IZON Wavefront Prog. Lenses:Post your experience

[eyepod]

"Kuddos" to you Eyepod, for giving this board a talking to. Such negativity is discouraging. We really need to keep open minds about new Technology. We just signed on with IZON. I will have my new pair in 2-3 weeks. Here in Iowa we are moving ahead and offering our patients the chance to expericence this new technology. :cheers:

Thanks!!! I got tired of all the negativity here so I quit reading for a while. All I know is I am having raving success with Izon lenses day after day after day.....I feel bad that 3 or 4 people here on this thread think they know what every optician in the country is thinking. Since they seem to stick together on this site it seems that birds of a feather will flock together. This bird flew somewhere else. :cheers:

[eyepod]

Other than the issues of the measurement of the eye, and the lens design process, there's an important question related to their ability to produce the desined lens.
My question is: Has anyone here received power and astigmatism maps from Ophthonix?
For those of you who have returned lenses, I'm willing to map thse lenses and post the power and astigmatism maps here.

I have mapped it before in someone elses office and it was beautiful. It blew the Varilux that we mapped out of the water. I don't remember the machine that we used to map it. Sorry.

[eyepod]

How many years guaranteed for iZon lenses?

120 day doctors change warranty. 60 day patient non-adapt and 2 year, one replacement on A/R and scratch coats. Manufacturer defects covered indefinitly.

[eyepod]

The lenses start out with a slight ting of yellow and it has gone to a brown/yellow over time. I have attached a photo and placed another lens next to it for comparision. The Ophthonix lens looks like an old transitions lens with the jaundis look.
Beware of false claims of correcting for high order and actually putting the correction in the lens.
Craig

the Izonik material has been reformulated to a much more clear color. I have had a pair for 2 years now and there has been no changing of the color AT ALL. The newest ones are virtually clear. Looks like a lens with a UV coat and thats all. It is not noticable when worn.

[eyepod]

It could be, but I don't think that is the main reason. The main reason is that it is unlikely you can ask someone to stare with eye open during the whole process. It is about 5 minutes or so total. Could you possibly hold your eye open that long? You cannot blink during the measurement or you throw everything off... This is one of the culprit why many doctors who didn't tell their patient not to blink during the process... I can't tell you how many time where the doctor or the nurse did NOT tell me not to blink.

Another possibility as I do not know the machine well... is multiple readings and averaging it out... Each time the machine takes the reading, the view of the screen becomes clearer. The screen is also noticebly dimmer than common machines found everywhere. I think this is also another reason why night vision is better.

Last thought is that we blink all the time so it is natural that this machine takes multiple readings for accurate measurement. Dry eyes does alter our vision as you said... My dad had a thyroid problem and it drastically reduced his tears and boy o boy... he could not see through his glasses. His treatment went well, but he still has residual tear duct problem... due to the swelling of his eyelid. Doc said he is only producing 1/4 of normal tear... However, this is another story.

The reason for the blink is simple. The tear film refracts light. It is important to have an intact tear film for proper measurements. The tear film beginns to evaporate after 15-20 seconds.

[eyepod]

Well, Zeiss is launching almost an exact duplicate of the Izon lens and measuring system........are all of you naysayers going to call them a fraud as well??? I do not know if their system uses Hartmann-Schack technology but I do know that the wavefront sensor in the Z-View is done by holographic grating technology.

I find it difficult to believe that a company with a rich history such as Zeiss would "copy" a fraudulent idea in lens making if it didn't have any merit. That is an awful lot of money to spend on "fu-fu smoke & mirrors".

[Darryl Meister]

Well, Zeiss is launching almost an exact duplicate of the Izon lens and measuring system...I find it difficult to believe that a company with a rich history such as Zeiss would "copy" a fraudulent idea in lens making if it didn't have any merit.

You are right, Carl Zeiss Vision wouldn't make fraudulent claims in the marketplace, but we are not really making the same product claims with our technology.

[Craig]

You are right, Carl Zeiss Vision wouldn't make fraudulent claims in the marketplace, but we are not really making the same product claims with our technology.

Ophthonix has claimed to program the High order correction in the goo and now they admit it is a best sphere/cly combo. It is the world's most complicated 1.6 progressive made and there is there is no benefit to using an Izon lens. Take the same RX and any free form lens will get you the same results or better at 1/2 the price.
I can show you the websites where they claim to program the lens in the fake goo! Here is one on a site from Bobie of this forum from 2006. http://www.isoptik.com/forum/forum_p...sp?TID=35&PN=1

Notice it tells of the programming of the lens with a laser and shows a picture. It also clearly tells you customization of near and use of the Iprint in the Izonik Goo; this is fraud and never occured.

This is the current website for Ophthonix:
http://ophthonix.izonlens.com/izon-l...y-are-made.asp

clearly makes no mention of doing anything with the magic Izonik Goo!

You can believe what you want; but no one has ever come up with one technical reason for this to work! This is a rather smart group of people and not one person has come up with a valid argument on how this technology can work in a pair of glasses!

If the product is so good, why doesn't the company defend itself? They have a bogus product and some people refuse to do the homework necessary to see the truth!

Craig

[xiaowei]

Other than the issues of the measurement of the eye, and the lens design process, there's an important question related to their ability to produce the desined lens.
My question is: Has anyone here received power and astigmatism maps from Ophthonix?
For those of you who have returned lenses, I'm willing to map thse lenses and post the power and astigmatism maps here.

Blendowske et. al. have done this here in Germany (I cited this earlier in this thread), and the results were quite off. However, as the ones who follow the story will know, Ophthonix now claims that they do a special "post-processing" for the "best low order approximation". However, it never becomes explained, why such a best approximation cannot be found by careful subjective refraction. (Let alone the daily variations of the eyesight)

Ophthonix has claimed to program the High order correction in the goo and now they admit it is a best sphere/cly combo. It is the world's most complicated 1.6 progressive made and there is there is no benefit to using an Izon lens. Take the same RX and any free form lens will get you the same results or better at 1/2 the price.
I can show you the websites where they claim to program the lens in the fake goo! Here is one on a site from Bobie of this forum from 2006. http://www.isoptik.com/forum/forum_p...sp?TID=35&PN=1

Notice it tells of the programming of the lens with a laser and shows a picture. It also clearly tells you customization of near and use of the Iprint in the Izonik Goo; this is fraud and never occured.

Exactly, the idea that one takes the wavefront map of the eye, rescales it to the size of the eyeglasses and programmes it, is totally bogus, as should be apparent to everybody with a basic understanding of optics. It cannot work this way! This is silly!

This is the current website for Ophthonix:
http://ophthonix.izonlens.com/izon-l...y-are-made.asp

clearly makes no mention of doing anything with the magic Izonik Goo!

You can believe what you want; but no one has ever come up with one technical reason for this to work! This is a rather smart group of people and not one person has come up with a valid argument on how this technology can work in a pair of glasses!

If the product is so good, why doesn't the company defend itself? They have a bogus product and some people refuse to do the homework necessary to see the truth!

Craig

Yep, these guys have (or claim to have) soo many "patents" or their magic technology, so they could easily reveal some of their "secrets" in a peer-reviewed journal, but it will never happen.....

[Darryl Meister]

However, it never becomes explained, why such a best approximation cannot be found by careful subjective refraction. (Let alone the daily variations of the eyesight)

Keep in mind that subjective refraction is limited by a number of factors, ranging from the potential variance in subjective responses during psychophysical measurements to the inherent rounding errors due to the precision of common refractor lenses (utilized in 0.25-D increments). When these initial errors from the refraction are combined with the fabrication errors from surfacing, including tool rounding and optical tolerances, the final lens can easily be off by up to 0.25 D or more from the exact prescription power required by the patient. This is very nearly equal to the RMS high-order wavefront aberration of the average person.

[HarryChiling]

Exactly, the idea that one takes the wavefront map of the eye, rescales it to the size of the eyeglasses and programmes it, is totally bogus, as should be apparent to everybody with a basic understanding of optics. It cannot work this way! This is silly!

You nailed it on the head, the US market lacks an educated optician which is why they can get away with such claims. From day one many of the more eductaed opticiasn here questioned how it could even possibly work. The answer it could only work if the eye were stationary looking through a single axis in the lens. Maybe in contact lenses, but even then the translation of the lens upon up and down gaze will still move the higher order corrections out of their optimized position.

For those that had their fill of peanut butter and ophthonix goo sandwhiches I am curious how many patients repurchased the lens?

[rdcoach5]

You nailed it on the head, the US market lacks an educated optician which is why they can get away with such claims. From day one many of the more eductaed opticiasn here questioned how it could even possibly work. The answer it could only work if the eye were stationary looking through a single axis in the lens. Maybe in contact lenses, but even then the translation of the lens upon up and down gaze will still move the higher order corrections out of their optimized position.

For those that had their fill of peanut butter and ophthonix goo sandwhiches I am curious how many patients repurchased the lens?

The public has always had an affinity for alternative medicine and the placibo effect can be in play.

[gjhazard]

I worked a a clinic that was talked into a IZON system. It went great at first with the OD's selling it from the chair. But after a very short time the orders declined to a trickle and it was just another expensive peice of equipment clogging up the office.

About 80% of the people I fit so no real significant vision change or improvement over their old lenses, even at night, which was the selling point of the lens.

It seemed that when the orders dryed up the IZON folks changed the perimeters of who "qualifies" for the lens. That made me very skepitcal to say the least.

The cost is way too expensive for what you get. A good Kodak Unique, Physio 360, Shamir, or Hoya is just as good at a fraction of the cost.

[bhess25]

man this thread is still open?

[Metronome]

Delete.

[Decades]

Are these lenses laminated? That type of discoloration looks like a laminated lens product in which the glue (goo?) does not contain the common preservative used in plastic monomer (UV inhibitor) -- so only the adhesive layer discolors, but would be visible throughout...

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, as I did not read the entire post; I was just trying to find commentary on the Izon technology claims.

[Peaoptical]

We currently sell the Izon lenses and our pt have thus far been very happy with there vision. I wear a pair of these and I my self am impressed with the way they make colors pop and define detail in objects. But I have noticed that after wearing the lenses all day my eyes are very tired and feel strained when I take the glasses off. I'm not sure why I do not seem to have these problems with any other pair of glasses that I currently own. I also do not like the ARC that they use it seems to scratch very easily. I also think it takes to long to get these lenses it now only seems to take about 17 days on average, but my Pt's are use to getting Arc lenses back next day no more than 2 days. This has been my biggest issue from a service stand point to the pt.

[JerryR]

My take on this would be that Ophthonix really doesn't care if you understand the system or not. They are focusing on the people that have bought into the system and servicing thier needs, when the time comes for them to ramp up, they will do what is necessary to grow market share.

[vicpete]

IF YOU THINK THESE ARE GOOD LENSES YOU NEED TO THINK AGAIN!! you need to try a pair for yourself if your thinking about dispensing this lens. buy them from an out of town izon dealer that way you will get an actual izon lens and not an izon sales pitch lens. BEWARE OF THE IZON MONSTER !!!!!

[rinselberg]

Hi vicpete,

Just for the record, it would be interesting to know more. Did you get iZon SV lenses, or an iZon progressive power lens? Is there anything unusual about your vision requirements? Is there a particular kind or brand of lens that you were satisfied with, before or after the iZon lenses that you got? Did the printout from the iZon autorefractor identify you as a good candidate for iZon lenses? How recently did you get your iZon lenses?

As I said, "just for the record.."

[john-atlanta]

Hi vicpete,

Just for the record, it would be interesting to know more. Did you get iZon SV lenses, or an iZon progressive power lens? Is there anything unusual about your vision requirements? Is there a particular kind or brand of lens that you were satisfied with, before or after the iZon lenses that you got? Did the printout from the iZon autorefractor identify you as a good candidate for iZon lenses? How recently did you get your iZon lenses?

As I said, "just for the record.."

Diito to that!

[Bobie]

What's about iZon vs iScription ? :bbg:

[alex_c]

I had to post this. I got my anual eye exam 3 weeeks ago and after testing me with the Ophthonix equipment plus the "normal" tests, my doctor recomended the iZon lenses. They were not covered by my insurance, -the Varilux Physio were covered-, so I had to pay out of pocket for them.

Since I didn't know much about the iZon, I came to this board to read about them. I was surprised, and worried, from so much negativity from Craig. I sincerely thought that I had just flushed my hard earned money down the iZon toilet...

2 weeks later my glasses arrived, and... they are clearly (no pun intended) above and beyond anything I had before. I have been using glasses for the last 35 years of my life, incuding the Physio PAL's for the last 5.

I don't know if Craig and some others have a personal vendetta with Ophthonix, but from MY experience, these lenses are far superior to anything else I had before. Just as some others have said, colors are more vivid, objects are sharper, and the depth perception is greatly improved. I can say that my purchase was money VERY WELL SPENT.

I truly enjoy these lenses and it is not a placebo. I'm an engineer that works in R&D, so I tend to be very methodical and analytical of the facts. Comparing the iZon to the Physio is a huge improvement.

Now, here's the issue: when I got them on for the first time, the frame -and therefore the lenses- weren't properly aligned, so they didn't work as expected. Once the optician adjusted them to be perfectly aligned to my eyes, it was phenomenal. Yes, I said WOW...

So, if you have any doubts, do yourself a favor and actually try them on and don't let yourself be mislead by the negative comments from someone who apparently didn't know how to test or fit his patients properly...

Finally, do I know exactly why or how they work? No. I just know they do.

[HarryChiling]

GRIN - GRadient INdex

This is the technology that is being used by the Ophthonix lenses. The negatives I keep hearing about are: material quality issues and design issues.

Just like FF, GRIN allows more accurate control of powers across the surface of the lens and just like in FF lenses if the design is of poor quality the optics aren't any better just because of a different technology being used to control these variations.

If you were to give Zeiss as mentioned on this thread the GRIN technology and they placed lets say the GT2 3D in the "goo" and they mapped and compared this to a GT2 3D FF surfaced onto the back of a lens blank the maps shoudl look similar. I think if Ophthonix can improve their material quality and put a better design in the lens they could be onto something, but at the same time consideration should be given to the fact that there exists a technology used now that can provide the same level of customization that Ophthonix claims to provide and it's implemented in many labs now and the cost is a fraction of the ophthonix products.

If Ophtonix could come out with a FT28 or a TR7x28, using a GRIN segment with no lines on the surface this would be amazing and a great way to bring this lens technology to market IMO. This type of lens could be further processed with traditional surfacing or FF surfacing. I think the technology isn't mature enough yet and their implementation of a SV and Prog lens is just too "me too" for me.

[AWTECH]

I had to post this. I got my anual eye exam 3 weeeks ago and after testing me with the Ophthonix equipment plus the "normal" tests, my doctor recomended the iZon lenses. They were not covered by my insurance, -the Varilux Physio were covered-, so I had to pay out of pocket for them.

Since I didn't know much about the iZon, I came to this board to read about them. I was surprised, and worried, from so much negativity from Craig. I sincerely thought that I had just flushed my hard earned money down the iZon toilet...

2 weeks later my glasses arrived, and... they are clearly (no pun intended) above and beyond anything I had before. I have been using glasses for the last 35 years of my life, incuding the Physio PAL's for the last 5.

I don't know if Craig and some others have a personal vendetta with Ophthonix, but from MY experience, these lenses are far superior to anything else I had before. Just as some others have said, colors are more vivid, objects are sharper, and the depth perception is greatly improved. I can say that my purchase was money VERY WELL SPENT.

I truly enjoy these lenses and it is not a placebo. I'm an engineer that works in R&D, so I tend to be very methodical and analytical of the facts. Comparing the iZon to the Physio is a huge improvement.

Now, here's the issue: when I got them on for the first time, the frame -and therefore the lenses- weren't properly aligned, so they didn't work as expected. Once the optician adjusted them to be perfectly aligned to my eyes, it was phenomenal. Yes, I said WOW...

So, if you have any doubts, do yourself a favor and actually try them on and don't let yourself be mislead by the negative comments from someone who apparently didn't know how to test or fit his patients properly...

Finally, do I know exactly why or how they work? No. I just know they do.

Your study is seriously flawed. You are companing a fixed molded progressive (Physio), with a back surfaced PAL (IZON). If you had compared your new IZON with a Seiko, an ICE-TECH, or other individualized quality backside design, you would have a valid comparison. I think you would find if you had the IZON, a Seiko and an ICE-TECH to compare to your previous Physios, and did not know which lens was which, you would have experienced the same impression. The IZON is just much more expensive than the others.