frame size and shape and compensates
for prescribed prism.
Consumers will notice greater colour
contrast and reduced distortion for
smooth, more natural viewing. The
lenses are also thinner, making for
more cosmetically appealing
eyeglasses.
Kodak Unique HD progressive lenses
are available hard-coated or with
Kodak Clean&CleAR. Many lens
manufacturers, like Kodak, now offer
free-form lenses – the most popu lar
type of high-definition lenses – as
part of their portfolios.
Known for offering superior image
quality and less nighttime glare, freeform lenses are highly customized lenses
that are created using computer-aided
design and surfacing processes.
Essilor, the world leader for corrective
lenses, launched this year in Canada
the Varilux E series lenses, which are
created with technologies inspired
from the company's most advanced
Varilux S series lenses.
Varilux brand manager Kristel Bordeleau-Tassile of Essilor Canada says the
Varilux S series, when it launched just a
few years ago, “completely revolutionized the concept of progressive lenses”
and broke the compromise between
wide fields of vision and limited
swim effect.
“Varilux S series is the first line of
digital progressive lenses providing a
real breakthrough in wearer experience
thanks to its Nanoptix patented technology, entirely re-engineering the
fundamental structure of a progressive
lens to reduce swim effect, combined
with SynchronEyes patented technology
taking into account the physiological
differences between the two eyes to
ensure extra-large field of vision,”
she says.
4D Technology is the other patented
technology available specifically on
Varilux S 4D design, which “takes the
leading dominant eye into account in
lens calculations to ensure instant
focus and faster visual reaction time
for the wearer.”
Both Varilux S series and Varilux E
series use a patented manufacturing
process called Varilux series Digital
Surfacing, which is “designed to reach
an unmatched level of precision,”
Bordeleau-Tassile says.
The Canadian company Plastic Plus,
the exclusive production and distribution
partner of German-based Rodenstock
Group, began offering Rodenstock's
Impression FreeSign 3 lenses
last year.
“Impression FreeSign 3, which
replaces its predecessor Impression
FreeSign 2, has benefits to offer that
take progressive spectacles wearers
into a new dimension: maximum visual
zone, high image stability and the
highest spontaneous compatibility.”
“Aberrations are pushed into irrelevant
areas for the wearer so that they do not
adversely affect natural perception.
Impression FreeSign 3 is also unique
because of the great design flexibility
with which the individual habits of the
wearer are accommodated.”
Opticians can offer patients one of
three prefabricated design types or an
individual design “calculated on the
basis of the customer's personal
vision profile.”
The prefabricated lenses include an
“All round design” for people who want
equally balanced visual zones for near,
intermediate and far vision as well as
an “Active design” for active patients.
“This is a thrilling lens, especially for
dynamic activities, due to extremely
high image stability as well as large
fields of view for far and medium
viewing distances.”
The “Expert design” provides ideal
vision comfort in the intermediate
vision range, making it perfect for
people who travel a lot and work at
the same time.