Specialty Glasses

[jazzman]

I currently wear contacts when playing. Over the past year or so, my eyes have been more increasingly irritated because of this. I'm seriously looking into purchasing a pair of specialty glasses designed for playing pool. Does anyone have any experience with this that can offer me any advice.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[thefonz]

back to glasses

sorry to hear that you can't wear contacts anymore. have you tried other brands?

personally i'd get my eyes lasered before i'd go back to wearing glasses.

i new a guy that had a pair, he didn't use them for very long, he thought they were great when he was down on the ball and shooting, but when he was walking around the table, or standing behind his shot aligning himself, it felt too kooky to him. the benefit was supposed to be that you would be able to sight out of the centre of the lens of your glasses, so the focal point of your eyes would stay the same.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Advice: You need to be able to focus no closer than 2 feet and no farther than 12 feet. These distances are greater than reading distance and less than driving distance. {And in my case require two different prescriptions.}

Have your optician determine if you can 'accomodate' from a single prescription over this whole distance. If so, you can get a pair of glasses with one prescription per lens. If not (as in my case) a pair of bifocals are in order. When bifocals are in order, you want the lower lens pair to cover 2 feet towards 5 feet with optimal focus at 3.16 feet, and the upper lens cover 4 feet towards 10 feet with optimal focus at 6.32 feet. In the case of bifocals for billiards, you will want the 'line' to be about 1/2 way up the lens--this is considerably higher than the std bifocal prescription. And the glasses 'overall' will only be confrotable for billiards.

Select a set of frames where the top of the frame does not limit the height of the prescription lens. You want the lens to be tall, so you can look right through it while down on the cueball looking down table at the OB and pocket. Be sure to discuss this with the optician--as they will have no idea the controtions the player will want optimized. There are billiards glasses frames available on the net with just a hair of googling involved that fit this bill nicely.

 

[WoodyJ]

My usual frames were large enough so I just had a set of special lens made.

Was given the choice of max focal length of 6', 12', 18', etc. I chose 18' so I could see the table while seated watching my opponent. Works good for me.

In other words, when getting a new perscription they give you one for max. distance and also give the correction for reading glasses automatically. Just ask for the extra perscription for 12' and/or 18' at no extra charge.

 

[Filibogado]

This style of glasses available from a UK vendor on EBay worked for me:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Snooker...y_VisionGlasses_Lenses_SM&hash=item2a0d7694e1

If I were to do it all over again, I would still order the same frame but I would look for an optician who understands the special needs of pool players better. In my case, she literally gave me a single vision prescription that works great when you're focused on the center of the table but is a little blurry when you raise your sight above the center. So while the cue ball is crystal clear, the object ball is a little blurry. That's because I was stupid enough to tell her that that I wanted a single vision lens with a focal lens that is the average of the length of the table, i.e., from 2 to 10 feet. As it turns out, this averaging method is incorrect. I should have said a maximum of 12 or 18 feet wiith reading glasses correction as you stated. I also followed the optometrist's sales pitch and ordered the higher cost high index curved lens when I should have settled for the lower cost CR39. As a result, the pool cue looks distorted because of the curved, albeit lighter, optics.

Luckily, my eyes deteriorate every year (lol) so that gives me an excuse to order a new prescription but keep the old frame. This hinged lens design is really great for looking at the balls from the waistline level, especially if you have a high forehead like me and normal glasses tend to bump up against your front cranium.

Flip

 

[wendyb]

Snooker glasses

hi!
I bought Snooker frames on ebay and had my local eye dr fill the glass perscription, he put the bifocal lenes I normally wear in them but moved it higher so For long low shots I can see clearly at the end of the table.
They look pretty geeky, but they work well and I only wear them at the local pool hall.
It keeps the riff raff away too. :^)
There are several types of snooker frames I found, but I did have to convert US dollard to Pounds to buy them on ebay.
keep looking and you will find ...
Thanks!
wendy

 

[PUTT4DACA$$H]

Billiard glasses

I play on a BCA team where a couple of the guys are wearing special pool glasses. First one guy got them now three guys and one woman. Its a tuesday night league so tomorrow I will find out what kind they are and report back.

They all really like them


Good Luck

Gordon Graham
425-275-8255
Las Vegas

 

[Alf Taylor]

Now, see here

Hi there. Good question. I just told my optometrist that it is two and a half feet from my eyes to my bridge hand and about nine and a half ft. from corner to corner. He made me glasses to play, with high frames, that capture everything in the thirteen ft. range. Sometimes I forget that they're not my pool glasses and walk around wearing them...until I start to read something...then I just throw up.
Keep it nice. Alfie

 

[OneArmed]

I purchased some snooker glasses from an optician in Quebec (i think that's where he was). I used them for about a year, but now just bought some glasses with larger rims, and use a billiard stance.

 

[HawaiianEye]

Specialty glasses - superfocus

I wear contacts for playing pool, but I wear glasses for everything else and I would HIGHLY recommend these for anybody who needs to constantly adjust their focusing range.

I bought these glasses a little more than a year ago and they are DEFINITELY the BEST glasses I have ever worn. They are a bit geeky looking, but if you don't mind looking like Harry Potter or John Lennon then you will be OK with them. If you wear "normal" or "undersized" glasses to play pool, these may work for you, but the lenses are too small for me to use when I lean over to shoot (I look over the top of them).

I have a friend who works on a cue lathe and he thinks they are the best thing since sliced bread. The glasses can be adjusted, with a flick of the finger, to focus almost macro-close all the way up to infinity...and any distance in between.

They are expensive, but if you have multiple pairs of glasses for each purpose then one pair that does everything may be not too bad of a deal.

They give a 30-day, no questions asked, trial and their customer service has been fantastic when I have dealt with them.

Feel free to ask me any questions if you are inquisitive. If you decide to try them, you can use my referral number (1590) and get 10% off, should you decide to buy them.

Their website is:

http://www.superfocus.com/the-superfocus-technology

 

[rrcoolcues]

I used to wear glasses when playing pool, now I wear contacts which at this point are working great for me. If I ever experience any problems I will go back to Decot Hy-Wyd Glasses again. There is another company out of Canada that I have heard good things about. Google poolplayer eyeglasses and you should see both Decot and the Canadian company. I have friends that have both styles and all are happy and can see well. Hopes this helps.

 

[Maniac]

Check out this website: www.billiard-eyeglasses.com.

Talk to Dr. Harrison, he's as nice a man as you'd want to talk to.

Maniac

 

[jazzman]

Thanks All

My wife has threatened to disown me if I get the glasses but I know it's a bluff....lol. I'm tired of playing tournaments and constantly rubbing my eyes because of the irritation. I only wear the contacts when I play and wear glasses the rest of the time. The problem is obviously with the contacts. Thanks for all your comments, they've definitely been helpful!

 

[seelesscacti]

I've been following these pool eyeglasses/contacts discussion on here for awhile. I've had terrible vision most of my life, and was wearing high prescription contact lenses when I first started playing pool in my early teens, and I saw perfect. I'm thirty now and wear contacts 95% of the time, my vision is mostly fine outside of pool, but over the last couple years it seems like my vision really deteriorated when shooting. I was just seeing blurred balls and my eyes were straining and becoming irritated at futilely trying to focus the edges of the ball to be crisp. Went to the optometrist and my prescription hadn't changed.

I was thinking about investing in billiard glasses, too, and was researching it on here. But the consensus then seemed like if you can wear contacts, it is far superior to wearing glasses. And one member here commented to not overlook the value of good lighting on the table -- and to bring some brighter bulbs to your room and have the owner install it on your favorite table.

I do have a table at home, and when I installed it, I had made a quick lighting solution that seemed to work, but looking at it closer, there was clearly a lot of dim shadows. So, I decided to take money I would invest in billiard glasses (that may or may not work for me) and at least invest it in good diy lighting. It's still a work in progress, but man, it worked like a charm and I could finally see the balls clearly again. The bright lights on the table cleaned up so many vision issues I was having. Only issue is that some of the other places I shoot do have dimmer lights. I don't know if it'll work for your situation, but wanted to throw it out there. Nothing worse than not being able to see what you're doing in something you love that is based off seeing what you're doing.