Zeiss Gradal Individual

[judyseyes]

Hello! I'm looking for feedback about Zeiss Gradal Individual. Might be available in the States this year. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Judy

[David Wilson]

Judy,
The Zeiss Individual is one of the new breed of progressives that have taken the "as worn" philosophy to its limits (another is the Rodenstock Multigressiv ILT). They require the Rx (Obviously), the monocular PDs, the fitting cross heights, the back vertex distance, the pantoscopic tilt and, if I remember correctly, the facial wrap angle, which they refer to as the dihedral angle (one of the two requires this). They then enter this into their computer and it converts the Rx, which would have had a pantoscopic tilt of 0 in the phoropter and a facial angle also of zero, into the equivalent power when worn in the position you have measured. I believe that the Zeiss individual also has an atoroidal back surface (the Rodenstock ILT does). As a result they are quite expensive, but tailor made, progressives. I like to think of the 'normal' progressives (Panamic, Solamax, Life, Gradal, Hoya EXWide etc etc) as the Mercedes or Jaguars of the progressive lens world and the Individual and ILT as the Rolls Royces or Bentley's (you can subsitute American car names here!).
Regards
David