Which anti-fatigue lenses are for you? A review and comparison
Hi, this is Sam from Pott Glasses. Today I’m going to review and compare 2 different anti fatigue lenses, Zeiss’ Digital Lenses and Hoya’s Sync-III lenses. Both of the lenses used would be of similar addition power, that is, +1.25 for Zeiss and +1.32 for Hoya for a more better comparison. But first, let’s have a brief introduction of anti fatigue lens.
What is anti fatigue lens
Anti fatigue lens is also known as relax lens. It aims to reduce the eyes’ workload for near vision activity such as reading and using digital devices. It is capable to doing so by providing a ‘reading power’ at the bottom of the lens. “Reading power” is normally slightly lower in comparison to “distance power” due to the phenomena known as accommodation . The idea of anti fatigue lens is to help wearer to read more comfortably and feel less tiring on the eyes by providing the suitable “reading power” at the bottom.
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Which anti fatigue lens is better?
Zeiss Digital Lenses (+1.25)
I’ve been using the Digital lenses for about 6 months now and its performance has been very. promising. There is barely any distortions when side glancing at distance and has a comfortable and wide near portion. I had no problems going about my day to day with them, driving, moving about, hanging out with friends and… you get the point. So for wearing adaptability and comfort I’d give it a 9/10.
Maintenance-wise for the Zeiss lenses, I’d find that it doesn’t get finger prints on it very easily. This is useful to me as I tend to move my glasses up and down because my eyelids affected by eczema. Though for the amount of dust and debris that it collects over time of wear would be the expected amount. When that happens, I tend to blow the dust away, which usually doesn’t do anything. In the end, I’d still need to whip out my microfiber cloth to wipe my lenses. So that would be a 6/10 for maintenance.
On the question of durability, I’d say that the DuraVision coating gets the job done pretty well. It doesn’t get scratched easily. On one of my trips, I was riding pillion on a bike with my glasses hanging on my collar. The rider stepped on the brake hard so it kinda got squished in between the rider and myself. For the lenses, it had a small snail trail scratch at the peripheral side of the lens. It doesn’t really affect my vision though, so I guess its fine. So yeah, durability wise I’d give it a 5/10.
Now, on to the main point, how does it perform when you’re on the PC and devices? And I’d have to say quite good. My usual tasks on the PC would usually be watching youtube videos, reading articles and playing games. I find that the requirement for more detailed vision, the intermediate portion of the lenses would seem very narrow. Due to that, I always end up using the distance portion or the near portion to read articles.
It performs quite well when it involves dynamic vision. I personally play a lot of first person shooter games which involve a lot of darting my eyes around, looking at the HUD and situational awareness to spot enemy movements. The wide FOV helps for me because I’m using dual monitors. Devices like phones are pretty straightforward, the near portion encompasses the area where I look at my phone through. So for use with digital devices I’d give it a 6.5/10.
Hoya Sync-III 13 (+1.32)
I’ve been using this lens for about 1 month now. Though I got it not long ago but I think I grasped the lens well enough to have an opinion about it. The addition power is slightly higher than Zeiss because they only have it in this range, but its similar to have a more fair comparison. The wearing adaptability is not as good compared to the Digital lenses. This is mainly because the distance FOV is actually more narrow than Zeiss. I find that I need to rotate my head more towards the direction that my eyes are at to get a clearer picture. I am fine going about my day with the Sync-III but it just doesn’t feel as good as the Digital lenses. Hence, for that I’ll be giving this a score of 6/10.
This lens is pretty low maintenance. But, I’m using the High Vision Long Life (HVLL) coating from Hoya which is known for being low maintenance, I cannot speak much on the HVP coating, which is the lower end coating for Hoya which I have no experience with it before. It works as well as Zeiss’s DuraVision in terms of fingerprint or oily smudges. Dust and debris cleaning wise, it is much more easier to clean off. Usually, blowing on the lenses already removes a good number off the lens. Although there’s some that needs to be wiped off but it’s still better than having to wipe it all the time. 7/10
Durability-wise, it should be no contest as HVLL is known to be one of the best with scratch resistance. Small things like accidentally grazing the lenses with hard objects wouldn’t scratch it. Though during a team bonding session, I have accidentally dropped my glasses on to the road. Some small point scratches, which is quite unfortunate because I got the glasses for less than a month at the time. So the score for durability for the Sync-III HVLL would be 7/10.
The performance on the PC and devices for the Sync-III I’d say its more superior compared to the Digital lenses. It is capable of a higher additional power due to its Ultra Boost technology which does not involve any type of footwear. Ultra boost is capable of achieving higher addition power past the reading portion of the lenses, so technically the addition can get higher than +1.32 at even power gazes.
Although the FOV is a bit more constricted at distance, it has a wider, more comfortable intermediate portion and a reading portion that is slightly smaller than the Digital. Detailed tasks like reading articles and writing is very comfortable using the Sync-III, heck I’m using the Sync-III while typing this right now. For more dynamic tasks like gaming it doesn’t affect it a lot, I can still play games as I usually did. While it doesn’t accommodate very well to by dual monitor set up, its not really a big problem. So the Sync-III gets a 8.5/10 for use with digital devices.
Conclusion
Both of the anti fatigue lens are great, but they all have their own pros on cons. In a nutshell, Zeiss Digital lenses would be more suitable for people with a more dynamic lifestyle, one that needs to move around from place to place and constantly check their devices. It also recommended for people would would like a wider FOV at distance. Hoya’s Sync-III would be more suitable for people who are usually behind the desk working in a more stationary environment. The Ultra Boost feature really does help with heavy near work by providing additional power to relax the eyes more.
Both of these lenses have a robust range of additional powers. Zeiss’s would be +0.50, +0.75, +1.00 and +1.25 while Hoya’s would be +0.57, +0.95 and +1.32. It is also recommended to have a pair of frames that are highly adjustable to get the best fitting pair of lenses so that the lenses will be utilised to it full potential. Do drop by any of our branches for a further consultation.
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