mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Transition lenses have changed a lot in the last 40 years.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I've had transitions coating on my progressive lens glasses for the last 10 to 12 years or so. I personally love them, but everyone's got their own taste.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I hear you. However, my prescription is bad enough that the diopter will not adjust to my eyes. So I do not use transition lenses at all. I could get a replacement diopter, but then I could not use the camera with my glasses on.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Transitions are a lens coating that darkens in bright sunlight in lieu of sunglasses. Continuous focus lenses are called progressives.

tomcat

I've been wearing Transitions for 43 years and the darkened lenses do not bother my shooting or viewing. The progressive lenses on the other hand, did require an adjustment of my camera diopter and even now I wait to hear the beep and then fire away. With Nikon's matrix metering system, checking the histogram becomes just a confirmation to make sure I've not clipped either side. Very very rarely do I ever have to adjust my soccer images for exposure. They are virtually dead-on. With white jerseys, I do have to lower the Highlights slider. I only chimp to make sure that I got the goal scorer.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Yep, I understand your problem. If I move my diopter the maximum amount in one particular direction it comes close to meeting my prescription, but it's not exact. So I wouldn't risk manually focusing under those circumstances. But for auto focus it works fine for me.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Yep, transitions are useless when driving vehicles with standard tinted windows.

tomcat

How so? I've been doing it for 43 years and haven't noticed a serious problem.

10MPlayer Loc: California

-edit- I misunderstood at first and thought you meant the self darkening glasses. Hate them. I've worn transition lenses for over 20 years with no problems. My only complaint is when I play golf. To see through the upper part of the lens for distance (to look at the golf ball) I have to lower my head which causes bad golf posture which in turn makes my shoulder make contact with my chin giving me a sore neck. They do take some time to get used to when walking over rough ground or going up and down stairs. Give yourself a few weeks to get used to them.

gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

Wow, thanks for all the comments! I am sorry I didn't have an opportunity to check for responses until now. The question I posed does refer to Transition lenses which are supposed to darken in bright light and adjust to colorless indoors. I apologize for not being more specific.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

To decide if it would work for you, put on a pair of sunglasses - not the extremely dark ones - to give you an idea. I have worn transitions glasses for years, but when I started getting serious about photography, discovered they interfered with making the right camera settings.

Some have said they rely on the histogram, which in my mind is for reference only. Especially when trying to expose to the right and not blow out the whites and highlights. It is hard to judge the light when a lot of it is not getting through!

What about focusing? Sometimes it is difficult enough to get the focus point where you want it. With darkened glasses, good luck with that!

Composition might work out OK, but there will be times when you will wish you had been able to see the scene better.

Now I wear regular progressive lenses almost all the time. If I am going to be in intense sunlight I will use my transitions progressives, but keep the regular ones handy for photography.

As for comments about wearing transitions in a car, they don't work as an ordinary pair of sunglasses would to cut down whatever glare not decreased by the windshield coating.

So, if you are just out to have fun and not really concerned about how the images turn out, wear progressives. IMHO, progressives are NOT suited for photography.

I always wear my glasses when taking pictures, and they do not hinder at all. One thing that helps a great deal is to use a Hoodman loupe for reviewing images in bright light - it blocks the bright light around the LCD screen so you can see what is on it!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Because transition lenses do not darken in modern cars with factory tinted windows and therefore do not work as sunglasses while driving.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

You are confusing transition lenses with progressive lenses. Transition lens coatings darken your glasses like sunglasses. From your description it sounds like your glasses are progressives which vary the prescription from reading glasses to distance as you shift your eyes up.

Leitz Loc: Solms

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bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

There are varying degrees of darkening for good versions of transitions, the ophthalmologist specified a different darkness for my wife than mine, also there are different brands and rates/shapes of the progressive part, if you cannot adjust to one ask for another brand, location of the reading portion, my wife's has to be set a couple of millimeters lower than usual, to prevent dizzy spells, we've both been wearing them for a long time.