THAT is why I like "executives"!

  With executives, your head stays fixed, and you
  look left and right BY SWIVELLING YOUR EYES --

  just the way nature (evolution) *designed* them to work!

David

That is a very tough Rx because of its high strength. You are looking at
+9.75 in the reading area, which is quite powerful, and difficult for
progressives to handle well and provide a wide reading area.

On top of that, you have 1.67 index (the higher the index, the more
chromatic distortion). But high index lenses make the lens thinner and
therefore lighter. If you don't care about thin and light, then you might be
able to try a 1.60 index lens.

On top of that, the Essilor Ovation.you have is not a "premium " lens design
Essilor does own a premium brand called Varilux, and Varilux has some good
premium designs such as Physio360. Of course, these will cost more, but if
want better vision you will need a premium progressive lens design with your
powerful Rx. Other premium brands besides Varilux include Zeiss, Rodenstock,
Hoya, and others.

Since you should have a 30 day adaptation guarantee, you should ask Costco
what other brands and models they have and try a remake (if you can afford
the premium brands), or get a full refund if that is an option (not all
optical stores have a money-back guarantee).

But don't expect perfection will any progressive lens that is that powerful.
Ultimately, you will have to learn to move your head to some degree, unless
you want bifocals (with visible lines).

PS: Don't let anyone talk you into polycarb lens material. For very high
power plus (+) Rx like yours, polycarb is horrible in terms of optical
quality.

Ovation is a fairly low-end lens. Essilor sells a ton of them to places
like Costco and the "2 pair for $199" places, but they are far from
their best design. I had a set and had to junk them in favor of Varilux
because they just were unacceptable, with many of the same symptoms you
describe.

Mark,

Hard and soft designs, which describes how the surface astigmatism is spread out
over the lens, short, medium and long corridors, or the distance from the far
vision to the near portion of the lens, multi-designs might have a variable
inset according to the add and distance power, and may be optimized for position
of wear e.g. vertex distance, panto etc. Moreover, lens designers use ray
tracing to develop methods to control off-axis aberrations, which might involve
free-form technology, producing complex surfaces that are not possible with
traditional surfacing equipment.

Hope this helps,

Robert Martellaro
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Optician/Owner
Roberts Optical
Wauwatosa Wi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."
 - Niels Bohr

The useable portion of any progressive lens looks about like an hour
glass,

I think I was mislead by the advertising and the sales talk - look at
the shamir description:
"Shamir Insight, Inc.’s Autograph™, a personalized mid-corridor
design, uses Prescriptor™proprietary software to maximize distance,
intermediate, and near viewing zones while virtually eliminating swim
and distortion. The Autograph PAL has a very wide vision area."

It aint that wide from what I can see and there is swim and distortion
- Its a little like false advertising so far - Im on my third day and
Im not in love with these things - But I dont look forward to trifocals
again -

I have to choose between seeing the world in three sections or looking
through an expensive fishbowl (:

My RX is fairly weak I think

Sphere right +0.50 Cylinder -1.25 Axis 096 Add +2.00
Sphere left +0.50 Cylinder -1.25 Axis 095 Add +2.00

The question also is why do some progressive wearers say they DONT have
blurred edges when looking at a newspaper - mine is very noticable -
like a 5 word span. OR are they looking thru a c/u - near - reading
part of the lens? Im wondering if I need to have the near moved up so I
can at least read, because the very very lowest part of the lens seems
to widen? OR will that have me peering through the tops to see distance
since I have moved the entire focal point up?

The optician says the field of vision will widen as the brain adjusts

I also have the option of taking them back and trying to have the
cheaper lenses put in - although I dont know return policies - arent
nonadjust returns only replaced with trifocal or bofocal equivalents?

at the very worst Im stuck wth an expensive progressive that is more
than I need - but i do want to make sure it was manufactured correctly
and fitted so I am seeing what I am supposed to be seeing. According to
their ads I should be seeing things wider, with less distortion

What I do for the computer is to use
(1) executive (2) bifocals,

(3) with the "far" (ie top) part done for the distance
   of the computer screen (20-inch screen).

(4) and the "near" (ie bottom) part set for my "reading"
   distance.

For outdoors, eg driving, it's trifocals, again "executive",
the relatively "short" mid-region ok for glancing down
at the speedometer, gas guage, etc -- and the bottoms
of course for reading maps, etc.

I really like the executive style -- and the "jumps" at
the lines no problem (never were, even the first day).

Myself, I can see ZERO reason to go to progressives,
although I can see MUCH reason for the shop to want
me to get them, at what, three, four times the cost?

Note the clever marketing, via the word "progressive",
implying "good", "modern", "out of the ordinary" (for
"out of the ordinary" people too?).

Yeah, I'm being a wet blanket, but I've looked into
these things for over ten years, and each time
come up with the same result: not for me.

David

David