Upgrading my eyes

Those who know me (and remember a previous post here), will know that I struggle more than anything with my eyes. In summary, I have a pretty bad prescription and I'm right handed and extremely left eye dominant - I'm also colour blind to certain combinations.  I've been going to see Ed Lyons for a few years, and use him for my shooting and non-shooting specs. 

So far, I have had two pairs of Oakley Specs - one a G20 tint for general use, one a pair of 'welding goggles'  that help me in bright sunlight - but I have never been 100% happy with the Oakley frames - they feel very small on my face, and I can see the frames at the edge of my vision - not something I am used to with my 'day' glasses.  I've also long coveted a purple lens to help pick out some colours I struggle with. 

Previously, Ed had tried me with some contact lenses - but more problems with my eyes meant I wasn't comfortable with them and so we went down the specs route. 

More recently, Ed proposed that there could be a new solution for me, and yesterday a new pair of shooting glasses arrived. 

I now have a pair of Pilla Model 580 frames, with a 46N Purple lens in - this frame gives me a wider field of vision with a virtually frameless design - the lenses are also acrylic, which makes them very lightweight - which is also very important to me. 

Ed has put an 'anti-fatigue' prescription into the specs, which allows some close up vision - but the long distance view is very crisp, so far I've tested them in bright sunshine in the garden, and a dull overcast day - and both times the colours seem much more vivid and clear.

So - the test now is to see how they shoot - I'm off for some FITASC Sporting practice tomorrow and I'll update when I see how they (and I) perform. 

Thanks again Ed - top service as always, and good to see an experiment come to life!

 

Its really nice to be able to provide "proper" shooting glasses for higher prescriptions such as Matt's. With the Oakleys, we were very much limited by the shape and size of the frame, and had to call in "a favour" to have them make the Crosslink styles we used here, as they usually say "no can do!"

With the 580, we have a lot more options for lens colour and material plus "after market" add ons such as water repellent coatings and bifocal sections to allow some reading vision.

Historically, these were made in the USA. Pilla have asked me to make all their prescription lenses for them for the UK market, so they will all be made in this country.

Pretty much all filtrations are available and i have modified the edge profile so it looks neater than the American version. Pretty much any prescription can be catered for so for some it may be time to ditch those inserts!

As usual, anyone ordering quoting Shootclay will get a 10% discount off all eyewear, prescription or not

First go out with the new goggles yesterday - on a 100 target FITASC Sporting - practice, but under competition conditions. 

Light was unusual yesterday morning, a bit flat, overcast with a few breaks of quite bright sunshine - so typical UK conditions and a good time to test the new specs. 

Made a few adjustments to the arms and nosepieces to get them comfortable and then off out to shoot.  First thing I noticed is that Ed has done a tiny bit of magic to try and help with my very dominant left eye, Time will tell on this, but initial usage felt comfortable. 

I found the field of vision much better on these, over my usual Oakleys - the much bigger frames allowed a lot more light in - but the purple tint kept everything nicely contrasting for me. I found blaze clays against green backgrounds very crisp and even was able to pickup quick battues against a mixed background quite early.  

Maybe it was the changes to the eyes, but I felt far more comfortable picking up clays early in their flight and giving myself more time to make a shot. 

Shot a 22, 20, 19 and then a poor 13 to finish - I think that was fatigue rather than eyes, as we shot four layouts fairly much straight through and I didn't manage my fuel intake as well as I should have done. 

More testing needed - but I think these specs are the ones for me. 

I too am experimenting with Mr Lyons new Pilla production!

ive been a lifelong Oakley user and have never had any problems with the product, they have done me proud and looked the part for a good few years.

sadly as Oakley are reducing the tints available in the shooting suitable glasses, especially prescription stuff I've been thinking of changing for a while. Ed knocked me up a pair of the prescription pillas to try and although very early days I'm impressed. Clarity appears great, and they actually sit a little better on my nose giving more lense to look through. They are also very light which is a bonus.

so far I'm very impressed and will definitely be ordering a few various tints that suit me to cover off the various backgrounds and conditions I come across every week.

historically I recommended Oakley or Randolph to most (not all) of my customers when they needed prescription stuff but now Mr Lyons is in charge of the prescription pilla side of things I think that will be changing!

Are you about to become a "Pilla of Society" then ??

Glad to know I am in good company!

I have an appointment to see Ed in July - very interested in the process and intrigued to find out what he recommends - using Oakleys without any prescription currently