One last word on my TruFocals (now called Superfocus)

(Edit: TruFocals are now called Superfocus) I recently received an email from someone who read my Trufocals posts. Here's what they said:

Hi,

I found your blog looking for some unbiased trufocals info. Considering a purchase myself but trying to get past the marketing hype before dropping that much money. Now that you have had them for awhile what is your opinion? Worth the $? Pros and cons?
Here is the email I sent back:

Here's what I think.

I've read through a few other reviews and I think that if you are a long-time, full-time wearer of glasses, Trufocals seem to work out very nicely. I wore glasses only for reading up until a few years ago when I began to need them for distance, too. I got bifocals and they worked very well for sitting in a college classroom and taking notes from the board during lectures (I was an older student working on a 2nd degree after raising a family). But I didn't wear them full time because I didn't like the sort of fish-bowl effect. I don't need glasses for driving yet, but I would wear my bifocals while shopping or at concerts or at museums, etc.

I didn't like having to tilt my head to read (anything, not just at the computer) with the bifocals, so I got a prescription pair of reading glasses for reading, computer work, and other close work. They were ground for computer work, so when reading books or newspapers, etc, I had to keep things at a bit of a distance, which wasn't always comfortable or cozy.

When I heard about Trufocals I decided to give them a try because I figured they would take care of having to keep things at a distance, and I would need only one pair of glasses instead of one pair of bifocals and one pair of prescription reading glasses. And the Trufocals work very well for that purpose for me. I can hold books at whatever distance is comfortable, whether I'm at a table, in a cozy chair, or sitting up in bed. I can hold my knitting at a comfortable distance too, and everything's in sharp focus. I must say, though, that while wearing them shopping, etc., using them for distance, things are still a bit fish-bowly. And that's where I think full-time eyeglass wearers may not be bothered because I guess they might be used to that effect in eyewear. Not having ever really worn glasses full-time, that effect still bothers me, even with the Trufocals.

They are pretty amazing, though. You can focus and see things extremely clearly and it's so gratifying to be able to read really small print, or zoom from the newspaper in front of you over to the little time display on the thermostat on a wall and read the time clearly.

I have to say that maybe they work a little too well. Sometimes I catch myself re-focusing from the top half of a page in a book to the bottom half because the focusing is so minute that even over that tiny change in distance, you will notice that things change in sharpness and a re-focus adjustment will sharpen things up. And then of course you re-focus again when you reach the top of the next page. I think that behavior is a function of being spoiled by being able to have everything in such crisp focus, and when it's not exactly crisp, you reach up for that little slider to adjust things.

They are very pricey, though. But purchasing a pair of bifocals and a pair of prescription reading glasses can be expensive too. And last summer I found that regular sunglasses were not working very well anymore because they made things a little blurry for me. Add a pair of prescription sunglasses and the cost of those three pair of glasses will be comparable to the cost of a pair of Trufocals, even with the added expense of the tinted lenses. Still, I think you could probably do the three pairs for just a little less than the Trufocals if you played your cards right and shopped around.

One more thing. Each of my eyes is a little different prescription-wise, which I think is probably true for most people. As the prescription for my reading glasses got stronger over the years, I could tell that each lens was a little different and didn't always make what I was seeing on the page exactly the same focus-wise or size-wise in each eye - just by minuscule amounts, but it's something that I've noticed over the years. I am here to tell you that it is the same with the Trufocals. In fact, I sometimes have a bit of trouble focusing because when you get in the range of sharp focus, it seems that the two eyes never quite meet up. A small adjustment of the slider to the left and my left eye's focus is sharp, but the right eye isn't quite there. A slight adjustment to the right and the right eye's focus is crystal clear, but the left is now just slightly off. It seems that I can't quite hit that golden place where both are right on the sharp spot. But then again, it was the same story with my prescription readers. And it's on a minuscule scale - but I do notice it.

Hope this was helpful. There is that 30 day trial. You can always send the things back if you don't like them. But it's a big decision. Good luck to you!