266 Trial Lens Set Optical Kit Metal Rim Wood Frame PU Leather Case

Muy bien equipado

First of all, if you're on the fence about spending the extra fifty bucks for the wooden insert with felt lining and the upgraded leather case, I personally believe this is WELL worth the extra money. I like the idea of protecting the lenses with a felt lining (vs. the plastic case), plus it's so rare to be able to buy anything these days that is made of quality leather, wood, felt, metal and glass! It's just nice to look at and touch, and it seems like it will last a long time. That being said, I was disappointed that the kit is not the same as the one in the photos! (Hence my deduction of one star.) The advertised one has 0.12D sphere and cylinder lenses, but the actual kit they send you only goes down to 0.25 as the smallest size. In exchange, you do get +/-15.0D sphere and +/-5.5D cylinder lenses, but this is not as good because you can always combine other lenses to make those (which are fairly rare super-strong lenses anyways), but there are no substitutes for the extra-precise 0.12 lenses. Sure, many eye doctors dismiss those super-detailed corrections as "barely perceptible," but with today's advanced lenses (unlike in the past) that make this resolution actually possible to achieve, some picky patients (like myself) may prefer to try for the best correction possible. If the manufacturer is reading this, I would love to somehow still get a set of 0.12D sphere and cylinder lenses. So if you want the more precisely differentiated lenses, you're left with the choice of either the cheaper plastic-insert case set, or the one with the wood and felt insert with the metal case (which I now wish I had ordered). Otherwise, the leather case itself is indeed very nice, and you can still get a good prescription with this set. My other complaint is they should not have even included their trial lens frames. They're absolute junk--they're not adjustable enough (including no adjustable PD at all), and the lenses don't even fit the frames! You can sort of jam them in there, but with the lenses not centered, the axis will be way off. My recommendation: Throw those things in the trash as soon as they arrive! You'll definitely benefit enormously by ordering a better set of trial frames. I bought the black and silver ones elsewhere on Amazon, and they're just adequate (you can look for my review of those), but you also might want to consider buying a more expensive, professional set of frames from a real optician's supplier. Also, there may be some of you who are not professional opticians, but are curious if you can use this product to either check an existing prescription, or perhaps create your own. This was my case, and I'm quite satisfied with how well I was able to use this set. Even with very little reading about how prescriptions work (which you have to research elsewhere), it's very easy to put together a set of "trial" glasses using a given prescription, and I was able to easily determine which of two doctors' completely different prescriptions was the more accurate one. So to adequately use this kit to check a prescription, you'll need this set, some better trial lens frames, a decent Snellen wall chart (I avoid the canvas ones because it's impossible to print a super-sharp image on them), maybe a handheld occluder (even though this set does come with an occluder lens), and a near-vision handheld eye chart. Now learning how to give an eye exam to create a prescription from scratch using this kit is also very possible, but it does take more effort to learn what you're doing, and it's not for everyone. If you want to give it a shot, I'd recommend starting with watching some YouTube videos on "Subjective Refraction." With some work, I was able to even slightly improve on the best doctor's prescription!