refer to a typical product while different customers try to make reviews. Some people also say a discontinued model that is no longer produced by the manufacturer. Well, this word is also widely discussed in the eyewear world. And an eyeglasses model is the exact phrase describing a regular type of eyeglasses. Eyewear users must have also heard of a pair of glasses and probably a collection of eyeglasses. In brief, these terms are different from an eyewear model. The differences among them are actually similar to that in other industries. Eyewear products are largely visual devices and it is necessary to make clear that what are determined or included by a typical eyewear model.

Since it is a universal term in eyeglass, sunglass and sportswear industries, those specific functions or visual helps are precluded. So, an eyeglasses model is irrelevant to a patient’s detailed prescription, his or her need for UV protection or eye injury prevention. This term is mainly used to differentiate a typical eyewear frame from another, in terms of solely appearance. Most of us know that an eyewear frame has its own shape, size, color, material, structure and overall style. Generally speaking, a glasses model should be designed with detailed consideration into all of these aspects. For eyewear designers working hard to make frame innovations, each of these facets should be taken into account. An innovative model may make a single breakthrough in one of these aspects. But it is enough to be distinctive.

These mentioned factors are not equally helpful in developing an innovative eyeglasses model. The reason is that there have been certain traditional concepts. For example, only full-frame, semi-rimless and rimless styles are optional when a designer considers the frame structure. Similarly, frame shapes are to some extent quite limited. Fortunately, it is possible to make various variations of frame size, frame color and even material. More and more eyewear designers and manufacturers choose to use mixed elements in developing creative models.

The importance of frames for eyeglasses

August 1st, 2010

It is feasible to divide a typical pair of eyeglasses into a frame and two lenses. The functionalities of prescription and Plano eyeglasses or sunglasses all rely on the optical lenses that are fitted into the frame. In fact, the eye-related optical features are contributed by eyeglass lenses made from different materials like traditional and modern plastics as well as glass. While optical lenses determine optical benefits, frames for eyeglasses are related with many more aspects and more decisive to eyewear appearance. The importance of eyeglasses lenses should never be overlooked because they are the essential part that offers vision correction or eye protection against harmful rays or dangerous particles. This was especially true decades ago when most people focused on eyewear functionality. But it is also necessary to realize the increasing importance of eyeglass frames.

To some extent, optical lenses are not focus because modern lens technologies can get patients’ visual needs met without much effort. With this improvement, modern eyeglass users benefit a lot that they are able to pay more attention to personal appearance with the glasses. In this mainstream trend, frames for eyeglasses are gaining more and more attraction. First of all, frame color, frame size, frame shape and style determine the overall effect of the eyewear that stay on a wearer’s face. Selecting a right frame by considering all these factors respectively is very important. For instance, the frame shape should contrast with the facial shape. The frame color should repeat the wearer’s personal coloring. And frame size and face size should mainly be in scale. Rimless and semi-rimless frame styles are more popular among young people.

The importance of frames for eyeglasses does not lie only in eyewear appearance, but also in eyewear quality. The material used in an eyeglass frame determines mainly eyewear quality. For example, plastic frames are more flexible but they are fragile. Regular metals are strong but have too much weight. In recent decades, those quality materials used in eyeglass frames have superior properties like durability, flexibility and lightness. Right options include stainless steel, titanium and memory metal.

Categories of glasses

July 29th, 2010

Glasses have two major functions: vision correction and eye protection.

For vision correction, we have glasses for nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. For presbyopia people, we have bifocal glasses. Recently Oxford University professor Joshua Silver invented a self-adjustable glasses using silicon oil in a thin plastic reservoir as lenses. This invention brings new hope for the poor people in the world to see the clearer world.

There are many types of glasses which are for protection purpose. Sunglasses are the most typical glasses for protecting eyes from UV rays and strong lights. Sports glasses like basketball glasses and ski goggles are two basic ones. Basketball glasses prevent sports participants from being injured. These glasses can also be worn in other sports events such as football, volleyball, tennis and safari activities. Ski goggles prevent eyes from the extensive harm of UV rays reflected by the snow and possible injuries caused by bumping.

In industrial world, there are some special glasses for field protection. For example welders need to wear special shield to prevent exposure to extra strong arc.

Modern technology brings us a brand new invisible “glasses” called contact lenses. Contact lenses free people from the inconveniences of wearing spectacles and return the natural facial beauty to the wearers.

Advantages of polycarbonate eyeglasses

July 29th, 2010

Eyeglasses sunglasses are allowed to be made with different frame and lens materials. The frame is supposed to hold the lenses stably and thus needs to be made with high quality. Meanwhile, eyeglass lenses involve a larger area and they are also important in terms of eye protection. In outdoor activities or sports involving risky factors, the lenses are even the key part that offers adequate protection. As a result, it is very important to choose an appropriate lens material, since eye protection is also critical in daily life. With the continuous development of lens technology, optional lens materials contain mainly regular plastics, glass and new forms of plastics. Glass is very rarely used in recent years because of its unpleasant weight. Regular plastics are still acceptable but are losing popularity due to their lack of superior optical features. Polycarbonate eyeglasses and glasses made of high index lenses are the most popular.

New forms of plastics including polycarbonate and high index materials have some advantages over traditional lens materials and this explains their dominant role in the current market. In particular, people with a strong prescription are perfect users of high index lenses because this material will never bring an excessive lens thickness. Well, our focus is polycarbonate eyeglasses because they have even more benefits. In general, polycarbonate lenses are thinner and lighter than lenses made of regular plastics. Used in sunglasses, polycarbonate lenses are perfect because they offer 100% UV protection by the lens material itself. This is not the end. Lenses made of polycarbonate are up to 10 times more impact-resistant than plastic or glass lenses.

Natural UV protection, lightness, thinness and extreme impact resistance make polycarbonate lenses an unparalleled option. It is nearly impossible to find another lens material with so many advantages. And these benefits lead to the prevailing role maintained by polycarbonate eyeglasses, especially among children and people who like outdoor sports. Children usually spend much time outdoors and need proper UV protection. Of course, lightweight polycarbonate lenses also help reducing the weight over children’s faces. For the second group, it is the valuable impact resistance that matters. Some sports involve flying objects or dangerous particles, making the use of impact resistant lenses a necessity.

Two forms of non prescription eyeglasses

July 28th, 2010

Prescription eyeglasses will hardly cause any misconception that they refer to eyeglasses that can be got only by customers who have a valid prescription given by an eye care practitioner. Interpreting the meaning of the words, non prescription eyeglasses are generally the opposite entity of prescription glasses. Well, it is absolutely right to interpret these glasses as items that can be bought without a prescription. But a further detail is that there are two forms that meet this definition. Regular sunglasses and fashion glasses are sometimes considered as “fake” glasses because they do not use corrective lenses. This is the first form of non prescription eyewear and the other form covers vision-corrective glasses that are acquired illegally without a prescription. Believe it or not, eyewear products of the second form do exist and involve a large market.

As the major definition of non prescription eyeglasses, fashion glasses including mainly non-prescription sunglasses have been widely used in the past several decades. And lots of people wear these glasses for many years without any side effects. Using plain glass or plastic lenses, these Plano eyeglasses have enjoyed a long-term popularity among people who have not got any sight effects. For this group of individuals, a pair of non-prescription eyewear is almost an accessory. Some people may want to know the reasonableness of this prevalence. Well, their common consideration is to pursue a fashionable look, even if there is no vision problem needed to be corrected. Today, contact lenses and laser eye surgeries have been quite technologically mature. But the truth is that the eyewear market still covers a majority of related patients. This prevailing pursuit represents a significant change in eyewear industry that eyewear users will never be called a four-eye, a nerd or a geek.

The second definition of non prescription eyeglasses is actually seldom discussed. But it is necessary to remind certain patients of its existence. Reading glasses are widely needed by people who are over 40 years old. But there are lots of pre-made reading glasses that can be got without a prescription. Many shops sell these glasses on an over-the-counter basis. For the eyes’ sake, these products should be avoided.

Retro glasses half century ago become popular again

July 27th, 2010

Half century ago, around 1950s, the eyewear industry reached its maturity with the development and introduction of new materials and new designs. Even by today, the most wanted retro glasses is from 1950s. Especially for those fashion fans, what they hanker for is 50s retro glasses. They wear retro eyewear for fashion expressions.

One good example of 50s retro glasses for men are the bold frames. Men in the 1950s wore thicker and wider frames glasses which are now in style again. These men’s retro glasses gained popularity again in 1990s, and some twenty years later, they are in vogue now even.

When talking about the retro eyewear for women from 1950s, the cat eye retro glasses will always be the topic. These upswept styles with the frame ends arched upward brought the beauty and fashion for the women in 1950s, and now these retro glasses are back in fashion once again. Inspired by the 50s classic retro glasses more and more styles have been developed.

Retro glasses are available in two forms. One type of retro eyewear is the authentic vintage glasses from the old time, the other can be the copies with the look of retro glasses but actually newly-made eyeglasses frames. The only thing needing to be cautious is that opticians really need pay special attention to put the lenses into the retro eyewear frames.

Retro glasses can be fitted as everyday use eyeglasses or for reading glasses only. Some creative fashion lovers even have the retro eyewear fitted with photochromic lenses and make the retro glasses as a pair of prescription sunglasses.

What should you know about prescribed glasses?

July 27th, 2010

Usually called prescription or Rx eyeglasses, prescribed glasses refer to all forms of spectacles that are used for vision correction. Currently there are a very huge number of individuals who have to rely on these devices on a part-time or full-time basis. The reason for the naming of prescription eyewear is that these devices should be prescribed by an eye doctor. According to the U.S. laws, prescription medical devices are not allowed to be sold without a valid prescription. Rx eyewear is strictly under this regulation. Of course, there is the opposite point called non-prescription or Plano eyewear. Regular sunglasses and protective glasses belong to the latter group. Most people know that nearsighted and farsighted patients are target user of Rx eyeglasses. But conditions like astigmatism and presbyopia are usually beyond their consideration. To be exactly, there are mainly four visual problems that require the use of prescription eyewear, namely myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia.

Since prescribed glasses are a medical device involving a patient’s eye health, the Federal Trade Commission in the United States requires that only an eyewear prescriber can prescribe an eyeglass prescription. Exactly, only eye doctors including optometrists and ophthalmologists have this permission. Another common role named optician only has the right to dispense, fit or adjust prescription eyeglasses. In addition, each patient has the right to ask the doctor for a copy of his or her prescription at the conclusion of an eye exam. From another perspective, the prescriber should give such a copy immediately following the exam. With a valid prescription, it is feasible to get Rx glasses from other local and online sources.

During a comprehensive eye exam, there are a couple of eye tests that may be carried out. Most of them are really necessary if the patient wants to get an exact pair of prescribed glasses. Using a projected eye chart, visual acuity test will be conducted to measure the sharpness of the patient’s vision. There are usually letters of different sizes and directions to be recognized. Color blindness test will usually be taken to rule out color blindness. Some other common tests include visual field test, cover test and retinoscopy.

Rimless titanium eyeglasses

July 26th, 2010

Among all the eyeglasses materials, titanium is the most popular metal which is used to make lightweight rimless spectacles. One very famous patented titanium material is flexon, also called memory metal. Rimless titanium glasses become more and more popular because of lightweight, invisibility and its fashion features.

Rimless titanium spectacles are normally of high price due to the premier material and the workmanship involved in the making of rimless titanium eyeglasses. But now some online stores like Firmoo offers affordable prices for this high-end collection. In optical stores, the rimless titanium will cost you up to 500 dollars. But online store offer designer rimless spectacles in half price. Even in some overseas online retailer websites, they only offer 50 dollars for rimless titanium ones. In addition, these websites offer large amount of titanium rimless styles for selection. Anyway, 50 dollars’ price is worth to have a try.

Rimless titanium glasses, like other rimless spectacles, need stronger lenses to screw the two temples and the nose bridge together. Regular plastic lenses are not capable of the joining. Even so, rimless titanium glasses are still easy to be crooked and therefore need adjustments.

The best possible rimless titanium frame is to use the flexon. Flexon make the rimless titanium eyeglasses less vulnerable to resist the shape change and make the glasses last longer before next adjustment. Flexon has the attribute of restoring to its previous shape after being twisted or bended. But never intentionally wrench your rimless titanium just for showing off to your peers.