Modern Car Headlight Bulbs; Short Lived?

[ppppenguin]

There's no doubt that eyes become more senstive to glare as you get older. An unfortnate fact of life. They can also become less sensitive under dim conditions, often due to the beginnings of cateracts. Of course the accommodation goes as well so you need multiple pairs of glasses or varifocals..

Those of us who, like me, are short sighted without too much astigmatism always have the option of taking off our glasses when we need to see really fine detail. I never realised I'd come to see my short sightedness as a blessing. Those with long sight have no such option.

Incidentally, if you need a cataract operation, have astigmatic vision and can pay for it privately then find a consultant who is experienced with toric intraocular lenses. A friend needs cataract surgery and a mutual friend who's an optometrist was explaining the benefits to him. The optometrist was also explaining the benefits of leaving the eye a little short sighted, as I mentioned above.

[pwdrive]

I realized my eyesight wasn't what it was when I noticed my arms weren't long enough to read a newspaper...

Lawrence.

[Terry]

Incidentally, if you need a cataract operation, have astigmatic vision and can pay for it privately then find a consultant who is experienced with toric intraocular lenses. A friend needs cataract surgery and a mutual friend who's an optometrist was explaining the benefits to him. The optometrist was also explaining the benefits of leaving the eye a little short sighted, as I mentioned above.

Not sure I understand all of that Jeffrey but I assume that the toric lenses correct for astigmatism.

My main problem, since I was 14, was short sight and acute astigmatism. However, the astigmatism has varied greatly over the years so I doubt a fixed solution is possible.

When I had my first cataract done, the lens gave me good distance vision but it wasn't until I had the second one done a couple of years later that I could really see the difference as I was now unhindered by one bad eye to go with the good one!

Incidentally, I was offered the option of having the second lens optimised for reading distance - the idea is the brain quickly learns which eye to use, dependant on what you are looking at - but the idea terrified me and I asked for both eyes to match!

After this, my astigmatism was considerably reduced to the extent that my optician said that I didn't really need glasses for distance vision.

However, having worn glasses full time since I was 14, I was perfectly used to them and I could also see two very good reasons not to ditch my glasses.

20 years or so earlier I reached the stage where I needed reading glasses. At that time I had an office on the first floor and a lab on the lower ground floor. You can probably guess what happened: I'd go down to the lab and want my reading glases which, of course were sitting on my desk two floors up!

The next pair of glasses I had were bifocals, which solved that problem - so there was no way I was going back to a pair of glasses that i only wore sometimes (and were never where I wanted them!).

Also, by now I was having problems with the computer because it was too far away from the reading zone and too close for distance, so I'd taken to perching a pair of +1 ready readers on my nose in front of my normal glasses! So, varifocals - which are really trifocals - seemed like the perfect solution - and they were!

I've always had my reading prescription cranked up a notch for close work so perhaps that's why I don't quite understand your last sentence, or is that what you mean?

[ppppenguin]

Terry, I think you've worked it out. When you have a cataract done the astigmatism usually remains. THis can be fixed by using a toric intraocular lens instead of the usual lens. Unfortuantely not available on the NHS.

You can have the reading part of a varifocal cranked up a bit for close work but you don't get much field of view. So if your short sightedness allows you to do close work without glasses this is a useful option. The main requirement is that you don't have too much astigmatism.

Varifocals are great but they are not perfect. There's much more distortion of images towards you peripheral vision. Sometimes I drive using a pair of normal distance glasses (rather than the varifocals) and it's lovely having a wide and undistorted field of view. Unfortuantely I can't read a map, can barely read the satnav and the speedo etc are little blurred.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
I've been short sighted since I can remember, plus I have astigmatism in my left eye.
I can still do SMD repairs with no glasses or magnifiers and that's someone of nearly 62!
On my last opticians visit I was told my overall eyesight is improving, I cant wait till I'm 70

[Terry]

Varifocals are great but they are not perfect. There's much more distortion of images towards you peripheral vision. 

I pay, I think, £10 extra for my lenses (Specsavers) which gives a much wider field - in fact, as I type this, I can't see any peripheral distortion. Perhaps the severity depends on your prescription?

One thing that is important with varifocals, I found, is to make sure that you choose a frame which takes a large lens: I made the mistake with my first pair of choosing too small a lens size (and I didn't pay the £10 premium for the super-duper lenses, either!)

I don't know why but I went through a phase many years ago when people would often ask me why I wore glasses! My response was to take off my glasses and hand them to the enquirer and tell them to look at the clock or similar object through the right lens, as that was the eye with the worst astigmatism.

I then told them to rotate the lens through 90° ...

The reactions were varied and interesting. Mostly of surprise but more that one person told me it made them feel sick!

[Herald1360]

Incidentally, I was offered the option of having the second lens optimised for reading distance - the idea is the brain quickly learns which eye to use, dependant on what you are looking at - but the idea terrified me and I asked for both eyes to match!

Interesting......

My eyes were naturally like that- one normal vision and one quite shortsighted. Never needed glasses until long sight set in when a computer screen was too far away for the shortsighted eye and too close for the by now longsighted one.

Driving now is fine to see where I'm going, but the dashboard is well out of focus. I'm wondering about glasses that move the shortsighted eye out to dashboard distance whilst leaving the long sighted one to its own devices.

[Terry]

Simple! Buy a pair of +1 (or whatever you need - that was what I used to use for the computer) Ready Readers and remove one lens!

I don't need them now I'm wearing Varifocals but you used to be able to find them in some pound shops, so a cheap way to experiment!

[The Philpott]

I thing a contrib. factor to the short life issue is that by the time the bulb has been wheedled into position there can be a compromising greasy fingerprint on the envelope, and being more difficult to instal it is all the more easy to do this even if (like us) you know the consequences.

I had bad astigmatism on both sides until they were smoothed with a laser. Now pin-point sources of light can be seen well (ie they don't become starbursts)

[ed731pdh]

Back to bulbs, Halfords home brand kept giving me grief with a spate of 21 watt bulbs that would degass after a few minutes use with a white powder forming inside the glass. Went over to Bosch lighting, no issues after that.