sabfish

I am scheduled for cataract surgery in May and would welcome anyone's experience with the surgery and the affect on your photography. I am also interested in whether you chose multi-focal lenses or the single focus lenses. I am leaning toward the former. I searched past posts on this subject, but most of them were at least 4 years old. The availability of multi-focal lenses has certainly improved since then, so I thought I would seek more current experiences.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

How does a multi-focus lens work?

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Might the OP be referring to the older zooms where one had to "re-focus" after zooming to a different focal length?

whatdat Loc: Del Valle, Tx.

No effect on my photography. With astigmatism, I couldn’t go the route with one lense far & one near.. had to have one of the lens specific (Kirov?). Far vision great; reading glasses needed. So I bought a dozen reading specs & put a pair in every room plus cars. Good luck with your procedure.

sabfish

Here is a description of how the multi-focal lenses work:
Multifocal IOLs
These lenses are designed to allow for distance, intermediate and near focusing and do not depend on the ciliary body muscle. Most of these lenses have some type of concentric rings etched into the surface that allows images at all distances to be focused on the retina. Because of this, it takes a little longer for people to adapt to them. The focusing power provided by these lenses is different than normal focusing that most people had during their younger adult life. Therefore, the brain must adapt to this new way of focusing. However, they work surprisingly well.

Examples
ReZoom: uses five different optical zones microscopically etched into the surface of the lens to provide near, intermediate and distance vision
Tecnis Multifocal: considered a "diffractive" IOL, containing diffractive rings that extend the entire length of the diameter of the lens; improves night vision and reduces dependence on the size of the pupil.
ReSTOR: uses technology that is dependent on pupil size to provide clear vision at all distances,1 with an aspheric option to improve night driving and reduce unwanted glare and halos
Panoptix: This is the only FDA approved trifocal lens available. It is designed to give intermediate and near vision along with distance.
Tecnis Symfony: This uses an "echelette" design, which elongates the focal point to allow for depth of focus.

My Wife had multi-focal lenses put in several years ago and astigmatism correction. She now does not need glasses at all.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I had cataract surgery on both eyes a few years ago--great results, no regrets. My surgeon, rated one of the top three in the state, advised me to get the single focus lens and reading glasses--some of the best advice I have ever had.

sabfish

Could you explain why he recommended the single focus and why you feel it was "some of the best advice I have ever had"?

Urnst Loc: Brownsville, Texas

Same here. Before I was nearsighted and after surgery far-sighted. I had to change some diopter settings as a result.

Toment Loc: FL, IL

Your result is likely to be good. Multi focal lenses work well. I couldn’t use them as astigmatism had to be corrected with a Toric lens. But near vision improved to the point of not needing magnifying glasses except in the very dark.
You’ll have to ask your eye doctor if a multi focal lens will interfere with using a viewfinder. I doubt it will.
Good luck

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

I started a topic on the subject back in September in preparation for my own surgeries. For some reason, I am unable to do a cut and paste of the link into this reply. If you go to my topics in my profile, you'll see the topic. Just click on it to get to the thread. So many of our fellow members chimed in with great info. I also posted a topic after I had my surgeries.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

Single focus. No effect on my photography.

reverand

I just had cataract surgery a year ago. You DON'T want multi-focus lenses. You want lenses that focus at infinity, which means you'll need glasses for close-up work.

They will measure your eye with sophisticated laser equipment, which means they can correct astigmatism, if necessary. It's worth doing. Then, you have three choices for lenses: 1. lenses that focus at infinity, 2. compromise lenses that allow you to read up close without reading glasses, 3. multi-focus lenses that are flexible and interact with the muscles in your eye, which means you focus them the way you would with the lenses you were born with.

The multi-focus technology isn't that good yet. It results in conspicuous flare, and since one of the big benefits in getting your cataracts removed is to reduce flare, you don't really want to reintroduce it. I think it also produces chromatic aberration, because the shape of the lens keeps changing. People who get the compromise lenses tend to be dissatisfied, because they can't focus sharply at a distance, and that's how you do most of your seeing. So, go for the lenses that are corrected for infinity. It also costs about $1400 extra for a lens that is corrected for astigmatism, if you need it (in my case, I didn't need it in the left eye, but I did in the right). It's well worth it.

I had 20-20 vision most of my life, but it started to test out at 20-30, and I was having problems with flare especially when driving at night. So, I had the cataracts removed (which was combined, in my case, with glaucoma surgery).

Now, believe it or not, my vision tests at 20-15 for each eye, and there's very little residual flare, none at all in the daytime. I don't need glasses most of the time. I can always pick up reading glasses to read, but I've had a pair of graduated lens reading glasses made: they're clear on the top, and +2.75 on the bottom. I've used reading glasses all my life, so this is not an inconvenience.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

He thought multi-focus would confuse my eyes when focusing the cameras, and I have friends who got the multi-focus lenses and wish they hadn’t.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

This is an area where you need to think, experiment a little, if possible, and make your own decision. If you decide to choose near/far correction, you need to consider ALL of your activities, determine which is your dominant eye, and then figure out which eye to choose for which correction.

I personally chose distant vision with correction for astigmatism. I wear progressive trifocals for computer screen and reading correction full time.

It is important to keep in mind that the primary purpose of cataract surgery is to get rid of the cloudy obstruction in your lens, not to provide perfect refraction. That is just a beneficial side effect that is generally realized. But it is not LASIK or any other vision correction surgery. There is absolutely no guarantee that your vision will not change over time, eventually requiring external correction of some sort.

So look forward to it and enjoy the drastically improved vision. But don't get too hung up on it, and don't be disappointed if you either initially or eventually need glasses to have the best vision.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

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