Alternative to long eye relief binoc's? (1 Viewer)

Hello,

I hate wearing my glasses with binocs. Even with long eye relief binoculars, light comes in thru the sides, and it just isn't the same as viewing without the eyeglasses. I don't like contact lenses either, especially in the field. Luckily, I only have a slight astigmatism, so a combination of focus and diopter adjustment is sufficient to use the binoculars without RX lenses.

But I still need to see, and removing my glasses (even when they are connected to croakies) is just to slow.

After a long and expensive search, I found an alternative that works real well. I bought a pair of Scheyden Classic flip up glasses http://www.scheyden.com/ClassicFlipUp.htm, and had the lenses they come with replaced with shaded RX lenses. These allow me to flip up the lenses as I raise my binocs, costing a fraction of a second in acquisition time. I always know were the glasses are (hinged up but still on my face), and they can be lowered back in place almost as fast.

The Scheyden's are expensive, listing at $400 and then you still need to get the lenses replaced with your own RX. I think if I did some serious negotioating and a large enough bulk buy I could offer them at about $200 a pair.

But I have no idea if there would be enough interest in this niche market to make it worth the risk.

So are there others out there like me, who need to wear glasses but don't have a serious astigmatism, and would be willing to pay about $400 (flip up frames plus your own RX lenses) for glasses that you use while birding?

Cheers

The trick to master is raising your spectacles with the top of your fingers as you bring your bins up to your eyes. Got a friend who does this as he is very short-sighted and like you cannot tolerate contact lenses. As he brings the bins down his specs drop back on his nose and he simply pushes them into the right position.
If you master this the total cost is zero.....

That's a pretty good technique, Keith. I had to try it with a bunch of different pairs of spectacles until I found one that could be adjusted to hinge up naturally
(the other smaller frames would hang up on my brow). If I didn't already have the flip-up specs, I would probably designate a special birding pair that could easily slide up as you describe. They are a bit too loose for constant daily wear, shake your head too hard or get sweaty and they slide off, but it certainly is a cheaper solution than the one I came up with.

With times as they are, I'm guessing a cost free solution to a problem makes it not worthwhile to throw the dice on a large Scheyden Flip up glasses investment.

Cheers