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Shooting glasses for aging eyes: Top Focal, bottom bifocal and magnification
by Ali Juten on Nov 04, 2019
If you use readers and your front sight has become harder to see, start with a question: where do you need the reading segment to sit?
Top Focal® lenses and bottom bifocals place that segment in different parts of the lens. That difference is easy to miss when shopping online, but it matters when you compare the available setups.
Top Focal®: the reading segment sits at the top
Standard Top Focal® lenses put reading magnification in an upper segment. The rest of the lens does not have reading magnification. The whole lens is not a full-strength reader.
This placement is intended for people who need help seeing a pistol's front sight through the upper part of the lens. Whether it works for you depends on your vision, lens strength and fit.
The Top Focal® AST Kit offers interchangeable upper bifocal lenses in clear, yellow and smoke. If your starting question is about upper lens placement, this is the kit to compare first.
Bottom bifocal: the reading segment sits lower
Bottom bifocals put reading magnification in a lower segment. That arrangement suits the way many people look down at close details, such as a scorecard or a small label.
The Denial Bottom Focal Kit is the lower-segment option in this comparison. It is a different lens arrangement from Top Focal®, even though the models share a frame design.
What makes the Ultra kit different?
The Top Focal Ultra Kit includes separate upper and bottom bifocal lens sets in clear, yellow and smoke. The added choice is in the interchangeable sets. “Ultra” does not mean that every supplied lens has both an upper and a lower reading segment.
Compare the lens sets you will actually use before choosing a kit. If you want help understanding the combinations, ask SSP to walk you through them.
Your reading strength is a starting question
The strength you use for a book may not be the strength you prefer at a different viewing distance. Do not choose solely by the number on your everyday readers.
Tell the SSP team what you are trying to see, whether you normally use a prescription, and which setup you are considering. SSP can explain the available products and strengths; your eye-care professional can determine your correction needs.
Readers and a custom prescription are different choices
A standard reader segment supplies a selected reading strength. It is not a custom prescription.
If you need prescription correction, ask about the Methow prescription adapter and lens options. The adapter, prescription lenses, frame and outer lenses are separate choices. An adapter alone does not include your prescription.
Start with the lens arrangement, then the kit
- Upper reader segment: compare Top Focal® AST.
- Lower reader segment: compare Denial Bottom Focal.
- Separate upper and lower lens sets: compare Top Focal Ultra.
- Custom prescription: discuss the Methow RX setup with SSP.
Still unsure? Call 509-707-0068 and tell us how you plan to use your glasses. We can help you compare the options.
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In response to Larry Michel’s comment about the Top focal Premier Kit. You are the correct, our top focal kits have a magnified portion only in the top part of the lens. The whole lens is not magnified. Hope this helps! – Ali
I am just a little confused. I want a 1.0 lens in my right (dominant)eye. I want the whole lens at 1.0 not a bifocal. Left eye I want no correction. I thought from description that this was the Top Focal Premiere Kit. However, when I go to order the Top Focal Premiere Kit, it says:
“a full set of lenses with bifocal magnification at the top of the lens”
This makes me think the whole lens is NOT the same and the magnification is just at the top of the lens.Am I missing something? Please help. Love the concept.
Larry
I have prescription lenses for a 20/400 farsighted vision. Focus on my front iron sights through the upper left corner of my right lens is difficult because as I put my cheek on the rifle stock and look through my right lens, it is angled and I end up looking through the upper left corner of the lens. It doesn’t have a very good quality of image that far from the center of the lens. Is there a standard way shooters solve this problem? Do I just need to wear contacts and then use the solution of magnification on the top of my shooting (non-prescription) glassses? Thanks for your thoughts!
How much are your shooting glasses.
The other day, I was practicing with a 22 target pistol and as always at this stage of my life, I was having trouble seeing the REAR sight. I went and got a pair of readers I had laying around they were those really CHEAP readers for $8 bucks at Wally World you get 3 or 4 pair. They were a 1.0 magnification. I could see the REAR and Front sight SHARPLY. Then squeezed off a few rounds. Let me tell you, even though the Target was pretty blurry I was HITTING and shooting BETTER than I have in YEARS. Not that I was a world champion to start with. But it made an ASTONISHING difference. I do welding TOO, have been doing that off and on all of my life. I run a magnifier in my welding hood, had one in it for over 20 YEARS. I am 68 years old. After cataract surgery I had to go to a MUCH more POWERFUL Magnifier in my hood, but welding is CLOSE WORK. I am going to try your product, it has got to work if my old readers were any indicator. Needs some in the YELLOW and in Dark sunshade. The Crystal Lens leaves you with TWO kinds of LIGHT, NOT ENOUGH, and TOO MUCH!!! Glare is a bad thing. The Crystal Lens SUCKS, If I had to to it over I wouldn’t, BB