Air Integrated Hoseless Dive Watch

[dhaas]

Nemrod doesn't need glasses beyond 30'? Remind me not to ride with him at Sand Dog III (or will it be IV?) in FLA next spring

Seriously, Luis and others. A Rx mask is a great investment.....Many round "vintage looking" models are available in silicone to last longer. Thus putting a Rx in them to actually be able to see isn't that big an expense.

I have a vendor I use for my own masks and customers, so email me if you want detail. He can put lenses in any mask, and for old round type glues the biggest blanks practically filling the mask area.

Or try the stick on type if reading gauges is your only requirement. Just be aware they won't be a perfect match for your Rx.

David Haas

[oldmossback]

Ah me..........a bunch of old guys going blind.......Nemrod, I have to wear lens for distance and reading glasses for up close,,,,,,so for the last 30 years or so, I've been using contact lens diving....first the hard ones until the soft ones were on the market and were deemed safe, works pretty well. Some hold a lot of salt after a couple of dives in the ocean, have to trash them after that.

Thought about the optic lens attached to my mask, since my arm is getting real short..........do you have much trouble with the focus under water,,,,,,,like adjusting for a magnifying glass?

Dhass, I'd be interested in your lens contact....my wife needs a good lens maker for her mask........

Michael

[kgehring]

I work at a LDS part time and we have used Scuba Optics in IL. for 20+ years. I can get the exact address if needed.

[Nemrod]

David, you needn't worry about my vision and driving, I am a pilot (amateur) with close to 3,500 hours, Instrument and Commercial ratings and my Medical only requires that I have my glasses "available" to me, I don't even have to wear them to be legal. I have like 20/15 left and 20/20 right, BUT, up close I cannot see a darn thing, especially out to about arms length and the dimmer the light the worse it is. That is because a lens like your eye looses depth of field as the arpeture increases--in part anyways. My prescription bifocal glasses are plain ground left and have a slight correction for stigmatism right and I think the diopter is 1.35. The hoseless units, some of them, well, computers in general have pretty big displays which might be very helpful to people who cannot see up close which may be most of us. What units have the best contrast and largest displays?

"Thought about the optic lens attached to my mask, since my arm is getting real short..........do you have much trouble with the focus under water,,,,,,,like adjusting for a magnifying glass? "

Not sure exactly what you mean?, I find the Optrix stick on lenses which are available in diopters to match your prescription to be much like any bifocal lens. The lenses are set into your mask below your normal eye level so to bring them into play you look downward just as with bifocals. They are actually fairly small and dissappear mostly from your vision except when you actually look through them up close. I have one set in a Mares X vision mask and another set in my favorite Dacor oval vintage mask. Nothing beats a good oval mask, wish they still made quality ones and especailly in blue and yellow etc. I see no reason I suppose that a vintage oval mask could not have a new lens made for it but the stick on lenses suit me OK for now.

I imagine a true prescription dive mask is quite a luxury for those who have them, it would be a bummer to loose one of those.

James

[luis]

The mask I had at Wazee was my Scubapro optical. Scubapro sold that mask back in the 70’s with prescription lenses. It worked great if your left and right eyes had a similar prescription and you didn’t have much astigmatism. It was reasonably priced and worked great!! Before that mask there were no good alternatives in Puerto Rico, especially on my budget at the time.

I didn’t always use a prescription mask, because I started wearing contacts when I was 16. Yes they were the hard contacts.

The black rubber of that mask disintegrated many years ago (I replaced to the silicon back then). This summer I found the same mask (in the junk pile at a LDS) with rotten black rubber but a lens with no prescription. I put the lens on my old silicon skirt and I could use my old mask.

I had Lasik surgery about 9 years ago. Now I have 20/15 vision on both eyes. It was great having perfect vision for a number of years, but now that I have “normal” vision, at my age I am needing reading glasses. Don’t take me wrong, I am not complaining. I knew this was coming and I can live with reading glasses (I have many pairs from the drug store). Having Lasik surgery was one of the best things I have done.

I did buy a set of the DiveOptx stick on lenses and I am planning on trying only the left one at first. I have heard a lot of great things about them.

I have changed all of my instruments to larger print and I will also be looking for a computer with large print.

[Bryan]

I wish you cats would talk this much about Vintage stuff....LOL

[duckbill]

I wish you cats would talk this much about Vintage stuff....LOL

I just naturally assumed the dicussion was regarding NOS vintage mask lenses!

[oldmossback]

Bryan

Talk about vintage lens! My first mask was a round black one. I aquired at a department store called Lenard Brothers in Ft Wth. It was round 65 or so, got certi in 67, graduated to a mask I could see with, a monster ugly black thing called a Vedo......had a nose piece and two round holes for two 2.5" prescription lens....dove with that until Okinawa.

A optomerist (sp) in NYC was advertising in SD mag he could glue lens to dive masks of ones choice. I wrote to him and ordered a Super Pinoccio with two 72mm lens at my prescription.

I dove that mask for almost a year before aquiring a dacor round mask from a buddy rotating back. I was just starting to wear hard contact lens' (made in Japan and boy were they rough) and tried diving the last few weeks there with the Dacor mask and the hard lens......was pretty tough.

Used my Pinoccio for several years, mixed with occasional hardlens usage until the soft lens came onto the market. Switched to a Tekna tri view mask and finally back to a oval silicon mask in the late 80's, been using that mask and two like it ever since........I prefer the open plateglass window with nothing obstructing the view (nose pocket). Somethings they can not improve on.......my opinion round or oval masks are one of those things......

Meowwww..........

[Creed]

I wish you cats would talk this much about Vintage stuff....LOL

It is vintage equipment. Well, the eyeballs, at least.