Rain and Glasses?

"Mark South" <[email hidden]> wrote

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What type of water-repellant coating do you use, Mark? I've trid the
sort of stuff that's supposed to stop steaming up (without much
benefit) but is this different?

Actually, I use an impregnated lens cloth, available from your friendly
local optician. Leaves the lenses clean and shiny and water-repellent.

Thanks Mark - will try that.

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Best results are obtained by using the cloth every day. I like putting
on clean shiny specs after my morning shower to go with the whole new
clean sunny day shiny teeth kind of feeling, so that's when I do it.

TIP: even better results are obtained by using an alcohol-based lens
cleaner on the lenses first. Be thorough, and allow to dry completely.
Then use the lens cloth.

You can also try various coatings from opticians and even your local
automotive dealer. BUT BEWARE: some aftermarket surface coatings will
ruin some kinds of lenses. I take no responsibility etc etc.

I wondered about automotive products. I have an old prescription that I
might try one on and, if it works, a spare single-vision current
prescription that I only use for walking that might be worth the risk.

Stuart

[email hidden] said...

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In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

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[email hidden] said...

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Otherwise I have heard that a clear plastic back over the head & glasses
will solve problem. Still waiting for the TR of the guy who went to see
if it did work.

Sorry, I can't picture this. Would you mind explaining further
please?

meant to say 'bag' rather than 'back'.

Aha! :-)))))
--
I try to be a good example to my children, but they just see me
as a dire warning.

Fran said:

Bah. There's always someone around to pour cold water on my best
idea, isn't there.

Sorry, not my intention. It was a good idea in principle and, believe
me, I wish it did work. I wear spectacles myself. Walking in the rain
is not a pleasant visual experience.

Peter.

[email hidden] said...

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Bah. There's always someone around to pour cold water on my best
idea, isn't there.

Sorry, not my intention.

Perhaps I should have put a smiley there? 'Twas a pune, or play
on words.
--
I try to be a good example to my children, but they just see me
as a dire warning.

"Peter" <[email hidden]> wrote

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I wear spectacles myself. Walking in the rain
is not a pleasant visual experience.

Having them fall off when your halfway up Jack's Rake isn't a good
experience either, unless you've got someone below with quick reactions.

Hi all

Being involved in the Optical business, may I suggest that you look at some
of the more recent types of reflection free coatings that are now becoming
readily available. Some of these such as the 'Teflon' branded lenses by
Sola Optical have a superb hydrophobic layer on the surface of the coating.
This makes them much more resistant to misting up and provided they are
'clean' when you set off, water pretty much just runs off them like it does
on a newly waxed car.

There is also a new lens coating by a company called Sinclair Optical (can't
remember its name at the moment as it's so new) that does pretty much the
same thing, it should be slightly cheaper though simply because it doesn't
have the 'Teflon' branding. This Sinclair coating is very new, the
promotional literature only fell through our door last week, so it could be
a few weeks before your local Optician becomes familiar with it.

Both these coatings will (usually) only be available on new plastic lenses
and I would suggest that the retail cost will be in the region of £30 to £40
for the coating. I've just returned from a (very wet) walking week in and
around the Lake District and my Teflon lenses held up very well.

Cheers

Jem

"Michael Hobby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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"Richard Baker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Baseball cap or contact lenses

Rik

"John Scheleur" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Hi! Any suggestions for walking in the rain for those of us who wear

glasses

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to make for better visability? Thanks, John

If all else fails, try walking backwards!!!!

"Jem" <jeremy.turner@***NOSPAM***btinternet.com> wrote in

Quoted message said:

Being involved in the Optical business, may I suggest that you look at
some of the more recent types of reflection free coatings that are now
becoming readily available. Some of these such as the 'Teflon' branded
lenses by Sola Optical have a superb hydrophobic layer on the surface
of the coating. This makes them much more resistant to misting up and
provided they are 'clean' when you set off, water pretty much just runs
off them like it does on a newly waxed car.

Now that sounds *really* interesting. Thanks for alerting us to it.

Stuart

On 29 Aug 2004 22:36:40 GMT, Stuart Mann <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Jem" <jeremy.turner@***NOSPAM***btinternet.com> wrote in

Quoted message said:

Being involved in the Optical business, may I suggest that you look at
some of the more recent types of reflection free coatings that are now
becoming readily available. Some of these such as the 'Teflon' branded
lenses by Sola Optical have a superb hydrophobic layer on the surface
of the coating. This makes them much more resistant to misting up and
provided they are 'clean' when you set off, water pretty much just runs
off them like it does on a newly waxed car.

Now that sounds *really* interesting.

Well, no. Not to me, it doesn't.

'Like ... a newly waxed car' sounds extremely UNattractive to me in
context. Have you ever observed the behaviour of rain on a newly waxed
car? It forms droplets, which will distort your vision. A wax polish
increases surface tension. What we want here is something that
*reduces* it, so that water forms an even film.

Peter.

In article <[email hidden]>, John Scheleur
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Hi! Any suggestions for walking in the rain for those of us who wear glasses
to make for better visability? Thanks, John

Always a problem - I hate wearing glasses out walking, but my nest
answer is to wear a baseball cap which "shades" the glasses to some
degree, but also stops the hood of my Gortex falling down over my eyes.
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

Peter <[email hidden]> wrote

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'Like ... a newly waxed car' sounds extremely UNattractive to me in
context. Have you ever observed the behaviour of rain on a newly waxed
car? It forms droplets, which will distort your vision.

Yeaaah! And that image has sold a lot of cars. I love the way it
does that.

Quoted message said:

A wax polish
increases surface tension. What we want here is something that
*reduces* it, so that water forms an even film.

Peter.

This is a mountain group, and it seems to have constructed a mountain
out of a molehill. Rain on your glasses can be a nuisance, I should
know, I've worn them for 45 years, and been a regular walker for 32 of
those years.

It is a nuisance, but not a b***** crisis! I wear a baseball cap with
a flat-ish peak, better than the fashionable curved ones you buy
nowadays, but it keeps the sun and rain out of my eyes and 95% of the
time off my glasses. If everything gets blurred, I wipe 'em with a
Kleenex.

I remember vicious hail storms which stung my cheeks through the small
gap in the wired hood of my coat, that was a problem, and I acquired one
of those plastic see-through tennis visors that the Cheshire set ladies
wear, and pulled it well down over my eyes. It worked.
--
Gordon

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Peter said:

On 29 Aug 2004 22:36:40 GMT, Stuart Mann <[email hidden]>
wrote:

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"Jem" <jeremy.turner@***NOSPAM***btinternet.com> wrote in

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Being involved in the Optical business, may I suggest that you look at
> some of the more recent types of reflection free coatings that are now
> becoming readily available. Some of these such as the 'Teflon' branded
> lenses by Sola Optical have a superb hydrophobic layer on the surface
> of the coating. This makes them much more resistant to misting up and
> provided they are 'clean' when you set off, water pretty much just runs
> off them like it does on a newly waxed car.

Now that sounds *really* interesting.

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Well, no. Not to me, it doesn't.

Quoted message said:

'Like ... a newly waxed car' sounds extremely UNattractive to me in
context. Have you ever observed the behaviour of rain on a newly waxed
car? It forms droplets, which will distort your vision. A wax polish
increases surface tension. What we want here is something that
*reduces* it, so that water forms an even film.

I disagree. The pint about droplet formation is that it leaves some
bits of perfectly undistorted non-wet glass between the drops. These
form the image. The drops simply add general noise to the whole
image. The result is that you see much better than you would with a
film of water, which will always some optically distorting variations
in thickness, which in this case will affect the entire lens.

This is sometimes debated in motorcycling groups with respect to
specs, goggles, and helmet face screens. The conclusion is always that
droplet formation is much better when the optical surface is close to
the eye to keep the drops well out of focus. Consequently you can buy
a number of products which assist droplet formation, and none aimed at
film production.

A very good explanation, Chris, but to be really convincing you need to produce
equations and graphs for the summed Fourier transform of the droplets at the
retina.

:-)
--
Mark South, Super Genius: World Citizen, Net Denizen

"John Scheleur" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi! Any suggestions for walking in the rain for those of us who wear glasses
to make for better visability? Thanks, John

I would suggest that you either wear contact lenses or get some
waterproof stuff that you could put on your lenses so that you can see
better. What do you think about these suggestions? Get back to me.

"John Scheleur" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi! Any suggestions for walking in the rain for those of us who wear glasses
to make for better visability? Thanks, John

You could try contacts, but if you don't like them you could get a
serum so that the rain does not stick. Do you think this would help??

Peter <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On 29 Aug 2004 22:36:40 GMT, Stuart Mann <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Jem" <jeremy.turner@***NOSPAM***btinternet.com> wrote in

Quoted message said:

Being involved in the Optical business, may I suggest that you look at
some of the more recent types of reflection free coatings that are now
becoming readily available. Some of these such as the 'Teflon' branded
lenses by Sola Optical have a superb hydrophobic layer on the surface
of the coating. This makes them much more resistant to misting up and
provided they are 'clean' when you set off, water pretty much just runs
off them like it does on a newly waxed car.

Now that sounds *really* interesting.

Well, no. Not to me, it doesn't.

'Like ... a newly waxed car' sounds extremely UNattractive to me in
context. Have you ever observed the behaviour of rain on a newly waxed
car? It forms droplets, which will distort your vision. A wax polish
increases surface tension. What we want here is something that
*reduces* it, so that water forms an even film.

Peter.

I am about to start doing scottish walks but im not too sure where id
be best starting. does anyone have any good advice?

Mandy wrote on 30 Aug 2004 03:25:01 -0700....

Quoted message said:

I am about to start doing scottish walks but im not too sure where id
be best starting. does anyone have any good advice?

At a college which has lecturers who actually understand about
newsgroups, and can tell you how to go about using them in a more
sensible way?

Wasn't the SQA supposed to be changing this crappy syllabus?

--
Tim Jackson
[email hidden]
(Change '.invalid' to '.co.uk' to reply direct)
Absurd patents: visit http://www.patent.freeserve.co.uk

Hi all

Regarding the Hydrophobic lens coating and my analogy of 'water running off
a waxed car'. This was obviously meant as a simplistic way of explaining
the lenses properties. It is worth remembering that the lenses are usually
in a vertical state whilst walking, thus water hits the lens and runs off.
I do appreciate that the lenses may occasionally be accidentally placed into
a horizontal position as was demonstrated myself last Sunday whilst
scrambling up a 'hill' in the Langdales, but this isn't the normal position
of the lenses and is usually rectified fairly quickly :-)

If you visit a local Optician they will almost certainly have heard of both
of the lenses I have suggested. May I also suggest that you try a smaller
Optical group or an independant Optician as they are not restricted to the
products that they have to sell. As i've also stated this is pretty new
technology and the vacuum coating machines required to deposit these
sophisticated coatings cost a huge amount of money.

Don't waste your money on a cheaper coating, despite whatever you may be
told they just aren't the same as the new hydrophobic coating technology.
I've already suggested two manufacturers who currently provide 'state of the
art' hydrophobic technology, Sola Optical (Teflon) and Sinclair Optical -
your Optician will have heard of both of these. I'm sure other
manufacturers will update their technology very shortly so they will
eventually become standard on all reflection free lenses.

Cheers

Jem

"Jem" <jeremy.turner@***NOSPAM***btinternet.com> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

If you visit a local Optician they will almost certainly have heard of
both of the lenses I have suggested. May I also suggest that you try a
smaller Optical group or an independant Optician as they are not
restricted to the products that they have to sell. As i've also stated
this is pretty new technology and the vacuum coating machines required
to deposit these sophisticated coatings cost a huge amount of money.

Thanks Jem. In your earlier post you suggest that it is unlikely that
opticians would apply this to used lenses. Is that an absolute no-no, or
just not a very good idea?

I have a pair of little-worn, lenses that I now only use for walking - so
wouldn't be too fussed if it was simply a case of reduced lifetime for the
coating. I think they're uncoated at the moment.

Stuart

* The air of uk.rec.walking was filled with the delicate perfume
* of violets, as Stuart Mann <[email hidden]> descended on a shaft
* of golden sunlight, and announced:

Quoted message said:

I have a pair of little-worn, lenses that I now only use for walking - so
wouldn't be too fussed if it was simply a case of reduced lifetime for the
coating. I think they're uncoated at the moment.

Why don't you try a little silicone car/furniture polish on them? It should
have a similar, though temporary effect.

Reards: Jim Ford

W. D. Grey <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, John Scheleur
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Hi! Any suggestions for walking in the rain for those of us who wear glasses
to make for better visability? Thanks, John

Always a problem - I hate wearing glasses out walking, but my nest
answer is to wear a baseball cap which "shades" the glasses to some
degree, but also stops the hood of my Gortex falling down over my eyes.

There speaks a man of wisdom and experience, exactly what I do.
--
Gordon

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

I am about to start doing scottish walks but im not too sure where id
be best starting. does anyone have any good advice?

Already?? But it's only August!
--
I try to be a good example to my children, but they just see me
as a dire warning.