The best sites I'm aware of are:
http://www.zennioptical.com/ (what I use)
That's brick-and-mortar: personal service, ready in 30 minutes. Around 8000 yen, frames and lenses. (Not the thinnest lens, no special coating, but very good.)
> You do need your pupillary distance, but you either measure this yourself with the help of a friend
I have a fool-proof way to do this yourself.
Use a mirror and a ruler. Place the ruler on the mirror and stare with your left eye into that same eye's mirror image, such that the ruler's 0 tick is centered on the pupil. Then, open your right eye and close the left. Stare into your right eye across the ruler and note the millimeters. Flip back to the left eye to make sure you haven't moved from zero.
This is dead accurate. Staring into your own eye in the mirror means you have a perpendicular line from either eye to the ruler.
Damn, that's really clever. How did you come up with that?
edit: Also, one pair of glasses I ordered from Zenni gave me a rash around my eyes and on my eyelids. I've gotten contact rashes from watches before, so it wasn't entirely unexpected, but I'd never had it happen with glasses before. I thought I had just gotten a sunburn at first, and it took me a while to convince myself it was my glasses. (I basically didn't wear the glasses for a month, and then wore them again.) It's either the plastic used for the frame, or maybe a mold release. Regardless, I've tried washing the glasses with a strong detergent, and I've had them ultrasonically cleaned and they still give me a rash. They cost $30 though, which basically makes them disposable compared to normal glasses.
I can attest to this. My astigmatism is pretty severe, and the lenses are useless if any measurements are even slightly incorrect.
Usually when I get new lenses I end up sending them back at least once for one defect or another. Sometimes this is the frame tech's fault, but I've also seen quality issues from the lens factory.
1) See this twitter https://twitter.com/troyd/status/560089054356574209 - My zenni specific email was spammed. They either sold my email or they were hacked. I don't know what the cause, but I would not give them anything valuable including only using PayPal with them.
2) Their anti-reflective coating is not as good what I get from local optometry. My pictures tend to have this greenish tint, and I paid for the best thing you can get from them.
That said, I was able to get $8 glasses that worked and I can see perfectly using them. If I need cheap glasses, I know where to go.
Great 60 minutes show on the company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voUiWOGv8ec
If you're ever in Europe that is when to buy frames. They are substantially cheaper than in the US/Canada. I bought a pair of Armani Frames for 1/5 the price I could in the US.
The same thing happened with the second pair. So she contacted them and got the same "We found a defect" and they sent her a third pair.
Same thing happened with the third pair. When they told her the same thing ("We found a defect") and offered to send her a fourth pair, she declined and got her refund.
I have nothing against online vs optometrist, but I do know of folks who have not had good luck online.
I'm not sure if they still do it, but the outside of every package I received from them had a cloth wrapper that was sealed with wax, pretty much identical to this one: https://eyeglassretailerreviews.com/reviews/goggles4u_nov200...
Not the packaging matters all that much, but it was a fun little novelty, at least.
:(
The one thing I need to look out for is how the hook on the arm is constructed. One of my ears is slightly farther back than the other (by maybe 2 millimeters). If I buy frames where the arm can't be readjusted the glasses can rest a bit askance on my face.
Measure the width of your current pair that you like. You're may be 150mm+ in width and zenni has sizes even bigger than that.
I didn't have any problems with tint, fishbowl, or other optical abberations. This is with -4 correction on both eyes.
One site just asked for a selfie with a card (anything credit card sized) held over your forehead.
Amusingly effective.
Seriously though I used a site like this to find out my IPD for playing VR and it came out slightly different each time, though always in the same ballpark.
I tried a number of different companies online during off years (I have insurance that pays for glasses every two years). Warby Parker, Zenni, glasses.com and a few others.
Warby Parker glasses were junk. With the exception of glasses.com, adjustments required paying or scamming someone into adjusting them for me. The money savings were minimal compared to retail if you shop around at all.
This time I went to an actual optometrist and bought glasses through them. The cost was competitive and the process completely hassle free.
Great customer service, frame selection and very competitive pricing. I can buy $10 glasses online or $60 from Costco.
I spend the extra money for the quality and service. It is, after all something you use everyday.
It's truly hilarious how defensive they get over online glasses purchases. I've been using Zenni for over 5 years now, and there's no way in hell I'd go back to using a local optometrist for my glasses.
Last time I got glasses, I tried a test, I bought the $300 glasses from my eye doctor ("only" $200 after insurance), and I bought a pair of $39 glasses online. I found no difference between the two other than price (and the ones I bought online arrived by mail the day before the expensive pair was ready from my eye doctor).
And I bought a second pair of backup glasses for less than my eye doctor wanted for his "lens protection insurance".
Though admittedly, I have a simple, low-power prescription (< -3.0, no astigmatism), so your milage might vary with a more complex prescription.
It's easy enough to measure myself, so that's what I did.
My glasses were $45 and he said his costs were more than twice that. Where's all that money going?
Go to Walmart. Most have an optometrist on site (can check online) and you can take the prescription elsewhere to buy glasses online. Probably cheaper (for the "doctor" portion) than anywhere else around as well.
Edit: It turns out this varies—maybe. Here's a funny thread on an opticians' forum on the topic: http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php/11990-Hipaa-q... They don't come up with much, but they sure don't like online retailers.
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Optometry requires optometrists (not opticians) to enter PD on prescriptions at a patient's request, in which case it would be covered by HIPAA: http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/licensee/dpl-boards/op/regulations...
The New Jersey State Board of Optometrists, on the other hand, takes the opposite position: http://njpublicsafety.com/ca/faq/optfaqsII.htm#4b
In comments to the FTC the National Association of Optometrists and Opticians said it "agrees that patients and eyeglass consumers have the right to a copy of medical records, which will include the pupillary distance if that measurement has been taken by either the prescriber or the dispenser" (emphasis theirs) but takes no position on whether or not the measurement should be required. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_comments/2... (pp.12)
So... that settles nothing.
Do you have any recommendations about this? It's the kind of thing I'm a bit nervous about searching as I can see many, many ways I might accidentally read the optician equivalent of an anti-vaccination blog.
Why is there not a pdf with plans and clear cut instructions on how to build the wire bender (which at 2500 Euros is absolutely insane)?
I understand using the money for funding more glasses makes sense, but in reality if your mission is for this hardware breakthrough to improve everyone's life all around the world, why hide and hog the design?
I'd like to build this in my machine shop in the other corner of the world, why send 2500 Euros to Germany? I just don't get it. It makes me think of ulterior motives and when that happens I quickly lose faith in the organization. Everyone loses, the cause itself being the most affected.
Luxottica currently owns 80% of the eyeglass business
There's a known way to cut costs with round lenses. With round lenses, you can have a small inventory of premade lenses with only two parameters. The axis is set with a little notcher that makes a notch which locks it to a bump in the frame, so it can't rotate. These have been used in India for decades. There's an optical store in an attache case.
If the One Dollar Glasses guys only use 25 different lenses, are they just blowing off the cylindrical correction entirely? Are these just "readers" like the ones available cheaply at most drugstores? Those you can get on Alibaba for $0.75 each in bulk.[1]
[1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Premade-Distance-Glas...
Here is one person's struggle in getting glasses while poor (clip from 2008, but we see this at clinics constantly) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TfraBGSGg8
That being said, be very careful of cheap glasses. If you have a strong Rx, you need the OC to be aligned properly with your P.D. otherwise you're inducing prism. This can cause severe headaches and eye fatigue. You should also make sure you go see a Dr regularly; those exams test more than just your vision. You could be going blind in a preventable way and not know until too late.
Oh, cheap frames just aren't as comfortable at the end of the day as not as cheap frames. Buyer beware.
* Not a Dr myself. I worked in the labs. Don't take anything I say to be any sort of medical advice. I'm merely saying be very careful with your precious eye sight.
Just a word of caution to anyone considering making a donation, their donations page is not served over HTTPS. Their unsecured page renders an iframe [1] from their payment processor that is served over HTTPS though. I haven't tested it, but you should be able to make a donation securely via that link.
I reached out to them to let them know and offered some assistance.
[1] https://secure.fundraisingbox.com/app/payment?hash=UuYpAgAJ0...
For better view this is great.
But for the developed world it is not comparable. Either because the eyeglass frame should follow some trend, or the glasses itself needs some additional threatment.
For example, my glasses are 'cheap' even as I need special glasses. Yes, the diopter are different between left and right. But much more important is the parallax compensation for me. My optician exchanges the glasses even for free, if they don't fit. So online, is realy not an option.
I have ordered from Goggles4u, Zenni etc and these places must have razor thin profit margins, they always have coupons and its dirt cheap, never had issues with the quality of the lenses. You can always go to any optometrist/Costco etc and get the lens checked out to confirm.
I've used zennioptical.com and it has worked really well. I've run into frames that do not fit, but they were cheap mistakes and once I found something I liked, I just reorder every few years.
Paying attention to the frame measurements is pretty important if you buy online.
From what I understand, the frames themselves are just overpriced[0]
i bought a dozen negative glasses for $15 five years ago at chinatown in Jakarta, Indonesia; should be cheaper in china.
same model, same power, but can't choose color.
the retail is available so i can choose model, power, color, etc for $2 per glasses
I also bought a +4 glasses for less than $1, metal frame. positive glasses are cheaper maybe because there's less demand.
their quality depend solely on material, not price. my more stylish glasses (no-frame-around-glass, flexible handle) lasts about 3-6 months on heavy use. sturdier styles (harry-potter-styele, thicker plastic frame) lasted more than a year till my-then-baby-boy tore it forcefully from my face. my <$1 positive metal frame glasses seem to last forever.
nb: i wear positive lens everyday for my eye training and choose to no longer wear negative lens; therefore, i haven't bought any lenses for about three years; however, the prices are still about the same last time i checked at jakarta's chinatown.
Never bothered to actually check but I remember hearing that in a podcast.
[1]: http://www.onedollarglasses.org/the-glasses/production-on-si...
then it could spread and be self-sustaining, and everywhere would have $2 glasses, which is actually somewhat affordable, even in developing countries.
My only other concern is what about astigmatism? Are they teaching the people that distribute it to accomodate for that (like "2 hour optometrist training" LOL)
The frames are being made from cheap materials (plain wire) closer-to or at the location of the recipients. Another HNer mentioned the person behind this invented a small wire bending device, and that's being used here to form the frames.
I would wager, as well, that the lenses don't have all the fancy coatings and such that you might get from an Optometrist (anti-scratch/fog/glare/shatter, etc)... although when your options are cheap glasses vs. no glasses, most people will opt for having glasses.
There are some very clear and distinct differences.
Yes, there is a lot of bloat in prescription glasses pricing, but it's not 99% bloat (ie. it's not a $1 cost-to-manufacturer product being sold to you).
Frames are overly expensive, but a trivial comparison will reveal most frames are a lot more sturdy/well-constructed than a simple 18awg wire bent into shape.
The real expense is the lenses, and their coatings. The lenses in the $1 glasses surely cannot have anti-glare/fog/scratch/shatter coatings, otherwise the lenses alone would cost far more than $1! Also, the quality of manufacturing plays an important role, as other HNers have pointed out (the precision shape of the lenses, etc.).
The real "meat" of this thing isn't to highlight how over-priced prescription glasses are, it's to showcase a well intentioned charity that's providing clear vision to people who would not be able to get it any other way. These people will accept less quality, because the alternative is not being able to see. The $1 donation price-point enables a wider range of folks to be able to donate, which feeds the cycle.
I kind of wish there was a $2 glasses charity that used solid (if ugly) plastic frames that will stand up to some abuse. Even if the kids value the glasses (they will), it's easy to forget they are on your face when you trip and fall or take a soccer ball to the head or any number of possible calamities.
