[frereubu]

After going to an expensive opticians for a good few years, I thought I'd get a "fun" second pair of glasses at one of the new optician chains, Ace & Tate. When they arrived the lenses were rubbish quality - I hadn't realised how lucky I was to have used a really good optician from the get-go. When I went back to him, tail between my legs, he explained a lot of what a sibling comment says about lightness, refractive index etc. I have Zeiss lenses in my glasses - if you can afford good lenses, they're absolutely worth it.

[AdamGibbins]

Where do you find places with specific lenses? Basically nowhere in the UK seems to call out their lense quality from what I've seen - perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong places. Are you ringing each optician up individually and asking them?

[jsmith99]

The branded lenses are often expensive and therefore high margin, so most opticians will have them available, but few people order them so they are unlikely to mention their existence. As to which are best, you are best finding an independent local optician who seems to have an interest in the subject and asking for a recommendation. If you read the Optiboard forums you can get an idea of the passion some opticians have, although it's not useful for specifics.

[frereubu]

I don't know unfortunately - I just happen to have used an optician for years since buying my first set of glasses (Schuller Opticians in London) with just two branches, who uses Zeiss.

[AdamGibbins]

Good to know thanks, I'm in London so might give them a go sometime.

[frereubu]

They're not cheap, but it wasn't until I tried other options that I realised how lucky I'd been to stumble across them.