New Nikon optical lenses - Feels weird

I got a new pair of Nikon lenses for my optical glasses. I bought the frame from Amazon and the lenses from a reputable retailer in the USA

After swapping the lenses into the frame locally, I can see through the lenses, it just feels differently and I have a bit of a stiff neck and my body is a bit shaky.

Do you lot reckon this is normal and there's an adjustment period to the new Nikon lenses / coating?

It's only been a couple hours since I started wearing them.

I've never had Nikon lenses before. Just regular SpecSavers type lenses.

Comments

  • +2

    PD Correct?

  • Stiff neck and shaky suggests something very not right.

  • +8

    I'm a qualified Optical Dispenser by trade, and I wear Nikon lenses myself. I'd consider them to be superior to anything Specsavers offers, because they're a budget eyewear retailer, but (as with most things in life) when you pay a premium for a product the performance should be commensurate with that higher cost. It's normal with any new prescription lenses for there to be a period of adjustment as your brain adapts to the new visual information it's receiving. Depending on the degree of change in your prescription, and on your own personal adaptability to change, the adjustment period could be anywhere from a few minutes to several weeks.

    In my personal experience (almost 16 years in the industry), I wouldn't consider a stiff neck or shaky body to be a normal responses to a new pair of lenses - are you adopting a different head posture when you're wearing the specs? There are numerous factors that can influence a wearer's response to a new lens - prescription strength and attributes, lens material, whether the lens is an advanced design or a 'traditional' design, features such as AR coatings and blue light filters, the measurements used to manufacture the lenses, and the fit of the frame on a customer's face.

    I work for an optical business that operates at the premium end of the market, and we take comprehensive measurements when we produce glasses for our clients. Those measurements include horizontal and vertical eye position within the frame (those measurements aren't symmetrical, because peoples' faces aren't), the curvature of the frame around a customer's field of view, the distance from the back surface of the lens to the customer's eye, customer's head posture, sometimes even their preferred writing hand and dominant eye.

    As a general rule, the stronger or more complex a person's prescription, the more good measurements and good frame fit matter to the visual and physical comfort of the glasses.
    Because comprehensive measurements can be tremendously beneficial to the visual comfort of a person's lenses, I personally wouldn't order lenses my own lenses online, but others might take a different view.

    My advice to you is to get the prescription of the lenses and the fit of the frames on your face assessed by a professional. I often meet people who've ordered their glasses online and made an error when they typed in the prescription or measurements. If your frame design is perfectly symmetrical, it's possible you've installed the left lens into the right side of the frame and vice versa. If your frame is circular, the lenses may be rotated within the frame such that they're not on the correct axis - this is especially critical if you have a correction for astigmatism or prism built into your lenses.

    Visit an optical retailer, be up-front with them about the fact you bought the glasses elsewhere, and ask if they could help you out by checking whether the lenses match the prescription and whether they could check and adjust the fit. If you're lucky, they might be nice and help you out at no charge - but they'd be well within their rights to levy a small fee or ask for a donation to an optical charity, given that they didn't derive any income from your purchase of the glasses.

    Your situation goes to the core of online buying - it's often cheaper and sometimes more convenient, but you don't necessarily get the professional advice, expertise, fitting, after-care (cleaning, servicing, repairs, adjustments) or warranty support that you'll get with an in-store purchase. Best of luck.

    • +3

      If you are willing to disclose, could you message me the dispenser you work at in Sydney? I'd be keen to come to yours.

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